Yes, you can certainly overproof dough. From the point of view of the yeast, it's not "it did its job" - the yeast doesn't have a job, it's a conglomeration of cells that get fissioned, metabolize and die, just like any other life form. In a young yeast colony, you still have most of the original structure of the dough, plus a little bit of carbon dioxide (the bubbles we want). In an established yeast colony, you have a lot of carbon dioxide, more than the dough can hold, plus a ton of other, less tasty waste products (and the dough structure is less capable of holding it, being changed chemically through time and yeast activity). Also, in a distressed yeast colony - which is a colony that grew up too quickly, because it was supplied with a lot of food and warmth - you get other types of waste products than in a slowly maturing one.
What we want as bakers is to stop the fermentation long before the yeast has established a mature colony. We bake the bread at the very beginning, when the dough is still almost fresh and we only have enough bubbles to get a rise. If we want the taste of a long-lived mature yeast colony, as in sourdough bread, we take care to add enough (50% to 99%) fresh flour-water mixture to have a nice structure to the loaf.
If you want the recipe doable in 8 h, you can use a refrigerator (take care to include warming-up time; also, don't do it in the last rise, but in the first) but also reduce the yeast. Large amounts such as 1.33% dry yeast are meant for quick-rise recipes. Fridge-retarded doughs will use a maximum of 0.5% dry yeast.
For more information on making slow-rise doughs, search the site for "slow rise" or "retardation". For dealing with "forgotten" dough, look at How can I rescue overproofed bread?.
