[patorjk]

I worked at Northrop Grumman a decade ago on a contract that was missing it's deadlines. It was pretty choatic, and management was not very good (every new thing became a #1 priority). To try to get things done we were allowed to work as much overtime as possible. They even had white board showing who had worked the most hours (the top several people people worked over 2000 extra hours during a 12 month period). I almost burned out during this time period (though that's a different story). I didn't get the impression that there was an incentive to fail, quiet the opposite. People were genuinely worried about the reputation of the company. However, that was just my perspective as a ground level grunt. I don't know what was going on at the higher levels.

[perl4ever]

I briefly worked for a large federal contractor, far away from stuff like aerospace per se,* but I got the distinct impression that all the dysfunction and waste was inherent in the lack of communication between the government and the employees of the contractor. All around me were normal people trying to do a good job, but a lot of people seemed to be employed to prevent information from getting back and forth to the customer. You probably couldn't point to anyone specifically having malicious intent, but the feedback loop was so painful and convoluted that there must have been an enormous implicit cost.

*but oddly some major aerospace contractors had their fingers in the pie anyway.

[chii]

> a lot of people seemed to be employed to prevent information from getting back and forth to the customer.

that's because it's their job to _convey_ this information. But of course, their conveying is slow and/or wrong, whether by intention or by incompetence.

Also, if the customer and the sub/contractor were in direct communication, then these middle managers and project coordinators will no longer be needed! That threatens their job security!

[orpheansodality]

Sounds like a perfect example of an immoral maze: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zpA2Tnp2k38qSmr8J/how-to-ide...

[tristador]

> 2000 extra hours during a 12 month period

11.5 hour days, 7 days a week for a year?

> I almost burned out

No kidding. Seems like a recipe for much worse than burn out.

[patorjk]

I wasn't one of the 2000+ people, but yes, there were people doing that (working long days 7 days a week). One guy would actually sometimes sleep in his car. People weren't doing the same number of hours every day though. Also, there were some weird incentives. If you worked past 9PM, you got 10% extra pay on all of the hours you worked that day, so a lot of people (including myself - though not all of the time) would work past 9.

[p1necone]

> every new thing became a #1 priority

I know this well, this seems to be common in large software companies.