I want to believe that things are changing, because the truth is coming up more and more: you will be a developer, they will get a shload of money. You will do it for yourself, because it's an honor towards the company, a sort of loyalty. Seriously??? I remember in a previous company one manager had the courage to say that "they pay our bills". Thanks, man! I am just giving you my time, you know, not that I need it, seriously, I would love to give it to you for free. No.

Working overtime is a subtle lie that many people don't seem to see.

I see some colleagues working on Sunday until 11.30 PM because they have a presentation on Monday. Seriously? I am sorry, but no, it didn't work out, because you didn't give us enough time/because the communication wasn't clear/because I couldn't figure out how to solve this network issue before, which became a blocker/because I can't still figure out why the hell VPN doesn't work yet and you the IT guy is on vacation. If there are blockers, if there are issues, don't make them yours. I work overtime when seriously needed, but then I want that amount of time back - either as hours off or as more money. Otherwise, find a code monkey, they are cheap, don't like to think, and "work hard and have fun".

I'm very much the same way, except you can't pay me to work more that 37 hours a week. At this point I feel that I'm to old to care about whatever random deadline management set on a project. It's not that I don't care about deadlines, I do, but if it's unrealistic, I'm not going to stay late to help meet it.

No one is rewarding you for getting stress or burn out. It's true that management will often reward those who stay late and "put in the extra hours", but in the long run I don't see it being worth the strain on my mental health.

how can I become as well off as you?

I am young, 20-something developer, but i already conciously slack off and don't give a shit at my job, doing just enough to not get noticed/fired.

How do I take the next step of working less hours? I would like to work at most 10 - 20 hours per week, but still retain my full-time, 40 hr/week payrate. Do you have any advice for me? Thank you.

Sorry, no. I'm in Denmark, pretty much any standard contract here will say 37 hours a week. I tried to have my contract changed to say 30 hours (and of cause having my salary reduced), that not something management really like.

I don't slack off, and I do care about my job. What I don't care about are deadlines set by random, or unwillingness to adjust deadline if issues show up along the way. I view it as a "I can be just as inflexible as management" sort of deal.

Of cause it helps that I'm not worried about losing my job. There's plenty of job for developers around here.

I think it varies by country: some have work cultures where working more is somehow seen as a good thing and then everyone gets very confused about why people take weeks off with medical leave due to stress.

I find a scenario where I work more than my 37 hours for free inconceivable. If the deadline was missed then the planner needs to plan better next time. Even if I'm paid I don't think I've ever exceeded 42 weekly hours in my life. Nothing is as important as a good work/life balance.

I guess it depends on what you consider "work". I have a job and they pay me to produce software, and I spend 40 or so hours a week producing software that somebody else sells and makes money off of. I love to read about programming, though, so when I'm not working, I may be reading programming books or learning new programming languages, but not ones that are in any way related to the work that I do for my employer, just things that I think are interesting - and I get to decide what I focus on, not my employer.

Same here except I work 25 hours a week but get paid for 40.