Definitely. That's phase 2 of the world's worst game. Phase 1 being "Please give us an unbiased estimate, but we will yell at you until it's the number we like." Under those conditions, working weekends is just feeding the beast.
I do think it can be ok to work extra hours to seize an unusual opportunity or deal with some truly unexpected problem. (E.g., the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 required a lot of tech people to scramble.) But that has to be balanced by something good for the workers and painful for the business, like an equivalent amount time off or significant overtime pay.
But workers shouldn't have to spend their spare time making up for managerial incompetence and malpractice.
I was lucky enough to see management get caught in their bullshit during one of these "hard deadlines" when I was just out of school. They said that December 1st was the deadline and that if we didn't get the release out we would lose millions in revenue. People run around like crazy until the end of November when we realize the EULA document is just a place holder and that Legal has not given us the new EULA. All of a sudden the deadline is mid January when we expect to get the new EULA.
What drives me crazy about this is how it shows that some employees are expected to bust their asses to meet deadlines, but others (legal) are not -- oh, if legal won't be done in time, we'll just move the deadline, no problem.
While some people -- healthily or not -- are willing to bust their butts (with or without extra compensation) when they think everyone is in it together, it will generally kill morale and willingness to do such when you realize when someone else 'doesn't have time', the deadline is moved, it's only you expected to work evenings and weekends and extra hours to meet the deadline. Why is your work-life balance less important than theirs exactly? (Only because they can get away with it...)
And while not always as stark as your example, people are often shown this all the time, that not everyone's inconvenience is in fact treated equally, that the "deadline that can't be missed" really only applies to some people, and is moved for others.
I do think it can be ok to work extra hours to seize an unusual opportunity or deal with some truly unexpected problem. (E.g., the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 required a lot of tech people to scramble.) But that has to be balanced by something good for the workers and painful for the business, like an equivalent amount time off or significant overtime pay.
But workers shouldn't have to spend their spare time making up for managerial incompetence and malpractice.