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Was at LEGO many years ago. I remember that a couple of guys in the same department started to clock in overtime. A few days later a manager come by the department and ask everyone to stop working. He wanted to find the root cause for why people was working overtime, because according to LEGO management, overtime is a sign of a process that does not work and that there is something wrong in that department.

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This is such a paternalistic view of people and what they want out of life. Yes, overwork is often an issue. And it is often indicative of underlying problems. But there are lots of people who want to work more than 40 hours/week. We are created by DNA. Part of that legacy is competing with other organisms for limited resources. I work a lot. Because there are things I want which can only be obtained with money. And the price of some of those things is determined by what other people will pay.

What about the other perspective, from the company's side? They set up their processes, expectations, and pay based on a 40 hour work week. It's great that you want to work and be paid more, but they have no obligation to be the ones to provide that. Maybe they are trying to actively discourage that feeling of animalistic competition within the office, because it will have a negative impact on the organization, external to the individual's choice to work longer.

Those people should go home and work on side projects. They’ll get to make something they like, learn new things, and protect the rest of their coworkers from a toxic work environment.

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