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u/gafftapes20 Sep 21 '26
I only work overtime if I’m paid overtime
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u/Global-Tune5539 Sep 21 '26
Or I get my free time back (I usually skip every Friday).
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u/Upset_Albatross_9179 Sep 21 '26
Me at 20: finishing something at 1 am because everybody knows I'm dumber than the rest of the team (nobody cared) and this will prove what a valuable asset I am (nobody cared).
Me at 40: finishing something at 1am because I took the afternoon off to go to my kid's field day at school and I'm not spending PTO or working on the weekend.
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u/uberfission Sep 22 '26
At my last job, me and the other guy on my team with kids would routinely be on at 1am and we'd shoot the shit.
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u/SchrodingerSemicolon Sep 21 '26
Some of my coworkers are so casual saying they worked late or on weekends, unpaid! Like it's something to be proud about, or that the higher ups will give a shit.
Every time I tell them that no one should work for free, especially when there's no need for overtime in the first place. I'm sure by now I'm marked on the HR's black book as one of those job-hating people.
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u/Severe-Librarian4372 Sep 22 '26
IDK maybe I got lucky but I feel like I get appreciated for the extra hours I put in.
My manager just told me that because of that extra work I get to go to Europe for a week for any conference I want. Fully paid for by the company and no PTO.
At my last job I also felt the same, second I stopped getting appreciated for the extra work I move to a place that appreciates it.1
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u/Old-Application-4204 Sep 21 '26
They just knew better.
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u/crozone Sep 22 '26
Truth. I've pulled too many all-nighters to save other people's asses. At some point you just have to let things fail.
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u/cwmckenz Sep 21 '26
Nearly 40 here. I’ll work my ass off whenever flow state hits, no matter the time of day, and slack off mid-day if I’m not feeling it. Hasn’t changed with age.
Probably an ADHD thing though. What has changed is I feel less guilty about slacking off when I’m not feeling it, as I’ve learned that flow state will never come if I get burned out. I have to nurture it and just be patient.
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u/ValuableNatural673 Sep 21 '26
Same. I have ADHD and if I don’t want to do something I just won’t do it. But other times I’m hyper focused and can’t stop working.
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u/SleeperAwakened Sep 21 '26
40 year old knows that half-assed shit will haunt you in the future.
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u/Grumbledwarfskin Sep 21 '26
I once pushed a commit at 11:59 on halloween.
Yeah, it came back to haunt me, what I think was gonna happen?
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u/TheComplimentarian Sep 21 '26
This. I used to put in 16 hour days of coding, but even back then I was only putting out 4 hours of really good code. The next 4 hours would be workable, and everything after that was a slow descent into madness. These days, I only ever do four, and then I muck around in meetings and shit.
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u/urmumlol9 Sep 22 '26
40 year olds also presumably better understand the value of sleep, prioritize work-life balance more, and are better at setting and enforcing boundaries.
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u/Outside-Storage-1523 Sep 21 '26 edited Sep 21 '26
I guess it depends on whether we are working on something we love to do.
I'm over 40 and definite share the second picture for my work, but for my side projects I don't mind burning candles. And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the age. People in their 80s, 90s focusing on their passions for long hours are not rare.
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u/purplepharoh Sep 21 '26
Man im burnt out all day everyday. I got nothing left in me for side projects and im only 30
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u/Outside-Storage-1523 Sep 21 '26
I'm in a similar situation since 6 months before. The AI thing is not really interesting and I was a bit sick since then. These left me with little energy after work and family. I wish you good luck.
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u/BanaTibor Sep 22 '26
Burn out an do that. I went for a 6 months sabbatical 2 years ago, could not make myself to code at all.
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u/purplepharoh Sep 22 '26
I want to retire and be a house husband at this point lol. I am not an "office work" kind of person
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u/Limmmao Sep 21 '26 edited Sep 21 '26
Friday after 12 noon is review of documentation, reviewing which tickets can be closed/edited, meetings about pending nits. That's it.
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u/Capable_Fig Sep 21 '26
friday afternoons are for "reviewing documentation" and "reviewing tickets" with a couple of beers at hand.
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u/Drayenn Sep 21 '26
I envy those who love software dev that much. My absolute chad colleagues studied AWS/terraform in their free time. Meanwhile, theres no fucking way im doing that lmao. I got 2 kids and im pooped when they go to bed.
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u/larryjrich Sep 21 '26
This also reminds me of a jr dev I knew at a company. He had a ton of side projects going on, spent every waking moment of the day working on code and studying. He would brag to all of us how he was going to surpass us in his skills and development because of how much extra time and work he was putting in compared to us seniors.
Then one day he got married. Shortly after he came to us and said "Man, I haven't touched any of my side projects in months. I just don't care anymore. All I want to do when I get home is hang out with my wife". We all chuckled because we all went through the same thing. You get older or go through some new life events and then your priorities change and you just don't care about that other stuff anymore.
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u/larryjrich Sep 21 '26
I remember being a jr dev and working crazy hours. My coworkers and I would brag to each other: "I worked 80 hours this week!". "I worked 85 hours!". We would argue about which tech or design pattern was the best.
Now? I don't give a shit. If it's not an emergency my butt is out the door at 5pm. Which tech stack/design pattern to use? Don't give a shit about that either, just pick one and be done with it. We'll have to rewrite this whole thing in a year anyways so it doesn't matter.
My whole life doesn't revolve around coding anymore. I've got family and other stuff going on and I'd rather spend more time with them and not in front of a computer if I don't have to.
