The layoff news cycle is slowing down, but the work didn’t. Two key people in my core team were cut (cited as ‘AI efficiency restructuring’). Their workload was immediately absorbed by the three of us left. My sprint velocity is up on paper, but I’m now working 12-hour days and my code review quality is dropping because I’m rushing. Leadership is celebrating “operational efficiency.” It feels less efficient and more like a cruel stress test. Is anyone else noticing this permanent, unsustainable increase in scope? How are you actually managing the fear and the volume when the expectation is 3x output for 1x pay?
You have to coach your team to say no. You have infinite work but finite resources. If leadership is celebrating the metrics without addressing the burn rate, you show them the long-term impact: bug density, missed SLOs, and high turnover risk for the top talent remaining. I push back with risk-adjusted capacity plans every week