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: 
The link you included in your question contains really all the information and references you need. Especially the Evan Robinson's well-known paper [Why Crunch Modes Doesn't Work](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304165322/http://www.igda.org/?page=crunchsixlessons), together with the supporting material and references, should provide you with ample arguments.

Basically, in pushing for sustained 60-85 hour work-weeks, your CEO is flying in the face of a majority of research done in the previous 100 years on worker productivity and risks.

This seems to be the norm in the games industry since the last 10-15 years though, so he's not alone in this apparent irrational behavior.

I would also add these hypothetical questions to your CEO:

* In the last 10-15 years, has the number of zero-day bugs and defects in shipped games products increased or decreased?
* In the last 10-15 years, has the average schedule overdraft on deliveries of games products increased or decreased?
* In the last 10-15 years, has the average budget overdraft on games projects increased or decreased?

And finally:

* In the last 10-15 years, have the number of working hours per week for each person in games projects increased or decreased?
The simple answer is to simply begin working 40 hour work weeks and make sure YOU are efficient for those 40 hours. If you aren't already burned out then the results will become apparent fairly quickly. If you are already burned out then 40 hour weeks probably won't make a difference, so keep working your 60-90 hour work weeks. Keep in mind that if you choose to continue with the long work weeks you'll be looking for a new line of work in the near future and that won't include any careers requiring thinking skills because your body is going to shut down all on its own because you chose not to listen to it.

I really don't understand how people can let themselves be so taken advantage of like your company does to you.