I'm not sure what happened in the last five years or so. I see so many people glamorizing overworking. Like it's a badge of honor if you pull 70+ hour weeks or miss your kid's birthday because of work. When did this become a thing? Working here once meant giving it your 110% but during your working hours. That was something to be proud of. Now people look down on you if you do your regular hours, even if you are doing great and are never late with your work. What happened?
18 replies (most recent on top)
I was one. Typical 60 hour work weeks. I also consistently was ranked a 1, which meant higher pay and especially with CIPS. It allowed me to also retire mid fifties with a full year severance as a millionaire. No regrets.
It's just too bad that they didn't teach you to spell and not be a racist.
Some advise passed on to me once at Chevron…it’s time to work like a white man. Minimal effort and maximum to mediocre reward.
What's pathetic is a few posters who dominate the site thinking that their childish opinion is unpopular because of someone manipulating the meaningless voting. This is not reddit. it's meaningless there and it's meaningless here.
Some of us just have a passion for what we do and enjoy many aspects of work (problem solving, results and people) so we do more of it. Are extra hours doing what you love a bad thing? Seems there are 2 camps: those that escape what they hate and those that live what they love. I for one would much rather be the latter.
Haha, not sure it is Popcorn these days but he was a master of voting. He could open igcognito windows for hours and vote for his own posts. It was very impressive.
The popcorn guy strikes back !
Whoever is downvoting in bulk, you need to get a life, my friend? Purposefully squashing the truth by downvoting will not change the veracity of what we’ve posted.
Our boss encourages us to take informal compensation days off as often as we can to account for longer days. I usually tell people I will be working from home but my internet is offline.
It's time to do the bare minimum going forward. No point in working hard for cut bonuses and layoffs at every corner.
The company laughs behind your back when you appear to make them think you are more valuable when you put in more hours. If you are an hourly employee, great for you if the company allows it because that’s just more money in your pocket. But if you are a salaried employee, that extra time working at the office or on the job doesn’t get you a penny more or any extra credit for that matter. You are deemed an inefficient employee. Get done what you can within your 40 hours each week and only put in the extra hours if absolutely necessary, only during emergencies.
I don’t care what they think. No matter what, at the end you can’t buy time back!
Vanpools for life.
Simply put, particularly after the significant layoffs conducted in 2020, there is more work to be completed by fewer people. This might not be true across all groups and BUs, but it is what I have observed.
I’ll give you one example from a Finance group that I work closely with: that team lost about 50% of its workforce in 2020. At the time, the Finance Manager and President of the organization that Finance supported stated that it was expected that many reports and other deliverables that Finance was producing would be stopped, and therefore the 50% staff cut was manageable.
Fast forward to 2024, and, not only have the vast majority of those deliverables snuck back in, but we added more, including special projects that normally would require some dedicated resources to be run effectively. Instead we have a team of Finance professionals who are stressed out, overworked, and frankly dismissed when they voice concerns.
Does this surprise me? Nope. This is not the same company that it used to be even 10 years ago.
I am all for working hard and getting things done, but the environment in which many of us currently work is a direct path to burnout.
I caution those who judge the OP and others for raising their concern about long hours and seem us to be inefficient or seeking the glory of being a workaholic. The more likely reality is that too much is. Wing asked of too few, and we keep going because most of us are trapped due to family and financial obligations. It’s easy to criticize until you find yourself in our situation.
I honestly believe we will find one of our colleagues unconscious or worse from all the constant stress and ridiculous deadlines. I also am not so naive as to think that management will do anything to address the situation.
Funny environment at Chevron (I've worked for other companies as well). In the 80's and 90's long hours were the norm with area-wide lease sales. When computers came on board, it reduced this to "normal hours". What's also funny at Chevron is that van-pool departure times are considered sacrosanct, no meeting or work is allowed to interfere with when your van pool is leaving.
If it is taking 70+ hours to do your job (other than earning overtime), then may be it is time to consider that you are not so good at your job.
I worked for 29 rewarding years at Chevron. Very few times in my career did I ever put in more than a 40 hour week. I came to and left the office every day lat the same time. I will also add, I never was late on my tasks and deliverables. I always received excellent reviews with my boss and department heads. If you cannot get your job done each week in 40 hours, you are a poor manager of your time— in other words, an inefficient employee.
I think those people are either (a) inefficient with their time or (b) hate their families.