As someone who’s helped on both the technical and hiring side of a company that’s scaling, I agree and will add that a lot of hires are made in order to make li

As someone who’s helped on both the technical and hiring side of a company that’s scaling, I agree and will add that a lot of hires are made in order to make life easier for existing hires. A team completely composed of 1:1 developer to team/role need is one vacation, child birth, or illness away from unnecessary added stress. From a purely technical side of things we crib it as “bus factor” and try to negate that with documentation and knowledge sharing. A great way to disillusion your management hierarchy (flat or otherwise) is to have them constantly juggle supporting their reports’ needs and the business asks when functionally understaffed all year. Having some “extra” headcount while remaining ROI positive is good for the humans even if it doesn’t make 100% accounting sense. It’s also a good way to make space for deep work and interesting innovations you get by having the luxury of unlimited ping pong time... Er I mean water cooler chats.