A friend’s son in Tokyo told me this, “I left the office at 8 p.m. and still felt guilty… even though the work was done.”
Have you felt that too? That moment when over time, overtime quietly becomes a habit, not because work demands it, but because culture applauds it?
I’ve seen this play out across generations and geographies.
Not long ago in Chennai, I led a support team where a young engineer who was fresh, sincere, eager to perform started coming in early every day. Not because her shift demanded it, but because she wanted to stay ahead on productivity metrics. She would pick up support tickets early and add them to her queue. On paper, she looked like a top performer. But slowly, fatigue crept in. What began as enthusiasm was turning into self-imposed overtime. Good intent. Risky habit.
That story took me back nearly three decades.
In 1998, as a fresh engineering graduate at a large automobile manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Chennai, the shift started at 7 a.m. Officially, trainees could leave by the 4 p.m. bus. Unofficially? Leaving on time quietly signaled that you weren’t keen on learning or “not adaptable enough.” So I stayed. Often until the 6 p.m. bus. That meant 11-hour days, sweating in the heat-treatment area, followed by a 1.5-hour bus ride home. Long hours weren’t questioned. They were rewarded with silent approval.
Fast-forward to today. Japan is rethinking overtime rules as labor shortages worsen. Ironically, the country that once warned the world about karoshi is now grappling with how much work is too much.
Neuroscience offers clarity. Extended hours fatigue the prefrontal cortex , decision-making weakens, emotional regulation drops, and errors rise. In simple terms: after a point, longer hours don’t create better work. They create tired people doing average work for longer.
Gallup’s research echoes this. Burnout spikes when excessive hours become routine. Engagement falls. Stress rises. Time increases, value decreases. That’s a terrible exchange rate
Dilbert captured it with “I pretend to work, and they pretend to pay me.” Funny until overtime becomes structural, not situational.
Contrast this with Europe, where the right to disconnect protects productivity by protecting people. Leaving on time is professional. In India, hustle still signals commitment , though voices like Supriya Sule have begun to question that belief, reminding us that working endlessly isn’t working effectively.
So, what’s the smarter way forward?
- Measure outcomes, not hours. Presence isn’t performance.
- Design recovery into work. Breaks aren’t indulgence; they are fuel.
- Fix systems before stretching people. Automation beats exhaustion.
As Sankranti approaches , a festival of harvest and renewal, it’s worth asking: Are we harvesting outcomes… or just harvesting hours?
Because when time becomes the metric, overtime stops being occasional ,and starts becoming occupational.
What’s been your experience?
Do long hours still equal commitment, OR is it time we unlearned that story?
#FutureOfWork #WorkLifeBalance #Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #Burnout #EmployeeWellbeing #Productivity #PeopleFirst