A friend I used to work with reached out to me because they want to hire a product owner. I'd enjoy and be good at the work, but I've learned enough about myself to know that I really can't do more than 8 hours a day on an ongoing basis and expect to be sane. I am guessing the managers have this job as a contract because then they don't have to be responsible for their FTE's well-being. They refuse to pay more than 8 hours per day or open up enough headcount to actually cover the work that needs to be done. But they make the person in the role personally accountable to deliver and lay the pressure on thick to get it done, knowing full well that it means 12-hour days, including odd hours to sync with offshore teams or support midnight go-lives.
I worked for this company before and in addition to the crazy hours, found myself declared responsible for many things outside of my control and pulled into meetings with VP's to be berated and asked to explain myself on topics I had no visibility on. I know I shouldn't have let this kind of abuse get to me, but it really did. I'd come out of these meetings in tears, feeling totally demoralized. This was a few years ago and I'm still upset about it.
Compensation for the role is likely quite good, I would guess I could get 160K per year doing it. But, there is no option to work 8 hours and make less money. I'd go for that option, but it does not exist.
It isn't that people like me don't want to work, or that we even want to “quiet quit”. I just can't spend my whole life in an office working under this kind of pressure for people who are trying to abuse and take advantage of me. Yes the money is very good but it is my health that suffers, I've tried it and I know it is not sustainable.
Maybe it's my fault, perhaps I'm just too sensitive, too emotional, just not tough enough. Part of me knows this isn't true but part of me thinks it must be true, I mean after all, other people seem to do this kind of work for years and survive it.
But overall if they are reaching out to me I think it means they are struggling to fill the role. If I could just get believable assurance they'd care about my well-being I'd do it. I'd say they are the ones who lose out, but then again they have enough people in place they can abuse and they are probably happy to not have to pay anyone else.