Most of the stuff on which we engineers work ends up in the bin anyway. This is just more spectacular than some manager showing up one day to announce that this XXX M$ project, the one you and many others spent your last 2 years regularly overtiming, is cancelled because mblllmbllbllsometopmanagementfuckedupmbbllmbllblll. I just mention this case because it was the most ridiculous that happened to me but a large majority of others projects I've worked ended up in the bin a way or another, or should have because they are designed from scratch to be useless.

It's the life that they've chosen. It comes with ups and downs.

Can you prove any of this?

Knowing how smart and methodological Musk is, I wouldn't be surprised if the rule at the office is actually to leave your desk and go home at 5pm sharp.

You are prone to make more mistakes when you tired and overworked and I cannot imagine more important place not to make mistakes, than building a rocket.

It's pretty well documented that people at SpaceX work 80+ hours a week consistently:

https://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-a-week-does-a-typical-S...

http://spacenews.com/op-ed-3-things-to-know-if-you-want-to-w...

https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/25ixxq/is_spacex_wo...

Wouldn't be surprised if some overworked engineer made a mistake.

We're just past the anniversary of the last mishap: http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/07/20/crs-7-investigation-up... I also get the feeling that extra sleep and recovery time encourages the kind of creative thinking that recognizes unusual ways for things to go wrong and corrects for them in advance.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. I know Musk claims that "working at Tesla/SpaceX is like being in the special forces", but there's no way that every employee at these companies has the work capacity to stay 100% focused through 80 hour work weeks all the time.

I agree. I bet that the 80+ hour work weeks are going to result in death someday.

Not only that, it's also not really a secret that SpaceX attracts people who want to enter the space industry. You get experience there, you move on.

Yes, they have experienced people too, but overall, turnover is high for a reason: https://hackerlife.co/blog/tech-employees-turnover/Los-Angel...

> Not only that, it's also not really a secret that SpaceX attracts people who want to enter the space industry. You get experience there, you move on.

Which is exactly the kind of people that SpaceX does not want and who should not apply there. The turnover is high for a reason indeed.

If SpaceX wants experienced people, they should try the whole stick of decent hours and decent pay.

Thank you.

So they are paid overtime for this, is that correct?

Engineers are not paid overtime. Technicians often are paid overtime.

Not if they're salaried, which most of them probably are.

They why are they being allowed to work for free?

Is that even legal in USA? Aren't they obligated by OSHA and USDOL to be paid for the time they work??

:O.

So US doesn't have paid overtime on a regular salary work?

Not if you're covered by the "white collar exemption", which any engineer-type is going to fall under. Folks working 80 hour weeks at startups don't get any overtime for it.

The hourly employees, sure.

Then again, you also have the payload manufacturer and other involved parties, which are not managed by Musk. Either way, a lot of hard work has gone up in flames, and people will be understandably disappointed.