I wouldn't necessarily draw the line there. It always depends on your situation. If you don't have a family, working 7.30am-5.30pm (my approx working hours) 5 days per week still allows you to have enough time to spend with friends and for side projects.
If your really dedicated to your project and have no family waiting at home, why should you always leave after 8 hours? Sitting in front of the TV at home isn't necessarily better than an interesting project at work. Will not always be the case, so it's (in my opinion) completely normal to work longer during some months of the year and shorter during others.
For me, flexibility is clearly more importan than working hours. It's great to have a workplace where you can go for a long lunch once in a while or a doctor's appointment without anyone raising questions. It's about being able to make plans. If I know that I can go out for Dinner next Wed on 5pm then it's no problem to work longer on other days. Not being able to plan this sucks, no matter how much you actually work.
But I agree that if the work environment is unproductive, working more is definitely not the solution.
> If your really dedicated to your project and have no family waiting at home, why should you always leave after 8 hours?
Because longer != better. It's like why sleeping on a problem helps or why some people have the best thoughts in the shower. The best way to really make the most of those 8 hours is to do other stuff the rest of the time.
Besides, if you're a professional, you should at least have the courtesy not to devalue your colleague's time. If you start working longer, management might ask your colleague who has a family to do the same (or worse, fire them). Everybody loses by working unpaid overtime except the company. If you want to do this, make sure it's your company.
7.30/5.30 works, but if you think at the lunch pause and the inevitable things to do a few hours a week, you are into the 40h limits more or less... This is why I say 40h is likely the limit. Then if it's 38 or 43... is a small percentage, but 50 is already out of order and 60 crazy IMHO.
No, I didn't negotiate a 25% bonus as I didn't choose the job based on the salary. Of course I need a decent salary, but I took the job because I like what I'm doing here and I'm fascinated by the work. Much of what I do now during working hours was what I did before on side projects. It's fun for me to work on it and the employer gives me flexibility to test my ideas. So both parties benefit from this arrangement.
I wouldn't trade my job against a better paying job with strict 40h/week if I don't like it as much. And I wouldn't want an employer where every working day is strictly 9-5, no matter what project you're on or how the workload is.
If your really dedicated to your project and have no family waiting at home, why should you always leave after 8 hours? Sitting in front of the TV at home isn't necessarily better than an interesting project at work. Will not always be the case, so it's (in my opinion) completely normal to work longer during some months of the year and shorter during others.
For me, flexibility is clearly more importan than working hours. It's great to have a workplace where you can go for a long lunch once in a while or a doctor's appointment without anyone raising questions. It's about being able to make plans. If I know that I can go out for Dinner next Wed on 5pm then it's no problem to work longer on other days. Not being able to plan this sucks, no matter how much you actually work.
But I agree that if the work environment is unproductive, working more is definitely not the solution.