I agree that sometimes you need to do it in order to not totally screw up the business, but I think any case where you make that decision should require a postm

I agree that sometimes you need to do it in order to not totally screw up the business, but I think any case where you make that decision should require a postmortem where everyone involved in that deadline gets together and figures out why it couldn't happen during the team's regularly scheduled hours. If you do it quietly without making it very clear to the business that this was abnormal and should not happen again, then you're still feeding the false idea that it's okay to plan around late nights and long hours. An early stage startup is a possible exception as long as your entire team is on board with it and getting a satisfactory amount of equity compensation. But the entire team has to be on board with working extra hours, it can't just be you deciding that for the team.