To be sick of this, think it is utter bollocks and the next generation are actually bang on?

I'm 51 and thought that if I worked my socks off (lawyer) I would both progress in my career and be appreciated by senior management.

Nope nope and nope again. It just meant I was the sucker who had a nervous breakdown at the age of 45 and very nearly destroyed my family life (and indeed mine as I became suicidal) in the process as I had an exceptionally vulnerable pre-teen at the time.

I agree with a PP who said to tell Eric to show you the money first and then you will decide if it's worth it. Bet he can't come up with the goods because it's all a load of bollocks anyway.

Were you a lawyer, accountant or the like?

Your manager is an utter twat, no more or less. The culture in the company is completely wrong. People working habitually more hours leads to exhaustion, burnout and less work being done.

My immediate thought was “lawyer”!

But YANBU. It’s a toxic work ethic. My MIL (former nurse) thinks that the junior doctors are such whiners, that they just got on with it all in her day. When I suggested that they were overworked then and shouldn’t have been, she replies “nonsense!”.

It’s this never take a sick day mentality. What for? Why is there morality in not looking after your own health and happiness for a company’s profit margin?

In my old company, we used to get “employee of the month” awards and the winner was always someone who stayed way past official office closing times - often until 9 or 10pm. The company under-employed people and under-paid people and the owner owned three large and luxurious homes and was frequently at one of them and not in the office.

Think I'd be telling Eric where to stick his job.
In my previous role I worked my hours. We did 10-12 hours a day. No way I would do more and tbh we weren't expected to.
I'm from the older generation (older than you OP) but don't and never brought in to the notion of working until you drop.

I'm in my mid 40s and think Eric is a fucking prick. If any manager spoke to me like that I would be emailing my concerns to HR.

I had a manager like that once who gave back comments on a complex but not urgent document at 6pm on Friday and asked to see the new version at 9am on Monday.

I told them in very firm terms that unless is was critical there was no way I was asking my team to work over the weekend. We would pick it up first thing on Monday and they woulld get it as soon as possible on Monday morning.

Eric is a dinosaur.

I am in my 50s in a professional role. I worked late and logged in over the weekend because there was an emergency that had to be sorted otherwise it could have resulted in adverse publicity, plus I didn't want my team to have to work instead. I wouldn't do it as a matter of course and my boss seemed a bit miffed when I said I was taking a couple of hours back on the next Friday so I could go to the gym and buy groceries.

No way would I do it as a matter of course. A working week is usually 35-40 weeks, if someone is concentrating during those hours and doesn't have too many meetings, then that's more than enough to get the best of them.

Why would Eric want people working to the point that they are making mistakes and past their best? Seems pretty silly to me.

Thanks Eric, please can you put that in an email and cc HR? No, I thought not!

Sorry to be blunt, but if you (God forbid) dropped with stress tomorrow, you'd be replaced by some other poor sod within a month and the world would keep turning.

I remember when I was about 20 and work were pushing for me to take time of in lieu of overtime that my lovely. lovely manager pulled me aside and said "take the money, the regional manager is looking at his bonus not at what is best for you or the company" ..he wasn't wrong.

No thanks Eric, if your life is so empty you have nothing but work to love for, that’s up to you. Take your power tripping self off and I’ll be leaving at 530 from now.

Eric is not a good manager. Eric can stuff this nonsense up his backside. He wants you to basically give yourself a nervous breakdown and become a workaholic on the vague promise of more money next year maybe. Eric is having a laugh. Don't listen to Eric.

This long hours culture / presenteeism is old fashioned. Progressive companies are more about efficiency and aiming for a four day week!

Keep the discussion firmly focused on your objectives and how you’re meeting them, because that’s the evidence you will presenting if you’re passed over or up for promotion. That should be what matters for your company’s bottom line. If there’s investment possible that will make your role more efficient, eg training, new software or hardware, do suggest it. And in the background look for another job.

I think you'll find previous generations rejected this idea too. I'm 69 and never bought into it. I worked to live, I didn't live to work.

You are so right. I did exactly this, in several different jobs. Not for extra money but because I felt responsible. Ended up seriously ill. Now I’ve learnt to say no!

A wise man - my boss at the time- once said to me ‘ a good job doesn’t love you back’.

I worked in a 24/7 industry , and some of my colleagues had, and probably still have that attitude, especially to those more ‘junior’ to them.

But I am with you Op, the younger generation make some very good points with their work/life balance . Work is about results not quantity, although I get that there are times when you have to work over to meet a deadline.

If Eric is typical of your workplace, find another.

Has Eric not seen the "work life balance" paragraph in the HR handbook.

Used to work with a company like yours where the managers were put "under pressure" lot of them started going off sick/leavng until the company realised what was happening. Things changed.

I'm a lawyer, mid 30s. I leave at 4-5 for childcare reasons but also tend to log on more at weekends or in evening if I need to catch up. Often less hours aren't actually being done, people are just being more flexible with their time. If any "older" generation moans at me for leaving when I'm entitled to I feel sorry for them - must be hard to be so bitter.

I’m going to guess lawyer. I work in financial services and would never expect anything like that. I would struggle not to laugh in his face . What a dick.

Yeah ‘late night if course !’ Hard Nope Here!

Do you want kids ?

anyway I would ignore, work hard enough and earn ££ instead of £££. And have a lovely life

I earn a very decent amount of money leading a department. I don't work ridiculous hours unless there's extraordinary need, like an audit or regulatory concern. I've had to train some of my new recruits into working normal hours, and actually started disciplinary proceedings with someone who insisted on making themselves ill by working all hours. Everyone who works for me knows that I'm not impressed by them disguising resource needs by working beyond their contracted hours. If we can't complete day-to-day work with the hours we have then we need to buy in more hours, i.e. recruit more staff, or re-evaluate the backlog.

So no thanks Eric, you're a dinosaur.

On your death bed no one says I wish I'd spent longer in the office. I work in hospices and in patients homes.

OP I'm really senior in the tech industry which is notoriously hard work.

I have a team of 11.

I would never ever say anything like this as it's counter culture in the company I work.

If it's culture in your company to say or behave like this I would start looking for a way out.

Utterly ridiculous.

What if the "failure to plan" is by a client asking you to do something to extremely tight timescales? My experience is you can't tell the client "sorry that's your problem" so everyone ends up pulling a ridiculous shift.

There is a series of mini videos on youtube which may interest/entertain/support
you,
(I’m sorry I haven’t worked out yet how to link) of animated stick people,
‘Veronica’s Annual Review Showdown’ - ToonTribe Animation.
Tone of voice seems to be impactful.

What Eric is suggesting is that you could voluntarily be the willing horse
He also sounds like an Automaton which you, presumably, are not !

Eric wants to break peoples mental health so they all go off sick for 6 months.

Where you will find more Erics if it's another firm in the same industry.