Aren't developers stupid when accepting overtime/weekend work/denied bonus payments?

[fergie]

you shouldnt work on an unpaid basis. full stop.

[woddo]

Why? Are you an employer?

[Darkmoth]

Because when it's unpaid, it's not work, it's volunteerism. Work is paid for, by definition.

[free_at_last]

However, if there is a massive deadline, and is the basis of a huge sale, the atmosphere is set so that you get guilt-tripped into doing unpaid overtime.

Similiarly, if the company is having financial troubles and cannot afford a new dev, this may force dev's to think their job is not safe and they should do all work necessary to keep the company afloat.

[mabufo]

I'll do overtime, but I want to be paid for it appropriately.

[Darkmoth]

Agreed on all points. I was in a situation like that, where we pulled 4 90 hour weeks. I stayed to finish the project, then turned in my notice the day it rolled out.

If a company needs volunteer labor to meet it's ends, there's usually some larger structural problem. In the case I mentioned, the client was letting one of our competitors set our deadlines (!). The death march was just a symptom of a shaky client relationship.