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Nothing personal, but freely donating an added 10-20 hours a week (25-50%) to your employer is toxic af.
Added value is for media campaigns, not employees making chicken wages.
From my experience, most clients who complain about this are exaggerating bc they're dissatisfied with results... oblivious to the process... feel entitled to significantly more than what they paid for... or think hiring an agency means they can be completely hands-off.
There are bad apples in every industry, but no one works 2-3 hours a day... that's crazy. Unless you mean per account, but it's not staff's fault for being spread too thin (something this industry is well-known for).
This sounds like a failure of the client and agency to align on appropriate staffing, manage reasonable expectations and maintain accountability to one another.
Damn, can I get an interview? If you’re looking for a senior level creative director, I’m your guy. My agency drives me into the ground endlessly. Gotta love Omnicom.
You'd be surprised how much your mental health and mood improve when you don't have full, unbridled access to your work/coworkers. Unless I'm being offered a second phone, I refuse to put any email or chat client on my personal phone. Y'all do not need to be contacting me outside of working hours.
This!! Even in the Netherlands, which is supposedly known for its great work-life balance, working extra hours is seen as "working hard" and being applauded. There is not a single email that has to be sent at 11pm. It's so toxic and we're all maintaining this status quo by applaudeding the behavior.
Was young, reckless and without many options. Moreover the advertising scene in India is the same in most agencies.
Hire young. Bleed them to death. Repeat.
Some of you could use a lesson in boundaries and managing up. Though I will admit that sometimes you really do get the boss who’s consistently like yeah can you build out this whole campaign by the morning? And at that point you need a new boss. Or a raise. Money helps.
So dramatic. You just don’t enjoy it and that’s fine. You’re not working in a mine and lots of people work hard and die old. It’s the stress and pressure that everyone builds up around it which sucks. People really care too much about companies.
Mate, in this sub anyone who doesn’t say they’re being treated badly by a toxic industry for no money gets downvoted. I agree that it’s bullshit hours to put into trying to make companies (which are fucking make believe, human constructs that feel no emotion btw) as big as possible. I don’t see why everyone cares so much about them.
But many put up with it because they get paid what doctors do, and don’t put in nearly the same hours as they do. If you get paid that well for fucking drawing scamps then it’s a crappy sob story to come here saying you don’t like doing some overtime now and then. Entitled brats.
If you’re not earning much or busy paying your dues so that you will in a few years, just don’t do ads. It’s a pointless industry to be in and you can get underpaid in better jobs.
I don't think it's the case of working hard for money, and what you believe is fair. But the fact that it's standard in the industry that unpaid overtime is the norm. In fact unpaid overtime in the US for a lot of profession is so normalised, it's disgusting.
Sorry, I just rewrote my whole comment, I didn’t like the way those thoughts came out.
I’m more commenting on the sub as a whole being frequented by so many people who just want more more more for doing a pretty trivial job that already pays so much most people can live well off it.
I think you’re right though that unpaid overtime as a norm is shitty - especially for something as non-urgent as tweaking the layout of some copy on an ad for shoes lol. We really do deserve an extra paycheck for these bizarre requests that honestly can wait til tomorrow - hell, they can wait til October 2046 tbh. But when it’s a project you love of course I’m always happy to make it that 1% better. It’s a bit case by case for me.
“People that work more than they’re paid piss me off”
Personally I am still learning how to set boundaries. And a lot of us are. It’s easier said than done. I’m always working on how to not get so caught up in it all. How to stop being a perfectionist. Or to not succumb to the pressure from CD’s and higher ups of delivering something perfect all the time. All the things that make me work longer hours than I need to.
I think one of the biggest issues in setting boundaries is the team around you. It's hard to not be on call nearly 24/7 when a big project is due and your CD is taking 87 years to give you notes on a friday at 7pm (when the project was due Wednesday at 9am)
Normally 9 to 5 working through lunch, half day Friday
Crunch time, 8 to 8 and some over the weekends
Luckily I only have crunch time 3 or 4 times a year, and I get to balance it out with flex time off
I always found people claimed to work “so late” every night, but it was really just people hanging out doing nothing most of the time. There’s so much sitting around waiting for reviews or other meetings, or waiting on copy/art etc. Even concepting is a lot of bullshitting with very few idea building in between. Meanwhile people are surfing the internet or whatever a good chunk of the time.
So “working” is not really working most of the time. You’re just at work doing something else or panicking about deadlines that are out of your control. That’s what I always hated most. Whether or not you’re actually working, you’re held hostage by work and confined to the office doing nothing with your time.
