Hello folks,I am considering a career as a consultant and have heard that long hours are a norm in this business. Was wondering whether you can give me an indication how long the days are on average. Also what do companies mean exactly by work-life balance?

Its 01:00 am and I am still in the office with at least 3 hours to go. Does this answer your question? When companies say 'work - life balance' - what they really mean is: '%$£**&&!'

Perhaps you could go home earlier if you wasted less time on the internet?

Work-life balance = balance working in the office, working from the client site, working from home, working in bed, working on the toilet and working in your sleep, but you'll still be working at least 75 hours a weekI would love some real work-life balance, or even some work-sleep balance.

What is the point of working 75 hours a week - how do you find the time to spend the money you earn? You may well be a millionaire by the time you're 50 but you'll be too knackered to do much with it. When you're old, rich or poor, all you will really have are your memories.

What a s**t thread so far!Hours in consulting vary widely, between firms, and within firms between consultants, projects and stages of projects. I've found myself working normal office hours for extended periods in the past, but also working 75 hours a week - the upper extreme. A few things though, I (and, I believe, most of my colleagues) do little or no work at weekends, have never worked until the early hours and wasted my time going on chat forums, and have never - repeat never - worked on the bog. Work-life balance means just that, having time to live your life as well as work - and that can mean many things, from flexible ways of working (e.g. working from home and saving on commute times) to working reasonable as opposed to silly hours.

Hi Tom, where do you work if you don't mind me asking? They sound like a great employer.I quite often take papers to the bathroom with me and find myself working until 1am. I could be out of the office by 6pm if it weren't for those darn seniors who just keep me hanging around (like a servant at their beck and call)!It seems that many firms think that work-life balance means controlling your personal time as efficiently as possible so that you are able to dedicate as much time as possible to the job. I know many people who get dirty looks if they leave the office before 8.30pm! The firms that go on and on about work-life balance are usually the ones that don't (in practice) offer it!

I work for Capgemini. I've been through patches of long hours as I said, but overall I get the feeling that the hours we work are demand-driven. As a result we get bad patches and good patches, but most of the time I'd say it;s somewhere in between - around 50-55hrs/week. Definitely no dirty looks if we leave before 8.30 though - I often leave at 5. Would you mind sharing your employer with us?Cheers, Tom

I work for PA in the BOP practice, and often do 70 hours plus per week. No chance of becoming a millionaire here though !!No promotions due this year either. Hurray !!No wonder most of the staff have registered with headhunters

Haven spoken to a couple of MCs within BTG, they have assured me that there will be a number of promotions across all ranks within the group. Why would BOP have a promotion freeze? It's not like its 2006 utilisation was significantly lower than any of the other practices.

I work around 40Hrs per week, but follow the 80/20 rule for managing my work stack20% effort = 80% of the output required

you must work at BAS then.

sounds good to me - what's the pay like at BAS?i'm filtering my search down to firms that don't work more than 40 hours per week on average

You should try the civil service.

But remember promotions are all about who you know, and there are always exceptions?!

You should try the civil service.

sounds good to me - what's the pay like at BAS?i'm filtering my search down to firms that don't work more than 40 hours per week on average

you sound just like the person that works at EY. no intellectual stimulation whatsoever, just interested in low hours and reasonable pay. pathetic.EY deserves you.

John,Why do shorter hours mean less intellectual stimulation?My experience of a long hours culture suggests that there is lots of 'face-time' put in unnecessarily.

Exactly. Any company which is consistently getting more than 48 hours per week out of its staff isn't one I'd like as an employer. It means that the company is either a sweatshop run by managers that over-commit their staff, or it has a dysfunctional 'face time' culture, or its managers/partners do not understand basic project management techniques such as splitting blocks of work into discrete tasks and ensuring that they are adequately resourced. I have a young family and am not interested in spending more than 48 hours per week in the office. I don't see why a desire to maintain a genuinely healthy work-life balance suggests that I'm not interested in intellectually stimulating work?

John,So people interested in low hours and reasonable pay (as priority over intellectual stimulation and unreasonable hours) are pathetic?God you are so sad!I bet you think you are some superior human or genius for working (or staying in the office doing FA for) long hours.You probably don't have a life to look forward to outside work (or even outside the sheets in your spreadsheet) and you are probably the best example of a a*$e-kissing management slave.

Just going back to the point about the civil service, I have to say this actually sounds quite attractive to me. Are there any particular departments/areas I should look at? I understand the pay won't be as good as the private sector, but so long as I can provide a decent standard of living for my family, the work-life balance and actually being able to spend time with the wife and kids will more than offset the pay differential for me.

I'm glad John isn't my line manager!He sounds like the kind of guy that would burn almost anyone out within a space of 3 months!The long-hours folk are best avoided at all costs. Get onto a project with them at your peril! And from experience, their work usually isn't that great either (probably because they value inputs/hours more than outputs/quality deliverables).

Don't try the civil service... if you're any good you'll still do long hours for far less pay!However, I could recommend BT, left there a few months ago and the pay's not too bad to be honest; although it's not up to what would be expected at a 'real' consultancy, you can work from home as much as you like (mobile working is huge... I went to the office once a week half the time), your job is definitely secure, and the hours are around 36 per week (although to be honest add 10). Maybe worth thinking about!

Towers Perrin Change Implementation hours are pretty sweet. You can get 3 or 4-day weeks very easily to fit your family's schedule. Most people work less than 40 hours a week and there's practically no travel. Admittedly the above, combined with skewed salaries, mean we never make any money.

If you're going to try the Civil Service then the Treasury, DFID and Foreign Office are the only ones worth going to. But like anaon said, if you're at one of these depts you'll be working long hours anyway. They're also virtually impossible to get into (particularly Treasury) but if you manage it you'll have some great ammunition on your cv if you stay long enough.Good luck anyway.