Working 60+ Hours a Week Modern Slavery...

Working 60 hours a week.

Look, that seems really brutal to me, in the strictest sense of the word. Understandably, you'll live to work. You're practically little more than a resource. This could also be called "modern slavery."

I think all workdays are more or less the same, about five or six times a week. If we divide 60 by 5 days, that's 12 hours per day. Understand that, for the entire week, you have practically no time for anything at all. You'd have another 12 hours per day, of which you have to sleep, and the other 4 for getting organized, eating, etc. So, you have nothing left. You practically live to work.

Regardless of the job, or how well you're paid, I don't think it's worth it. It's not worth the effort.

My personal experience

The problem here is when they want to impose it on you. Before continuing, I want to clarify: I'm a person who works a lot—it's not about working 12 hours straight every day, as they suggest. Besides, in my case, it's not Monday through Friday, but every day. Every day is the same for me. Every day I work at least 8 hours, often more.

But I do it for myself, for my dreams, for my goals. Although in the end we all work for someone, understand that right now I'm not working for someone else from a computer; I'm working directly on my brand.

We always work for someone

Even if you say "I'm self-employed," you're always working for someone. For example, I use Udemy. Or Udemy uses me. I'm not sure. I also use YouTube and other channels to sell or promote my content. You always need someone to promote you, whether it's a real person or a platform.

And when you work for a company, it's the same: you always have a superior. That's why I find this topic interesting. You can scale it down: you, as a person, want to work for a company, especially in software development—although this applies to any field.

You'll always have to answer to someone. You're fulfilling someone else's dream. Sure, we all have goals, but in the end, it translates like this: you work so someone else can fulfill their dream. And the serious thing is when that "other" defines that you must give 60 or more hours of your life a week.

That's why I say this is bordering on modern slavery. Because, mind you, I—to achieve my dreams—do give everything, and more than 100%. But not for the dreams of others. Especially in this increasingly complicated society.

We all know Elon Musk, we know how apprehensive he is, to put it mildly. We've seen many things before: from his purchase of Twitter (now X) to his role in the Trump administration as part of the council on government efficiency. We already know how he operates.

For him, and for many like him, employees are just disposable resources. When you no longer need them, you vote them out. This was the case at Twitter, where he laid off, if I recall correctly, 80% of the workforce. He did similar things at other US companies.

In other words, they ask you to give your all, but they fire you when you're no longer needed...

I understand that a company should optimize resources, reduce expenses, etc., but firing people as if they were things... and on top of that, requiring them to work more than 12 hours is unacceptable.

What if AI arrives?

And as if that weren't enough, now we have to add artificial intelligence. While I don't think AI will take your job on its own, it does make you much more efficient.

For example, since I started using AI, I've been performing two or three times better. So, if a company has 20 developers using AI, what happens?

Three options:

1. The company grows and takes on more projects.
2. The company maintains its pace and reduces staff.
3. They demand more from you without paying you more.

Most likely: they demand more from you or replace you. Because now you're competing not only with other people, but with AI. And employers can use that as an excuse to impose longer hours.