So people on a fixed yearly amount are getting paid for a 40 hour work week, then expected to work 60 just to keep their jobs? Doesn't seem like a good deal to me...
In the UK your employer cannot force you to work more than 48 hours a week, but written into my contract was a clause waiving that maximum. I dont think I've ever worked less than 60 hours a week. The weeks where you work 80+ hours, you just try not to think about the hourly rate...
Certainly I understand that there are times when someone would choose to waiver the rights, a startup with interesting tech and probably equity would be a good example.
I completely agree that there are times that someone would want to waive those rights (I did). And if you don't waive them for somewhere like a startup (probably more applicable early than late stage), what does that say about commitment/expectations?
At my previous company, the assumption was, "You're getting paid to get X work done, and if you can finish it in 40 hours/week, then we need to keep adding to X until it takes you 60 hours/week to get it done." How is that different than "You're getting paid to do N hours of work per week", with N > 60?
Of course not. That will be met with a look of disbelief and shock. They will probably quickly assign your another thing Y that takes another 40 hours to complete so now you have 10 hours to complete the new 40 hour job.
Because there is no payed overtime everyone is relying bonuses. And guess what happens with bonuses? "Sorry this was a tough year so we had to reduce bonuses this year, but thanks for your great work".
And work at least 40 hours a week. Ever try to leave after finishing your responsibilities? Works almost no where.
Granted, it worked...This school's band was always awesome due to so many extra hours and handedly beat us and everyone else in competitions. :-(
Did their putting in double the amount of time practicing affect their performance on the rest of their schoolwork? Were they more stressed out, and did that affect their health? Were their social lives adversely affected? If they were interviewed now, would they say that everything they sacrificed to win that competition was worth it?