In my experience, "beers at work" correlates with "...because we need you to stay late (because...?)," indeed. Doesn't need to be all bad - if you have nothing

In my experience, "beers at work" correlates with "...because we need you to stay late (because...?)," indeed. Doesn't need to be all bad - if you have nothing more interesting to do (and that's not meant ironically: building something can be pretty awesome, if you're single and work with interesting tech; OTOH, if you have other responsibilities, the attractiveness of all-night hacking sessions is...lower). The actual signs that something is amiss come when you do not volunteer your time - will your boss(es) just say "yeah, we understand that volunteering is your right"? Good. Do they say "well, we understand that not volunteering is your right"? A little weird, but still okay. Do they say "but we will pay you for the extra hours"? Red flag - does that mean that normally they wouldn't? Do they say "but everyone else does"? Big red flag, emotional manipulation attempt. Do they say "but we already promised delivery to the client"? RUN, ain't a red flag big enough for that.