So, whats "Crunch Time" like?

[FOARP]

@ University Education: I have a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, but it hasn't helped me much in securing work. However, my country (Ireland) is a dysfunctional mess.

@ Crunch Time: I think Crunch Time besides the occasional <1 week long period is poor practice. In University I've experienced times where I've been overworked, and the end result is that you make more mistakes and make bad decisions, and ultimately productivity goes down. I also could see such persistent use of crunch time causing company morale to take a nose dive, and drive up turnover of employees. In a skilled occupation like game development that's bad news, as every replaced employee is time wasted on bringing the new employee up to speed.

I think Paradox has the right idea. Crunch time has it's place (Shit happens...), but it should be reserved for emergencies, and there shouldn't be plans in advance to use it. As I see it, Crunch time is a bit like an all nighter. It means you'll get your work in on time, but that work is likely to be lower quality(due to the mental fatigue under which you were working), and the day afterwards you'll be completely wrecked and unable to do anything.

Generally, I think things should be done using the principles of "Lean" (hey I studied Mechanical Engineering) which means that you should avoid making mistakes in the first place, rather then correcting them after the fact. Persistent crunch time is ultimately inneffective, as while you might have more code being produced, a lot more effort is going to have to be expended on squashing bugs.

Sympathise with the difficulty in finding work, right now I know people with advanced professional qualifications (chartered accountants, qualified solicitors etc.) who made 60-70,000 quid a year pre-credit-crunch but now can't even find work doing the ~20,000 pounds per annum that fresh grads might have been brought into in better times.

RE: Crunch time - in the patent trade, at least in the private practice firm I used to work for although not in my current in-house position, every week is crunch week. Complex work is done by people who are constantly tired after working six-seven 14-hour-days a week. Titanic fubars can happen as a result of this - the solution in many firms is simply to fire those responsible. Programmers have it easy.

 

[anonymouswolfm]

Sympathise with the difficulty in finding work, right now I know people with advanced professional qualifications (chartered accountants, qualified solicitors etc.) who made 60-70,000 quid a year pre-credit-crunch but now can't even find work doing the ~20,000 pounds per annum that fresh grads might have been brought into in better times.

RE: Crunch time - in the patent trade, at least in the private practice firm I used to work for although not in my current in-house position, every week is crunch week. Complex work is done by people who are constantly tired after working six-seven 14-hour-days a week. Titanic fubars can happen as a result of this - the solution in many firms is simply to fire those responsible. Programmers have it easy.

I feel for you... Yet you've to know that in my jurisdiction many trainees go on secondment to London and they describe the experience as "on vacation"...that probably explains how crazy the work hours are generally at my place...

(It depends heavily on practice area too, no doubt about that)