This makes a lot of sense to me, and has happened a few times. Very rarely is the crunch worth it, and almost always "burning the midnight oil" results in bad c

This makes a lot of sense to me, and has happened a few times. Very rarely is the crunch worth it, and almost always "burning the midnight oil" results in bad code/bad work. To the point where it might have been better to have been fresh and made a decision that resulted in 5 minutes work, or no work, versus slogging away at a waste of time because you're doggedly doing something that makes no sense. On top of that, there seems to be a theme of employers trying to expect that lately, or "well, its IT, you're expected to work out of hours for free". Just refuse that and find a better employer, is my advice, if that happens too often.