| At one time I worked at Oldsmobile for a summer. You know Oldsmobile - the big car company. It was a battle ground, not a car factory. I worked on the bumper line where sheets of heavy steel were crushed by giant presses into bumpers. This was long ago of course, because Oldsmobile is gone and so are heavy steel bumpers. But it was clear that there were sides from the beginning. Management thought workers were scum and treated us that way. We thought management was scum and treated them that way. And now American car companies like Oldsmobile are gone. The warfare was ongoing, but there was one time that made it clear to me. The bumper line was an old fashioned assembly line of giant presses, probably twelve or so. We started with a flat sheet of metal. The first press cut it into a rough shape, the next cut some hole, the next bent a part. Each person took the incoming part off one conveyor belt, put it on their press, stamped it, took it off and put it on the outgoing conveyor belt. When a press would break the whole line would stop, the person at the press would push a trouble light, and eventually a mechanic would come, fix the press and off we go again. One day we had gotten to the part where the mechanics had arrived. Everyone stood around and watched as the mechanics checked the press for about twenty minutes. Everyone of us watched, as the mechanics spent twenty minutes working on the wrong press. The wrong one. All of us knew and no one said a word. Finally, the mechanics turned on the press and it worked and they told us we could start again. At that point the guy at the broken press asked about his press. So why? Management manipulated us, treating us like we were not capable people and not to be trusted to do the right thing. And in turn we treated them like they were manipulative, dishonest chain gang bosses. So when you use fake deadlines, this is the road you are going down. You are on the road to obsolescence because the people you are lying to will begin to expect you to lie. Then you will be frustrated because people don't believe you. So you will treat them like the scum they are. Been there done that. Your job should be, but probably is not, to help a team of people accomplish a common goal. Because it takes a team to do software. Actually that is wrong, even slaves can write software. The truth is that a good collaborative team will run circles around you. So it is not that you will fail, it is that someone will come along and start developing software in 1/2 the time that is twice as good. Feel free to repeat the mistakes of the past. However, do not be surprised when the results are the same. sigh. |