I work for a large aerospace company as a software engineer, and have been in the profession for over 11 years. Ever since I started at this company six months ago, the program that I'm working for mandates that its employees work 46 hours per week. Just about everyone working there is an exempt employee, so we're not paid the overtime. I've never heard of any end date for the mandatory overtime, and part of me wonders if it'll even go up some in the near future.
Funnily enough, I didn't really know what being an “exempt” employee really meant until today, when I started searching about worker rights for them. Apparently, being “exempt” means that you're exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations regarding minimum wage and overtime pay. Though I know we're usually not paid overtime in our industry and sometimes have to work overtime, that specific wording of being basically exempt from labor laws has put a rather sour taste in my mouth.
I'm paid well, and six hours of overtime per week isn't a huge amount (though I guess you could say it's almost an extra day of work per week), but this just has rubbed me the wrong way today.