Signs that it's time to leave a company

From first hand experience, let me explain why I need this. It's because when the growth stagnates, management starts to attack their own reports. This is an effort to squeeze productivity that comes all the way from the top. Middle management politics governs your life. There are constant threats like PIPs, politics, measuring BS metrics such as lines of code. Your director may be getting antsy about their own promotion and want to fire you away to perform a reorg that makes themselves look good. Your coworkers will turn against you because management will start stack ranking. Imagine going into work everyday where every slack message, every email, every code review is all about posturing to let someone else take the blame. The consequences are dire. Productivity actually gets shot because no one is willing to help anyone. Entire services stagnate, dependent teams do not respond timely and the org is not willing to support any efforts.

How does this work environment sound to you, as an engineer?

Everything about that job becomes about management games. You will be blamed for things not in your control.

I would accept stagnation as an employee if the company can accept stagnation. Everyone knows infinite growth is impossible. And if the company runs out of ideas, no amount of pressing IC engineers is going to fix anything. But pressing IC engineers is exactly what they do. And this is why I don't want to work at stagnating companies. I am not a kid who will willingly take the blame for BS management.

You help your community and the people who keep it running.

Only downside is, your pay will be significantly less than as a cog in an evil machine.

Through the author's lens, I would have to agree — if growth is the chief measure of a company's health and the main driver of decision-making, and if you're there for stock options, then yes, it's time to leave when that growth stops.

A lack of "growth" might not signal time to leave for all companies, though.

Other questions to ask might be, is the customer the customer, or is the investor the customer? Are we working toward sustainable relationships with high-value clientele, or are we working toward a profitable exit strategy for the founders? Are we looking for ways to attract and retain good talent over the long term, or are we managing staffing levels according to quarterly goals?

Assuming you aren't an owner and the exit strategy doesn't mean a huge windfall payout for you, then jumping ship might always mean more money for a while, but eventually you will take your last job — the one from which you will retire.

That might look more like a company that spends less than it takes in, cultivates stable sources of revenue, and prioritizes investing in itself — rather than one that chases relentless "growth" and doesn't think twice about "pruning" non-owners for the sake of preserving margins for owners.

But I'm also not a gambler by nature, so I might not count as one who "gets it" in this context.