But it does show that regulation can make a difference The long hours culture affects many sectors. It is easy to see how it has grown. As mass production and the kind of jobs where people are expected to clock in and out have declined, and much work has become more fulfilling, it is to be expected that employees watch the clock less and make that extra effort which can turn a competently done job into an excellent one or helps out other hard pressed members of a team. But it is very easy for this to ratchet up. Extra hours that were once appreciated now get taken for granted.
Workloads increase so that even adequate work requires longer hours.
Pressure on, and within teams, makes it hard to be the first one home. Promotion hopes and job insecurity keeps people chained to their desks. The result as we see in the next section is that employers now take substantial amounts of unpaid overtime for granted.