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For all the stories saying "I was forced to do 80-100 hour weeks for months", I wonder how often these employees say "I'll do it for one week because I want to support this team, but I'm sorry I have other obligations beyond that that limit me to working only a regular week with an occasional 2-3 hours overtime if needed". Maybe I'm biased but I have trouble envisioning an environment in which a manager would fire somebody for that.

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I had an employer chide me for only working 40 hours a week. I was told "come on, there's programmers in Silicon Valley who sleep under their desks every night!".

At drinks after work, the co-founder of a startup complained about people leaving the co-working space at 5:00 every day. "What's the matter with them? Don't they like money?"

If you're having trouble envisioning that kind of environment, it means you're a good, empathetic person. And it means you've had the luck of only working for managers who believe in work/life balance and a healthy approach to the job. Hopefully their example sank in, because if you're not a manger already you're well on your way to being one of the good ones.

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