I read the article about OpenAI employees working 80 hours a week and for that reason, OpenAI decided to give them a one-week rest. To be fair, I can't believe someone working 80 hours a week, that looks almost impossible to me. Working almost 12 hours a day + 1-2 hours of transportation, 30 minute break when you wake up and another 30 minute when you come at home, it feels like they are only living to work, I can't imagine living such a lifestyle, what's the point of life if you spend your whole life working under constant stress and anxiety?
A healthy culture of work is when you work up to 8 hours a day and have no homework when you leave work. This burnout culture, that's becoming popular, will negatively affect every 12 hours worker. This will increase their heart problems, risk of stroke and other health issues.
But in reality, many companies allow their employees to work more than 8 hours. Even 12 hours or more. Sometimes, the written agreement states 8 hours, but then the company requires several hours of overtime every day. This actually happens.
So, maintaining policies and discipline within a company is key to the ultimate well-being of both employees and the company itself.
I agree with you, almost 99% of the companies around me force their employees to work overtime without compensation, but thankfully, I have never experienced working under such bad terms. Btw I even think that 8 hours a day is much. You are productive for up to 3-4 hours, after this, the productivity goes down and over time, it leaves its mark on you. There were some experiments done that proved that working shorter hours and 4 days a week gave the company much better results than working overtime 5 days a week.
Freelancing is the best thing, I hate corporate culture.