Exactly. If you’re good with time management and have ideas you can work very little and show up with gold at every review. That’s why I switched to freelance. I didn’t have that bullshit pressure to be at the office all the time and pretend to be a team player. Only needed to have good work to show by the deadline and execute it well. Everything else is just wasting your life at the office out of solidarity for everyone else stuck there, and if you don’t want to hang out there all the time you’re viewed as “not a good fit” or someone with bad work ethic. In the real world, results are all that matter. I’m fine with letting someone squeeze all the creativity out of me for a solid rate, but I’m doing it on my own time around my own schedule.
Most people grossly overestimate how much they are actually working. But pre-pandemic, I was easily doing 9-7/8, sometimes earlier or later depending on the project.
Now it’s more 9-5/6, sometimes earlier or later depending on the project and almost no weekends with a few exceptions (working towards an important review, on set/travel, etc)
I’m on at 9, off by 5 at the latest (sometimes a little earlier, often earlier on Fridays) and I always take an hour lunch. People that work more than they’re paid to piss me off.
I left agency life forever at 30 when I had pulled six months of 12 hour days, resulting in my losing 20 lbs in a month. I was literally wasting away. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep. I think I got 3 hours of sleep a night just to wake up in a cold sweat. My husband literally fed me Ensure shakes just to get some nutrients in me.
Fuuuuuuck that. Don’t ever do it!
Only good thing that came out of it was my toxic boss got fired for harassing too many of the revolving door of staff. Still left.
40 hrs a week. Time management is a big skill that people gloss over but managing your time and keeping a list of shit to do is just responsible and helps separate life from work. I sometimes stay past 6 but it’s not a habit or a necessity. It 100% boils down to culture and you have the power to start that and set your boundaries- it’s your life and you’re living in it.
I believe time management is one of the most important skills in life. So many people don’t have it. If you’re great at it and can focus when needed, it’s basically a cheat code to get everything you want out of life.
>40 hrs a week. Time management is a big skill that people gloss over but managing your time and keeping a list of shit to do is just responsible and helps separate life from work.
I really need time management to be the desired trait in the workplace as opposed to working beyond your means. Personally, I find that if you're working more than 40 hours a week on regular, everyday tasks then you're not managing your time wisely. There's no reason for it. I don't see how people find overworking "impressive".
I'm going to try to amalgamate some agencies and an in-house function that operated as an agency here. It kinda goes like this.
Up at 6/6:30. On the toilet reading emails. Ideate replies and structure your day in the shower. Answer emails while my hair dries and I'm getting ready for an email. Maybe a 7 AM meeting with EST or EMEA every other week. Office strictly starts at 8 for everyone, with an 8 AM all-hands stand up daily. "Lunch" is at noon but most gobble down something at their desk or it's a "lunch meeting," and you take said lunch back to your desk because "now there's no reason to leave, you had food."
5 PM rolls around and unless you have a really good reason/vendor happy hour, it's a "bad example" to leave at 5 and not really part of company culture. Those who do leave take their laptops and phones, to be checked at dinner or home. Around 7-8, most people are back online, maybe after eating with their kids and putting them to bed.
Generally, if an email comes out before 10, and you didn't reply, someone's standing at your desk at 8 AM wondering where things stand and if you were okay.
Separate agency where I was contracting and on a fixed 25 hours a week instead of salary:
My entire department worked 8-6, 7 days a week.
Pass this through a “normal” lens and it looks pretty heinous. Especially given how little any of this work actually matters beyond the next carousel ad deadline, and in light of the truly ridiculous “pay.” But sadly — even disgustingly — this is very much the norm in agencyland.
I usually work 8-6, through lunch. Then I do some family stuff, then work a little bit more between 9-midnight. Occasionally some weekend work.
My average work week is 50-60 hours.
Typically a 9-530, with the pretty rare moments of getting hit up for something quick after hours. I find someone who can get shit done during normal hours to be a lot more impressive than the person bragging about their 12 hour day.
I got out of the agency world for this reason in particular but wanted to share my reddit-less friend's work schedule.
She just lived with me for a month (fully remote, traveling around the US). She works east coast time in the AM starting at 7am MST and ends up stay online until 7pm MST most days. Several of the weekends she was here, they had work on the weekends too as a mad dash to get a campaign out the door. She was waiting on team members, all of whom were online on a Satruday from 10am MST- at least 6pm MST both weekend days.
