I give a lot, to get what I got

Wow I haven't posted in a while. It's mostly because I'm working my ass off. It's nothing new... every year it starts off with a bang. I have a theory that in January most high-tech workers feel refreshed by the holidays and decide to work a few extra hours. This creates a wave of productivity. This wave builds exponentially and soon you have lots of people working weekends and many extra hours. Fortunately most employees in the industry have flex time and work a few less hours (like 8-10 instead of 10-12) in the summer. It picks up again in the Fall until November and then productivity drops like a rock until January... repeat.

Speaking of work hours and vacations... did you know that all Euro-nations have a 35 hour full-time workweek and mandatory 4 weeks paid vacation a year. This time is not accrued. If you work even 13 weeks part-time you get it PAID. I met a bunch of students on vacation in Spain who had worked for the summer and were celebrating their 4 weeks paid vacation in Barcelona.

There are further studies to show people are more productive when they work less hours. I know after 12 hours of staring at a monitor that I start making stupid mistakes. However, any student will tell you that meeting a deadline takes long days (and nights). It is also true that giving everyone a 35 hour work-week costs a lot of money up front... but are there enough benefits to outweight the costs?

For the moment I'm happy working 45-55 hours a week. I'm learning a lot and although I don't have as much time to spend at home I'd probably just be playing Halo II anyway. I'm lucky to have a job where I get to do some cool stuff... there are a lot of jobs where the need to work extra hours gets you nothing but a headache.

Here's a full article on "Work Week and Vacation Variances" around the world with some links at the bottom to further research this topic.

On the lighter side... this guy rules!