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Ask HN: How many hours of your job are enjoyable?

26 points by bryanrasmussen ↗ HN
I'm thinking of this mainly for developers, since I was looking in the recent developers who became managers thread and people were talking about enjoying coding for 8-9 hours a day. Even if I manage to code for 8-9 hours a day I don't enjoy every one of those hours.

What is your average amount of hours a day you enjoy at a job, jobs you've had with the most enjoyable hours a day and what made them especially enjoyable and so forth.

34 comments

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taylodl
I enjoy all 15 hours a day at work dammit!

In all seriousness, for me job satisfaction comes from not just enjoying what you do but believing in what your company is doing. Otherwise it's "just a job." If you can align doing something you enjoy, such as coding, with something you believe in then you're going to be much less likely asking yourself how many hours per day of your job are enjoyable.

IpV8
Anywhere from 0 to 8! I'd say in average around 3.
chrismeller
Define "enjoy". They have to pay me to do it for a reason. I'm always going to find it less enjoyable than something I would pick on my own to devote my time to.

So really in my mind that means we're looking at varying levels of "not hate". I do not hate the actual work I do 90+% of the time. It's not the most interesting, but I don't feel as if it is pointless.

Unfortunately, similar to the managers thread, the actual time I spend coding is not all that goes into the job. I don't manage anyone, but I find the human interaction portion of my current job incredibly frustrating. From communication styles to manners of expression to priorities when it comes to dealing with teammates we just don't seem to mesh well, and so any day I have a pointless meeting that the organizer is late for immediately saps me of all my motivation.

neetodavid
It varies wildly. Some of my most engaging days are spent making no visible progress on a tricky bug.

I think the job I had with the most enjoyable moment-to-moment time was doing grounds maintenance on a golf course. It was nice to wake up early and spend hours outside. Nice mix of things to do, clear (if sisyphean) goals, and interesting coworkers.

mindcrime
As far as my dayjob goes, I'd say an average of about 1-2 hours out of each day are "enjoyable". The rest ranges from "barely tolerable" to standing at the window, looking outside, thinking "I know what zoo animals feel like now".
davismwfl
This is a hilarious way to put it and sadly I have been there in the past (thankfully not anytime recently). I use to say we were the fish in the fishbowl looking at the ocean but I like the zoo animals comparison much better.

Sorry you are enduring that though, I know what that feels like and it sucks. I luckily haven't had that feeling in a long time, but it sticks with you.

chad_strategic
I enjoy getting my work done, so then I can work on my other projects or look for new jobs. When my required work is done, then I don't feel bad about doing other things...

It baffles me that I spend my energy building a silly Drupal/Ember CMS. But when I go home I write advanced stock algorithms.

Here is some clickbait I ran across this morning, for the most part you just have to read the paragraph titles. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/25/suzy-welch-4-signs-its-defin...

My gut feeling is that anybody clicking on this link might be looking for a change? (I know I am.)

blastbeat
> I enjoy getting my work done, so then I can work on my other projects or look for new jobs. When my required work is done, then I don't feel bad about doing other things...

Do you work remote, or does your employer allow to go earlier/work on your own stuff in your office?

chad_strategic
I work remote 2 days a week. Then 3 days in cube jail.

I just bang out my regular work, then I can do what I want (kinda). Nobody is really looking over my shoulder and as long as I meet my deadlines things seem to be fine. (Until they are not.)

chad_strategic
Also I have learned some basic time management skills. I just get the job done so I can move on to my side projects. The incentive for me is do my personal stuff. I don't have a career at my current job.
avgDev
"Cube jail" is precisely how I feel about my cubicle. I would prefer an office jail, but I'm not a sales guy.
silveroriole
You have a cubicle rather than fully open plan? Lucky...
lhuuuuop
I enjoy my job when my co-workers are not making immature sounds or discussing the mysteries of Allah loudly (I live in a Muslim country).
avgDev
I could code for 8 hours a day once maybe twice a week.

