3 answers
James’s Answer
Working from home, you can make your own hours of course. But, if you work for a company that offers remote opportunities, again, you would be expected to put in at least 40 hours a week and usually be available for consultations and meetings during normal working hours.
Mindy’s Answer
For any average employee of any field the expected full time work hours for a week (Mon-Fri) is 40 hours.
Now specifically for designers it may vary depending on the company you’re working for.
If you work at an agency it’s quite common to work over 40 hours a week with fast paced projects and deadlines while attending to clients.
If you work at a startup or a small company that may not have many other designers, you may have to work more since there’s less of you but still have a lot of work.
If you work at a larger company with a larger design team, you may have more support and resources so you may not need to work over 40 hours a week.
If you’re self employed or freelancing then you dictate your own hours.
These are only a few generic scenarios but it really does vary depending on the company, project deadlines, etc..
Brenna’s Answer
I managed my own design business for several decades and my work hours varied between 20-40+ hours.
I've worked hourly at corporations who limited overtime, so ~40 hours was standard.
I've also worked for a global consulting firm that operated 24/7, 365 days and the most I worked for them was over 100 hours a week. << Don't let this scare you -- it was an organization comprised of work horses!
I'm back to a salaried position where there's no clock punching and we go offline when our day is reasonably done, average of 45-50 hours per week.
The challenge with the design industry is that the creative role isn't wired to rush to get things done. We're done when the deliverable is complete and approved at each stage gate.
I hope this gives you an idea that the type of business you work in has an impact on the hours you put in.