How much time can or should a human invest into working?

[noname223]

I know these are two different questions. One is rather normative and the other one rather technical. I had this question in mind when I heared Elon Musk complaints he has a 120 hour work week currently. He says the only things he does are working and sleeping. Almost nothing else. I did the math and if his statement is true he works on average approximately 17 hours per day.

Maybe Elon should spend less time on Twitter I mean he basically just fuels the destruction of this once very popular company. Maybe it shows that decisions should be thought-through. He would have way less stress and probably way more money if he just did not flex to his billionaire friends to buy the platform.
But maybe this is off-topic.

I was a severe workaholic once. It was extremely self-destructive. Though it also was fueled by mania and I learned a lot of unhealthy patterns of behavior from child abuse. I don't know which my record of working was. I know some months prior to my first psychosis I studied a full night during summer holidays. Which was completely insane. Studying was a way for me to cope with suicidality. I also started to watch gore. I am glad I have stopped the latter one.
I am still studying a lot also because of OCD related to that issues. Though I found a dosage which it not extremely unhealthy for me. I always search for a compromise between health and OCD. Giving me a time limit helped a lot. It forced me to focus on essential stuff to do. Not wanting to impress professors or useless shit like that.

I think my stupid mistake was I barely slept. I had like 4-6 hours sleep usually. Longterm this destroys most people. But I don't blame myself too much. I was a stupid and naive teenager in a mixed bipolar episode. Most other people would have probably started to take hard drugs.

Nowadays I am overburdened by a 40 hours work week. But I am a mental wreck. It is hard to compare because regular jobs feel completely different to me compared to studying. This is why I might have to get a job like being a ghost writer for lazy students. Lol. These are at least naive dreams of mine which shall comfort me when I think about the inevitable future I am heading to. I think it is way more likely I kill myself in the next years than getting a stable income. I wish AI would do the jobs of us and we could get a universal basic income. But many people told me this is very naive. And they might be right.

I think I am unable to do most jobs. But I am uncertain whether I can do absolutely no job. The problem is you need certain degrees to do certain jobs and I am too fragile for a PhD for example. So I am doomed.

My lefty friends are all against performance pressure and fuck the system alikes. Their opinions spilled on me. However without the 1-5% of people with insane workload our societies would be way poorer.

I am not sure what the maximum is a person can work. Probably everyone has a limit and if this is passed they becomeill/have a breakdown. Some get a heartattack, some a stroke, some become mentally ill. Or karoshi happens for people who love Japan not a new information. There are insane schedules of mangaka (manga authors). I think some of them are probably fake because the workload cannot be done by human beings. Moreover I have to say when the workload is too much and you don't take breaks you often don't work efficiently anyway.

 

[jodes2]

Man. Fuck work. 40 hours is way too much alone

 

[hopeless302]

My lefty friends are all against performance pressure and fuck the system alikes. Their opinions spilled on me. However without the 1-5% of people with insane workload our societies would be way poorer.

I am not sure what the maximum is a person can work. Probably everyone has a limit and if this is passed they becomeill/have a breakdown. Some get a heartattack, some a stroke, some become mentally ill. Or karoshi happens for people who love Japan not a new information. There are insane schedules of mangaka (manga authors). I think some of them are probably fake because the workload cannot be done by human beings. Moreover I have to say when the workload is too much and you don't take breaks you often don't work efficiently anyway.

maybe society would be poorer in terms of raw GDP and those types of metrics, but have much better physical and emotional health outcomes. Seems like a fair trade to me. I think the current "everyone needs to hustle and work themselves to the bone" culture that we live in has taken a toll on me, personally. And I'm sure it's similar for lots of other people on here, unfortunately.

 

[whatevs]

I'm on 47h a week and is suicide fuel tbh when you are physically and mentally illl. At the beginning it was promising as I had something to do and an excuse to be acknowledged by others but in the world of programming you are kind of expected to code and learn in your free time and with 4 days of 10hs and a sleep disorder that's not going to happen. It's 40 tops for me and if I could land in something like 6h I would take the lower pay without any problem.

Noname, you're always so deep into the Matrix. Elon Musk isn't working his ass off, the whole thing is a charade. Musk is controlled opposition like Trump was, if Twitter goes down is because they decided to pull the plug on that data collection/opinion forming platform in favour of something new. There are no such things as large, independent, multinational companies. And as time progresses it becomes more of a stretch even for the asleep to think that there are autonomous actors in the world stage, what do you think Globalism is about? Coordination, centralized power.

 

[onlyanimalsaregood]

The system of working 8 hours for 5 days and two days rest was established literally over 100 years ago and is clearly out of date. Covid has emphasised this and many other things, making teleworking worldwide much more present in the labour market. I think the 6 hours work for 4 days and 3 rest days would be ideal. And the 4-day system is already being tested in several places around the world, which is good. More and more people are valuing family and personal time over working long hours and earning more money.
However, for me working has been one of the things that has helped me the most because it has occupied my mind. I feel that partly at the weekend my depression increases.

 

[Seiko]

Once those hours catch up to you, people turn into raging alcoholics.

 

[Dead Ghost]

When I was working, I preferred working days of about 4 hours a day to those of 7 hours (they were 35 hours a week). In fact, with the 7 hours I ended up getting sick because I couldn't do anything but rest, eat and sleep outside of working hours.

These past years I had tried to find jobs that were more days a week and less hours per day... I didn't care if they made me work from Monday to Saturday as long as I worked fewer hours per day.
But it is what was said above, it has become fashionable to work fewer days per week and this makes it impossible for me to work at my own pace.

The problem has always been, that since childhood, I need to sleep more hours than the typical average of 8 hours. At 8 o'clock I remember falling asleep at the Institute, but by 9 o'clock things were going well for the day.

I also don't think I can ever work again if they implement the 4 days a week system, it's too much of a burden for me. It should be an option, I prefer 6 days a week.

//

Quant jo treballava prefería les jornades d'unes 4 hores diaries a les de 7 hores (eren 35 hores setmanals). De fet amb les de 7 hores acababa enmalaltint al no poder fer res mes que descansar, menjar i dormir fora de les hores de treball.

Aquests anys passats havia intentat trobar feines que fossin de mes dies a la setmana i menys hores per dia... no m'importava si em feien treballar de dilluns a dissabte mentres fes per día menys hores.
Pero és el que s'ha dit mes amunt, s'ha posat de moda treballar menys dies per setmana i això fa inviable que algún dia jo pugui treballar al meu ritme.

El problema sempre ha estat, que desde petit, necessito dormir mes hores que la típica mitjana de 8 hores. Amb 8 hores me'n recordo que m'adormía a l'Institut, pero sobre les 9 hores la cosa ja anava bé per tirar el día.

Igualment ja no crec que pugui tornar a treballar mai si implanten el sistema de 4 dies a la setmana, és massa càrrega per mi. Hauría de ser una opció, prefereixo els 6 dies a la setmana.

 

[CowsAreCool]

Your work and your family is all you'll leave behind. Do your best and be proud of it. That's my motto and it's what I live by.

I wouldn't have a problem working 60 hours a week or more because I like the field I work in. One day (if I make it) I want a family, and then that can become my focus.

But people who only value the amount of time they get to play video games and smoke weed... I can't think of a worse way to waste your life. I suppose if you have a really cool hobby that's your passion.... like rock climbing or something

But work and family. That's it. That's your life and your mark. Productivity is a virtue. People like Musk get in their position by having that drive.

And I think he'll eventually find success at Twitter. He understands how software engineers are the backbone of tech. He fired all the (probably useless) managers. His justification for his business decisions at Twitter sound like the correct choice.