12-Hour Shifts and No Weekends: The Stress Behind AI’s Harsh Work Environment Signals a Warning for Everyone

In recent times, the terms “996” and “grindcore” have found their way into the mainstream, and with that shift came a wave of stories detailing the grueling work culture prevalent in startups, particularly in San Francisco. This city has become the epicenter for the expanding artificial intelligence sector, and the narratives emerging from it are strikingly alarming. For instance, one entrepreneur shared that he hadn’t taken a weekend off in over six months. Another woman humorously lamented sacrificing her social life for her role in a renowned AI firm. Then, there were employees who remarkably began shedding their shoes in the office—because if you were clocking in for more than 12 hours a day, six days a week, why not get comfy in slippers?

“If you visit a cafe on Sunday, everyone is busy working,” asserts Sanju Lokuhitige, co-founder of Mythril, a pre-seed AI startup. Having relocated to San Francisco in November to dive into the vibrant scene, Lokuhitige disclosed his routine of 12-hour workdays, seven days a week, punctuated by a few strategically chosen networking events. “I often code throughout my entire day,” he admits, “I simply lack any work-life balance.”

An additional startup employee, who came to San Francisco to join an early-stage AI business, revealed dismal images from their office; a cramped two-bedroom apartment in Dogpatch, a district favored by tech workers. The startup’s founders reportedly worked round the clock—scrolling through screens from 9 A.M. until early morning hours, only taking breaks for food deliveries or a quick smoke. The anonymous employee labeled the ordeal “horrendous”. “I knew about the 996 culture, but these folks are even more extreme,” he remarked, illustrating how they’re pulling off 16-hour days.

Historically, working at startups has lacked glamour. When I first began reporting on this sector over a decade ago, it was all about capitalizing on the mobile application boom, with programmers resorting to Soylent as a means to maximize their hours at desks. At that point, the hallmarks of startup culture revolved around hustle culture, high-achieving energy, and the relentless pursuit of growth without limits, themes that still coursed through the industry’s veins.

However, as the dust from the artificial intelligence revolution begins to settle in San Francisco, the atmosphere among tech professionals appears to have shifted noticeably. Enthusiasm for what many view as a new technological era, combined with the financial influx it promises, has now been overshadowed by mounting concerns about the industry and the broader economic landscape. While some workers are fully dedicated to advancing AI, they’re simultaneously grappling with questions about whether the technology they’re creating is genuinely beneficial. Furthermore, many individuals are effectively preparing machines to outperform them in their own jobs. Consequently, there’s an increasing number of tech workers who are anxious about whether there will be space for them in the future they are helping to construct.

Although these worries may seem to exist on the periphery for the general public, they cast long shadows within the tech community itself. Major tech firms, once celebrated for lavish employee perks like massage therapists and barbers on-site, have significantly cut back on those indulgences, while simultaneously ramping up expectations. Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have each openly expressed their belief that artificial intelligence could displace some junior and mid-level engineers, urging their teams to become more “efficient” and “extremely hard core.” Such significantly heightened demands coincide with recent waves of layoffs that have left employees on edge, with approximately 250,000 tech workers having been let go globally in 2025, as reported by RationalFX. AI was cited overwhelmingly as a driving force behind many of these layoffs, highlighting how complex the reasons often are.

“Five years ago, software engineers enjoyed a certain leverage in the job market,” reflects Mike Robbins, an executive coach who has worked with industry leaders from Google to Airbnb. “That dynamic has reversed today, leaving many tech workers feeling uncertain about their performance on the job. As companies become less fearful of losing talent, they feel emboldened to be more assertive in their expectations.” Robbins, who authored Bring Your Whole Self to Work, cites how in recent pre-pandemic years, topics around employee well-being and burnout were paramount. “Honestly, we’ve pivoted away from those conversations,” he admits. Nowadays, leadership is more focused on navigating change, disruption, and the uncertainties that permeate the modern workplace.

This shift—centered on change and disruption—has pushed tech workers to pour more hours into their jobs, at an escalating pace. Funding directed towards AI start-ups reached unprecedented levels in 2025, while workers are feeling resource scarcity like never before.

“It’s certainly something everyone talks about,” remarks Kyle Finken, a software engineer at Mintlify, which develops AI tools for developers. “Many are concerned about job security over the next few years.”

Yet, amidst these fears, Finken—like numerous other startup employees I’ve encountered—expresses excitement over the ongoing “extraordinary innovation” in AI. He is optimistic that ample opportunities will still exist for software engineers, albeit in forms distinct from traditional coding roles. Many tech workers describe this moment as uniquely creative and prolific within the industry; they’re often investing additional hours not due to employer pressure but driven by genuine enthusiasm for new technologies and tools. For instance, Garry Tan, the head of the storied startup accelerator Y Combinator, recently shared that he “spent 19 hours straight exploring Claude Code.”

Though enthusiastic about the technological evolution, even those workers concede that AI is swiftly augmenting their roles in ways that could provoke unpredictable outcomes for future job markets. “This certainly isn’t a time for complacency,” Finken concludes.

One leading catalyst for the influx of working hours is the relentless pace of tech development that makes keeping up a challenge. Missing a weekend can mean losing touch with significant breakthroughs, creating competitive disadvantages. Another key aspect driving longer hours is the necessity to produce notable work to present to potential employers, especially as entry-level roles become increasingly rare due to AI encroachment.

Lokuhitige, the co-founder of Mythril, explained how stiff competition for jobs means that merely being in the game is insufficient. “No one is hiring junior developers anymore,” he laments. To secure a job now, one must demonstrate creative achievements, such as launching a new product or solving recognized challenges, amidst dwindling postings for entry-level positions—a third of which have dwindled since 2022, per Indeed’s Hiring Lab. Job listings demanding over five years of experience have seen a corresponding rise, compelling many to grind away at startups to remain competitive.

What This Means for the Rest of Us

While economists debate whether AI will entirely replace jobs or merely transform them, they largely concur that it has already altered vast swathes of entry-level work and will continue to do so. A study released by Stanford researchers indicated “substantial declines in employment for early-career workers” in sectors significantly impacted by AI, suggesting that regions experiencing change might function as a “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of the job market. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, projected that AI might eliminate approximately half of entry-level positions across white-collar sectors within five years.

The head of the International Monetary Fund recently expressed a similar sentiment, warning that 60% of jobs in developed economies may either vanish or undergo transformation due to artificial intelligence, describing it as a “tsunami on the job market”. In cities like San Francisco, the initial impacts are already observable—self-driving Waymos are becoming competitors to Uber drivers, and robotic coffee machines are supplanting baristas. Professional services that cater to the tech sector have similarly suffered from recent layoffs. The prevalent pressure to hustle in the tech environment could serve as an early indicator of what many other industries may soon encounter.

Robbins, the executive coach, notes that for a period, companies globally looked to Silicon Valley as a blueprint for operational practices, down to refreshing policies like unlimited vacation days and amenities such as free office meals.

“For a long time, tech and Silicon Valley were idealized across the business world. That perspective is in flux,” he notes. “Companies no longer seek my insights on Silicon Valley to emulate it as they did a decade back.”

Instead of serving as a beacon of how work should function, the tech industry may now symbolize the looming anxiety and compensatory behaviors that the broader workforce is poised to experience in the near future.