I once worked 12 hours days.. 12 on, 2 off...
It didn't help that I was working away from home as well (4 hours drive) so had to stay in a hotel whilst working the 12 days on.
I think there is a lot of truth in this new work life/home life balance thing that people are banding about.
If you are working too many hours its because the employers need more staff.. simple as that. Unless the wages reflect the extra sweat that you are having to put in then steer clear. There are plenty of cushier jobs out there...
Just as a PS to this post.. (and a bit off topic so my apologies) I have just returned from a weekend holiday in Derbyshire (county in the UK) and, whilst there, visited Speedwell Cavern.
It was opened as a lead mine and the miners used to work down in the dark for 14 or 16 hours a day. They worked by the light of a candle made from tanning (animal fat and other stuff) which they held in their teeth. Their hands were full with a pick and a shovel. They also had a bucket around their necks that they used to collect the lead.
Obviously, their gums rotted and their teeth fell out from holding the candle. They also usually contracted severe lead poisoning from having the bucket around their necks. Lead poisoning is a terrible disease that causes painful swelling of the joints, bleeding of orifices, and eventually death. The average age expectancy of someone working down the mine was 28 years old.
There used to be a job for a "pump man" who used to use bellows to circulate the air down there. There was only a very small cut out in the rock where they would sit so it was normally a young boy that was chosen to do it (generally the son or nephew of one of the miners). The youngest recorded worker for this position was a boy of four years old... he too had to work 14 to 16 hours down there in the dark pumping these bellows...
Thank god for Health and Safety legislation!