If you haven't, what do you expect would happen if you did?

From experience, I can tell you that things will work out fine. You'll get your product shipped, support your customers, and have roughly the same chance of surviving if you work sane hours.

When I was crunching to ship Twiddla, I would average between 20 and 30 hours per week. About the same amount of time I dedicated to Rock Climbing, wandering the streets of Pamplona, and sipping wine on the balcony watching the world go by with my girlfriend. Every work day I would come in fresh, with a good idea of what needed building, go heads down in the morning and come up for air around 3pm to find a cold half cup of morning coffee on my desk, next to a cold lunch that my girlfriend had evidently snuck in and deposited at some point.

That was the most productive year of my life. I shipped a product that pays for my lifestyle today. And I never worked more than 40 hours in a single week.

I'd recommend you give that a shot. It sounds a lot more enjoyable than what you're doing.

Look, I am not complaining about my situation. I signed up for this. I like what I do. I just get really sick when people claim "you are going to be sooo much more productive" if you work less. Like it was a general truth. Like they are an authority and know better. Like it applied to everyone and everything at all times. Like there was no need to look at a particular situation and then decide if it's a statement that's actually more than a phrase.

And btw I would really appreciate it if people wouldn't down-vote my comments just because they disagree. That would make this community just a whole lot better.

Later, the Maggid's disciples wondered why their master spoke as he did. Rabbi Israel explained: "If the rich man dines on meat and wine, then he would at least feel that the paupers in his town should be given bread and salt. But if he himself subsists on dry bread and salt, he might think that poor people could live on stones..."

If it's 6pm or 7pm on a Friday and you have worked 80 hours that week, and you need to work more, then you've scheduled something wrong or management has.

And, if you're a founder, who is imparting a culture of leaving to get rest on a Friday evening is not ok, or working 70-80 hour weeks is the norm, then good luck with that culture when people turn resentful.

Respecting yourself and your life and your employees lives while trying to be successful ... that's how it works.

*General "you", not necessarily rsp1984

My employees have regular 40 hour work weeks.

Oh man, I am really glad to live in Europe.

Specially insurances will not be covering certain work related diseases with that type of workload.

It has been a continuous discussion in the press in the last years, to the point some companies started enforcing a "go home" policy.

For example, sorry in German,

http://www.spiegel.de/karriere/berufsleben/erreichbar-nach-d...

In Germany there are laws that limit how many hours one is allowed to do continuously each month.

Report the working conditions to Arbeitsamt.

Knowing the law is quite valuable and abuse only works when everyone keeps quiet.

It helps when companies play by the rules with the Works Council and the respective unions.

And yes, I am one of those guys that would disclose bad working conditions to the Arbeitsamt.

I think the problem here is: Why are people waiting for it? Why can't they wait until Monday?

Usually the reason for this is simple: You scheduled something important (eg. a deploy or a release) to a Friday or a Thursday. If you force yourself to schedule important stuff to Mondays, you'll see things running much more smoothly (even if everything breaks down, you probably have enough time to have it fixed by Wednesday).

Let's not have an echo chamber here.