Question: I work at a very young start-up company. We have had turn-over rates (mass resignation of staff, thrice) in the past but changes in the system have led to a more a stable employee retention and better technical-skilled employees. We do games, and I don't know with other software fields, but the "[death march](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/05/the-death-march-the-problem-of-crunch-time-in-game-development/)" is quite popular in our field.

My boss believes that the only way for us to catch-up to top companies is to exert more effort, which generally translates to more time working. Hence, we've had a culture of working a lot of hours (we work an average of 65 hours a week, peaking up to 90hours a week).

Our deadlines are either very difficult and sometimes impossible (since the team is pretty young) but our management sets deadlines at the "if people at company X can do this in X days, we can do it too"

I personally believe that raising team efficiency is one of the factors that can help eliminate too much overtime.

I've seen my subordinates/junior staff often not focused enough during the day, but I don't know how to objectively measure this (I've seen questions here relating to KPI's, or key performance indicators).

I'm in a position where I have good relations with my boss (our CEO), the management and the entire team and I believe they're more than willing enough to hear out what I have to say.

How can I approach this in a way that is beneficial for both the staff and the company?

Answer: 
**Seems to be working** If you're meeting the deadlines, I don't see how you can justify calling them impossible. Your boss thinks he's the next Steve Jobs. Just push for more-it's really that simple.

**Negative Consequences**
I haven't found any mention of what happens when deadlines aren't met. Has anyone been fired? If management is correct, and you aren't competitive in your market, everyone suffers the natural consequences of a weakened company. Does it affect your bonus?

**Rewards** If this company makes it 'big', are you all going to be millionaires? I'd expect more turnover unless they pay better than average salaries. 

Like too many programmers/engineers, you've developed an "all or nothing" mentality about your job. The boss set this impossible deadline, oh my! So what? The programmer is afraid they will release more bugs, but the management would rather meet the deadline because the level of bugs is acceptable in their mind AND THEIR USERS. We'll have to spend even more time fixing things. So what? They know this will happen. Everyone expects a quick patch after a major release. 

**It's all in your head** I'm willing to bet as the deadline nears, features get removed. Cut back on your hours. Get some sleep. Do something fun. You'll be more productive. You can only suggest others take this advice. When everyone realizes the sky isn't falling, your management may figure out you've learned to play the game.
Other replies list why it's a bad idea to work extreme hours. Let me focus on a different aspect instead.

What you're attempting to do is basically a culture transformation.

This is impossible to do without a heavy management sponsorship. You don't just need to *convince* the management. You need to transform them into advocates of this change.

And that won't be easy to do given that they probably believe they are profiting from the current situation.

If you have management sponsorship, the way to go is:

* informing about the new expectations: the management should be involved
* training for the expected behaviors
* controlling the adoption

A culture transformation is difficult enough to do with management sponsorship. Without the sponsorship it's impossible.