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Rule 0: don't participate in death marches. Seriously. Death marches mean that management has no idea what it's doing and you would be better off quitting and

• thenomad 13y ago
  They're useful occasionally - at least, when working on one's own projects. Certainly, as an indie filmmaker, there are times when temporarily doubling my output is vital, usually in the run-up to a launch (like now). If you're doing them over any great duration or with any frequency, though, I'd agree that's a very bad sign indeed.
• badman_ting 13y ago
  When I was starting my career, I think I read so much about death marches (including the book called "Death March") and crunch time that I strenuously avoided both. It's been about 10 years and I've still never worked more than one late night sequentially, and in the times that did happen I took off the day following or the day after that. No weekends or 50 hour weeks or any of that shit. It just ain't worth it.
• scelerat 13y ago
  Honest mistakes and unforeseen circumstances can necessitate death marches. I've been in a few situations where they were "necessary" -- some opportunity arose, or something happened that required the march. But it's also an issue of experience and repeating patterns. If death marches are a part of the culture, I'd definitely say get the hell out. From a management perspective, you can heal some of the wounds inflicted by a death march by offering verbal and written mea culpas, and by giving real compensation to the people you forced on the march: extra paid time off, bonuses, significant gifts, etc. And then follow through by never doing it again to your employees.