For this to be accurate, Kevin's "90% complete" work that you just have to "finish off" will only be 10% to 25% complete, undocumented, and filled with errors.
Management will then ask why you have been working for two weeks on YOUR "one day task" that they assigned you, and when you point out that you were handed garbage to work with, they'll try to blame you for the schedule slippage.
Why not let Kevin finish it off, since the schedule's already been missed? Because he's been handed another task, and you should be able to finish this off easily.
I had that happen a dozen times. And every time, it ended the same way. It got escalated to upper management, middle management tried to justify everything based on what Kevin had told them, and upper management looked at the requirements and deliveries. After they did, and their eyes bugged out, I would be excused, and middle management would be read the riot act. Sometimes Kevin would be called in, sometimes not (sometimes he'd left the company by then).
After the third time, my co-workers stopped asking me why I had such a mercenary attitude and showed no company loyalty.
Quoting at ATI representative at a trade conference in 1992: "people have to remember that the phrase 'next month' is time invariant".
IBM's OS/2 2.0 had been released, and ATI promised working video drivers for their video cards "next month". After eight consecutive months of delays, when the ATI rep was making a demo at the trade conference, he discovered no one cared about his demo, everyone was asking about the long overdue drivers. He wasn't prepared for the question, and made something up on the spot.
ATI never lived it down. The phrase "time invariant" was forever more used whenever ATI missed, or promised, a release date.
The most common euphemism in the 1980s and 1990s was RSN (Real Soon Now).
You saw it in the trade press when companies announced something, missed the ship date, but said it releasing it was "just around the corner". Many releases were always talked about as if their release was imminent, but dragged out for months, years, even decades after their initial promised date. Crosstalk IV was the original poster child for this, followed by Duke Nukem, which was so late it became a meme.
I used to work with Kevin. I wonder who's cleaning up his mistakes now?
Bob?
For this to be accurate, Kevin's "90% complete" work that you just have to "finish off" will only be 10% to 25% complete, undocumented, and filled with errors.
Management will then ask why you have been working for two weeks on YOUR "one day task" that they assigned you, and when you point out that you were handed garbage to work with, they'll try to blame you for the schedule slippage.
Why not let Kevin finish it off, since the schedule's already been missed? Because he's been handed another task, and you should be able to finish this off easily.
I had that happen a dozen times. And every time, it ended the same way. It got escalated to upper management, middle management tried to justify everything based on what Kevin had told them, and upper management looked at the requirements and deliveries. After they did, and their eyes bugged out, I would be excused, and middle management would be read the riot act. Sometimes Kevin would be called in, sometimes not (sometimes he'd left the company by then).
After the third time, my co-workers stopped asking me why I had such a mercenary attitude and showed no company loyalty.
Got it. There's no "accountability" in teamwork here. Or maybe "you can't spell teamwork without 'me work.'" 🫠
The thing about next quarter is that it stays in the next quarter lymbo permanently.
Quoting at ATI representative at a trade conference in 1992: "people have to remember that the phrase 'next month' is time invariant".
IBM's OS/2 2.0 had been released, and ATI promised working video drivers for their video cards "next month". After eight consecutive months of delays, when the ATI rep was making a demo at the trade conference, he discovered no one cared about his demo, everyone was asking about the long overdue drivers. He wasn't prepared for the question, and made something up on the spot.
ATI never lived it down. The phrase "time invariant" was forever more used whenever ATI missed, or promised, a release date.
Valve had a future time delivery conversion table, but I can't find it currently.
My personal go to was "it's going to be done by Friday" but I would not specify which Friday.
The most common euphemism in the 1980s and 1990s was RSN (Real Soon Now).
You saw it in the trade press when companies announced something, missed the ship date, but said it releasing it was "just around the corner". Many releases were always talked about as if their release was imminent, but dragged out for months, years, even decades after their initial promised date. Crosstalk IV was the original poster child for this, followed by Duke Nukem, which was so late it became a meme.
As a nominal Kevin, I feel misrepresented herein.😎