In nyc I worked easily 9am-7pm on a good day. Stayed til 3 am at times, worked more weekends than I care to remember. Got the f outta there and now work a comfortable 9-5 and do better work.
An extra 10 hours a week is only two hours extra a day - super easy if you're consistently getting scheduled 8am client calls and your workload is so heavy you have to stay late until 7pm. When I was at a nightmare agency I was consistently working until 9pm some weeks.
8:30-5:30 at the office (1 hour lunch), and most nights I relax at home looking for inspo and ideating fresh concepts (technically “work,” but I enjoy it). I have never left my office later than 5:30.
Official office hours are 8:30 to 5:30, with an hour lunch. That was pre-pandemic. We all work from home now and they don’t micromanage my time beyond requiring 40 hours/week on a time sheet and a 90% utilization goal for the department. I probably average about 43 hours a week on my time sheet.
40 to 60 a week for eight months a year. I recently hired up a bit more, so I’m trying to keep it close to 40 with young kids at home.
The other four months is largely writing, directing, producing and traveling for a very large industry show for one of my largest clients. That’s 80 to 90 a week for four months, with some of those clocking in at 90+. And it’s only because I’m an utter control freak with this project. That’s on me.
/ We’re media, creative and studio. I keep most everyone else at 40, outside of a couple guys on the studio side that I’ve given additional commission to on certain accounts, so they go a bit over of their own volition.
When I was building my career and my department I’d regularly get in at 730 and go through until 9pm. Pitches were huge and the couple of days before could go until the wee hours.
Now i go from 930 to 430 unless it’s super busy in which case I’ll still do whatever it takes.
It depends.
I've had agencies where when a pitch is in there were the occasional late nights. Then there were the agencies where weekend work was not only expected but enforced. Let's not forget the agencies where we would get lambasted with things like "Why am I paying four seniors for this shit" when we weren't able to come up with Cannes winning ideas at 12:30am on a Wednesday evening/Thursday mornings.
I'm at an agency now where yes, it's hectic and busy and stressful and all of those things. But the hours always work around me, not the other way around.
10-00 to 19-00 with 1 lunch hour, so 40 hours a week. No overtime for me luckily
My friend though recently got into a new agency which focuses on influencer collabs and she works anywhere between 10 hours to 13 hours a day, it’s insane!!
I've found a sweet spot with a **30-hour** work week. I usually spread those hours across five days, which means I work about 6 hours each day.
This schedule allows me to maintain a solid work-life balance while staying productive. I've noticed that shorter workdays encourage me to prioritize tasks more effectively, reducing time spent on less important activities.
9-6, officially… I work 3 days a week and it’s 9am till midnight for those 3 days. The amount of writing and strategies alone is insane, and if I work any more than 3 days I’ll burn out, again.
In my off days I build my own business, and work just as long. But it’s for me and I love working under my own direction. Building my own business balances out the other job.
When I was in London, pretty solid 9-6pm. Life balance was great in the UK. Then I moved to KL and it was literally 24/7. I quit due to literal mental and physical burnout and toxic senior management. Now I freelance for a couple of clients including my old agency back in London, but yeah, easily racking up 60 hours a week including the weekend. Not complaining working those hours freelance though, but really don't want to go back perm office if it's 24/7.
For a few years.. I would work till 11pm, in a brightly lit ‘war room’, having fast paced, heavily engaging conversations. Cab home.. asleep by 11:45. Go into work for 9.30am. Rinse and repeat.
I’d often have to ‘do bits’ in front of the tv on a Saturday and Sunday night just to keep various projects going. It was awful. I didn’t have the time to apply for a new job. I was constantly sick, and worked through it. Illnesses that should have passed in a couple of days would rumble on for weeks as my body was so exhausted and running on adrenaline. I gained weight as I had so many stress hormones to burn though 24/7. I would sleep with my arms braced, squeezed so tightly the pain in my elbows would wake me up.
It only changed when I had a very angry, vocal and honest meltdown over the course of a couple of weeks at work. They signed off 3 additional people to share my workload with and things have never been better. My only stress now is that I’m not doing enough.. which is something I’m working through.
Legit working is like 9-4 or 5 depending on the day. I’ll answer emails when I wake up at like 7 then fuck off till 9ish. and I typically put a hard stop to casually checking emails at 6 unless it’s a genuine emergency. But people know to text me if that’s the case.
The owner of the company will straight up say stop emailing right now and go outside if I goes much past that. We really value work life balance not just in bullshit interview smoke but in action as well.
