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So few companies realise that working 70-90 hours / week calls for introspection not celebration. Fortunately, I never had a job where I had to put unreasonable

So few companies realise that working 70-90 hours / week calls for introspection not celebration. Fortunately, I never had a job where I had to put unreasonable hours against my will but I have heard stories of people who went through the ordeal and they share a common element: the capacity to think better solutions dampens which effectively makes 70 hour work-week, a <40 hour one. It's sad that only a fraction of people in managerial positions understand this dynamic. It's always people who work 'hard', who are more in the office, get admired and promoted.

kamaal 9y ago
Because that is not always possible. In India, in most IT firms, either budgets are fixed for a project, or there are upper slabs for hourly billing. What happens is you will eventually run into situations where you are pushing very aggressive deadlines with limited resources. The only option to do a project is to work crazy hours. Its easy to say why don't they scale down for better work hours. If they did, they wouldn't even have those kind of projects, and by that definition you wouldn't have a job. Most companies can't do this. Also in my early career this kind of a working environment was a boon. Sure if you are only in for a 9-5 job and money, you don't even have to sign up for something like this. But working crazy hours gives people far more disproportionately higher learning opportunities compared to peers. I have seen people volunteer and even fight with managers for these kind of projects only for the exposure. Do this enough number of years and you get very good at a lot of other things. Doing side projects, start ups and a range of other things necessary for a long haul career. Also your ability to contribute with merely participating in a project goes up way higher than your peers, and that eventually brings you more opportunities. >>It's always people who work 'hard', who are more in the office, get admired and promoted. Lastly, Is this really surprising to you. Look at how academic performance works, or how it is in sports, investing or for that matter in other walks of life. Quantity of work, has a very deep effect on quality of work.
- shubhamjain 9y ago
  I think it's incorrect to equate working long hours with passionate pursuits like learning something or working on a side-project. Good motivation, almost always, never let's you burnout in real terms. Hell, I love creating something after work and counterintuitively, it makes me feel happier than stressful. But, I don't count this as work, it's kind of a break for me. In most cases, the effort put is not in the right direction. Stroking the brush the same way a thousand times will never make you a better painter if it's not accompanied with a study of better techniques and introspection into your mistakes. I can't deny that sometimes you can have enough motivation to have be 'the right kind of productive' for long hours but working on the same project necessitates a break. The break allows you to work out better approaches, which is not thought out by most managers. I would be susceptible of any claim that working long hours enabled someone to learn more. I have often encountered them in my career, and it's never the case.

kamaal 9y ago

Because that is not always possible. In India, in most IT firms, either budgets are fixed for a project, or there are upper slabs for hourly billing. What happens is you will eventually run into situations where you are pushing very aggressive deadlines with limited resources. The only option to do a project is to work crazy hours. Its easy to say why don't they scale down for better work hours. If they did, they wouldn't even have those kind of projects, and by that definition you wouldn't have a job. Most companies can't do this. Also in my early career this kind of a working environment was a boon. Sure if you are only in for a 9-5 job and money, you don't even have to sign up for something like this. But working crazy hours gives people far more disproportionately higher learning opportunities compared to peers. I have seen people volunteer and even fight with managers for these kind of projects only for the exposure. Do this enough number of years and you get very good at a lot of other things. Doing side projects, start ups and a range of other things necessary for a long haul career. Also your ability to contribute with merely participating in a project goes up way higher than your peers, and that eventually brings you more opportunities. >>It's always people who work 'hard', who are more in the office, get admired and promoted. Lastly, Is this really surprising to you. Look at how academic performance works, or how it is in sports, investing or for that matter in other walks of life. Quantity of work, has a very deep effect on quality of work.

shubhamjain 9y ago
I think it's incorrect to equate working long hours with passionate pursuits like learning something or working on a side-project. Good motivation, almost always, never let's you burnout in real terms. Hell, I love creating something after work and counterintuitively, it makes me feel happier than stressful. But, I don't count this as work, it's kind of a break for me. In most cases, the effort put is not in the right direction. Stroking the brush the same way a thousand times will never make you a better painter if it's not accompanied with a study of better techniques and introspection into your mistakes. I can't deny that sometimes you can have enough motivation to have be 'the right kind of productive' for long hours but working on the same project necessitates a break. The break allows you to work out better approaches, which is not thought out by most managers. I would be susceptible of any claim that working long hours enabled someone to learn more. I have often encountered them in my career, and it's never the case.