Still Working Overtime........?

It's 7.30pm on a nice Monday evening, no rain, clear sky,no traffic jam. And yet Steve Beh was alone at the office,churning out some reports, occasionally stopping & ingrained in deep thoughts.
Yes, Steve Beh was working overtime again tonight, and tomorrow night...until Friday night.
To him, the world around the company he was in would stop soon if he did not complete the overtime for tonight."What would my wife say if I return home now?". "What would the boss say if I don't submit the reports tomorrow?"."What would...?".
This may not be a typical scenario of an executive working overtime daily in a typical company in Malaysia but it does strike an accord with me, and resembles what many of my colleagues have been doing for the last 30 years,20 years,5 years, 2 years and some who have just barely been working for a year.

Theories that I have gathered from friends have it that the main reasons for an executive working overtime ( which means, unpaid overtime!)are:
1. Workload
2. Avoiding family problems
3. Avoiding traffic jams
4. Short of manpower
5. Less interruptions in work when most others are not present
6. Requested by supervisor,due to abnormal or seasonal demands
7. Perceived financial rewards
8. Perceived promotion prospects
9. Fear of losing job
10. Job satisfaction (this reason is my input, which unfortunately, only two colleagues concurred).

After retirement,I found out that reasons no.(8) may be valid for long serving employees but the rest of the reasons are applicable for the relatively newer employees.

Time management is definitely the main culprit for most of the reasons above and I would advise everybody to look into this aspect seriously.Most of the time, we procrastinate during normal office time...well,sometime fighting fires (I see smokes!) or building new toilets(cannot stand already!)when required!A good boss should understand his subordinate's predicament. There is so much a person can do.All that may have been planned may have been thrown down the drain if the boss frequently, out of the blue,instructed for an immediate job instruction change or new job instruction to be completed.Yes,there are still such bosses around in this millenium.

There is no point in trying to impress upon your boss if you frequently worked overtime. Your boss is not a stupid person. Financial rewards or promotions are not gotten these ways. Your boss will just think that you are inefficient...remember sometime your boss may have asked you before,"Why are you still working so late?". Is this your boss's concern for you or is it a rhetoric question?
Financial rewards and promotions are gotten from your performance results,sometime irrespective of your working attitudes!

A case of exemption for thoughts:
Previously a multi-national company I know of,has such a good management and human relationship system that the employees worked overtime voluntarily to achieve higher productivity & efficiently and achieved consistently higher and higher profit for the company. Fianancial rewards and promotions were abundant as a result.
Later, the company was taken over by another owner and there were almost zero human relationship among the new management and the employees, the former with the system of "I boss, you slave". From thence,almost all employees stopped work at 5pm and the work attitude became laissez-faire (tidak apa). Of course, there were still one or two who stayed behind due to financial rewards or promotion prospects.....

I have learned that working overtime frequently caused unnecessary stress and fatigue when it deny you the chance for other healthy activities, like staying or going out more often with your loved ones or like exercising and playing games. Devoting less time to such health promoting activities may lead to other health problems in later lives!

So, what is the time now? 8.30pm. And still in the office??