Pondering

You know the question, "If a tree falls in a forest, does it make any sound?"

An interesting question that made me think of this one, "If a deadline comes and goes without anything actually being submitted, was it a deadline in the first place?"

I ask this because on numerous occasions my co-workers and I have encountered this wonderful process which we call, "The Fake Deadline". It starts off with a "deadline" date being given and a somewhat vague description of what is due. As the "deadline" date approaches, everyone is working at a fevered pitch because as things go, sometimes a plan does not go the way it was thought up, if there was ever a plan at all. People work late, work has to be redone all the stresses of a project that eventually culminate to a crescendo as the day approaches. For the most part, these "deadline" dates always seem to occur at the end of the week, either a Thursday or a Friday. Remember that because I'll be coming back to that.

Back to the "deadline", since the "deadline" date is reached and is "the stuff" due in the morning? Mid-morning? Lunch? Mid-afternoon? End of the business day? Five minutes before midnight? When is "the stuff" due? Well those of us who are in the trenches, that information seems to be classified since no one will tell us this information. One scenarios is sometimes a trickle of information gets passed down into the darkness and pretty consistently that information is something like this, "Blah, blah, blah talked to the client there is some sort of change, blah, blah, blah and now the new deadline is at the beginning of next week so we have to get this blah, blah, blah stuff done over the weekend. We'll need to have you guys work over the weekend to get this done so we can knock it out of the park for the client. Blah, blah, blah." So in that scenario, something magical happened and the "deadline" date MOVED to the beginning of next week so that means we are required to work over the weekend to get more stuff done. Hrm. Interesting. I think I've seen something like this before, wait! I have! You know the movie, "Office Space"? The scene when Lumburgh comes over to Peter's cube and starts to tell him that he'll need to come in over the weekend? For anyone that has seen that movie, you all know what I'm talking about.

The second scenario is more subtle, on the day of the "deadline" nothing is said and no information is passed. Everyone is working and working and working. The end of the working day comes and still nothing is known so therefore everyone continues to work and work. Dinnertime comes and goes, still nothing. The "deadline" day comes and goes and no one knows the better since this will also require people to work over the weekend since no one knows when the next deadline is.

So, is there a deadline or not?

Cha...Cha...Cha...Changes!

Yup.

It is always bound to happen. Whether it is slowly or quickly change always happens. I accept that and the best one can do is roll with the punches. There is a a saying, "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

Let us say for example that there is a deadline at the end of the month, a discussion about what to do with some things on the project takes place weeks before this deadline and it has been agreed upon to move in this particular direction. Things are moving along, but wait! A week before the deadline it has been decided that something isn't right and despite the original plan still being logical that it would be better to do it another way for one reason or another. Sure, if there was still time to make these changes and do it the new way, I'm all for it. But one week before a deadline and now there is a change in procedure? What kind of operation is this?

And they wonder why there is a lack of motivation and/or morale. With sheer brilliance like this, it is no wonder that Scott Adams is hitting so close to home when it comes to the workplace.