[michaelochurch]

Oh, come on. I agree that "play dates" (a consequence of suburbia, where the Calvin and Hobbes childhood is impossible because space is cut up by 45-mph roads) and helicopter parents and $35,000-per-year-fucking-preschools are a sign of something sick in our society. No question there. But wanting to leave work after a 9-hour day to be available to his children is not "organizing [his] life around [his] children". If you have kids, they become a major part of your life.

This doesn't mean he's forcing his presence on his children for three hours per day. It means that if his daughter needs him for help on homework or his wife wants some time to relax, he's available.

The problem in many workplaces is that results are difficult to measure while sacrifice and pain are obvious. Most teams at most companies are cemented together by the loyalty and camaraderie associated with shared misery, and a person who goes home at 5:00 (even if he's been working since 6:30 am) is cut out of that and finds himself pushed into the "out crowd". It's an extremely dysfunctional arrangement (see: investment banking, where the actual workload is only 40-50 hours per week but in a dysfunctional arrangement that produces 80+ hours of in-office time) but it's also very common.

People, in general, are terrible at measuring others' productivity and contribution but have an intuitive knack (or think they do) for emotional currents of loyalty and sacrifice. The problem in most work environments is that the latter is what actually drives reputations, social fluidity, and often decisions about whom to promote and (if things get bad) whom to let go.