Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!datlog!dlhpedg!cl
From: cl@datlog.co.uk (Charles Lambert)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Reporting progress on a software project
Message-ID: <809@dlhpedg.co.uk>
Date: 30 Jun 88 12:40:22 GMT
References: <917@blue.engin.umich.edu> <10941@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1377@wor-mein.UUCP> <2894@geac.UUCP> <1378@wor-mein.UUCP>
Sender: news@dlhpedg.co.uk
Reply-To: cl@.co.uk (Charles Lambert)
Organization: FSD@Data Logic Ltd, Queens House, Greenhill Way, Harrow, London.
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In article <1378@wor-mein.UUCP> pete@wor-mein.UUCP (Pete Turner) writes:
>
>any suggestion that the schedule 
>must slip will be either ignored or thrown right back in the face of the
>suggestee,
>
>The usual solution was to pressure all developers to work 80+ hour weeks at
>no extra pay and then refuse to discuss comp time because the next project
>schedule can't be slipped (hence their previousness).

I think you've found the only answer to this (alarmingly widespread) kind
of management machismo - make them previous!  Only a high turnover of
staff due to discontent and nervous breakdowns will eventually penetrate
the skull of the corporate Gengis Khan.  Tragically,  there are too many
eager young hawks who buy the lie that working 80+ hours without "grasping"
for compensation shows you're "a professional";  what it really shows is
that you're "cannon fodder".

Fortunately,  there are some employers who recognise their staff as valuable
assets rather than recalcitrant pack-animals.

Enough!  I can feel my arms beginning to wave...

Charlie