Popular work ethic in consulting has aspects of self exploitation. Most consultants I met had a tendency to stretch the definition of 'fit for work' to its limits. I remember an assignment a few years back where I took the 6am flight on Monday and flew to the next client in the middle of the week or home at the end of it. The problem was that at one point during the winter I caught a really nasty flu that would not go away for several weeks. At its peak it was so bad, my ears would pop on the Monday flight and I would only be able to hear everything in a damp, silent mode. It always took a few days until my hearing was back to normal again, and guess what: that was usually just the time I would take the flight back - back to square one. Another issue was that this situation occurred a few weeks before a major go live of our client and the entire project team was on fire pretty much 24/7. After a successful go live and the first week of hypercare, when the excitement of any maj...