the most demotivating moments in my professional life were when i just hit some manager’s deadline and the project didn’t go live for months after that, or adopted by the target consumers, etc
My manager gave me a fake deadline (pretending it was not fake, of course) and almost declined my vacation request right after it "in case I couldn't meet the deadline". I committed to finishing my work before leaving on vacation.
It was a tough deadline. I worked during the weekend and few nights before my vacation to meet it. I finished on time and left quite exhausted, but happy I made it.
NOTHING happened with my work in the next 2 months. I asked my manager and he finally said "oh yeah, the deadline is in 2 weeks"... so I asked why I had worked like an idiot before my vacation. His answer: "I did that to help you organise". I kindly told him that I didn't need his help to organise my work and that I would like him to never do that again. He answered that "I understand your feeling, but I will keep doing that, because I am convinced it helps you even if you say it doesn't". That's not the only time he screwed me like this.
I never trusted that guy again. I've seen him take wrong decisions and let him. I've seen situations where he was struggling and I could have helped, but didn't. And when he complained about bad decisions later, I happily reminded him that he took them.
A manager can choose to play with me or against me. But if they play against me, it means I play against them. And once they've brought me there, I'm not coming back in their team, ever.
It was a tough deadline. I worked during the weekend and few nights before my vacation to meet it. I finished on time and left quite exhausted, but happy I made it.
NOTHING happened with my work in the next 2 months. I asked my manager and he finally said "oh yeah, the deadline is in 2 weeks"... so I asked why I had worked like an idiot before my vacation. His answer: "I did that to help you organise". I kindly told him that I didn't need his help to organise my work and that I would like him to never do that again. He answered that "I understand your feeling, but I will keep doing that, because I am convinced it helps you even if you say it doesn't". That's not the only time he screwed me like this.
I never trusted that guy again. I've seen him take wrong decisions and let him. I've seen situations where he was struggling and I could have helped, but didn't. And when he complained about bad decisions later, I happily reminded him that he took them.
A manager can choose to play with me or against me. But if they play against me, it means I play against them. And once they've brought me there, I'm not coming back in their team, ever.
It's easy to break trust, hard to rebuild.