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Comment by sotojuan | Hacker News Reader

OK, ready to get out of my bubble. How true is this? The only people I know that work more than 40 hours a week still work less than 60. This is in "office", food, and service jobs.

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I know people that would work 80 hour weeks. They were engineers in the gaming industry and a couple crunch weeks were not uncommon.

But that's a really specific situation for a short period of time.

The gaming industry is notorious.

I starting working in games in the early 2000s. The first game I worked on (Black & White) had me working 16-20 hour days, 6-7 days a week for 9 months. It destroyed my health and turned me into an agoraphobic for at least a year, with related conditions lasting much longer. I've seen people have to check into mental health institutions after shipping games.

At one place I worked, there was a "crack board", where they would have sweepstakes on who was going to come apart at the seams and lose it. Who knew mental health issues could be so fun? "lol".

Needless to say I no longer work in games, it has done damage to my body and psyche for very little return..

Do employers ever get sued for having an abusive work culture?

No.

Never seen it happen. I even had a car crash due to the pressure of insane hours.

Companies just love "externalised cost". Screw the lives of the employees, environment, etc. Society is pretty broken.

Having a culture of ridiculous work hours is not a crime.

And as long as thousands of developers handle/enjoy the game industry environment, there's no compelling reason to change.

> Having a culture of ridiculous work hours is not a crime.

But it should be, per labor law. At a minimum, its wage theft.

Ridiculous. Time for a union. The game industry is fun, but it is not worth your health, especially just to line someone else's pocket.

I think it lines your own pockets too.

Sorry to hear about what you went through. Any tips about how you recovered, or what you would have done differently?

I worked in an environment where people around me were putting in upwards of 80 hrs. I was closer to 60 hrs because I had 2+ hrs of commute time each day. Still, I had to put in time at home during crunches. We probably had about five months of 40 hr weeks spread throughout the year between launches, yet many people still went well over even then.

It's not universal, but I don't think it's uncommon.

Yeah I routinely exceed 60 during peak season. 80 if I'm working weekends too. And that's focused work with lots of context shifts. So yeah after peak season I'm on the edge of burn-out.

I'd imagine I'm not doing myself any favours there health wise.

Then why are you doing it? Serious question. Is the pay so far above average that it's justified to sacrifice your health, or is the job market too tight to get a less cruel job?

>Then why are you doing it?

Planning on getting out before the next cycle of crazy hours.

But to answer the question - various reasons. It facilitated a relocation to Europe. Rapid career progression to managerial level. Control over what projects I want to do. Multiple rounds of overseas assignments. Minimal supervision. Exposure to new things in a notoriously secretive industry. Pay is decent too, but that's not really a motivation for charging hard.

>is the job market too tight to get a less cruel job

No I can walk into a job with equal pay and far less stress tomorrow. It would kill progression & personal development though. I figure I can always coast later if need be.

By the time you get to coast stress may well have taken its toll physically and mentally.

Enjoy your health while you have it, it's far more enjoyable than a few more coins in the bank.

I know a lot of grad students who had lives like that.

Yeah that's pretty common in grad school, but it varies a lot by advisor, goals, etc.

It's not that uncommon to work 12 hours per day 7 days a week in touristic places.

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