Great answer, but I have to disagree on your suggestion to bring kids into the workplace. It's just not a good idea for any of the people involved. Your coworkers will hate you for it and your kids will despise you for forcing them to follow you to a place where they can't do anything and you can't make any time for them. I'd urge you to revise that out of the answer because mixing family and work like that is just asking for problems. Even asking about it would be seen as wildly out of touch in most (office) workplaces.

I like this answer because the comics drill the point home very well.

"Bring breakfast or organise a team breakfast" would be better advice for the manager. Anything to show that he (or she in this case) at least appreciates the extra work. Even if it is not out of appreciation but calculated, it still improves things a lot.

@gnasher729: totally agree, but if the manager won't (and isn't here on W-E) it's good for the team to do for morale. Within reason and budget of course.

@Lilienthal: I think that one might indeed be highly dependent on many things: culture/location, industry and also age of kids. I wouldn't bring my kids w/o asking first, and wouldn't bring a grumpy teenager. Brought my toddler to the office in the UK once on a Saturday (could not afford sitter, had to anyways). Thought I'd be alone but 5 other people from other deps also had overtime. Everybody loved it, but the atmosphere was lighthearted indeed in the first place.

@Lilienthal: I also have great memories of going to the office with my dad on Saturday mornings. I know now in retrospect he had to bring me because he had no choice either, but it was great. Gave me a tour of the factory (building plane parts) and computer department where he worked. Even found "work" for me: scanning barcodes. Probably wasn't even useful, but gave the impression it was.

@Lilienthal: Also, this likely depends on whether kids are already part of the company culture. My current company organizes (informal) family meetings in our offices in France and Germany, so it's already understood kids are welcome occasionally. Companies can't deny that family, kids or other dependent persons, are part of your life and you can't just brush them off on W-Es.

@Lilienthal: still, in think you're right and will edit my answer tonight. Thanks!

@Seiyria: glad you liked it. It's actually scary that when googling "Dilbert overtime" it had so many answers, and even direct sitelinks as the top search results (good SEO at Dilbert too :)).

@kirie: yeah I'd generally expect the manager to be here as well. In most hell projects I've seen, they generally were overworked too though (at least the N+1s). If they aren't overworked and don't occasionally pitch in "compassionate" overtime, I think it really shows you should not stick around if you have other options.

@haylem Yes, I can imagine that there are certain companies where this is part of the culture. It should be clear to the employee whether or not his company will allow it. And I suppose it also depends on the age and character of the child(ren) whether it would be a good idea or not.

[Working for free is] likely illegal in most countries and jurisdictions. That's the biggest reason companies pay employees salary instead of hourly in the US. They expect them to put in more than 40/wk, but they don't have to pay them any extra.

Darrick is correct that unpaid overtime is not illegal for salaried employees in the U.S. Salaried employees in the U.S. are just that, salaried. They're not paid by the hour. If they work 4 hours in a day it legally counts just the same as if they'd worked 12. Some companies have policies where they pay extra to their salaried employees for extra hours over some given amount anyway, but there's no law requiring them to do so. On the other hand, many companies, especially in software, tend to understand that they'll lose their good engineers if they abuse overtime.

I always think that the red-flag/ridicle factor of an office situation is directly proportional to how close it resembles a XKCD or Dilbert strip.

@Reirab: Yes, but in some other countries you have salaries but with a regulated working time, especially for lower-ranking employees (it's higher-ups that are expected to work more for "free", as they have bigger salaries and compensation packages). I tried to word that more or less all-encompassingly, but I think going more into details would be out of scope (and too specific to a region or another). You should feel free to edit if you think this can be improved.

@Mindwin: exactly. If your manager's pep talks are almost quotations of the pointy-haired boss, be afraid!

@haylem Yes, I'm aware they exist. My issue (and, I suspect, Darrick's issue) was mainly just with the 'most' wording, which seems rather dubious to me. I submitted an edit to change 'most' to 'some,' which I think clears up any potential problem there. Feel free to reject/revert the edit if you don't agree.

@reirab: others rejected it (too minor), but I agree and will do the edit myself later at home, I need to incorporate Lilienthal's comments too. Thanks for the suggestion.

What I wanted to say but with the effort required. Superb.

@Reirab: edited. Hope it's better.

@Lilenthal: edited. Hope it's better.

Not directly related to this but a side-tip from an old boss, the company had a habit of spewing directives and demands from above which another manager was always fire-fighting to comply with: When JFDI arrives in your inbox, leave it there. When someone gets in touch to ask why you haven't done it yet, then apologise for missing it & do it. 99% of the time, whatever it was they wanted has been changed / rendered obsolete by mismanagement and you will never get chased for it. (JFDI == "Just f**ing Do It", the colloquial term for these asinine directives from the pointy-haired boss above)