[dvtrn]

I regret that we went thruogh the "diligence" process in just a few weeks

Does anyone work in M&A? What in your experience is a sufficient timetable for diligence and discovery? I ask working for a company that "grows by acquisition", and being in a middle management role I find myself often playing clean-up crew to some alarming things that should have been caught during diligence, but am growing increasingly weary being told "we didn't have time".

This is no attempt at malingering my duties, but I've lost one staff member already to the burnout from this, and am quite fearful I'm about to lose another. Both have told me "it's not you, you've been a great manager" yet both have lamented feeling like their jobs have turned into playing the 'janitor' role for messy acquisitions saying "you did what you could"

My own complaints up the food-chain have been returned with shrugs by a director who seems equally powerless in a process that is burning people out--and I'm considering looking for the door at the end of the year from it.

[Animats]

Being in the middle of an acquisition is a form of limbo. Nobody wants to start anything new, partly because of management uncertainty and partly because it could change the valuation. It consumes all the time of top management, and nobody is minding the store. So you don't want to spend too many months stuck in that state.

(I know a company that's in that position right now, and there's no visible planning for 2021.)

[dvtrn]

there's no visible planning for 2021

I have this impression as well, detaching a bit and looking at 'everything' (or as much as my perch will allow).

To say it's frustrating would be an understatement; I considered applying to a role and effectively taking a demotion and being an IC again. Which, if it says anything--is something my last two predecessors did as well.

Otherwise you've hit every nail on the head and quite well summed up my feeling of 'limbo'.