The senior engineer death spiral: working harder makes it worse

The senior engineer death spiral

Sunil Pai describes a common failure pattern: senior engineers take on huge projects to prove themselves, disappear for weeks giving only positive updates, then spiral into burnout, depression, or PIP. His counterintuitive fix: drop a level, become the best teammate—fix bugs, do grunt work, help others. Focus on momentum, not outcomes. Trust matters more than code; software is downstream of reputation.