A Project manager / product owner at my company who is very good at talking, but incredibly bad at working got fired because I threw him under the bus. And I have no regrets. On the contrary, I feel evil satisfaction.
His style of project management was the following:
- Acquire new project
- Give me the deadline when the project is due and forward the email address of the client
- Staring holes into the air I guess
- show up at the deadline and ask if the project is finished
So I had to do all the client-relationship and project management and e-mail conversations and figure out the requirements and coordinate our in-house stuff. Besides that, I had to do the actual project.
I started to hate that guy.
So in a new Project, I channeled my inner Peter Gibbons and just did nothing, so he comes up into my office and asks if the project is done and if HE should present it to the client.
I said, unfortunately not. I didn't do anything, I had no requirements and no time to do client communications, so the deadline is here and there hasn't been a single minute being worked on the project.
His face turned pale, and he went to the CEO to explain why the project had failed. So I again explained to him and to the CEO that I was buried under work and had not the time to figure out what the client needed.
Later, he was fired on the spot. It wasn't only this story, but I think this was what made the difference.
I will pursue this strategy and sink all the lazy managers.