undefined | Better HN

0 pointsvinceguidry12y ago0 comments

A software development job should require 40 hours and no more a week. If it doesn't, then you're either being mismanaged, don't know how to protect your time, or overcompensating for lack of experience. The answer to the first is to find another job. The answer to the second is to learn how to say 'no' diplomatically, and the third is to focus harder on craft and less on production.

Working more than 40 hours as a developer is not doing you or the company any favors, it's perpetuating a myth that overwork is virtuous. It will not make you more productive or make your company any more money. At the end of it all, you'll just be tired.

0 comments

BWStearns12y ago

a) Why is 40 hours the magic number and not more or less?

b) Isn't the 40 hour work week pretty much a relic of industrial development? What about 40 means "virtuous"?

vinceguidryOP12y ago

Nothing magic about the number. You could probably do the job in much fewer hours if you're very focused. But I find it hard to maintain that level of focus for a significant period of time.

But you definitely don't need more.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse