The modern work week is a sort of (21st century version of) indentured servitude for some, and a fantastic opportunity for learning/advancement for others. Unf

The modern work week is a sort of (21st century version of) indentured servitude for some, and a fantastic opportunity for learning/advancement for others. Unfortunately, you don't really get to choose and must try to coax yourself into believing the latter if you really want to be an FTE. In nowhere is this more obvious in tech where over the course of 15+ years I've experienced: "This is NOT a 9-5 role, we expect you to do what it takes to keep things running" "You're a highly paid engineer, therefore you should expect overtime" "This is a 24/7/365 shop, and everyone is expected to be available at all times" "This is a startup, and everyone is expected to be available at all times" "This is a financial company, and everyone is expected to be available at all times" (fellow team members) "Yup, this is a tech role, what do you expect. That's just the way it is" And so on and so forth. My thoughts on this are: 1) Some people like working long hours, some people don't, but all must conform to the long-hours lowest common denominator. Without realizing it, we're conforming to an ideology that benefits senior management/founders/shareholders. Is that good or bad? It depends on your position in life, but let's call it what it is. 2) Employment contracts don't contain hours, so sometimes you don't know you're going to have unpaid overtime in the form of on-call or crunch time until several weeks after you've started. This is indentured servitude because while you CAN quit the job (unlike the 17th century variant), you lose health care and ability to pay your mortgage/rent. 3) Salaries are high in tech, but if you take someone making, for example, $200,000 US, which is considered a lot, and you divide it by someone working 50 hours a week, they're only making $77 an hour. 4) I decided to become a consultant, which means I make significantly more than that, I get to keep myself physically fit because I have time to do so, and I'm a much happier person as a result. Want me to work overtime? With pleasure. 5) When you're a consultant, people think twice before putting you on-call or asking you to work 50-60 hours. When you're an employee, however... [Edit:] My philosophy in life is: you can make more money later, but you can NEVER get your time back. Keep that in mind before signing dotted lines. * Everything I've just said is US-specific. Europeans have slightly better laws to protect against certain abuses.