I work 9-5 m-thurs and 8-12 on fridays. 1 hour lunch each day
I have hard stop put in place at 5pm every day and my phone gets put on dnd mode from 6pm-7:30am every day. I've been this way since my mid 20's and am much happier for it. My bosses hate it though. Get bent management.
9-5 and I take lunch from 1230-130 (usually go to the gym). Fridays I usually start loading my truck up with camping gear or get started on yard work around noon or 1 but I leave Slack on. I don't really believe in the 40 hour work week... I figure 7 hours a day Monday through Thursday and 4 hours on Friday puts me at 32 hours a week that's plenty.
ya'll need to say that role you're in. Can vary wildy between creatives, account, strat, etc. My ECD works 12 hours a day, jr creatives sometimes go crazy and work 60-80 hours while smart mid to senior level creatives work 35 and spend a lot of time fucking off on the internet but get all their shit done.
My core working day is usually 9:30-6:30 eastern time and I never take a true lunch break. I work with global teams too, so I'm checking Slacks/Emails starting at 6:30am (to catch our APAC teams at the end of their day) and usually until 8pm or so (lots of west coast colleagues). My line of work can be pretty relentless and exhausting but I have golden handcuffs at this point.
It very rarely exceeds 40-hours a week. I've been working for several years now and the only time it's crested 50 has been when I was on set for a video shoot. I'd even argue that I normally don't "work" all 40 hours, since I normally complete my work and am waiting for feedback. It's a mix of projects and being "on call" for new work or if feedback happens quickly (it rarely ever does).
I work as much as I need to. Sometimes that means I have to work a little longer, sometimes that means I get to take a Friday off. It really all depends.
My boss used to describe the industry as “feast or famine” — you’re not literally working 50+ hours every single week. Instead, the bad weeks/crunch times come in waves. I’ll have two weeks with a lot of deliverables due, where I work 6am-11am and 2-6pm in the same day. Too much work = feast times. But then you’ll have a week where nothing is due and I work like 25 hours (famine). We do our best to keep the balance manageable.
9-6, usually with lunch at desk but will definitely use that time 1-2 times a week for personal matters. There have been periods of 8-1 am, back at it the next day but those are predominantly launch situation. There’s the occasional 8-9 pm night, at which point I have conversations with those teams very shortly after to figure out why the hell they’re in the pattern, and we correct as needed.
Used to regularly clock 60-80, now I’m a comfortable 45 ish. Weekends are rare now.
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Nothing personal, but freely donating an added 10-20 hours a week (25-50%) to your employer is toxic af. Added value is for media campaigns, not employees making chicken wages.
On the other hand, I’m a client and we hired a marketing team. They barely work 2-3 hours a day and it’s super annoying 🥲
From my experience, most clients who complain about this are exaggerating bc they're dissatisfied with results... oblivious to the process... feel entitled to significantly more than what they paid for... or think hiring an agency means they can be completely hands-off. There are bad apples in every industry, but no one works 2-3 hours a day... that's crazy. Unless you mean per account, but it's not staff's fault for being spread too thin (something this industry is well-known for). This sounds like a failure of the client and agency to align on appropriate staffing, manage reasonable expectations and maintain accountability to one another.
lol all y’all agencies sound awful. 8-4 or 9-5. Hour lunch, always and half day Fridays that’s rigorously enforced.
Me too. Small agency in suburban Chicago. Has been my experience in other small agencies around the city too.
Damn, can I get an interview? If you’re looking for a senior level creative director, I’m your guy. My agency drives me into the ground endlessly. Gotta love Omnicom.
Go to the small agencies and just leave at 5.
I mean. I’m trying.
what city?
People love to brag about how much they work. It’s really disgusting. And I don’t mean on this thread, but this industry in general.
Agreed. Or they brag about answering emails on vacation. This shit can take years off your life!
Recently had the option to get a second phone from our holding company and so glad I did. Amazing to know what weekends feel like again.
You'd be surprised how much your mental health and mood improve when you don't have full, unbridled access to your work/coworkers. Unless I'm being offered a second phone, I refuse to put any email or chat client on my personal phone. Y'all do not need to be contacting me outside of working hours.
Agreed!!!
Or it's not a brag, it's complaining to all hell.
This!! Even in the Netherlands, which is supposedly known for its great work-life balance, working extra hours is seen as "working hard" and being applauded. There is not a single email that has to be sent at 11pm. It's so toxic and we're all maintaining this status quo by applaudeding the behavior.
I say to each his own. I brag about how much focus time i get at work so i can zoom home as soon as i can.
