> Overworked people is a red flag indeed, but it is usually a symptom of a deeper problem that is unlikely to be solved with more hires.
Not necessarily. Accepting a new project or extra responsibilities in exchange for a generous sum may increase your company's workload unexpectedly, which leads to overworked people while the company struggles with the hiring process. Another example is losing a team member right before crunch time.
Sure, there are exceptions. For example, I do not see a team flying out for a 2 60+ hour week test campaign as a red flag as long as the participation is mostly voluntary and the team gets an ample opportunity to detox after the fact.
The exceptions, for me, have three key properties: (1) they are temporary, (2) overworked people know that it is temporary and have a clear (maybe not 100% realistic) date for return to normalcy and (3) this state of affairs is seen by most of the team as acceptable at the moment: not pleasant, but bearable and probably least bad of all options.
If (1) and (2) hold, (3) is usually easy to achieve with sweeteners: $x bonus, T extra vacation, etc. But break either of the three and you have a clear red flag. Just my 2c.
Not necessarily. Accepting a new project or extra responsibilities in exchange for a generous sum may increase your company's workload unexpectedly, which leads to overworked people while the company struggles with the hiring process. Another example is losing a team member right before crunch time.