[sokoloff]

Contains predictable reddit comments of never working a millisecond of unpaid time.

That’s certainly a choice; there’s nothing wrong with it.

OTOH, if you enjoy coding (as I do), there’s also nothing wrong with coding at home or doing the occasional extra work from home (and conversely, dicking off in the office now and then when there’s an opportunity).

Many find that being flexible like this yields a better outcome for all parties.

[ghaff]

Absolutely. Aside from quite a bit of work travel which inevitably blurs the boundaries between personal time and work time (as does the fact that otherwise I mostly work from home), I generally keep work to work hours.

However, as you suggest, I also generally will do a bit of work here and there if something comes up and tend to checkin on email now and then at home. Conversely, I'll run out and do a few errands on weekdays if I need to pickup groceries, etc. I know a lot of people have trouble setting boundaries for various reasons (with faults on both employer and employee sides) but overall I find flexibility can be a better deal for everyone.

[tenaciousDaniel]

I just honestly enjoy doing it. I spend every saturday and sunday morning working on side projects at coffee shops - it's my favorite part of the week.

[carlosrg]

Yes, I think the key point is to know yourself, do what you truly like at leisure time, and never put yourself on pressure outside of work (for example, thinking not coding at home will make you a worse programmer, or that you're missing something). Sometimes I've not touched a line of code at home for months because I was focusing on other hobbies, like reading, that I had abandoned. No regrets. Lately I've gone back to think about possible personal projects I could do. Being flexible with yourself is important.

[Insanity]

This is key! It echoes my comment elsewhere in the thread quite well. Being flexible is important. You'll just end up depressing yourself if you'll force yourself to write code in your free time even when you don't want to. (Been there, done that).

[t34543]

If I’ve got the work scratch on my own time I turn to learning. It can benefit me long term, and perhaps score me some cred at work in the short term.