Working hard, working long, maximizing productivity, and maximizing value are all separate things. They do not necessarily correlate positively across the whole

Working hard, working long, maximizing productivity, and maximizing value are all separate things. They do not necessarily correlate positively across the whole scale let alone perfectly at the peaks. You should be optimizing for value. If you optimize for one of the other three you're making a sucker tradeoff by definition. You will have to work some hours with some effort to generate some productivity to maximize value for yourself, but anything past that more value is going to your employer than the opportunity cost for you of your time. This is tautological but it's worth saying because your language fits the pattern of someone who chases productivity as a proxy for personal value. Or in other words you value the possessions money can buy more than the experiences you could have with free time. The tell for workaholism isn't always 80 hours a week or some numerical threshold, it's also that you look down on people who value free time more than you do. That's an indicator that you aren't adjusting your own values, that you've delegated that function to the companies you're so happy to please--which always optimize to extract from you rather than maximize value in your own life.