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Most Consecutive hours one can work?

B

BigPrince

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 27, 2006
2,053
111
My record for most consecutive hours worked in a day is 18 hours.

My question is what is the most consecutive hours one can work legally when not operating any machinery.

I work in IT. My work is having a major project over Martin Luther King Day weekend. Its going to be very tough to get accomplished over that three day period. MLK is a triple time holiday for us, so I want to work all 24 hours that day. Sunday is double time, so I want to work 18-24 hours that day as well.

I am looking to do at least 36 hours consecutive hours with the breakfast, lunch and dinner breaks.

I looked around but cannot find anything relevant to max hours.
 
BigPrince said:
My record for most consecutive hours worked in a day is 18 hours.

My question is what is the most consecutive hours one can work legally when not operating any machinery.

I work in IT. My work is having a major project over Martin Luther King Day weekend. Its going to be very tough to get accomplished over that three day period. MLK is a triple time holiday for us, so I want to work all 24 hours that day. Sunday is double time, so I want to work 18-24 hours that day as well.

I am looking to do at least 36 hours consecutive hours with the breakfast, lunch and dinner breaks.

I looked around but cannot find anything relevant to max hours.
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To my knowledge, there are no laws preventing you from working super-overtime so long as it does not have the potential to harm others (truck drivers come to mind). That is, as long as you are being paid overtime.

Of course, I'd think the quality of work would degrade, but you know better than I.
 
Ya, I am crazy. We have to move 14 computer labs (25-30 computers each) located in two buildings on different floors to a new building with different floors with one elevator in each building. And the one building does not have a paved path to the other. We then have to have them powered, networked, and cable managed.

So while the work may slow down, this is more like manual then mind using.


Plus its hard to get triple time holidays approved. So I am excited.
 
sushi said:
That does not sound like fun at all -- even with the overtime pay.
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I have some pretty cool co-workers and we have an awesome dynamic. We will be cracking jokes all night long to keep us going.
 
I hope you're being well paid. Like $100+/hr well paid.

(don't feel obligated to confirm/deny)
 
my max is 20 straight and over a week averaged 17.

then again this was working on oil drilling rigs and wells. you dont leave until the job is done pretty much. entailed sleeping in trucks on site

quite the job. both mentally and physically exhausting. when stuff goes wrong its scary

also worked 15 days straight and got 2 off. that was my schedule over the summer. regardless i made bank
 
No, unfortunately its a school district, not the corporate world. Around here schools do not pay the IT staff well. But there are some nice perks. Full health care (regular, vision, and dental) @ no cost. They pay for some college. Paid holidays. There are some other nice perks, but those are the most $ ones. Being 19 years old and a full time student, I am very happy with it.


Incase anyone is wondering the school just expanded and built a new three story addition. So we have gone from a 2 building campus to a three building campus. Everything is temporarily being moved to this new section while the one building is demolished and rebuilt and the other renovated.

I am located in the USA in the state of Pennsylvania.
 
I think the legal limit here is three consecutive "normal" shifts.

Nurses I know can work 36 hours. three 12 hour shifts.

me personally, I have worked a few weekend shifts where I just slept on cot in lab while the samples ran.
 
If anyone could site anything let me know. I know medical residents put in in excess of 100 hours a week!
 
I believe it varies by state for non-hourly or exempt employees. There are also specific laws in some states that apply to specific jobs such as medical care. I've worked about 32 hours straight with just about 2 hour off for a meal and to see my family :)
 
Be aware - that your company might have a policy about maximum shift-time. (completely forgetting about Federal and State issues)

I wasn't aware that my old company did - I worked for 2 days straight (went home to shower after 24 hours - then back to work).

My immediate boss / program were hugely grateful - as we made contract b/c of this.

But he got in deep (@*$ when Payroll / HR caught wind of it. Then I got a good talking to from several layers of people.

But, the OT / contract bonuses were niiiiiice. In spite of it all.

Edit: Oh yeah - insomnia and caffeine can work wonders sometimes.
 
Minutes! That kind of pushing it isn't it? I'm only good for 1 and a half seconds.:( Typing this post required an insane amount of focus. Gotta go and do something else now. Sarcasm
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
Be aware - that your company might have a policy about maximum shift-time. (completely forgetting about Federal and State issues)

I wasn't aware that my old company did - I worked for 2 days straight (went home to shower after 24 hours - then back to work).

My immediate boss / program were hugely grateful - as we made contract b/c of this.

But he got in deep (@*$ when Payroll / HR caught wind of it. Then I got a good talking to from several layers of people.

But, the OT / contract bonuses were niiiiiice. In spite of it all.

Edit: Oh yeah - insomnia and caffeine can work wonders sometimes.
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I cannot find anything in our contract limiting the hours other then we cannot be forced to work overtime.
 
We will be taking our normal meal breaks. I am wanted to know how long I can work before I need to be off for 12 hours or something like that.
 
BigPrince said:
If anyone could site anything let me know. I know medical residents put in in excess of 100 hours a week!
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It really depends on the state you live in. There are certain times when there are "special" exceptions (for example, when the MacArthur Maze collapsed out here in CA). Knowing your state would really help.
mad jew said:
I think the limit for most jobs (there're a lot of exceptions) in Australia is five hours before a half hour break is required.
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Yeah, CA has that too. For every 3.5 hours you must have one 15 minute rest break and for every 5 hours you must have at least half an hour of lunch.
BigPrince said:
We will be taking our normal meal breaks. I am wanted to know how long I can work before I need to be off for 12 hours or something like that.
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Again, your state would really help. :)
 
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