I probably enjoy 5-6 hours of work, but I try to mix some wireframes, planning, research, education and code. Rest is news, reading about tech, and chatting with coworkers. Helping people online with questions specific to the framework/language I use.

qwsxyh
Zero. I work because I have to, not because I care about what I'm doing.
silveroriole
I used to enjoy most days. Worked in faux-agile but really a waterfall model, on useful/important products. Had a lot of freedom and gave myself enough slack to improve things along the way.

Now working in “real agile” where every ticket is (supposed to be) a day’s work or less and everyone’s constantly at full capacity with stupid “implement whizzbang feature because management say so” tickets. Still doing similar work technically, but now it’s absolutely soul-draining! Hooray!

sethammons
Does anything actually say that agile tickets are supposed to be less than or equal to one day?
silveroriole
Yes, but only our micromanaging bosses/leads. Real agile is certainly in quotes for a reason :) Nominally it’s agile because it lets you fit things into sprints and you’re doing the smallest possible thing with frequent comms, etc. In reality, having tiny little tickets makes for effective developer surveillance, and makes development into a nice mechanical assembly line with no surprises. Well, it doesn’t, of course, but it also conveniently makes all issues look like incompetent devs - how could they POSSIBLY mess up 1 day tasks!?

Enterprise agile!

shoo
Have you tried doing the Sprint flavour of capital-A agile? As you describe with the benefit that the powers that be can change their mind about priorities as often as they like, but you only listen to them when reprioritising once every sprint cycle.
jermaustin1
I feel less bad about myself after reading all these comments. I also only enjoy 1-3 hours of work per day. I thought that was burnout, but apparently, its the norm.
noir_lord
I'd say 4-5, the 3-4 when I'm actually programming or something directly related to it.

The rest is meetings, phone calls or dealing with stuff that isn't technically my job but landed on my desk as the only techie on staff (which averages about an hour a day ranging from hitting external IT with a wrench to speccing out new technology etc).

PascLeRasc
I'd say 1-2. I spend about an hour socializing with my work friends which is always great, but this week two of them are away and I'm realizing how unfulfilling my work is. I usually get about 1 hour of "in the zone" time in vim, which is where I get most of my work done. The rest of the time is 1-on-1 meetings with my two supervisors who are just arguing through me and about my time like divorced parents.

I need to get out. Software engineering really takes your soul away.

throw_this_one
What direction would you go in?
PascLeRasc
Industrial design would be great, or electronics design for a music instruments company. I need to make something physical.
paulliwali
I actually enjoy almost 80-90% of my job. This is my first job coming out of Graduate School, and it blends enough tech with engineering that it is both refreshing and challenging.
alehul
Can you share more about your role?
mrburton
I try not to be so analytical. Generally speaking, "most" of my day working is "enjoyable". I love analyzing and solving problems. I've learned how to take challenging problems that can be defined as "frustrating" and make it a positive moment.

People are challenges are always going to be there, so I focus on how to influence people and for those that are toxic, I try to keep it positive as best as I can.

luhego
I enjoy the first 4 hours. I start working very early in the morning (7-8 a.m) so I can complete the most important tasks in those hours. After lunch, I just don't feel like working anymore.
axaxs
About 2 hours. I'm not a morning person, so that's out. I absolutely loathe meetings, which are peppered throughout most of the remaining working hours for no apparent reason. But after hours, from maybe 6 to 8 pm is a complete enjoyable zen for me, and when I do 90 percent of my work.
throw_this_one
I work in back office bank IT which I realize is really boring and stupid. And my coworkers are all like 40 and I'm in my 20s, pretty dry atmosphere.

If I drink a double espresso and have a somewhat well-defined task, I can get about 1-2 hours of "cruising" where I'm in Zen Mode(tm) implementing it or learning it.

Otherwise, it's pretty bad and I look out the window and laugh at how meaningless it makes my day, week, month.

vkaku
3-4 hours, when I'm productive and nothing interferes. I'm planning to see if I can increase it without suffering anything.
barry0079
Maybe 3 in a week? This is a refreshing read. I was honestly terrified that most people relish the opportunity to work.
darshantejani
I usually work for 11 hours at an Edtech startup - https://boosters.in and let me tell you, I almost pass everyday without even needing a cup of coffee! Even though sometimes the work is depressing, a good company of enjoyable colleagues is all I need to get back.