Crunchtime

Noun · Slang & Abbreviations

Definitions

  1. An intense period of overtime work before a deadline, common in game development and startups. Romanticized by management ('we're all in this together'), dreaded by engineers ('we're all losing sleep together').

    In plain English: An intense period of long hours and hard work right before a deadline — often glorified by companies but hated by the people doing it.

  2. Research consistently shows that sustained crunch (over 50 hours/week for more than 4 weeks) produces negative net output — the bugs introduced by exhausted developers create more work than the extra hours produce. Crunch is a management failure, not a badge of honor.

    Example: 'After the third month of crunchtime, we shipped the feature but also shipped 200 bugs. We spent the next quarter fixing what we broke while exhausted.'

    Source: research / critique

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