[apercu]

I think this is the crux of the problem - in the US and Canada (at least) there is an IT class of professionals that are exempt from overtime. Why? Please someone tell me why?

And it's not just the gaming industry.

I am involved with 10 projects right now (way more than my usual load). 1 of them has a reasonable schedule (though my component is sort of aggressively scheduled), 3 have completely ridiculous schedules (from day one requiring overtime and weekend work to complete), 1 has stupid political nonsense going on which makes it a complete cluster that is making the timeline silly, 2 others are being rushed in phases, since the timeline was stupid to begin with, 2 others are crunched because they are related to the 3 that have stupid timelines (forcing the team to split in to 5 different teams and work in parallel) and the last one is being finalized but had some pressures on my component, which rushed my work.

So, anecdotally, 90% of the projects I am involved in currently have issues with their scheduling.

As I have been involved with software/hardware development since 1995, my experience suggests this is nothing new.

[Animats]

It's time for repeal of some Fair Labor Standards Act exemptions. There's one for computer programmers.[1] The threshold for exemption from overtime needs to be pushed up to the point that only the 1% are exempt.

[1] http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17e_computer.htm

[apercu]

I agree 100%. When on salary you are buying a piece of my time in exchange for an agreed upon amount of compensation. For an employer to make the former variable but not the latter is B.S.

Also, the whole more than 40 hour per week expectation is nonsense. I am independent now and can do the same (or more) amount of work in 30-40 hours a week now. In fact, I worked ~500 fewer hours my first full year of being independent. Did I make a little less money? Sure, because I don't get paid time off anymore. And I also worked a lot less.