This is 100 percent the problem. I've spoken exhaustively about this elsewhere, but the bottom line - from personal experience - is that it is up to employees to draw lines in the sand, en masse. Send a message. Corporations will use and abuse as much as they can, if you let them. There is a vast difference between working hard and with enthusiasm, and companies completely taking the piss with this letting-the-team-down bollocks. I hate it with a burning passion and have always rejected it.

I rejected it when asked to postpone my wedding. I rejected it when asked to go back to work the day after my child was born, whilst on (unpaid) paternity leave. I rejected it when I was asked to stay late for an "important" (ie not remotely important) management meeting when I was due to go on an anniversary dinner with my wife. I rejected it when asked to stay instead of taking (already agreed) time off to attend my child's birthday party. I rejected it when asked to cancel (already agreed) family holiday plans.

One day, shortly before I resigned (this was a middle management job I had for over twenty years), in a moment of frankness, the CEO of the company told me I had been right all these years to stand up to him (and others in upper management) and make sure family plans weren't interrupted. After all, I was in TV, not in the emergency services. He regretted that his own children had now grown up, and he'd missed countless birthdays, holidays, and so forth.

Bottom line: No one ever lay on their death bed wishing they'd spent more time at work.

Reject the lies of corporate culture with extreme prejudice. You are NOT letting the team down by working allocated hours and going home on time. By the way, I also loathe the word "team" with a burning passion because of how it has been abused in corporate contexts. (See point six of this rant for more, if you can stomach it).