> Once I became a manager, I finally saw why they were needed, but felt guilty about using them.
The "why they were needed" is some guy with exponentially more university connections than sense trying to squeeze the engineering department for his bonus.
Don't lie to your employees, then invent some rationalizing and a new name your lies, you snotball.
That makes it worse. You're lying to your employees for nothing basically? Maybe for an ego boost?
Yeah, I managed people and we had mutual trust. Whether I am sad or not is an irrelevant point, but it was genuinely funny. Unfortunately common sense is being mistaken for trolling nowadays.
Saying that "some guy with exponentially more university connections than sense" is common sense is the trolling part :)
At no point I suggested lying to your team. The 'fake' part is coming from the sense that nothing external happens - but people should definitely know it in advance (as I shared in the end - one of the worst mistakes you can do is not communicate to your people what will happen after the deadline).
This is a great article, Anton! And I still remember the original one from James!
I cannot agree more. I used to dislike deadlines, but being a manager for several years now, I realized that deadlines are critical to make things happen.
People are scare to that word, and sometimes we call it differently to sugar coat it. The reality is, everyone is serious about the business wants to know when something is going to be delivered. Ultimately, the surrounding issues are for lack of effective communication, not the deadline itself. As simple as that!
Gergely Orosz, The Pragmatic Engineer, also wrote an interesting blog post about the importance of deadlines.
> Once I became a manager, I finally saw why they were needed, but felt guilty about using them.
The "why they were needed" is some guy with exponentially more university connections than sense trying to squeeze the engineering department for his bonus.
Don't lie to your employees, then invent some rationalizing and a new name your lies, you snotball.
I have no university connections (just did exams in the evenings)
We didn't have bonuses in all the companies I worked for.
I'm honestly curious - have you ever managed people? Or you are just a sad engineer who likes to troll?
That makes it worse. You're lying to your employees for nothing basically? Maybe for an ego boost?
Yeah, I managed people and we had mutual trust. Whether I am sad or not is an irrelevant point, but it was genuinely funny. Unfortunately common sense is being mistaken for trolling nowadays.
Saying that "some guy with exponentially more university connections than sense" is common sense is the trolling part :)
At no point I suggested lying to your team. The 'fake' part is coming from the sense that nothing external happens - but people should definitely know it in advance (as I shared in the end - one of the worst mistakes you can do is not communicate to your people what will happen after the deadline).
This is a great article, Anton! And I still remember the original one from James!
I cannot agree more. I used to dislike deadlines, but being a manager for several years now, I realized that deadlines are critical to make things happen.
People are scare to that word, and sometimes we call it differently to sugar coat it. The reality is, everyone is serious about the business wants to know when something is going to be delivered. Ultimately, the surrounding issues are for lack of effective communication, not the deadline itself. As simple as that!
Gergely Orosz, The Pragmatic Engineer, also wrote an interesting blog post about the importance of deadlines.
Fight the drag. Set a deadline.
Thanks Rafa! I agree, people need that certainty.
Is this the article you meant?
https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/yes-you-should-estimate/
Yes, that's the one! As it says: Estimates and deadlines are great for getting things done. They heavily incentivize teams to focus.
Thank you again Anton and James (one of my favorites writers).