Many deadlines are designed specifically to get engineers to work for free.

The job of an engineer is sheer frustration. Perhaps because we have no power, and managers dump all problems on engineers and expect them to be solved by yesterday.



In most cases, the task was set by someone from above, who exactly - the engineer does not know. Perhaps because the manager wants to keep the engineer in the dark, or the manager wants to keep his boss in the dark. Most of the time, problems are created by someone who has no idea what they are asking for or how long it will take.



Here is a common scenario that plays out between an engineer and his boss, the engineer-manager. The manager asks how long it will take to complete the new task. It happens that the engineer has not done this task before, so he honestly answers that he has no idea. The manager does not accept such an answer - and asks again. Then the engineer gives an estimate almost at random, and the boss says, "This is too long." Even if the engineer knows how long the task will take and gives a realistic estimate, the manager often replies, “It's too long. You have until Friday. " When an engineer asks how long it has become known about this task, the boss replies that a month ago. When an engineer asks why he didn't tell him about this a month ago, he just looks at the engineer as if he doesn't understand the question.



Often, the manager sets an impossible deadline, such as three days, to solve a problem that will likely take a month. This means that the engineer has two options. He can do poor quality (i.e. lousy) work. Or he might come back three days later and tell the boss the job isn't finished. Very often, if he chooses the first option, everyone is happy that there is some result, even if it is complete rubbish that is absolutely useless. If an engineer comes back three days later and tells the manager that the job isn't complete, his boss asks why. The fact that there was not enough time is not an acceptable answer. But if the work still needs to be done, the engineer is given more time. I suspect that if the work was not very important to begin with, the boss simply says that time is up and you need to go do something else.



It seems to me that this interaction between a manager and an engineer is nothing more than a game. Either for the manager or from the company side. In the first case, it can be a demonstration of power, and in the second, the implementation of a strategy to increase the company's profits. In other words, if the boss is not completely stupid (as it sometimes seems), then he understands that the engineer cannot complete the work in three days, which takes a month. But he is playing by the company's rules: it wants the engineer to do as much unpaid overtime as he can handle. This is why so many engineers in some companies work 70 hours a week.



Many IT companies actually rent out their engineers to clients by the hour. IT companies charge fees for work, either by the number of hours it takes to complete the work or by the number of engineering hours the work actually takes. They charge the client for each hour. When their engineers work for free for a long time, that's a net profit for the company. Thus, companies have a huge financial incentive to get engineers to work overtime for free. As a result, many companies try to get their engineers to work as much unpaid overtime as possible, even if they have to come up with fake deadlines.



You may ask, is this legal? Yes, this is legal in the United States, as engineers receive a fixed salary, not an hourly pay. The employee is given the same amount every week regardless of how many hours he actually works. Why is it legal? This is likely due to the fact that large IT companies can afford to hire lobbyists, but engineers cannot.



For the United States, this means that many engineers are overworked and generate garbage. When your new laptop dies six months later, or a new American car explodes a cylinder head gasket a year later, that could be the reason. Greedy and selfish companies make their managers and engineers lie. They are forced to say that the work is done when it is not done so that the company can make more profit. It seems that top managers don't care about the problem. This is probably partly due to the fact that most of them are sociopaths and psychopaths . Unfortunately, many of our companies seem to have become Orwellian machines that brought these people to power , and once they are there, they create total chaos for all of us.