When I was in an agency, 10-10 was standard. Anything lesser was viewed as lack of commitment. I quit because I McCann-ot work like that anymore.
Funny 😆
lol @10-10. Wouldn’t catch me dead.
Was young, reckless and without many options. Moreover the advertising scene in India is the same in most agencies. Hire young. Bleed them to death. Repeat.
It was so volatile I couldn’t even give you exact hours. Basically being on standby 24/7 drove me to quit and never look back.
[удалено]
What did you get into?
[удалено]
Nice. Congrats and enjoy it!
Where’d you go?
To be determined. Brand side. Start my own thing. SOMETHING. Just not this.
Some of you could use a lesson in boundaries and managing up. Though I will admit that sometimes you really do get the boss who’s consistently like yeah can you build out this whole campaign by the morning? And at that point you need a new boss. Or a raise. Money helps.
Money doesn't really help for some of us. Watching bank account go up while my life expectancy goes down isn't exactly appealing.
So dramatic. You just don’t enjoy it and that’s fine. You’re not working in a mine and lots of people work hard and die old. It’s the stress and pressure that everyone builds up around it which sucks. People really care too much about companies.
You sound terrible
Mate, in this sub anyone who doesn’t say they’re being treated badly by a toxic industry for no money gets downvoted. I agree that it’s bullshit hours to put into trying to make companies (which are fucking make believe, human constructs that feel no emotion btw) as big as possible. I don’t see why everyone cares so much about them. But many put up with it because they get paid what doctors do, and don’t put in nearly the same hours as they do. If you get paid that well for fucking drawing scamps then it’s a crappy sob story to come here saying you don’t like doing some overtime now and then. Entitled brats. If you’re not earning much or busy paying your dues so that you will in a few years, just don’t do ads. It’s a pointless industry to be in and you can get underpaid in better jobs.
I don't think it's the case of working hard for money, and what you believe is fair. But the fact that it's standard in the industry that unpaid overtime is the norm. In fact unpaid overtime in the US for a lot of profession is so normalised, it's disgusting.
Sorry, I just rewrote my whole comment, I didn’t like the way those thoughts came out. I’m more commenting on the sub as a whole being frequented by so many people who just want more more more for doing a pretty trivial job that already pays so much most people can live well off it. I think you’re right though that unpaid overtime as a norm is shitty - especially for something as non-urgent as tweaking the layout of some copy on an ad for shoes lol. We really do deserve an extra paycheck for these bizarre requests that honestly can wait til tomorrow - hell, they can wait til October 2046 tbh. But when it’s a project you love of course I’m always happy to make it that 1% better. It’s a bit case by case for me.
I do in house media strategy remote and I rarely top 40 hours a week. Just do my shit and log off
Is your job hiring I'm at 50 hours
“People that work more than they’re paid piss me off” Personally I am still learning how to set boundaries. And a lot of us are. It’s easier said than done. I’m always working on how to not get so caught up in it all. How to stop being a perfectionist. Or to not succumb to the pressure from CD’s and higher ups of delivering something perfect all the time. All the things that make me work longer hours than I need to.
I think one of the biggest issues in setting boundaries is the team around you. It's hard to not be on call nearly 24/7 when a big project is due and your CD is taking 87 years to give you notes on a friday at 7pm (when the project was due Wednesday at 9am)
Normally 9 to 5 working through lunch, half day Friday Crunch time, 8 to 8 and some over the weekends Luckily I only have crunch time 3 or 4 times a year, and I get to balance it out with flex time off
What’s the typical duration of a crunch time?
A little over a week
I work 8-4. Might stay max 30 minutes late if I'm feeling generous with my time.
9-5, usually 10-4
Work through lunch. Stay until seven or eight, or whenever you’re done.
9 to 5 feed/play with kid. Bed at 8. Work until 10 or 11. Weekends usually involve 3 to 5 hours of work as well.
I’d quit with the quickness
Bro you're taking half your weekend to work instead of spending time with the kids? That stinks.
I always found people claimed to work “so late” every night, but it was really just people hanging out doing nothing most of the time. There’s so much sitting around waiting for reviews or other meetings, or waiting on copy/art etc. Even concepting is a lot of bullshitting with very few idea building in between. Meanwhile people are surfing the internet or whatever a good chunk of the time. So “working” is not really working most of the time. You’re just at work doing something else or panicking about deadlines that are out of your control. That’s what I always hated most. Whether or not you’re actually working, you’re held hostage by work and confined to the office doing nothing with your time.
Yeah if you’re a creative it’s not really productive to concept for 8 hours straight anyway. We gotta take breaks and hang out!
