Is it normal to just work the normal work hours as a programmer?
I recently landed my first real job doing programming for a small-and-upcoming business. I tend to get in around 8:30 and work till 4:50. I can't work out of these hours cause I'd have no bus home (job is about a 30 minute drive away).
I've been hearing and reading alot about how programmers work insane hours, 14 or 16 hours a day or starting obscenely early and finishing around 2. I can't ever imagine myself getting so absorbed into a job. To me the 8 hours I do is a gruesome amount already. Will I be expected to pull these crazy hours off? And why do people even do this in the first place? I can understand if they had a deadline coming up and they were behind schedule, but otherwise it just seems self-destructive to me, to work that much.