Usually I’m between 35-45 hours. I travel overnight every month or so - you’ll travel a lot more if you are a researcher due to onsites. If you’re routinely doing more than a normal 40 hour week, you are working for bad managers, have a time management problem, or you are working in a sweatshop. In your life, you will not get that time back, so work hard at keeping the workflow under control. You’ll do better work and be happier. The worst I’ve had to deal with in 13 years is a 3 or 4 week stretch of 60 hr weeks on summer, mostly due to participation in some research onsites, or recently when a coworker has quit and the candidate search took longer than expected. Otherwise, working over 45 hours is pretty rare for me, and IT SHOULD BE for you. Communicating within your team and with clients is the key to keeping things under control. And don’t be afraid to quit if you’re in a situation that is routinely sacrificing your life/time for client dollars.