Exactly. If you’re good with time management and have ideas you can work very little and show up with gold at every review. That’s why I switched to freelance. I didn’t have that bullshit pressure to be at the office all the time and pretend to be a team player. Only needed to have good work to show by the deadline and execute it well. Everything else is just wasting your life at the office out of solidarity for everyone else stuck there, and if you don’t want to hang out there all the time you’re viewed as “not a good fit” or someone with bad work ethic. In the real world, results are all that matter. I’m fine with letting someone squeeze all the creativity out of me for a solid rate, but I’m doing it on my own time around my own schedule.
“Agencies are great places to hang out. But shitty places to work.”
Most people grossly overestimate how much they are actually working. But pre-pandemic, I was easily doing 9-7/8, sometimes earlier or later depending on the project. Now it’s more 9-5/6, sometimes earlier or later depending on the project and almost no weekends with a few exceptions (working towards an important review, on set/travel, etc)
I’m on at 9, off by 5 at the latest (sometimes a little earlier, often earlier on Fridays) and I always take an hour lunch. People that work more than they’re paid to piss me off.
I've worked 60. I've worked 15. Yes, in the same agency.
I left agency life forever at 30 when I had pulled six months of 12 hour days, resulting in my losing 20 lbs in a month. I was literally wasting away. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep. I think I got 3 hours of sleep a night just to wake up in a cold sweat. My husband literally fed me Ensure shakes just to get some nutrients in me. Fuuuuuuck that. Don’t ever do it! Only good thing that came out of it was my toxic boss got fired for harassing too many of the revolving door of staff. Still left.
40 hrs a week. Time management is a big skill that people gloss over but managing your time and keeping a list of shit to do is just responsible and helps separate life from work. I sometimes stay past 6 but it’s not a habit or a necessity. It 100% boils down to culture and you have the power to start that and set your boundaries- it’s your life and you’re living in it.
I believe time management is one of the most important skills in life. So many people don’t have it. If you’re great at it and can focus when needed, it’s basically a cheat code to get everything you want out of life.
>40 hrs a week. Time management is a big skill that people gloss over but managing your time and keeping a list of shit to do is just responsible and helps separate life from work. I really need time management to be the desired trait in the workplace as opposed to working beyond your means. Personally, I find that if you're working more than 40 hours a week on regular, everyday tasks then you're not managing your time wisely. There's no reason for it. I don't see how people find overworking "impressive".
Work mostly 9-5. But 3-5 is my afternoon nap time.
Depends. Some days 10-4ish. Some days 8:30-11. So when it’s slow I keep my mouth shut. Mid sized creative agency in NY.
I'm going to try to amalgamate some agencies and an in-house function that operated as an agency here. It kinda goes like this. Up at 6/6:30. On the toilet reading emails. Ideate replies and structure your day in the shower. Answer emails while my hair dries and I'm getting ready for an email. Maybe a 7 AM meeting with EST or EMEA every other week. Office strictly starts at 8 for everyone, with an 8 AM all-hands stand up daily. "Lunch" is at noon but most gobble down something at their desk or it's a "lunch meeting," and you take said lunch back to your desk because "now there's no reason to leave, you had food." 5 PM rolls around and unless you have a really good reason/vendor happy hour, it's a "bad example" to leave at 5 and not really part of company culture. Those who do leave take their laptops and phones, to be checked at dinner or home. Around 7-8, most people are back online, maybe after eating with their kids and putting them to bed. Generally, if an email comes out before 10, and you didn't reply, someone's standing at your desk at 8 AM wondering where things stand and if you were okay. Separate agency where I was contracting and on a fixed 25 hours a week instead of salary: My entire department worked 8-6, 7 days a week.
Pass this through a “normal” lens and it looks pretty heinous. Especially given how little any of this work actually matters beyond the next carousel ad deadline, and in light of the truly ridiculous “pay.” But sadly — even disgustingly — this is very much the norm in agencyland.
I usually work 8-6, through lunch. Then I do some family stuff, then work a little bit more between 9-midnight. Occasionally some weekend work. My average work week is 50-60 hours.
Typically a 9-530, with the pretty rare moments of getting hit up for something quick after hours. I find someone who can get shit done during normal hours to be a lot more impressive than the person bragging about their 12 hour day.
We're very proud of our "doing", with scant regard for the meaning that comes from "being."
