Yeah, what on earth? I’m working fewer hours because once I get a reasonable amount of work done (i.e. about what I would have done in the office) I close my laptop and stop for the day. I’m shocked by the number of people saying they’re working longer out of lack of anything else to do. That’s really sad.

It’s because an aspect of work is gamified. People may compete with each other for promotions or commissions. Academics compete for fame, grants.

Also there are students who don’t stop learning when they know they can ace their school exams... sometimes they are genuinely interested in the topic.

I haven't run into a software job yet that actually required 40hrs/week to hit requirements. Remote work just means now I don't have to waste time in the office to hit 40hrs/week. Now I can use it to play video games or spend time with my family. And get paid the same to do it!

Because often people rely on that work and it needs to be done ?

I work to hone my craft. If I stop at strictly 8 hours per day, I have to both invent a side project and task switch to it.

This isn’t a problem usually, but sometime I just want to do 1 extra hour to really understand a problem and it’s easier to donate that time to work.

Some people enjoy their work. It's not always 100% about the money.

There's a difference between "I enjoy programming in my free time" and "I will program my employer's stuff on my free time." The first one is enjoying what you do, the second one is a sucker creating value for their employer without being compensated for it.

That’s an over simplification. My job is owning part of an open source stack. There’s countless fun projects in that which aren’t a necessary part of my job but are fun to do out of hours and and still happen to contribute to my employer’s larger goals. Eg, refactor some subsystem to make it faster. Everyone wins, and because the source is open any future employers can see it also. Plus I enjoy working with my coworkers and learn a great deal from doing so: it’sa good environment for such projects.

> It's not always 100% about the money. ... for the employee

It's not 100% about money for the employer, either. Human emotions are real and managers aren't just blindly following game theory.

You're right it's not 100% but I made that comment to admittedly "get a reaction". I think it's good to remind people of this dynamic, the way you think about your workplace is just half the story.

> Human emotions are real and managers aren't just blindly following game theory

Absolutely, which means this isn't guaranteed. This isn't part of a companies DNA ( you could argue good people always get hired?). This isn't true for all work places. The truth is it depends on the people that work there and just like you mentioned that you could have caring emotional humans as managers, you can also have not-caring emotional humans as managers.

If I had to make a grand generalization about most workplaces then I think it's safer to say they would care more about money (for profit/staying in business) than I would say they care about making me, an employee, happy.

Having said that I've worked in great places where I don't feel it's 100% about the money. I know some of that feeling is genuine because of the people I work with. I also know that feeling is intended and is the primary focus of some departments in companies. I know that I'm in a field that has enjoys greater privileges than other workers.

I try to remind myself about this and I think I'm ok with saying that "it's 99% about the money for the employer". A bit cynical (or realist depending on your view).

If you think of your employment as a mutually beneficial relationship with your employer, it's not that strange.

That's true, but it is also true no other single thing (other than sleep) in my life gets 40 hours/week from me. Not even my partner. That's simply a lot of time.

That being said, when I was working full time job, I didn't mind working extra hours sometimes if it seemed like it was a legitimate need and was respectfully asked of me, but I did expect an equal amount of time off afterwards.

Deadlines.