Koen Verbeeck (7/3/2015)

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GilaMonster (7/3/2015)

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TomThomson (7/3/2015)

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But don't make the mistake of thinking that all-nighters are always a sign of problems, or long hours (how can long hours be "heroic"?).

No, I'm not talking about the occasional late night, or the shifting of hours within a week (I do that all the time) to go home early on Fridays (or not work them at all)

I'm talking about things like working 10-12 hour days, 6-7 days a week for weeks on end and assuming that doing so is expected and required to get ahead in our industry. Worse, teaching new graduates, by example, that it's the norm.

Hell, my company has a reward given to people who work more than 180 hours in a month. I got it back in February and when my boss commented on it I told him that I'd clearly messed up somewhere if 180 hours in a month was required.

Part of this comes from a discussion I had with 2 of my company's latest graduate group. They were lamenting in the kitchen yesterday that they were one man short because one of the team had stayed home sick (flu's going around)

My reply was "Good for him", and I pointed out to them that coming in to work while sick is stupid and counter-productive (you can't work well when really sick, and are just going to make the rest of the people sick)

They agreed with me, probably because they're still in the university mindset of 'agree with your teachers', but I could see that they were surprised by my opinion.

Ugh. I hate the mindset of "you have to do a lot of hours if you want to be succesful".

It only shows you do not know how to be productive in 40 hours.

I had an interview at KPMG once: "We know we have standard contracts of 40 hours per week, but we expect you to do more." Never went back there.

At my very first project, I sometimes came in really early, just to beat traffic jams. This also meant I left early. My manager told me some people were upset because I left early. I told him that I arrive early as well and that I do my required 8 hours a day. He replied with: "I know, but they don't see that, because they arrive later". My reply: "Not my problem...". That manager told me that I was still very young and that I had a lot to learn, and that I would change my mindset later on. After a few years, I can safely say I have become only more confidant of my mindset 😀

I have even refused to go on projects because the commute was too long. It would have made a too big of an impact on my personal life. Managers don't get really happy when you tell them that.