How many hours do you usually work per day?

John J Shaw answered on 17 Jun 2021:

Officially, I’m contracted for 37.5h per week, so roughly 7.5h per day. In reality I’m working 40-45h per week on a good week. When I’m running the sleep research my work day can be 7pm > 11am, so it varies quite a bit.

Jennifer Deane answered on 17 Jun 2021:

I’m still a student but working part time as well, so I work for 20 hours a week and then work on my PhD for the rest of the time, to finish I have to write up everything I have done and hand it in, so I work on this quite a lot. I need to hand it in in the next few months, but I have 2 children at home so I don’t work weekends as I like to spend time with them so I probably work about 40 hours per week.

Brittney Chere answered on 17 Jun 2021:

Here’s an overview of my day: I wake up around 8, start work at 9, have about an hour lunch around noon, and then work until 5:30/6pm. So I work about 8 hours a day. The work load varies though depending on deadlines and such. So sometimes I have to work longer hours for a week or a few weeks and so when that’s done, to help balance things out and to keep myself from burning out, I’ll have slightly shorter days the following week or take a 3 day weekend if I can. It’s important to keep balance. Some people work super long hours consistently, but that really doesn’t work for me and I work much better when I have a good work-life balance so I definitely prioritise that.

Anastasia Kovalenko answered on 17 Jun 2021:

My research associate contract is for 37.5 h/week which is pretty standard. I also have my PhD on top of that, 20h/week. Before my research associate position, I was working 8 hours/day on my PhD.

Sophie Bettles answered on 17 Jun 2021:

Most of my qualified jobs have been 7.5 or 8 hours per day (so 37.5 or 40 hours per week).

I recently decided that I wanted more of a work-life balance as my family live all over the UK and so I started doing 34 hours per week across 4 days. Monday and Tuesday are 9.5 hours, and Wednesday and Thursday are 7.5 hours.
Friday is a non-working day so I get a long weekend 🙂

Lisa Newson answered on 17 Jun 2021:

Hi Alex
Technically I am contracted to work 35hrs per week- fulltime, but in my contract says do basically more if needed.

My employer is very flexible so we manage our own diaries according to what we have committed to. Yesterday I worked until 6.30 because I was shortlisting candidates for a job i have advertised but today I will finish early at 2.30 so I can collect my daughter from school.

Gustav Markkula answered on 17 Jun 2021:

My employer (my School) was very flexible and agreed to making my contract for 90% of a normal University 37.5 h/week full time, and for me to do those ~34 hours over Mon-Thu, 8-9 hours per day that is, and then have Friday off to myself. It varies though, and quite often I have obligations with deadlines (marking exams for example) as well as fun research stuff that I don’t want to put off, so it’s definitely not rare that I work a bit more.

On the Friday I can do whatever I want! 😀

Naomi Heffer answered on 17 Jun 2021:

I have faced various struggles with fatigue and mental health through my teens and early adulthood, so I knew that going into my PhD I would have to stick to regular hours, and that I would probably end up working less hours than other people in my position. I probably work between 6-7 hours a day and try to stick to weekdays, although sometimes I have to come in on weekends to meet with research participants.

Natalie Neal answered on 17 Jun 2021:

My contract is 37.5 hours per week so around 9-5 Monday to Friday but the thing I love most is that it is flexible working, so I could choose to start work at 8 and finish at 4 or I could take longer for lunch and then make up the time in an evening.

Nora Vyas answered on 17 Jun 2021:

Hi Alex,
I’m officially contracted to work 37.5 hours per week, but typically work 45-50 hours. Academics are involved in teaching and supervising students on research projects. Some of the additional research I do often leads to working longer hours. It’s possible to have a good work-life ‘balance’ if you have things planned and entered into your working diary e.g. having something exciting to do after work such as catching up with friends, movie night, going to the gym can motivate you to get things done in time. I enjoy bootcamp (thrice a week) after work 🙂

Gabriela Morris answered on 21 Jun 2021:

It varies for me, day to day. I get to choose my hours, so as long as I get through the work I’ve assigned to myself on time, I can work whenever and for however long I want. I’m good with time management, so this set up works really well for me!

Samantha Harrison answered on 21 Jun 2021:

For me this varies a lot depending on what’s in the diary and my own wellbeing. I’m contracted to work 36.25 hours per week, but if I’m close to deadlines or busy testing in the labs I might work longer. Other weeks I won’t work as long hours. I really enjoy how flexible I can be with my time, so I can choose which hours and days I work – as long as the job gets done it doesn’t matter if I choose to do it at 9am on a Monday morning or 9pm on a Monday night.

Jessica Rea answered on 24 Jun 2021:

Working as an academic means this can really vary. During term time it can be intense; working long hours and even weekends trying to balance teaching, assessments and research activities. When the campus closes for the year things ease up a bit and you can focus on your research activities more.
It suits me slightly better than some other roles as a working parent because the peaks of activity align a bit more with the term times for your own kids and you have a bit more flexibility to then work from home during the school holidays.

Question: How many hours do you usually work per day?

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