How many hours do you work? Longest ever?

I am scedualed for 12 hr shifts but work more 16 hr shifts than 12s . In fact i have not worked a 12 all year.

I worked 16 yesterday/my last shift and
At 7am i will have been at work this shift 32hours. Yes thats right 32 hr. It may go out to 36 i am not sure yet if i will stay when offered.

This is the longest i have ever been at work without leaving. With the ice they asked if we would stay for 32 hrs with an 8 hr break spent on sight in between for legal reasons. I have sleep about 3 hrs off and on in tthe last few days. I figured it was better than driving back and forth on slick roads with no sleep. Besided I go to work to make money after all.

Anyone else as dumb as I am?

Working in the oil field, I would routinely work 24 to 30 hours straight to get work completed. Rig time is so expensive, no food breaks etc.

I did 80 hrs in week. Once, and only once!

Now thats hard core tougher than me for sure. I think im getting to old for this though. May be part of my recently developed health issues.

Probably just over 24hrs. I work for the rural electric company and on storms can work 20+ Pretty common in storms but the company doesn’t like when we are over 16 without a rest period of 8 hrs because we stay on double time until we get a rest period

Those are some long hours.I used to work 12 hour shifts when I worked for the union on power plant shutdowns.

At harvest on the farm 16-18 hrs for days on end. Lose any idea of day of the week and date of month. Hope it doesn’t rain while secretly really hoping it does.

Was just on the clock for 48 1/2 hours doing snow removal.

Spring planting is the same way, 16 to 20 hours a day. No days off unless it rains, but only lasts about 3 weeks.

Working with the bee's we had many 16 to 18 hour days,most I ever worked in a week was 105 hours depended on the time of the season many 75 to 80 hour weeks.65 was about average.

When doing golf course construction, and only so many warm months to grow turf in Northern Michigan. I took my travel trailer to the site. Push dirt, pop stumps, haul sand, trench pipe. If weather was workable, we worked, day and night and cat napped. Rain days were spent power sleeping and planning. Greens were built and planted while still stumping shaping fairways. We had 3 ladies that road around with food, beverages daily. 40 hours straight time and 40 or so overtime for 3 summers. Clear and burn in winter dirt work in summer. Wouldn't trade the experience for nothing.

When I was a Drill Instructor we worked 110 hours a week. It wasn’t uncommon to work 126 hours in a week.

I’ve worked a couple 24 hour shifts it always made laugh one person is happy you worked and the next boss tells you to not do it again. LOL The last time I did that I took kids on a fishing trip for the last shift. My nickname was Mr. Overtime among other names.

Trying to remember how many hours I actually worked... But I walked in the door almost 25 hours after I left once.

Don't remember what month it was but it was cold enough to be pretty miserable.

Spent a Saturday on a shutdown for a customer so we could change out breakers for load bank test equipment. As I was wrapping up to go home my boss sent out a company-wide text looking for help... Bunch of wiring on the dynamic brake of a crane had failed... Big clamshell job at a concrete plant. Spent the better part of Saturday night and early Sunday morning getting it back up.

Had to drop the company van back off at the first customer's plant and then drive home... That was a long drive.

Paycheck looked good though.

Mike

Worked alot of 20 hr days,,120-140 hr weeks 6 months at a time. No more.

Back when I worked for a power contractor we worked 34 hrs straight, no way I could’ve drove home slept in the lot when we got back. Most in one week was 110 hrs..... don’t miss it a bit

Worked long hours on train wrecks.3,4 days straight.
Catch an hour sleep in an upside down boxcar here and there.

In 1982, I stayed underground fighting a coal mine for 27.5 hours. In 1984, I pulled five 17 hour shifts one week, mine was only 35” high. About the same time, I was the pumper for the mine, worked ten consecutive weeks without a day off. ( including a 15 shift on Easter Sunday ).

Hauled many tons of IBP beef from Emporia KS to Tampa FL or Miami FL or L.A. Had 36 hours delivery time. Speed limit was 55. Tampa is about 2 hours closer.

Loaded tomatoes multiple times in CA with a 3rd morning delivery to the Boston produce market. I got a 500 dollar bonus for being on time when I did that. Back then 500 bucks would easy buy what 1500 will now.

That stuff was pretty common. I figured sooner or later I would be dead so quit that reefer nonsense after about a year.

Back in '75 early '76 I worked for Moog Hydraulic in East Aurora, NY. My main focus was design work on the F-15 fighter with a little bit of Space Shuttle design work just to break up the monotony. The F-15 aspect was cost plus with a special allowance from the state labor board regarding work hours per week. Soooo, we were required to work 16 hrs a day for six days, 12 hrs on Sunday every week with every other Sunday off. Thirteen days straight. This went on for 14 or 15 months. Talk about dragging your butt. Interesting thing was it was all done on drafting boards using slide rules, very few calculators. What few there were only had add, subtract, multiply, divide, and percentage functions. Primitive to say the least. There was no way I could have done it again when I retired at 58 and there is no way I would recommend it, even for a young guy. It just takes too big a toll, to many mistakes can be made, some costly. There were several divorces and separations. A few accidents, guys falling asleep driving to and from work. I really don't understand how farmers do it at harvest time. My hat's off to you guys.

