Yes, I can remember plenty of those times. But they were the exception, not the rule. If my employer had expected that type of commitment on an ongoing basis, as a normal work day/week, I don't know that I would have done it. I might have lasted a week, or a month, but that would have been my limit.
I should have mentioned that I was a free-lancer, so I jumped from one high-pressure project to another, but usually with at least a week or two break and some ramp up before we started the all-nighters. I worked in a niche media industry where I knew most of the fellow free-lancers that I worked with; it was usually just a new combination of people I had already worked with sometime or other. There was an
esprit de corps that was seductive and I worked those grueling schedules for nearly 10 years until I left New York City.
At the time, I absolutely loved it. Looking back it was a horrible way to make a very good living. I had virtually no social life, could never make plans, and the product we made was completely ephemeral. All that work to furiously produce corporate assets that were used for only a few days.
That pattern is probably why I felt such an affinity for the development company I eventually joined. Code has a longer life cycle, but eventually it too is swept away. Every web site I worked on, no matter how fervently, was outdated in just a few years and is now long gone.
