Seeing as I made the backlog, I have nobody but myself to blame :) I know what you mean though. Our deadlines are self-imposed, but the planning process is the

Seeing as I made the backlog, I have nobody but myself to blame :) I know what you mean though. Our deadlines are self-imposed, but the planning process is there to make sure that the effort remains high. I believe the managers are responsible for squeezing out as much juice as they can in a polite way (as opposed to other places where they were pretty direct about it). I suppose the combination of opportunity + compensation justifies the stress level and excitement at this point in my life. I've worked at other places where people primarily coasted with low pay but received good retirement benefits. It seemed to work for them.