Being overworked is an excellent reason to hire. It shows that you are about to lose your team due to burn-out or extended sick leave. Good managers know that the work load has to be such that there is some built in 'down time' in the schedule and no amount of pressure cooking or death marching is a substitute for bad planning. Overworked employees are a management failure and if you are reading this to get actionable advice that means you.
> #32 Delivery dates…
The lesson learned should be to release incrementally, rather than in one go.
> #8 Fire people whenever you can. There’s often someone to fire, but not many opportunities to do so. When you are given a lot of opportunities to fire people, it is often due to a crisis situation and you’ll likely fire or otherwise lose the wrong people. People appreciate when you fire the right people, so don’t worry about morale.
No, fire people when you have to, and for the right reasons, definitely not 'because you can'. If you fire without having a good reason it will affect morale and in the worst possible way.
> #2 Don’t be prudish. If you fear that people will lose faith in you because of the foggy goals and dire situation statement you are painting yourself in a heroic corner.
I can't even parse that in the current context.