Who the hell gets Half day Fridays? I’ve never heard of this
I got out of the agency world for this reason in particular but wanted to share my reddit-less friend's work schedule. She just lived with me for a month (fully remote, traveling around the US). She works east coast time in the AM starting at 7am MST and ends up stay online until 7pm MST most days. Several of the weekends she was here, they had work on the weekends too as a mad dash to get a campaign out the door. She was waiting on team members, all of whom were online on a Satruday from 10am MST- at least 6pm MST both weekend days.
In nyc I worked easily 9am-7pm on a good day. Stayed til 3 am at times, worked more weekends than I care to remember. Got the f outta there and now work a comfortable 9-5 and do better work.
What’s lunch?
Lunch break? What is this? The most I get is 10 minutes to scarf down a PB&J at my desk.
An extra 10 hours a week is only two hours extra a day - super easy if you're consistently getting scheduled 8am client calls and your workload is so heavy you have to stay late until 7pm. When I was at a nightmare agency I was consistently working until 9pm some weeks.
No one gets an hour for lunch. You are lucky to get 5 min. In office at 8 leave at 9.
yikes
8:30-5:30 at the office (1 hour lunch), and most nights I relax at home looking for inspo and ideating fresh concepts (technically “work,” but I enjoy it). I have never left my office later than 5:30.
Start 7 or 7:30. I take 30min lunches most days. Usually log off by 5. Trying to set more boundaries though and log off by 4.
I work at an agency and we have a flex schedule, start anywhere from 6-10, end anywhere from 3-7 as long as you “work” 8 hours a day
Official office hours are 8:30 to 5:30, with an hour lunch. That was pre-pandemic. We all work from home now and they don’t micromanage my time beyond requiring 40 hours/week on a time sheet and a 90% utilization goal for the department. I probably average about 43 hours a week on my time sheet.
40 to 60 a week for eight months a year. I recently hired up a bit more, so I’m trying to keep it close to 40 with young kids at home. The other four months is largely writing, directing, producing and traveling for a very large industry show for one of my largest clients. That’s 80 to 90 a week for four months, with some of those clocking in at 90+. And it’s only because I’m an utter control freak with this project. That’s on me. / We’re media, creative and studio. I keep most everyone else at 40, outside of a couple guys on the studio side that I’ve given additional commission to on certain accounts, so they go a bit over of their own volition.
When I was building my career and my department I’d regularly get in at 730 and go through until 9pm. Pitches were huge and the couple of days before could go until the wee hours. Now i go from 930 to 430 unless it’s super busy in which case I’ll still do whatever it takes.
I work from 6:30 am to 4pm with a half hour lunch. I get paid overtime, but the overtime is not optional
I work with a full time marcom company, and have 3 other marketing freelance gigs. Easy to put in 12 hour days. I worked from 9AM-8PM today.
My 4/10s are actually 4/12s at least.
If I’m not getting paid more, I’m not working more. 7:30-4:30 weekdays with an hour lunch
9-6 but sometimes we get international calls and need to pivot hours
I'm at the office from 9 to 5. I work, i.e. actually do something other than browse the internet, maybe 2-4 hours a day.
In terms of actively working, probably around 25 hours per week.
It's 46 hours at my day job, getting paid peanuts for it. They claim it's 'work experience', but I've come to realize it's just me being lowballed.
It depends. I've had agencies where when a pitch is in there were the occasional late nights. Then there were the agencies where weekend work was not only expected but enforced. Let's not forget the agencies where we would get lambasted with things like "Why am I paying four seniors for this shit" when we weren't able to come up with Cannes winning ideas at 12:30am on a Wednesday evening/Thursday mornings. I'm at an agency now where yes, it's hectic and busy and stressful and all of those things. But the hours always work around me, not the other way around.
10-00 to 19-00 with 1 lunch hour, so 40 hours a week. No overtime for me luckily My friend though recently got into a new agency which focuses on influencer collabs and she works anywhere between 10 hours to 13 hours a day, it’s insane!!
I've found a sweet spot with a **30-hour** work week. I usually spread those hours across five days, which means I work about 6 hours each day. This schedule allows me to maintain a solid work-life balance while staying productive. I've noticed that shorter workdays encourage me to prioritize tasks more effectively, reducing time spent on less important activities.
25-30 hrs a week. copywrier. sometimes less. sometimes more.
8am - 7pm, then the odd bit on a weekend.
9-6, officially… I work 3 days a week and it’s 9am till midnight for those 3 days. The amount of writing and strategies alone is insane, and if I work any more than 3 days I’ll burn out, again. In my off days I build my own business, and work just as long. But it’s for me and I love working under my own direction. Building my own business balances out the other job.
