It’s hard to overstate how hard it is to leave this kind of project as a manager. You spend years of your life building relationships with engineers and trying (and sometimes failing, admittedly, but trying) to protect them. You know the situation is a disaster and you want to get out of it. But you’re afraid of letting down your people and hurting their careers. You’re afraid the next person won’t be able to protect them as well. You’re afraid of losing the years in your resume and not accomplishing anything. You’re afraid of being a failure if you give up. When your body is breaking down due to the stress, you’re afraid to lose your health insurance.
You’re right - I should have quit as soon as it was clear it was a death march. But in the shit, I found it almost impossible to lift my head up and say “this is literally killing me, I quit”. When each individual day is at your maximum trauma threshold, it’s hard to work up the time, willpower, or ability to interview prep and change companies.
I regret it immensely.
> We did not have the option of abandoning it, due to a meaningful fraction of the company’s revenue riding on its success. We did not have the option of more resources for the usual reasons. And we did not have the option of more time, because executives had already de facto announced when it would be done.
And immediately concluded that the company has already committed to suicide and it's time to start sending resumes. Cross-team sabotage is icing on the cake but actually doesn't change anything here.
And unless you live somewhere where new jobs are available that match your skills and current pay that can be enough.