This scenario literally just played out at my job:
Boss: How long will it take to do X?
Me: 3 weeks is reasonable, 2 weeks is potentially doable, and 1 week is a real stretch – that’s my best estimate.
Boss: Ok let’s shoot for a week.
Me: Ok but it’s unlikely to be finished.
——
1 Week Later
Boss: Is X done?
Me: Not yet, like I was saying that was pretty ambitious.
Boss: Can you get it done in 3 days?
Me: I have Y hours between now and then. Again, I can see what I can do but it seriously may take longer.
Boss 2: YOU GUYS NEED TO START TAKING DEADLINES SERIOUSLY!
Me: Listen. I work Z hours / day, and I do my best within that period. My time is not a free variable, change your scope.
——
> At this point I spent a while completely reimplementing our process to Agile / Scrum and explained that stakeholders need to take dev estimates seriously.
1 Week Later
Me: As I mentioned, X is still in development but we can release without it.
Boss: Angry and Screaming – WE NEED TO RELEASE. I DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE PROCESS. I DON’T GIVE A FUCK. I HAVE A 40 HOUR JOB, SELLING A HOUSE, BUYING A HOUSE, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH PROCESS. WE HAD A TACIT AGREEMENT THAT X WOULD BE DONE. JUST TELL ME WHAT ………. I PULLED DOWN MY PANTS TO THESE GUYS THEIR EXPECTING THIS …
1 hour later
Me: Ok. Like I was saying, X is just about done, which is still sooner than I anticipated. But, we can STILL release without it.
Boss: Ok as long as we can release, sorry I got spun up.
——
Overall I noticed a trend where managers pressure employees, belittle, condescend, and just generally disrespect JUST because they think their needs are more important.
We’re all just people.
This all happened after SEVERAL prior attempts to realistically estimate with pushback.
NO attempt to understand or help the dev team.
The ONLY tool they know is fear and they only think about themselves.
——
This is by far the most toxic work relationship I’ve had, and nobody deserves to be screamed at or berated for doing what they can within their constraints.
Even if performance were realistically unsatisfactory, the employee should be treated with respect, even if that means letting them go.
I’ll be moving on next week.
Maybe some people like the Steve Jobs approach, but this was just pure narcissism.
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Edit: I should also mention that a few weeks prior, the same boss told me the deadlines didn’t really matter and it was a tactic to get the teams working harder