[sokoloff]

They're not. I've done maybe a dozen genuine 80 hour workweeks in my 30 years since high school. Maybe. At least half of those were in college.

People who claim to be regularly working 80 hours a week are often over-counting ("I can't remember doing anything but sleeping and working last Monday, so I must have been working 16 hours.") and often not actually working during 30-75% of the time they're ostensibly at work. Walk by the random colleague at a random time and note how much time their screen has code on it vs Facebook, YouTube, or an online shopping site. Sure, they might be studying an online course on YouTube or buying a critical piece of lab equipment for work, but more than likely they are just dicking off about half the time.