In an earlier post, I mentioned the bad effects of a culture of heroism. Making a virtue of excessive overtime rewards reactive instead of proactive programming; it cuts into the testing of the product; it erodes morale.
It's a death spiral in most companies; managament stops recognizing the normal limits of work and starts to expect more and more. This is especially likely in companies that do not accurately track developer hours - if the management does not get a complete count of the time spent on development, they will assume it was done in a 40-hour week, and so they think that the next project can be accelerated by getting the developers to work a few more hours.
So when 5'o'clock rolls around, wrap up what you're working on, prep for the next day, and GO HOME.
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