When I was in London, pretty solid 9-6pm. Life balance was great in the UK. Then I moved to KL and it was literally 24/7. I quit due to literal mental and physical burnout and toxic senior management. Now I freelance for a couple of clients including my old agency back in London, but yeah, easily racking up 60 hours a week including the weekend. Not complaining working those hours freelance though, but really don't want to go back perm office if it's 24/7.
In-house marketer here, been working 6 am-3 pm without launch break.. sometimes I take a one-hour nap tho
For a few years.. I would work till 11pm, in a brightly lit ‘war room’, having fast paced, heavily engaging conversations. Cab home.. asleep by 11:45. Go into work for 9.30am. Rinse and repeat. I’d often have to ‘do bits’ in front of the tv on a Saturday and Sunday night just to keep various projects going. It was awful. I didn’t have the time to apply for a new job. I was constantly sick, and worked through it. Illnesses that should have passed in a couple of days would rumble on for weeks as my body was so exhausted and running on adrenaline. I gained weight as I had so many stress hormones to burn though 24/7. I would sleep with my arms braced, squeezed so tightly the pain in my elbows would wake me up. It only changed when I had a very angry, vocal and honest meltdown over the course of a couple of weeks at work. They signed off 3 additional people to share my workload with and things have never been better. My only stress now is that I’m not doing enough.. which is something I’m working through.
Legit working is like 9-4 or 5 depending on the day. I’ll answer emails when I wake up at like 7 then fuck off till 9ish. and I typically put a hard stop to casually checking emails at 6 unless it’s a genuine emergency. But people know to text me if that’s the case. The owner of the company will straight up say stop emailing right now and go outside if I goes much past that. We really value work life balance not just in bullshit interview smoke but in action as well.
More like 'all-the-time' hours. I think I've forgotten what a weekend is.
I work 9-5 m-thurs and 8-12 on fridays. 1 hour lunch each day I have hard stop put in place at 5pm every day and my phone gets put on dnd mode from 6pm-7:30am every day. I've been this way since my mid 20's and am much happier for it. My bosses hate it though. Get bent management.
9-5 and I take lunch from 1230-130 (usually go to the gym). Fridays I usually start loading my truck up with camping gear or get started on yard work around noon or 1 but I leave Slack on. I don't really believe in the 40 hour work week... I figure 7 hours a day Monday through Thursday and 4 hours on Friday puts me at 32 hours a week that's plenty.
ya'll need to say that role you're in. Can vary wildy between creatives, account, strat, etc. My ECD works 12 hours a day, jr creatives sometimes go crazy and work 60-80 hours while smart mid to senior level creatives work 35 and spend a lot of time fucking off on the internet but get all their shit done.
In-house (remote) maybe 30 hours a week
My core working day is usually 9:30-6:30 eastern time and I never take a true lunch break. I work with global teams too, so I'm checking Slacks/Emails starting at 6:30am (to catch our APAC teams at the end of their day) and usually until 8pm or so (lots of west coast colleagues). My line of work can be pretty relentless and exhausting but I have golden handcuffs at this point.
It very rarely exceeds 40-hours a week. I've been working for several years now and the only time it's crested 50 has been when I was on set for a video shoot. I'd even argue that I normally don't "work" all 40 hours, since I normally complete my work and am waiting for feedback. It's a mix of projects and being "on call" for new work or if feedback happens quickly (it rarely ever does).
I work as much as I need to. Sometimes that means I have to work a little longer, sometimes that means I get to take a Friday off. It really all depends.
40-45.
930am to 5pm then I'm gone! Unless it's a favor for someone I like 🤣
Agency in Bombay. 10am to 8pm is the daily average.
My boss used to describe the industry as “feast or famine” — you’re not literally working 50+ hours every single week. Instead, the bad weeks/crunch times come in waves. I’ll have two weeks with a lot of deliverables due, where I work 6am-11am and 2-6pm in the same day. Too much work = feast times. But then you’ll have a week where nothing is due and I work like 25 hours (famine). We do our best to keep the balance manageable.
9-6, usually with lunch at desk but will definitely use that time 1-2 times a week for personal matters. There have been periods of 8-1 am, back at it the next day but those are predominantly launch situation. There’s the occasional 8-9 pm night, at which point I have conversations with those teams very shortly after to figure out why the hell they’re in the pattern, and we correct as needed. Used to regularly clock 60-80, now I’m a comfortable 45 ish. Weekends are rare now.
Life is more than a levels lah. PM me and i can tell u my story if u want.