[jhrozek]

Genuinely curious: What do you think would be the outcome of this reply?

In my previous team, it would have been "yeah I'm sorry, but there is a fire, this customer is paying us XYZ and threating to take their bussiness elsewhere, ...". Saying "no" would at best give you some additional resources.

(Note that I did say "previous" team and the reason this kept happening is precisely why that team is no longer my current one)

[theshrike79]

If there really is a fire, they should be paying "put out fire in a hurry" -rates. Especially if the hurry was caused by someone else up the chain not doing their job properly.

If a problem needs solved by end of week and it takes at least 3 weeks to do properly, you document what you can do within normal office hours by the deadline and ask if that's enough.

If not, then they either need to approve overtime or extra resources. There's exactly zero chance I'm going to be using my free time to fix someone else's fuckup without proper compensation.