Friday, April 27, 2012

Deadlines



9 times out of 10, there is no such thing as a deadline.  Do you know what a deadline is?  It is a compound word where dead means death and line means time.  A deadline means that someone will die if things are not in order when the given time passes.  9 times out of 10, there are only goals not deadlines.  Managers, especially upper management, use the term deadline to put fear into the work environment.  In their pathetic insecure minds, they actually believe this tactic will increase productivity.  No, what it does is turn your environment into a slave shop and skyrocket the turnover rate.  Most important, it does nothing for productivity because people will make more mistakes.  When you rush to do anything, the risk for mistakes is EXTREMELY HIGH.

In other words, if not applicable, stop using deadlines.  Instead, call them what they are, GOALS!  Anyone that has managed a project, regardless of project type, has experienced change.  Change in requirements, change in schedule, change in stakeholder availability, CHANGE DAMN IT!  You cannot escape it.  With goal oriented projects, changes can occur or the project may fail, but no one dies!  With deadline oriented projects, critical changes can occur yet someone will die if the project fails.

Be a leader.  Trust your team.  If they look down, inspire them.  Best believe stressing them will only make things worse.  If your brain is wondering “How do you inspire a team?”, then you have some research to do.  It is very VERY easy.

Thanks for reading. Keep this blog relevant by leading IT managers and actual workers here for laughs, insight, and further debates. Continue to submit your management stories to stupid.it.managers[(at)]gmail.com. Your identity will be kept private.

5 comments:

  1. Mr logic, articles by you seem like you were a failed IT person experiencing a trauma! after repeated failures you have either have been kicked out of a job as a manager or you were kicked out by a manager who identified your ineffectiveness!

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    1. You obviously are a failed pyschic. For your information, I am well employed and well liked by my organizations because I point them in the right direction versus being a cowardly Yes Man. Don't test me kid. You won't win. If you don't have a personal story to help readers avoid pitfalls, keep moving. Oh wait, you don't have any stories because your job(s) have been perfect. Nothing ever goes wrong in your world.

      All posts are up for debate. That means if you don't agree with what they are saying, then speak from experience to enlighten the rest of us. The goal is for everyone to learn.

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    2. Let me say - the very fact that you have gone leaps and bounds to create a site and convey your views on management lets me think you are paranoid about some manager who's made your life hell - that's one sided kid, single dimensional. Not all managers are afraid and fighting to save their $$ses. Management is just another profession learn to pay some respect to their profession. If Steve jobs sat next to his engineer and focussed on doing things Apple wouldn't be a trading around 550 on NASDAQ today.

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    3. Leaps and bounds? You have got to be a kid. If you consider this leaps and bounds, I'd hate to think of what you consider actual hard work to be... There is something in your brain that is focusing on the wrong thing. Here, let me help you since you don't get it.

      Kid, I am well. I have a great life and a great bank account. Now... where on this site does it say "all" managers are this or "all" managers are that? Show me. I'll wait... Where on this site does it say the management profession "should not" be respected? Show me. I'll wait...

      I get it now. You're one of those people that cannot read in between the lines. You're most likely terrible at relationships as well. I'll spell it out for you even more. The site is called, "Stupid IT Project Managers." In other words, the IT Managers That Do Stupid Things. We could even leave off the Information Technology (IT) acronym. In this very small world, we have good managers, we have great managers, and we have stupid managers. This site talks about stupid ones. Hey, guess what? This site is not the first. Imagine that? The internet is riddled with thousands of sites like this. Checkout http://www.mystupidboss.com. http://stupid-it-project-managers.blogspot.com is just one of those sites.

      "Management is just another profession learn to pay some respect to their profession." Did you really mean to say that? Prostitution is just another profession as well. I guess you want everyone in the world to learn to respect their profession too, huh?

      Ok, I'll stop playing with you. I'm smart enough to know when people start saying foolish lines out of context (the context of what this site is clearly about), that means they aren't saying what's truly bothering them. So what's your story, sports fan? What is really bothering you? Do feel this site is personally attacking you? Why is/was that?

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    4. Well said. Deadlines are imposed by incompetent and insecure morons who have never actually done a single piece of work, and to cover up their failures, and instill fear in the subordinates. It gives them the same pleasure as masturbation.

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