I was tempted to post an Ask HN the other day titled "Are Americans F-ing Crazy?" after seeing how, after only an extremely busy month, my coworkers already see

I was tempted to post an Ask HN the other day titled "Are Americans F-ing Crazy?" after seeing how, after only an extremely busy month, my coworkers already seem shot and burnt out. It's an architecture firm (buildings, not software) and I'm one of the few that works only 40 hrs/wk and gets to walk out on time every day and never work on the weekends. So many people came back from the holidays sick, mainly I think because their bodies were so fried from the prior year that it finally caught up. Now, they're back on that cycle. As IT support, I get to hear it all. The father of two that told me he needs to keep a laptop checked out so he can answer questions sent at 1 am. People that were given laptops so they could work remotely, but instead just work nights and weekends. A new mother, already back into the swing of working 10-11 hr/days and maybe a little more at home when the kid's asleep. Constant work on weekends. And that's all for salary. For free work. For what? Great for the clients and the business owners but it makes no sense to me. Seems like a product of poor planning, client management, and the powers that be never saying no. I've done the client services work in a previous life, the 80-100 hr weeks. Luckily, I was paid for each and every one worked, sometimes making the more in double time than my base 40 week. Burn out and depression easily followed and made some hard choices (and took some pay cuts) to transition to something a little more doable and a bit more balanced. They live that chaos because they're taught in school or inculcated in their first jobs that that's how things are. Is it because my generation (I'm early thirties) is struggle to pay off debts (school ones, in the tens of thousands for some) while also trying to do all the things our parents did? Have a house (median price in LA - $610k) or raise a family (one kid - $250k before 18)? It just strikes me as insane sometimes that this how we set ourselves up. Maybe it's purely anecdotal based on past near decade in a major city. I'm from a rural place and life can be a bit easier, at least if you have family and friends near. Sorry for going off on a rant but I was so saddened when looking around a room that day (open office, of course) to see how terrible people looked and it made me think "Why can't we do better?"