> What happens when every company is doing this ritual?
Just look at Japan to see what a 12+ hour / day work culture looks like. Their population and their economy are both slowly going down the shitter thanks to it, depression is widespread, etc.
Working long hours is common in Asia, especially in Japan and Korea. My wife had worked as salaried accountant at Nike, Gap, Guess fashion, and other companies that have presence in Asia, and it was common for her to have to stay at work until 11pm, sometimes past midnight, and yet expected to report by 9am the next morning. Leaving work at 9pm would be ordinary, and leaving at 6pm would be like committing a career suicide. I have a friend who worked at Samsung in Korea and told me that the work hours were brutally long, but no one wanted to change jobs because the alternative was another job with less pay but still with long hours, as expected.
> Not sure if economic problems really come from long work days.
I'm not sure either, but, at least as the story is told today, that was Ford's motivation for implementing the 8 hour workday at Ford. He allegedly surmised that if people were too busy working, they wouldn't have time to buy his products. It certainly seems plausible. If you spend all your time working, you really don't need to buy much other than the basic necessities, which doesn't help with a robust economy.
Just look at Japan to see what a 12+ hour / day work culture looks like. Their population and their economy are both slowly going down the shitter thanks to it, depression is widespread, etc.