We’ve all been there: It’s 2:00 AM and the presentation to your clients is due in five hours. Red bull cans, coffee cups, and candy wrappers adorn your desk as you painstakingly move that slide title 0.000001 inches to the left. Finally done, you trudge back to your car, hoping to get at least a few hours sleep before the big presentation tomorrow. Somewhere, somebody is getting a full nights sleep.

On the surface this may seem like an extreme example, but just how common are these situations happening? According to Tara Weiss from Forbes, this kind of thing happens more often than you think. In her article titled How extreme is your job?, she discusses how the standard work week in America is becoming dangerously long. Unfortunately, I’d have to agree.

For example, at my job, the first 18 hours of overtime that you work is considered “expected overtime”. In other words, you don’t get paid for them. Instead of the standard 40 hour week, they’re expecting you to work 49 hours as a matter of course. This doesn’t turn out to be as bad as it may sound, because you can usually work certain arrangements out with your boss to translate it into unofficial comp time, but it’s the thinking behind it that’s scary.

Another factor that comes into play is commute time. Luckily for me, I don’t have a commute (I can walk to my office in 15 minutes), but if you have an hour commute each way this kind of thinking can really hit home. In my example, if you work an extra hour or so each day, you’re doubling your commute home time.

One point that the article makes is that one of the reasons that many people are working dangerously long hours is because they love their jobs and don’t want to lessen their workload. While I can see this being a factor, I have a hard time believing that your average worker loves their job enough to double their hours per week. That’s bordering on obsession. In contrast, I think a better explanation is that the average worker has gradually accepted longer and longer hours, and we’re just realizing now how badly we might have screwed ourselves. If it the average work day had made a huge jump from 8 to 18 hours, then there would have been a huge outcry. However, when you move from 8, to 9, to 10 in a gradual manner, then people are less likely to notice it and just start accepting it.

What do you think? Do you find this happening at your job? Drop me a line in the comments section with your thoughts.