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Discussion on: Do I need to code in my free time to be a good developer?

 
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Colum Ferry

It may save you time now, but it can come back to bite the team later.

How do you guys work out estimates?
It'll take x number of days to get User Story A done.
But wait, a "day" of work should be 8 hours worth of work, or something to that extent. If your team mates are working 12 hour days, then the concept of a piece of functionality taking a day is askew, and it could lead to incorrect estimations and increased stress when deadlines roll round.

"You said it would only take 2 days to get this feature finished, 3 days later and you're still working on it? We need to ship it out today!"

2 days of work for your team mates is 24 hours worth of work, but for you it's only 16 hours.

Another problem is the "expectation" that your team mates are working ridiculous hours to get work done, and when that's done it'll be expected for them to do the same for the next piece of work, and the next piece.

Then you can get a resentment building in the team.
Why are we constantly working 12 hour days when the other people in the team are clocking off at 5pm?
Or worse, others on the team start to feel like they need to start working longer hours because they feel guilty for not doing it as they "aren't being team players".

Part of our job is proactively managing expectations to allow us to continually and consistently deliver work and value for time.