News You Can Bruise for 2005 October 11 (entry 1)

(4) Tue Oct 11 2005 09:16 PST Overworked: How many "business hours" would you say are in a "business day"? I would say eight. But someone told me they would call me back in 24-48 business hours, which makes it sound like every hour in a business day is a business hour.

Comments:

Posted by Josh Barratt at Tue Oct 11 2005 13:14

I supposed it depends on the person. If they were of a lawyerly bent, then 24-48 business hours might be a sneaky way to say "3-6 business days" without it sounding so bad!

I think I'd only use 'business hours' for things < 8, i.e. I'll get back to you within 6 business hours meaning if that it's 4 PM it could be 4 hours into tomorrow.

Posted by John at Tue Oct 11 2005 13:42

Was it an accounting firm? We work those hours more frequently than I like to think about.

Posted by Leonard at Tue Oct 11 2005 15:47

If you were of a lawyerly bent you might use it to indicate a number of billable hours it will take.

Posted by Mark at Wed Oct 12 2005 12:15

As I recall from my tech-support days, you say "Your computer will be extinguished within 48 hours" because it sounds so much shorter than "2 days". I'm guessing they want to say "1-2 business days", but they also want the short-soundiness of "hours".