It's a common misconception that working at these companies requires selling your soul. Some company cultures are better than others. Some teams are better than others.

Lots of people at these companies work a strict 40.

I've been a SWE at Google for a while, been promoted a couple times, been a tech lead a couple times. Pretty much always worked 40 hours a week, and I don't think this is unusual. There might be some folks working 50 hours, but I suspect in most cases that's because they want to work 50 hours.

Google has a reputation for being fairly laid back.

32 hours is currently my goal—that’s the cutoff for healthcare.