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The CEO of $8.1 billion AI chips company Cerebras recently hit back at the idea entrepreneurs can launch an innovative business working “30, 40, 50 hours a week.” Aside from suggesting “every waking minute” should be dedicated to success, he gave no magic number for how much time people should actually put in.
And in an internal memo to Gemini staffers earlier this year, Google cofounder Sergey Brin set his own expectation by saying clocking in 60 hours every week is the “sweet spot” to be efficient.
Workplace experts told Fortune that’s unsustainable — but they also don’t always know where to draw the line.
“The lesson for most young professionals is if you want to get ahead, you’re not going to get there 40 hours a week,” Dan Kaplan, co-head of the CHRO practice at ZRG Partners, told Fortune. “Part of the danger of the comment of the 60-hour workweek is it’s actually not about 60. It’s about working extra until the work is done.”
Striking the right balance between working hours, ambition, and downtime can be tricky — especially for Gen Z workers just starting out. Staffers who are low on the totem pole can often be tapped to do tedious tasks and stay late at the office to show commitment, something that higher-ups suffered through in their youth. Think Wall Street’s young staffers logging 100-hour workweeks, and Jamie Dimon capping JPMorgan’s junior bankers at 80 hours.
Experts explain to Fortune some of that norm shifted during the pandemic. Working from home, employees became more aware of their well-being and began to advocate for it. Gen Z also stepped into the workforce, bringing their outspokenness on work-life balance and boundaries with them.
They’re even down to ditch the Monday-to-Friday norm with 80% of Gen Z advocating for a four-day workweek, according to a 2024 survey from A.Team.
But at the end of the day, experts said some rules on climbing the career ladder still apply — you have to put in the hours early on to grow faster. They argued against defining a “sweet spot” of working hours, and in favor of adopting a mindset that the day ends when all the boxes are ticked.
Point blank, period: 60 hours is unsustainable
Experts may not have an answer to how many hours make the perfect workweek, but they do agree on one thing: Working 60 hours a week indefinitely is unsustainable. Clocking in for so long can lead to intense burnout and disengagement among employees — and even serious health risks.
Yet a part of America’s “always on” culture will always stick; when a company is in flux or battling an extreme low, employees will be expected to have all hands on deck.
When JPMorgan was toughing out the 2008 financial crisis, CEO Jamie Dimon strategized in war rooms daily until as late as 10 p.m. or 5 a.m. Or even more recently, Brin’s 60-hour request to Gemini staffers, accusing those who work less than that of putting in the “bare minimum,” and not only being “unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing” to others.
“Now there are times when there are huge objectives, and we know it’s going to require extra [hours] over this period of time,” Jackie Dube, chief people officer at software company the Predictive Index, told Fortune. “But if it’s expected to be sustained over time, I just don’t think that’s something where you get the most productivity out of your team.”
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Dube said that the typical 40-hour workweek is sustainable for most, and working less or more as companies go through peaks and troughs is fair. But instead of watching the clock and obsessing over the number of hours worked, experts advise that Gen Zers and others care more about staying on top of assignments. Whether that takes 35 hours one week or 50 another, go with the flow.
“I don’t think we should be thinking about a ‘sweet spot’ in terms of work hours,” Jasmine Escalera, a career expert for MyPerfectResume, told Fortune. “I think we should be thinking about the sweet spot in terms of output.”
How Gen Z should approach working hours
With no golden rule on how many hours to work, Gen Z has a difficult choice: Grind while they’re young or take a holistic view of climbing the ladder — after all, they’ll be climbing it for around 45 years.
The expert’s choice? Take the fast lane.
“If your goal is to learn as much as you can, move up the ranks as fast as you can, gain the experiences, then you might say to yourself, ‘For these next few years, I’m sacrificing time for that experience.’” Escalera said. “If you’re Gen Z and want to work for a startup company in tech and really want to advance your career, the traditional 40-hour workweek may not be what is going to happen.”
“When you’re earlier in your career, it’s about learning as much as you can. And most people learn by doing. Get as many projects as you can, get involved in as many teams as you can,” Dube echoed. “And typically, earlier in your career, you have a lot more energy. You have less things going on that you’re taking on, that are occupying your time outside of work.”
Still, they shouldn’t lose sight of what they actually value. Gen Zers overwhelmingly value their boundaries from work, and need to weigh that against their other priorities.
“There are lessons that we should all take from COVID: Take care of yourself; look after your own health and well-being,” Kaplan said. “True success is measured by all dimensions of your life, not just financial and career. And there is a point where putting in too many hours, stressing 24/7, isn’t healthy — and ultimately leads to being less productive.”
Written by Emma Burleigh for Fortune as “It’s not 40 hours—Gen Zers don’t know how long they need to work in a week and even experts can’t decide” and republished with permission.
