> Most people I know basically think this stuff is 'normal' and that you are just being lazy or finicky if you refuse to do so (maybe you 'deserve' to lose your

> Most people I know basically think this stuff is 'normal' and that you are just being lazy or finicky if you refuse to do so (maybe you 'deserve' to lose your job). This is the part that really gets my goat about being an employee in this culture. My coworkers, by and large, have this idea that if they are not almost wholly devoted to our employer, then they "must be" morally bad people. Like someone who works on the same team as me got an e-mail from our boss on a day that is weekend for us (we work shifts that don't line up the normal weekend days) saying "So-and-so gave you the information for Project X and says you should be able to run with it; how soon can you get started?" He interpreted that e-mail to mean "better get started immediately, even though it is my day off" versus replying to our boss with "I will begin on [day I return to the office]." All of my coworkers are employed in high-five-figures to mid-six-figure IT jobs for a large company. Most of us work defined shifts and, thus, we always have someone working in the hours before our shifts start and after our shifts end. We, in all seriousness, have the absolute best work-life balance anywhere in IT, but there is still the expectation and belief that putting in anything less than 15% over means one is a slacker and deserves to get cut. I work odd hours and have been at this long enough that I'm done with it. My employer pays for a certain number of hours from my life. Barring a one-off or rare crunch emergency--which, truthfully, does not happen very often--I am working the hours they buy from me and no more. I'm tired of feeling like I owe my employer above-and-beyond extra because I get to have a life without having to perpetually compete with the hordes of nothing-but-work-matters folks.