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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.
It is hard to believe 80-hour weeks are "normal" for anyone. Even if some push themselves that hard, it is just not sustainable. This is not just about being tired. As you said, the science is clear: working extreme hours wrecks your health. Burnout leads to more than just stress; you see more heart problems, depression, and people just losing the joy in their lives. Companies are literally burning through people like they are replaceable, but in the end, the business loses too: talent leaves, innovation drops, and even investors start to worry
Some companies even brag about this "hustle culture", but most normal people do not want to live that way. Most of us just want fair pay, reasonable hours, time for family and our own lives, nothing fancy
I believe that these people who think that working 80 hours is normal, are lying. I can't really believe that some people work that way. If you work 80 hours a week, you won't exist for your parents and you won't have a wife or a kid ever in your life or if you managed to have them, you no longer exist for them and are no longer part of the family. If the wife can't spend time with her husband and the kids can't ever see their father, that's not the life I would wish to anyone and no salary is going to counterweight that condition.
You can just as easily overwork and burn yourself out by being at home, as it can be harder to separate working hours. It is entirely business specific and trying to ram everything into two neat little boxes when there is plenty of room between is a bit silly.
This is very true. I've experienced burnout from working while being at home because I was working every day from 09:00 to 23:59 when was studying UI/UX design and working at the same time remotely for a startup.