Hacker News Reader

Comment by mey | Hacker News Reader

Is that better/worse with manual labor? In software dev, I tend to fluctuate how productive I can be for an extended period, so being useful (instead of just ass in seat) for 10 hours seems rough. Granted some days I go for 12 but that's unhealthy and mostly because I get into a groove I am not interested in breaking.

View on HN

I used to work 12 hour shifts 6 days a week throughout my summers in college landscaping. Honestly wasn’t as bad as you’d think.

There was a shared camaraderie that you don’t find in white collar jobs that honestly made it pretty fun. Obviously not sustainable for someone with actual responsibilities but with that said I’d be far more miserable if I tried to pull that off in the office.

Yes - I once worked a summer job like that - one downside - talk about work hard party hard - you are with a group that can go just crazy on days off.

Working at a station, you can build up camaraderie. Working as a picker, moving around a warehouse on your feet at a fast clip, not so much.

I’ve worked the following:

4x10 - desk job overnight

3x12 - desk job overnight

5x8 - manual job

4x10 - manual job

5x8 - desk job

4x10 beat 5x8, regardless of workload. I wish I could do it now.

Agreed, 4x10's are the best ever.

On one construction project the weather was much better than expected so we were allowed to start a new phase two months early, but the project manager only allowed us 40 hours/wk, so I put my crew on 4x10 and it was the best few months, the guys loved it.

You have a lower risk of physical injury in a desk job. Compare finger fudging your code to bumping warehouse shelves with a lift and causing a bunch of it to fall down.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com