[MalcolmDiggs]

I don't think a CTO is expected to work at a burnout pace, but I do think they set the tone for the rest of the engineering team. That is, I would expect a lower-level engineer to see your pace and do ~maybe~ 75% of it. So in effect, yes, I think you'll often be the last person in the office, because others will pace off of you.

[otoburb]

If the OP has specific examples of working smarter vs. harder, one hopes this can be demonstrated through concrete examples and coaching for exactly the reason that "others will pace of you."

If the OP cannot demonstrate this to his team, then unfortunately it will be an uphill battle attempting to maintain any semblance of work-life balance in this instance if the culture already demands 50-60+ hrs per week.

[MalcolmDiggs]

I'd agree with that, and I hope he can demonstrate that to the team. I wish it was the other way around really. I wish entry-level folks (fresh out of college, tons of energy, no responsibilities at home) would naturally try to outdo / outpace the senior people to prove their worth, but alas I haven't seen that happen much.

But one other consideration: as a c-suite executive, nobody else in your department really has any idea what you do all day. When you leave for a few hours they don't know if you're going to meetings or walking your dog. I've had superiors who left far earlier than me on a regular basis but I never assumed that their day was done; I really had no idea what their calendar looked like, and just assumed that only part of their day was allocated to face-time-with-the-developers.

I think you can use this to your advantage. If you play it right, you can stop working without anybody really knowing it, and most people will assume you work way longer hours than you actually do.