I've never worked at a place that in my view meaningfully rewarded weekend work like this. In fact my salary went up considerably once I stopped doing it and people seemed to respect me more.<p>My advice for young people is to make damn sure there actually is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow and make sure you have in writing exactly how it will be distributed. People who want to actually pay you aren't afraid to put those terms to paper, people who are looking to take advantage run screaming from a paper trail.
Sorta Agree... BUT<p>If you are going to you should strategically work (some ) weekends or extra hours in the way a baseball player puts extra reps in at the cages on their own time or the flutist rehearses to make first chair.<p>This applies to anyone though. Perhaps more so for young people because they are more likely to be new in their field.<p>Just working 90 hours week after week for the merit badge won't get you anywhere.<p>Strategically learning additional skills or uber prepping for a presentation or building a rock solid business case will. These are typically achieved in extra hours. Sorry but it is true.<p>Now, it might not be for everyone. If you find the right life/work/career balance at your current trajectory then no one is forcing you to do these things. Showing strategic initiative however is one of if not the number one way to push your own advancement.
Given the parts about her developing health problems, I'm smelling a mixture of Stockholm syndrome and sunk cost fallacy in play here.<p>I feel bad for her. Hope it gets better.
Absolutely, the best way you can kickstart a career in which you will be heavily exploited by your employer is to show early on that you're super happy to be exploited.
This is good advice and something similar helped me quite a bit when young (and still when old).<p>I’ve been lucky enough to usually work on what’s interesting to me. I care a lot about my work and so like to spend time outside of work learning, training, working extra.<p>Also, there are some firms where there are zero sum situations where competing with co-workers is a real thing. Working weekends gives an advantage.<p>The question is whether this is fair or sustainable or whatnot. But the reality is that this can be helpful.<p>I find managers who demand this to be complete assholes though. I’m fine being flexible with my time and me deciding when I want to work extra. Having someone else expect or order is completely lame and having leadership say stuff like this would demoralize me.<p>I like to keep my weekend work pretty secret so as not to “brag” or let management know this is an option.
working hard when I was younger (grad school, then postdoc, and later a PI at a national lab) opened up freedom and opportunities later in life (higher income, more desirable job options). I see it as a reasonable tradeoff especially given the exponential growth of invested money.
I worry that all these debates don’t take into account all the major problems facing our society.<p>I believe strongly in work life balance. But have also found that truly difficult problems to be solved often tip that balance.<p>I feel a “let me focus on other things“ attitude at a mass population level is at odds with things like retooling the economy around green energy, rebuilding infrastructure, making fundamental changes to healthcare, education, countering hungry, authoritarian regimes, etc.<p>We need a balance of people doing enough hard work solving hard problems so others can work 25 hour weeks. Who is going to do that?
I've worked on select weekends to make my life easier, those were worth the investment. Working yourself sick seems like a type of mental health issue people don't address, stuck in a hussle cult.
In a community of Olympians, the idea of not training on the weekend would be considered laughable and a non starter. It's the same in any field if you want exceptional results.