I really thought there would have been more friction. Of course everybody was affected by the tight schedule and initially bad their reservations about one of us not pulling his weight in hours, but as time passed we were all going to him for advice, asking him to review our code.
However, the people in management/business made some sweeping remarks about our team "not working as hard as the other teams" in passing. Makes me think that the further away from the code and actual productivity you are, the more important hours and arbitrary productivity measures become.
It's fascinating how healthy teams find the right balance in unpredictable ways. The principal thing is that they be allowed to do it. Managers who operate on the assumption that they're supposed to decide matters so often intervene to wreck them. It seems strange, but it's simple cognitive dissonance. It's psychologically difficult for middle managers who add no value not to interfere, because that would mean admitting that they add no value. So in order to prove they deserve their authority, they interfere and cause harm. That's not true of everybody in such positions, of course. The smarter ones understand that mostly what they need to do is nothing, just let people work - sort of like the new-age Buddhist saying, "Don't just do something, stand there!" But it's true enough in bulk that that whole organizational form is irrational. It is gradually being replaced.
In any case, you've provided a nice example of how issues like working hours are subsumed by team dynamics. That's where action is.
However, the people in management/business made some sweeping remarks about our team "not working as hard as the other teams" in passing. Makes me think that the further away from the code and actual productivity you are, the more important hours and arbitrary productivity measures become.