Though Apple claims that Samsung copied gadget design elements from the iPhone and iPad, Samsung employees are actually working themselves to the bone in the race to beat Apple.
"I slept perhaps two hours, or three hours a night," Samsung app icon designer Jeeyuen Wang said in court recently, recalling her three-monthlong work on the Galaxy S handset, according to the Daily Mail.
Her admission to shockingly long hours came out during the Samsung-Apple trial, currently raging in California. The Korean company on Tuesday brought several witnesses to the stand to testify against accusations that its Galaxy S smartphone copied the design of Apple's iPhone.
The Verge also reports Wang had just given birth around the inception of the Galaxy S, and she was obligated to spend many hours on the project, away from her baby. "My recollection was that the breast feeding had to come to a stop," she stated.
“Those were difficult times," Wang said, according to EE Times. "Samsung is a very hard company to work at -- it’s a very hard-working company."
Employees at other large tech companies are known to log grueling hours, particularly when new products are soon to be released.
In her book, "The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network," former Facebook employee Katherine Losse gave audiences a glimpse into the company's culture.
"To most of its users, Facebook seemed to come from nowhere; to me, it had meant long and sometimes very exciting hours — and some difficult experiences that didn't belong on my Facebook 'wall,'" The Wall Street Journal reprinted from her tell-all book.
Google, too, has been said to require long hours from its staff. In 2009, TechCrunch posted an email thread allegedly from Google HR, asking ex-employees "why they quit." One worker stated the following:
If you don’t put extra hours then you won’t get promoted, no promotion means no salary hike… [I] feel sad about my decision on choosing Google over IBM … Small pay, No work, No Team spirit, No Hike in 12 months, No balance between Family Life and work are few things which motivated my move out.
And of course, Apple is no exception.
"You’re going to work harder than you ever have in your entire life,” Apple's VP of mobile software Scott Forstall told workers during the making of iOS. He explained the late nights and overtime hours to the courtroom in his court testimony last week. “You’re going to have to give up nights and weekends probably for a couple of years as we make this product," he said, per Bloomberg Bussinessweek.
Have you or anyone you've known worked for a company that demanded long hours from employees? What are your thoughts on the impact such requirements could have on employees? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.
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