I recently listened to Alex Martelli speak on Highly-technical Management of Software Development via Open Source Conversations. Even though he is focusing on managing software development, many of his points apply to other technical and non-technical aspects of a company.
I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but I hadn’t thought about some of the reasons he gives for NOT working more than about 40 hours a week as the norm. Like, if you plan for 60 hour work weeks, what do you do when something blows up and demands more of your time? Keeping the normal work week schedule reasonable gives you some breathing room to work more during the occasional week where everything falls apart. In hindsight I’m thinking: duh, why haven’t I ever put it that way?