Just to provide a counter-point, some people ebb and flow in their energy and ability to produce high-quality work. Some people prefer working odd hours. They

Just to provide a counter-point, some people ebb and flow in their energy and ability to produce high-quality work. Some people prefer working odd hours. They siesta during the day. Some people go on three-day benders doing amazing things, and then crash for a day. And that's their preference. They just get into the zone in different ways. I think that if you want to hire the best people and let them do the best work, you should work around the schedule that works best for them and judge them on their work product and that of their peers. As an aside, in the venture-backed, growth-focused startup world I work in, I doubt there is a single high-performing successful company that operates with the mentality that OP suggests people adopt. It's just too hard when the focus is to grow insanely fast. It's not for everyone, and it has serious consequences to work/life satisfaction, but it's a choice a lot of people on YC have made, or make... I'm fatter, with more gray hair, and more stressed than I would be working at a larger company with more reasonable hours and stress. But I enjoy what I do, feel it has purpose, get paid well to do my job, and get paid even more if we do something incredible. So I keep doing it because despite the downsides, I feel quite privileged. :-)