I don’t work in the US so my comments may or may not have merit. I would say that no that is not the normal experience to expect. Consistently requiring your team to work 14 hour days is a sign of poor management and I would avoid a company like that if at all possible. There may be times when you are asked to pull some extra time but it should not be the norm and you should be rewarded for doing so.

Having said that, when you start any new job you should expect to put in extra hours to get up to speed with the rest of the team. When I started my last position I was putting in 12 hour days for quite some time but it wasn’t required. I just wanted to be the best on the team. It paid off but you need to have perspective - a career in design is great but despite what some people might tell you - you aren’t going to save the world by putting in extra hours pumping out ad banners.

Finally, any good manager worth his salt will know that a good designer is not made by working all day in front of Photoshop. We need to experience life, read good books, spend time with our beautiful ladies, listen to music, paint, draw, photograph, and etc.. All of which helps to make us the designers that we are.

Hi I’m from Hong Kong. I am kinda between agree and disagree with the 70 hours a week myth.

Working overtime is common. But it reflects the truth of many design houses & agencies that:-

1) They have accepted upon far more job than they can handle. 2) The team do not consist of enough people. 3) Designers often drill into the loophole of “better and prettier” 4) (and this is the worst bit) The Design team need to handle lots of account servicing.

I believe that we, as designer, need lots of refreshing time. Sometimes it may scares people if we “worked” all day. The different of joy in professional design is drawn upon the fact that whether you can find relaxation time within the working hours and between the working days.

Hope someone agree with me.

Speaking from a freelance point of view: 60+ hour work weeks aren’t all that uncommon - since you (I) feel like I should take whatever work comes my way and be grateful for it. But commuting from your bedroom to an in-house studio in your pajamas until dinnertime makes life more bearable. Having a Dog in the office helps, too. Like everyone up there says though, you have to remember to weave in minutes of enjoyment here and there and to live some life - otherwise you get burned out fast, pajamas or no pajamas.

I agree with Clark. And Nate, too, because I have trouble saying “no” to freelance work (have I ever turned it down?). I work for an in-house corporate design department of 30-40 designers. Most of us work 8-9 hour days, depending on what we feel like. Some new people seem to work longer (perhaps for the reasons Clark stated). Every year we have 2-3 months that require more and more hours, ramping up to even 12 to 15 hour days, but the longest days only last for a week or two, and then it’s vacation time! and back down to normal 8-hr. days. That’s the cycle of my department. The work is spread out enough so that we can all work comfortable hours, and have a life. I would not want to work 60+ hours every week. Unless, of course, I recently relocated and needed to find work immediately. I, too, have heard the myth (?) that in most agencies you have to work that long just to get your work done, and even longer if you want to “get ahead.”

With all that said, yesterday I was here for over 12 hours, but it was the first 12 hour day in a month or two. It’s easy to do when it’s not commonplace.

Just wanted to give you some real information, based on my experiences.

Okay and then for a different take on this. Right as I was making these comments I got my AdAge daily email with a story about Neil French a top creative who insists that you can’t have a family and be a top talent. And claims he’s barely seen his 8-month old child in those eight months. For that take you can read here.

then its settled…give me a makeshift bed, a toothbrush, and some caffeine! I’m down with the all-nighters.

Hmm, well I have done weeks where all I have done is some email, and others where I literally worked 18 hour days.

It varies according to deadlines and whats going on, a deadline is a deadline. Problems happen, good things happen. I find you need to be able to roll with it eitherway. Pull a stupid week, work yourself into nothingness and then get that time back later on.

However I freelance rather than work in house, which I think demands more sometimes.

1. There are plenty of control freaks in this business, the type who want to manage everything, from the business development, to the creative, to the bookkeeping. They’re lack of delegation skills, coupled with endless egotism has them boasting about 16 hour days. Don’t believe the hype.

2. For me, I love what I do. It’s my passion. So working late to make a special project a little better is par for the course. And sometimes, you really do need to burn a evening or two on a really demanding client request, like it or not. But, I believe, if you actually work those 40 hours a week, rather than daydream, chat, or browse (or even worse, waste time in endless meetings), you should be able to avoid a lot of overtime.

3. If the office is a artificially-lit, grey-decorated, corporate cube farm where they expect you to work lots of overtime, don’t work there. They are most-likely exploiting you, and it will destroy your soul! If the space is bright, open and ‘cool,’ the work is interesting, and your colleagues become friends, OT can be bearable when necessary.