CEOs who founded or co-founded a company report working 12 hours per day on average, and 84 percent of respondents felt they worked more hours than their second in command. (No. 2 executives were not surveyed.)
Here are some of Ms. Firestone’s findings, published in Harvard Business Review:
- The average founding or cofounding CEO works 12 hours per day.
- Two-thirds of the executives from companies more than five years old reported their workday gets shorter as the company ages, but only to 11 hours per day.
- Executives who reported working significantly less as their companies aged had already founded two or more ventures.
- On a scale of one to 10, founding and cofounding CEOs ranked their level of commitment as a 9.26 on average.
- Women, who made up one-third of the sample, ranked their level of commitment slightly higher.
- 86 percent of female respondents felt their level of commitment affected their personal time.
- 52 percent of male respondents felt their personal time was affected.
- 88 percent of respondents felt their personal time was affected because they are founders.
- 73 percent of respondents felt it was harder for founders to disengage from work than other CEOs.
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