I love working 12 hour shifts. I would work 3 consecutive 12s then have 4 days off. I think the longest shift I ever worked was 21 hours. I always figured once I left the house to go to work my day was ruined so might as well work as many hours that day as possible. When I was young, I worked 3 jobs and went to college full time and still found time to party every night. I never got more than 3 hours of sleep. Leave the house at 6am, do school/work until somewhere beween 8pm and midnight, then close the bar down. No WAY I could do that now.

Spring of 93 was so wet there were very few days suitable for planting. A neighbor and I started late morning on a Friday - one of us tilling and one planting. We finished about 7 am Monday morning. Never really stopped working that whole time. Some very crooked rows that year!

30hr a week when everything is going "good" 50+ a week when my crew wants to drag butt if it wasn't from the butt chewing from uppper and when belly aching from the younger guys I'd prefer the 50+

My old job though, 70-80hr weeks where pretty normal once I had got on the maintenance team. 7a.m to when ever the job was done.lotta 7a.m-12a.m days lol.Worked like a dog but $700-$800 checks every week was some kinda nice.

Did a few 48hr and one or two 72hr mission being on the recovery team for my unit when where where in Texas and Cali. Take a 10min nap in the dirt real quick Every few hours ,stay hungry and tells alot if jokes and you'll be aight. Good times lookin back

Newly retired municipal employee. Had several instances of extreme working hours. Last year worked 30 hours straight plowing snow. Several years ago we received 32” of snow. Worked 36 hours straight. When I got home, it took about 8 hours to shovel out the homestead. I distinctly remember using the roof rake to pull snow off the eaves in hip boots. Longest was exactly 48 hours, but I had 2 separate 2 hour naps. That was a nasty and prolonged ice storm. Never enjoyed that aspect of the job.
Hang in there

Gotta ask, anyone else find a sense of pride in being able to have worked long hours ?

No matter what you say, someone will top it, lol.

34 hours working an armed robbery case.

I normally work between 50-70 hrs a week. When the pipeline picks up in the summer, we will be running between 85-90 hrs a week. Longest I have worked straight is 22 hrs

I work 60 hour weeks in the summer. 3 years ago on a job in Cali I was doing between 84 and 100 per week. That was only a 4 month job. I was only 66 so still young. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Yes. I do at work and I think the same way about putting up fur after my kids go to bed. I know most people won’t think it’s cool but when I’m up late skinning and stretching I feel like I’ve accomplished something. And my wife is happy I was still able to help get the kids in bed lol

Longest straight shift for me was 19 hours which came right after closing the night before. Left at 0130 and to go go back at 0600 for the delivery. Then I worked until close that night.


Senior year worked graves went to school then night school sleep for a couple hours and do it all over. There were times I would do that for 2 days get home from work and would barely make it past the front door

I work 40 hrs a week, but it is a slower time of the year. When things pick up I can work as many hrs of overtime I want.

When oil went down the tubes in 1985, the company laid off a lot of people. Only the "A" rated people were remaining. We started working 27 days on and 3 days off. I thought my boss was 60 and he was only 37. Long hours, poor diet and coffee ages you in a hurry.

Went in one Monday morning at 0800. Got off Tuesday at 1800. Thunderstorms started rolling in Monday afternoon about 1500 and troubles started rolling in and I never made it home, lol. Back then I could do it and not think twice. Now I’d probably just tell them I’ve have enough after 12hrs. That can’t technically force me more than that, but dang those were some big checks coming in. Now time trumps money, lol.

I used to work a full time engineering job during the day, and run a little fab/welding shop in my garage at night. Many, many nignts without sleep. Admittedly these hours only lasted a few weeks to meet deadlines. usually, only 8-10 in the office, and 4-5 in the shop.

That was forty years ago.

Today, in my mid 70's i still work four days a week. usually 11-16 hours per shift. Sometimes, as workload dictates, much more.

Keep in mind these crazy hours are unsustainable. I have also taken years at a time off, only to catch up on my personal life.

12 to 16 hours at my age every min is a gift and always trying to stay ahead.

I work 40 hour weeks. Factoring in comp time it is probably closer to 37 actual hours worked a week. Longest days are water main breaks at quitting time. A bad one at the wrong time and you might have a 14 hour day.