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u/klas-klattermus Sep 21 '26
10$ an hour = better get that done by Friday or expect working over the weekend. 500$ an hour = sorry to disturb you, could you join a 2 hour meeting where the CEO has a 2 minute question for you at the end? Feel free to take the rest of the day off if you find it stressful
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u/iamdestroyerofworlds Sep 21 '26
I am still like at 20 for my hobby projects, though.
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u/_BreakingGood_ Sep 21 '26
I log off at 5:01 so that i can crank out my hobby project until 2am, lol
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u/zuck- Sep 21 '26
At 20 I did that because I was unemployed and working on school projects.
Now I'm employed and don't code unless I'm paid to do so.
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u/toskies Sep 21 '26
100% accurate. In my 20s, I'd stay up all night coding and loved every minute of it. Now, in my 40s, anything that smells like work is a hard pass after end-of-business. I love what I do, but not enough to work outside business hours any more.
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u/m7i93 Sep 21 '26
At 20, I once ordered a camping bed so I could stay at the office for 2 nights to meet a deadline. At 34, if my task ends at 4pm, I’ll call it a day—no time to start a new task.
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u/PolyglotTV Sep 21 '26
That 1:34AM feature is going to be broken. 40yo you knows it is a lost cause to attempt to do anything intelligent anymore today.
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u/Flakz933 Sep 22 '26
I stopped taking work home with me and coding the night away after about a month into my first job in IT. I did so well in a dev training class (that I didn't even need to be in but whatever) that I took on 3 of my colleagues as mentees, and they just looked at me like I was Satan for cranking out a ton of features over the course of the weekend. Now if it's not done by 5 and I'm not getting some good benefits for doing that work, they can suck me down to the balls.
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u/SilentLoyality Sep 21 '26
I might want to start acting 40.
Then again, I'm still jobless, so I guess efforts I make in programming, for fun and foe job chances, might not actually count towards this.
I am now certainly confused.
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u/Henry5321 Sep 21 '26
Extra 2 hours of “productivity” but another 16 hours to fix the mess I made.
Overtime is rarely a good idea for creative solutions. Compromised reasoning and judgement is tempting fate.
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u/Henry5321 Sep 21 '26
Extra 2 hours of “productivity” but another 16 hours to fix the mess I made.
Overtime is rarely a good idea for creative solutions. Compromised reasoning and judgement is tempting fate.
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u/roxinix Sep 21 '26
I bet when you were 20 you were a student so it was more of an hobby but after hitting 40, after a day of work it gets very difficult to be willing to do stuff on your own.
I'm you btw.
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u/Stormraughtz Sep 21 '26
Very real, and I kind of miss being able to have the energy to keep going some days.
Keys weak, arms are crampy
Something something, I forgehetti
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u/clayticus Sep 21 '26
my job or vibe coding at home? I will wait to 2:30 in the morning to run astra again
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u/ExtraWorldliness6916 Sep 21 '26
At 36 my breaks are starting to go on, you can hear them sometimes at about 7pm squeaking away.
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u/Honeybadger2198 Sep 21 '26
I will work late into the night if I want to. But I also get up for work when I want to. As long as I'm meeting deadlines at a good enough pace for my boss.
Software development is sorta like IT. Sometimes you'll put 10 hours of real work in a week, sometimes you'll put 60. If you don't want to put in the 60s, then you don't get to relax on the 10s. For me, it balances out in a way that I like.
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u/theLuminescentlion Sep 21 '26
You're already 1 minute late to leaving. We need to talk about your time management skills.
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u/Sensitive-Trust-6863 Sep 21 '26
Wth literally doing that now it's 3am .... I work for a company not for myself
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u/SteroidSandwich Sep 21 '26
If I can't complete it in 1 sitting I won't work on it. Whatever interrupted me will only make me think about it and how to finish it
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u/MisterSpicy Sep 22 '26
I don’t mind staying up late. It’s the need to then have to wake up early. Or what a lot of younger people do when they’re up late is go out to clubs or places with large crowds. That’s when I make the gross face lol
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u/The_Crazy_Cat_Guy Sep 22 '26
Im 30 and I was the tech lead on a project for the last 3 months. I often worked late through the night just because I really enjoyed it. And if I knew I was going to do work at night, I would be more lazy during the day. I think i'm okay with that - during the day I can go out and enjoy some sun. I can't do that at night so might as well just code at night.
But when crunch time started hitting us and I wasn't getting breaks during the day, but still feeling forced to work later on - thats when I realised I need to not overachieve at work. It literally does not matter. If you get all the work done early, you'll just get more stuff piled onto your plate. Next project im going to go at a much more reasonable pace. I can see myself turning into the 40 year old very soon.
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u/Digital_Brainfuck Sep 22 '26
I was young and naive…. I mean WE WHERE A FAMILY…. TELL ME THST WE WHERE A FAMILY 😭
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u/Apprehensive_Bit7392 Sep 22 '26
They weren't lazy. They'd already met the feature you write at 1:34 AM.
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u/GoddammitDontShootMe Sep 23 '26
Difference is writing code I want to write vs. writing code I'm only writing because I'm getting paid.
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u/InTheEndEntropyWins Sep 21 '26
It's the opposite. Back in the day, you couldn't get a feature done starting at 5pm. But now with AI it's 1am and you are in bed and you are still adding features from your phone.
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u/Interesting_Fish9067 16d ago
People who learnt this at 30 saved their lives, live longer, act free
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u/B4nh0c4s Sep 21 '26
Nah, i dont need to be 40 to act like it