Thread by @Thevesh

A short thread: The insane glorification of overtime work.

1) It's such a Malaysian/Asian mentality to overwork staff. They're paid for 9-5, but are expected to work till 8 or 9 at least, be on call after, and work some weekends.

2) This is absolutely immoral. If a company wants its people to work those hours, they should damn well pay them for it. The system of praising people who do crazy overtime as "team players" and shaming people into doing it for free is basically glorified slave labour.

3) This is terrible for long-term productivity. People burn out, get alienated, disenchanted, etc. They end up with no time for interests outside work, and no time for personal development (which includes rest, relationships, reading, sports, etc).

4) It also creates a culture where every bit of work becomes 'top priority', to be finished ASAP. Bad, because there's no distinction between things that just need to be done 'well enough' vs things that need to be done as well as possible. Effort not focused on key areas.

5) People think rest and enjoyment is something you can just take as it comes, without active planning. I disagree. You should be as disciplined about rest as you are about work, if you want to work optimally.

6) Places like Twitter, Google, Zappos, etc, all actively and systematically focus on employee well-being. It's the only way to retain talent, and keep employees productive long-term, especially in high pressure environments.

7) It's also interesting to consider case studies from Sweden, where there's pretty much a national obsession with work-life balance. Trials of 6-hour day showed it was too costly, but did show that work quality improved.

Conclusion: Bosses and employers need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Is your work really the centre of the universe? Can't be done tomorrow?

And more importantly, if you're guilty of creating a culture of unpaid overtime, you really need to question your leadership.

That culture shames people who want to have a life, and is quite literally exploitation of labour.

Unpaid overtime workers of the world, unite! #Marx #StillRelevant

And if you're an employee, you can help change the culture too. Encourage co-workers to look after themselves and take time for non-work activities. Look out for signs of burnout. Stop glorifying consistent overwork. Let your boss know it's not okay to consistently call at 11pm.

BTW, the word "consistently" in this thread is important. Obviously, some crunch-time emergencies are unavoidable in any job. My issue is the regular and systemic overwork.

The response to this tweet makes me think that I/we should devote some serious effort and thought to a policy proposal, which can be forwarded to the relevant party(ies).