
Ask HN: How many hours of your job are enjoyable? - bryanrasmussen
I&#x27;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&#x27;t enjoy every one of those hours.<p>What is your average amount of hours a day you enjoy at a job, jobs you&#x27;ve had with the most enjoyable hours a day and what made them especially enjoyable and so forth.
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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".

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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.

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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.

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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.

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throw_this_one
What direction would you go in?

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PascLeRasc
Industrial design would be great, or electronics design for a music
instruments company. I need to make something physical.

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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.

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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.

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qwsxyh
Zero. I work because I have to, not because I care about what I'm doing.

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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!

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sethammons
Does anything actually say that agile tickets are supposed to be less than or
equal to one day?

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/25/suzy-
welch-4-signs-its-definitely-time-to-quit-your-job.html)

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

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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?

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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.)

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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...

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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?

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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.

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darshantejani
I usually work for 11 hours at an Edtech startup -
[https://boosters.in](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.

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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).

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barry0079
Maybe 3 in a week? This is a refreshing read. I was honestly terrified that
most people relish the opportunity to work.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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asim_asghar65
Only one hour of job is enjoyable.But it is different in numbers according to
job type.

[http://www.jobz.pk/](http://www.jobz.pk/)

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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.

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vkaku
3-4 hours, when I'm productive and nothing interferes. I'm planning to see if
I can increase it without suffering anything.

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IpV8
Anywhere from 0 to 8! I'd say in average around 3.

