How many hours per week does your attending spouse work?

I was calculating DH's hours the other day, even though he's been an attending for five years already. I think he works approx. 75-80 hours each week. I'm wondering how this compares to other attendings. I know it's specialty dependent, but was just wondering.

How do you feel about your spouse's hours? Too much? Just enough? Too little?

[mommax3]

DH works about the same number of hours as your husband, depending on the week. It stinks.

[Pollyanna]

Not attending yet but 70-80 hours a week seems to be the norm in dh's field. Sunnysideup, what specialty is your hubby, I must have missed it in the other threads?

[Meenah]

80-90!

[rainbabies]

Mine is a new attending. He started Tuesday and is at or just over 80 as of tonight.

[DCJenn]

Depends on whether he's on-call or not- when he's not on call, he'll average about 60 hours a week. When he's on-call he'll average about 100 hour weeks. (On-call he goes in earlier, stays far later and goes in on both weekend days.)

Jenn

[JaneDoe]

Dh only works about 40 hours a week on average. Seriously. He's off on Tuesdays and he is home most days by 5 pm. It's a little different when he is on call but that is only about one week every other month. Dh's hours are sweet!

[Ladybug]

I'd say 60-80 actually at the hospital and a couple of hours of dictating most evenings/mornings. Call is in-house for surgery attendings in NYS, but only 2-3 times per month.

I've gotten so used to the hours that I don't really feel much of anything about them at this point. You can't spend the rest of your life fighting it. It is what it is, and everyone else seems to be working the same hours from what I can gather. I do have to watch DH for burn out which seems to build up every 4-5 months. Vacations strategically placed is critical. I'm hoping that we'll move up to 4 vacations/yr next year when we hit 5 years. I told him to check his contract but he says no one really watches your vacations. So I'm thinking 4 weeks off starting next year.

[Malpka]

I've gotten so used to the hours that I don't really feel much of anything about them at this point. You can't spend the rest of your life fighting it. It is what it is, and everyone else seems to be working the same hours from what I can gather. I do have to watch DH for burn out which seems to build up every 4-5 months. Vacations strategically placed is critical. I'm hoping that we'll move up to 4 vacations/yr next year when we hit 5 years. I told him to check his contract but he says no one really watches your vacations. So I'm thinking 4 weeks off starting next year.

Yes- exactly! It only took me 8 years, but I have finally been able to come to peace with the idea that this is our life- forever and ever- so try to make accommodations to make it less painful where you can. Vacations are our lifesaver! DH will take 5 this year, but his partners often take 10!

As for hours, I would say 70 is normal for a week when he is not on call, 90 when he is on call.

[Deebs]

DH would say a little over 40 hours per week (and that is somewhere close to his scheduled hours). But, when you count dictation time, meetings, etc it is closer to 55-60, depending on the week. I'm not complaining - this is how much I worked when I was working outside the home, and about the amount of time most of our executive - level friends work.

Interesting responses! I feel neutral about DH's hours most of the time, but when he has a week with lots of call or a weekend with call is when I start to think more about it. When I told DH how many hours he worked, he was surprised. Not only doesn't he feel that 75-80 is a lot, but he "feels" like he only works 45-50 hours a week.

I guess my main concern is how to best handle parenting when the other spouse works so much. We don't have kids yet, but I'm starting to think about this issue, and it concerns me because we don't have any family in the area to help out, which is part of the reason that I'm not as enthusiastic about having kids yet as DH is. Most of DH's colleagues, male and female, have nannies--not sure whether they're full-time or part-time. Most of DH's colleagues are also two physician households. I'm not yet sure how I feel about the nanny issue, but I'm starting to think about it.

[rainbabies]

Plenty of us had kids with spouses in residency working 100+ hours a week, and the other parent holding down a job...and everyone seems to manage. You just find a way to make it work. I wouldn't put kids on hold because of that, but that's me.

[SuzySunshine]

Plenty of us had kids with spouses in residency working 100+ hours a week, and the other parent holding down a job...and everyone seems to manage. You just find a way to make it work. I wouldn't put kids on hold because of that, but that's me.

This and I think it also depends on specialty and private practice versus academics. We're still in training but I know based on my DH's specialty what we're headed for for the most part. What specialty is your husband in? I'm sure there is someone here in the same one.

Plenty of us had kids with spouses in residency working 100+ hours a week, and the other parent holding down a job...and everyone seems to manage. You just find a way to make it work. I wouldn't put kids on hold because of that, but that's me.

I can't even imagine. I don't know how people do this--I give them a lot of credit! I feel like you'd be super stressed all the time, which is a state I'd like to avoid.

[Chrisada]

Plenty of us had kids with spouses in residency working 100+ hours a week, and the other parent holding down a job...and everyone seems to manage. You just find a way to make it work. I wouldn't put kids on hold because of that, but that's me.

Exactly. It is what it is. We just started residency with two small kids and so far it's been fine. Our deal was, reluctantly on DH"s part as some of you may remember, yeah you can work your 80-100 weeks but I'm staying home with our kids. We chose this life and if life stopped because of medicine, none of us would have one. I wholeheartedly believe if you want kids go for it!