I have too much stuff to do on my own time than to spend it all at work. 0 desire to work 60-80 hour weeks. You only have 1 life, no use wasting it all at work.

you misspelled day

....killing your self for 700-800 a week.....you need to upgrade

Commercial fishing is by far the most sleep deprived I have ever been
24/7 for 35 days straight
Short naps only,live work sleep all in a few feet
Fish don't care

I’m a company man in oilfield. When things are going good 12 to 16 hours a day. When things are messed up till it’s fixed. Longest I had been up was 46 hours. Last hitch I did 2 wire line jobs by myself I was up 36 hours.

Work 24 hour shifts at work. Get to sleep 8 hours a night unless we are busy. Longest straight stretch was on a massive fire. I think it was 52 or something. We would sleep for 15-30 mins in the truck when we had a water fill or we had some down time. They have changed the policy and you get switched out for a minimum of 3 hours for a rest. Lots of 48 hour shifts when we get bad fires.

I had a hand that started with us, after a 16 hour day he professed “ this was the longest day I had ever worked in my life” So naturally I asked “what we the second?” He said “Tuesday.”

Trapping in IA in the late 80s and early 90s , plenty of on the road at 4,30. AM and done skinning at 10,30- 11,00 PM.

Working a shut-down at a paper mill in 1983 or "84 I once worked 28 hours straight. On this same job, rigger supt turned in 175 hours for the week. When told that there were only 164 hours in a week, he sai"yeah, but I worked through lunch. He got paid because it was a cost+ 10% job.

I work anywhere from 0-14 hours a day. Every day is different and usually don’t know how much I’m going to do until after the first cup of coffee. I take a lot of coffee breaks too!

the longest continues hours that i work was 130 hours , the longest continues days without a day off was 9 months of 12 hours . sometimes there was a few 36 runs during that 9 months

in my younger days of dairy farming, hundred plus hrs a week
in the time that I was an independant owner operator truck driver, 100 plus hrs a week
now that i work as a company truck driver, I have 4 days 12 hrs each per week

At my previous job it was 10-12 hours 7 days. I have worked a couple 24-30 hours shifts if something had to be fixed right away.

Now I work 8-12 hours 5 days a week all summer and trap in winter. I like this schedule a lot more.

My first golf course job I worked 120 hours the week of a tournament. The nice thing was we got a 50.00 dollar bonus at the end of the week. I would have felt better with nothing. 80 hour weeks were common. Unbelievable the hours some of you have worked. Great post !

38 hours of O.T last weekend plowing, salting & sanding from that nor'easter. good thing we're exempt from DOT hours of operation limits..
you learn to sleep when you can, normal sleep pattern goes upside down. you find yourself wide awake at 2am even when you dont need to be up.

When I'm working, I usually do 12-13 hour days 7 days a week. The longest I've ever been at work was 56 hours straight once. Got snowed in and they were not letting people leave. Plows were getting stuck! You could sleep if you wanted but I had a hard time sleeping with all the noise. Got an hour here and there. It sucked to say the least.

18 hrs is about my longest day. Work 280-320 hrs a month from March thru November

Went in one Monday and got off Thursday evening at 6pm was paving at that time. I worked for 2 different crews one in the day and one at night that was a long week. I also got up Friday morning and worked that day also it was normal in the early 90s to work 80 hrs in a week chipping roads.

Good post- I'm not sure I've ever met a trapper that wasn't afraid of hard work and then there's the inverse... the people that take 12 hrs. to do a 4 hr. job!

Currently holding a salary job that I probably average 40hrs a week.

Job before this was routine to work 78hrs a week when I first started. Guranteed one weekend off a month and I looked forward to that weekend many months.
Funny thing is I make way more money now than I did working all of those hours

Worst sleep I ever got was on a Coast Guard ship working 4 on and 8 off. The 4 to 8 shift was the worse. Hard to find time, peace, and quiet on a crowded rolling ship.

The longest work day I've had is 21 hours when I was in the oilfield. Can't remember what my average hours per week was then, but I'd have to guess somewhere around 60-70 hours per week, plus on-call every weekend for service needs.

10 hours days was the "norm" for me,,but cant count how many times that turned into 16 hour days.38 hours was my longest ever shift.Funny thing is,,after working 38 hours straight,,I couldn't get to sleep.

Did quite a few 30 plus hours without a nap plowing and sanding, didn't feel tired at the time, but was in my twenties...lol

Now I'm ready for a nap after about 6 hours....

You don't realize what your capable of unless you do it.

If single handed trans Atlantic boat deliveries count ( as ya don't leave your workplace before its done ) then 39 days is my longest non stop work time. from Arrecife Brasil to Cape town South in a 33 foot Hustler racing sail boat .... I sailed it 4 days before that trip to Arrecife from Grand Canaria and that took 24 days all by my lonesome.

Too much. I want to retire.. shoulda went union with 8 hour days.