[Bahamut]

To add some more details - being a good manager can be a delicate dance. When you are a manager, you start to become responsible for high level tasks that have huge impact to a company. However, if you micromanage too much, you create an awful culture of fear and hamper developer productivity.

So how do you inspire developers to execute in a timeframe dictated by others? You have to be a leader who inspires the engineers to complete the task, even if it requires putting in extra hours. This means setting the example, looking out for your engineers' welfare, being able to provide answers and not problems, and being someone who can be easily approached.

The moment something goes wrong, the burden is on the manager to make the right decision - the wrong decision can have negative ramifications over months, if not years. The moment you micromanage, something is broken in your process, or with the people involved.

I recently had to start wearing a technical lead & director hat - the intense pressure of the startup world bore down on my whole team in order to get a working product in order from scratch in about 1 1/2 months of coding. The resources became scarce since the technical lead got sick & had a family death, while two other senior engineers had babies in the time period. It then was left to two junior developers and me to do the lion's share of work until the other engineers could get back to work. I let the junior engineers work mostly normal hours (until close to our deadline) - I ended up taking the burden largely on myself, with mostly 75 hour weeks (even after the other engineers were back as well). During regular hours, I did some work, but was more focused on mentorship and any tasks that were blockers. The early and late hours were when I busted out complex code.

At the engineering level, good management shows as incredibly important, especially for startups. Pressure deadlines on engineers are taxing for all - good management by top level engineers is vital for preventing burnout in everyone else, which can make it easy for people to decide to leave a company, especially when compounded by salary that does not match what the free market has to offer.

[irremediable]

Thanks for sharing your story. This is part of why I love HN: I can learn from the experiences of people who're interested in similar things to what I'm interested in, but who're much further along in life.

Also wow, well done on shielding your junior engineers from the worst of the death march. Did you suffer much from burnout during your heroic effort? How did you cope?

[Bahamut]

I have a lot of resilience from a lot of life experiences. This not having been my first crunch time also helped me cope - I focused on getting as much of a good night sleep as I could (typically 6 - 7 1/2 hours a night, usually ended up closer to 6 - 7 1/2 is my optimal amount), and dosed on lots of caffeine if not well-rested. Exercise is also important.

I did have to sacrifice all other interests thought during the time period though. All I know is, I'm definitely taking a vacation in two months.

[politician]

Not the OP, but similar situations. My coping strategy involved vitamins - a generous dosage of B-complex, and a mandatory eating and sleeping regimen. Survived potential burnout myself, and won concessions for team recovery. I've done this a few times now, difficult, but still works.