Speaking as an engineering manager and not as a founder: It took me a little while to realize that sometimes, the value of life trumps the value of money. It a

Speaking as an engineering manager and not as a founder: It took me a little while to realize that sometimes, the value of life trumps the value of money. It also took me a little while to realize that having the ability to say "no" to unreasonable expectations is worth its weight in gold. There's also the argument that work/life balance promotes higher quality work, a position with which I'm inclined to agree especially where quantity of work output means relatively little compared to quality. As an example, some of the best work I've done came because I chose to dig deeper rather than having done so out of a feeling of obligation. These decisions to dig deeper into a problem came because my brain was still in one piece and both curious and intrinsically motivated to delve into a problem. In other words, I volunteered my own time to dig deeper into a problem while my brain was fresh, coming up with effective solutions of which I could be proud. There was a sense of accomplishment that came with it rather than a sense of dread, and for all other standard work expectations, I continued to deliver as usual during the day while enjoying my life afterwards. This proved particularly helpful given what I currently do (less engineering work than before). I've been able to pursue secure engineering challenges more as a hobby and a passion than as an obligation, keeping my skillset fresh by choice. The good companies realize all of these points. There's a common realization among all of them that giving employees positive incentives (yet still just the option) to go above and beyond while still rewarding everyone who produces as expected yields more productive, generally happier people. Granted, this doesn't work for everyone. The contractor mentality is notable for exploiting this approach for minimum labor per dollar spent, but elsewhere, I haven't seen proper work/life balance hinder productivity compared to what we see out of a lot of companies in the bay. As for founders... if you're a founder with buckets of equity, it's probably in your favor to make a mid-term work/life balance trade, but I can't speak to that. @joesmo's comment on culture and people-pleasing might speak better to that and to why most other firms expect harder working hours. Edit: see @AdamMaras' comment below regarding exactly the kind of little culture seeds smaller companies can use as they grow to instill balance. "life/work balance" is a subtle but valuable way to emphasize life first.