I've been the engineer in that scenario a number of times in my life. Almost every time there were management people who stayed who just couldn't contribute. Honestly, I didn't particularly need them to suffer. I'd rather they go home, recognize the situation and reflect on whether something should change if this is a semi-regular situation..and then act. That action is within their capacity and it would have been impactful to me.

As it was, they just didn't act, treated the suffering as a badge and pretended they were in the foxhole with us. If they could handle it, why couldn't we? Why were we bitching so much? They were right there next to us! Needless to say, I don't work in those kinds of places anymore.