These stories seem so weird to me! Everywhere I’ve worked, there has been 3-5X more development work needed to do than engineers to do it, so we had to always be prioritizing and only doing what absolutely was necessary to ship. Is there not even a bug backlog where you work? I’ve never seen a workplace like this honestly!

Unless you’re taking a 2 week task and estimating 2 years or something, and then just goofing off in the slack time, which I’d consider... somewhat less than ethical?

I concur, I've never worked anywhere that didn't have a continuous stream of work available to work on. I think it contributes to the burnout a bit, at least until you find a way to look at it differently. Because it feels like there is never a "finished" state to the job. You could in theory always do more.

That's like, the vast majority of jobs. And what that means is that there's no point in working hard to rush through ultimately useless work or work that adds less value.

Just focus on doing what's important in a timely basis and happily deprioritize the useless stuff.

I've worked in both types of places and reasonable places in between.

In some roles you have to fight for work because different departments are fighting for org budgets. Some places are afraid to make code changes so you go to meetings while some people signoff others raise random issues with the project. Scheduling the project takes months. Then months of finding the perfect slot to release.

I also been in places that bill every 15 minutes. All client billing time was added up and should equal 8 hours. But there were never enough hours to go around. And clients would nickel and dime over hours.

With employers I'm not sure ethical matters as long as a need is met. But be ethical to yourself. Always work hard learn and grow because the industry changes.

> Everywhere I’ve worked, there has been 3-5X more development work needed to do than engineers to do it

If the deadlines are reasonable I wouldn't care. If they aren't, it's time to start reviewing glassdoor before finding a job.

> 3-5X more development work needed

This is also by and large a mindset you foster. There are plenty of companies where you have engineers on both ends of the spectrum (both having a lot of leisure time and little).

I guess most people just dilute the effective 2-3 hours of work in 8 hours, to seem busy without getting overworked...

E.g. I would be happier if I could work fully focussed for 3-4 hours and then go home, instead of working at a slow pace for 8 hours so I don't get tired after 4.

If I could honest 4 works, hard, and then go home, without worrying about emails coming in or server alerts or whatever, I think I'd be very happy and very productive for that time. I can't say the same now - even when I'm off I'm still at least partially thinking about being on.

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What industry do you work in?