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There is no good advice for someone in that situation. The best advice for someone in that situation is to not get into it next time, if there is a next time,

There is no good advice for someone in that situation. The best advice for someone in that situation is to not get into it next time, if there is a next time, because you are totally fucked up and down and sideways right now. Now, if you are obsessed with death marches to the point of replying to every comment on this thread, like thenomad, my advice is stop spending all day hitting reload and waiting for someone to post on hackernews so you can jump in and defend death marches, and go read a book on project management or study or work or do anything besides procrastinating, which is probably the root cause of why you end up in that situation all the time. Learn to do work when there isn't a gun to your head.

thenomad 13y ago
Not sure there's really any need for the ad-hominem, is there? I'm replying to comments on this thread because I'm the author of the original post, and it's polite to respond to people commenting on your work :) I suspect that we largely agree on the subject of death marches and their advisability, actually. Certainly, I'd say that as soon as you're doing death march hours for longer than about 3 weeks, or more frequently than about once a year, that's a Very Bad Idea.
danielweber 13y ago
Sometimes you are assigned to a death march by management. Not everyone lives in a place where there are 10 employers waiting to immediately hire you if you quit on the spot. You need to figure out how to live with the death march and be supportive of your teammates while finding greener pastures.
- greenyoda 13y ago
  Although if you only work 60 hours a week instead of 80, your boss is not likely to fire you in the middle of a death march, since you'd still be more productive than anyone he could replace you with. (There's no spare time to bring new employees up to speed when you're doing a death march.) Besides, working only 60 hours might make you more productive than all the people who are working 80 hours (better focus, fewer mistakes).

thenomad 13y ago

Not sure there's really any need for the ad-hominem, is there? I'm replying to comments on this thread because I'm the author of the original post, and it's polite to respond to people commenting on your work :) I suspect that we largely agree on the subject of death marches and their advisability, actually. Certainly, I'd say that as soon as you're doing death march hours for longer than about 3 weeks, or more frequently than about once a year, that's a Very Bad Idea.

danielweber 13y ago

Sometimes you are assigned to a death march by management. Not everyone lives in a place where there are 10 employers waiting to immediately hire you if you quit on the spot. You need to figure out how to live with the death march and be supportive of your teammates while finding greener pastures.

greenyoda 13y ago
Although if you only work 60 hours a week instead of 80, your boss is not likely to fire you in the middle of a death march, since you'd still be more productive than anyone he could replace you with. (There's no spare time to bring new employees up to speed when you're doing a death march.) Besides, working only 60 hours might make you more productive than all the people who are working 80 hours (better focus, fewer mistakes).