[arasmussen]

> Upper management does not think it's wise to hire more people so they are burning everybody out and people are leaving.

It is in everyone's, and especially upper management's, best interest that the company does well. Rather than vilifying "upper management" and quitting and being bitter about it, can you have a constructive conversation with someone up the chain to help you AND the company out? If you're going to leave then what do you really have to lose?

If it were me I would approach someone and say something along the lines of:

"I'm quite concerned for the well being of the company/organization/whatever. I noticed that there were some corporate changes recently and since then many employees, myself included, have felt burnt out and some have even started leaving. I think this is due to the fact that we are understaffed and this problem is only going to be exacerbated as people leave. What do you think?"

This could result in a number of things including decreased workload, more hires, or nothing. In the positive cases everyone is happy and in the third you don't lose anything and can still quit your job.

Best of luck!

[georgemcbay]

> Rather than vilifying "upper management" and quitting and being bitter about it, can you have a constructive conversation with someone up the chain to help you AND the company out?

While this may theoretically work in some situations and is arguably "worth a shot" for someone with so little to lose, I've seen workplaces similar to the ones the original post is describing and the times I've seen this happen talking things out with management was not fruitful.

In my experience (admittedly anecdotal and a relatively small sample size), in a company that goes sideways as described by OP you have 1-3 levels of manager on top of you who are just as frazzled by the whole situation as you are. They will commiserate, throw their hands in the air and tell you they've tried pushing for changes, realistic release dates and/or hiring more resources and have been denied by levels above them. Talking directly to their managers (VP or perhaps higher at this point) ends up in a pleasant conversation about vague, nebulous reasons why things can't change right now and everyone has to buckle down to help the company toward the brighter future that is right around the corner. They will rarely-to-never give you direct reasons, eg. the company is running out of money and seriously can't afford any extra resources, and the next release is a hail mary attempt to save the business and that's why it needs to be out on date X because the runway is totally gone at X+Y where Y is a laughably small number if you ever actually learn it.

[burnte]

> Rather than vilifying "upper management" and quitting and being bitter about it

He simply stated a fact, there was no vilification. Their reason was they didn't think it was wise, people are being burned out and quitting. No name calling, no vilifying management there. Sometimes the truth isn't flattering.

[enraged_camel]

>>It is in everyone's, and especially upper management's, best interest that the company does well.

I think you're attributing a level of rationality and benevolence to upper management that doesn't always (or even often) exist.

It may very well be that the reason they aren't hiring more people is because they want to increase the money that goes into their own pockets. Or maybe they themselves have burned out and become bitter about "disloyal" employees who keep quitting and they don't have any energy left to do something about it.