Heroism is when an individual steps in to fill a gap in a system, often working long hours, weekends, and rolling up their sleeves to maintain an SLO. While heroism can be appreciated in times of crisis, relying on heroes long-term is detrimental to the team, the individual, and the system. Heroism masks systemic problems, prevents proper discussions about realistic SLOs, and promotes unrealistic expectations. To discourage heroism, explain the negative impacts, encourage long-term fixes, and sometimes, just let the system break to signal that changes are needed. Firefighting should be structured, with realistic expectations, to avoid the need for heroism.
https://sre.google/resources/practices-and-processes/no-heroes/