Manager: We (meaning you) need to do task A. How long will it take?

Me: Task A will take X days to do.

Manager: That seems awful long.

Me: How long do you think it should take?

Manager: It surely could not take any longer than Y days.

Me: Ok, it seems you have an answer to your question then.

Later:

Manager: It’s been Y days, why isn’t task A done yet?

  • LegitimateEngineer@lemmy.world
    4·
    5 hours ago

    I’m of the opinion that it’s always better to overestimate something rather than underestimating it or estimating it accurately. If something takes 20 minutes and you are given a couple of days you have multiple options.

    1. Get it done asap and early, if you get it done earlier than the deadline then people are happy.
    2. If something critical pops up, you can take care of that first then hop on to the twenty minute task because you gave yourself room.

    Management loves when things are done early, expects things to be done on time, and gets angry when there’s a delay (and no warning of the delay), so it’s the smart choice in my view.

    • jtrek@startrek.website
      2·
      5 hours ago

      That’s a good point.

      Though sometimes people are just sandbagging. Like I know one guy is just watching Netflix instead of working. I’m downstream from his work, so it’s a little annoying that I have to wait a couple days to get started.

      I wouldn’t rat him out because my labor solidarity beats out my annoyance, but the annoyance is real.