This simply doesn't work in larger studios with many employees. It WILL lead to a culture of crunch because if staying longer means better chances of promotion, then by definition it means the people working normal hours are harming their careers. It is 100% management's responsibility to curb crunch and straight up tell people to go home. The poster you quoted is right. This philosophy of yours is exactly why crunch culture is a thing in so many companies. They can all say "management never demands crunch" but at the end of the day if half the team is doing it, you will be pressured to do it too, and your career will suffer the consequences if you don't, regardless of how good your work is.
The only time crunch is a "choice" is when it's a 1-person development "team". You can read in Schreier's book how the dude making Stardew worked himself to the bone for years. It's still tremendously unhealthy.
Again, I have worked at very large companies and very small companies. And in fact, my experience has personally shown me that smaller companies and their deadlines usually demanded more "toxic" crunch because we were trying to prove ourselves to clients that we were worth a damn in comparison to the bigger guys so we can gain repeat business. But even with regards to larger companies, you tunnel visioned on the concept that "crunching" is the only way to earn promotions or to get ahead in their careers. But that isn't always the case for when and why many people who crunch choose to do so. Some may choose to do so for several reasons, including personal ambition. You can't just say flat out "the only time crunch is a choice..." because it's simply not indicative of every employee at every company in the world. And from my experience, often times crunch is rewarded in one way or or another - but that would never be brought up in any of these threads.
That's why I said it needs to be on the individual to decide how much they can push themselves or how far they can carry it. Because management can indeed sometimes only see you as a number and can ignore you as an actual human being. Or maybe because your coworkers may work slower or faster than you at varying tasks and you want to make sure you are doing your part for the team with your strengths to keep the ship moving forward in unison. Or maybe your personal ambition and achievements are just that, personal - so you need to decide whether something is worth it or not for your own growth.
To be clear, I am not advocating for companies to treat employees like machines. I can't stress that enough. All I was trying to express was that management forcing people to go home at X o'clock is not a the solution because it doesn't give everyone the health and wellness people assume it does. It comes with it's own issues when you work in a demanding and dynamic environment.
But to reiterate my main point, it's that not all "crunch" is the same and we need more context before throwing blanket statements about this topic. I don't want to keep defending my personal experiences because its either black or white out here on ERA...
I just can't personally help it. When I have a big project on a deadline I can't think about anything else and it would be great if my company had a system in place to kind of MAKE me take a step back, but the reality is that this sort of crunching is encouraged and lauded even in my field, which is something much more mundane than game dev or software development.
What kind of system would your company have to put in place so that you wouldn't think about work outside of work? Even if they banned you from working beyond your typical hours, locked up the office doors and said no more overtime pay - it still sounds like it would still consume you outside of work hours. This is why I am saying it sort of needs to be on the individual to have the introspection to learn about and apply limits to yourself. You're self imposing crunch and this happens a lot to many people. But it's part of human nature.
Again, not defending companies forcing crunch, but more trying to elaborate the concept of crunch coming in multiple forms.
