Working unscheduled overtime doesn’t prove dedication.
A team member that routinely burns extra hours is a signal of poor planning, agreeing to risky deadlines, or over-promising - not professionalism.
It makes them a manipulable laborer, not a trusted partner.
Having said that, not all overtime is wrong. Genuine emergencies do happen where extra effort is needed, but those cases should be rare and an “work overtime” solution be something that is chosen deliberately from all the options available.
The hidden costs of worker overtime often outweighs the gains in the schedule: quality, morale, and long-term velocity can suffer.
The professional solution is better planning. Fostering an environment where people feel safe to push back on unsafe commitments. And reserve working overtime only for exceptional situations.
Discussions for your team
- Does the team feel pressure to accept unrealistic deadlines?
- Which planning habits leads the team into overtime work?
- How can we decide when overtime is truly justified?
- What are some examples of past overtime situations that may have compromised code quality?
- What process changes might reduce unscheduled crunches?