I was at a fairly well-known company that was on a downward financial trajectory. The company had some solid products that customers loved, and that was gaining new users, but the overall management of the company had led it to have an enormous, unsustainable amount of debt and expenses. People were headed for the exits, and I was making my own plans to follow, but before I did so management had me switch on to another project.

The project I _had_ been on was central to the successful product line. I had built out a central part of that system and was proud of how well it worked and seeing the usage and revenue growth from it. The _new_ product was... changing the payment processing system we used for accepting credit cards. I mean, sure, a more flexible payment processing flow is a helpful improvement, but at a time of existential risk to the company, _this_ is what we should be focused on?

And actually, it was more than that -- the new flow had some kind of complex integration with a system provided by an outside vendor. And involved lots of sync meetings. Lots and lots of sync meetings. And every meeting would involve explanations by contractors (who seemed to multiply by the week) as to why we were behind schedule, and questions by me trying to get some documentation on the API I was supposed to interface with, and explanations of why the people on this call didn't have that info but I should set up a meeting with a different team of the vendor...

I assume there was some kind of kick back or other tie between the execs who approved this program and the vendor, as this project seemed more about pumping money out of a dying company and into this outside vendor than any kind of rational business strategy. I did move on after too long, and that previous employer is now officially bankrupt.