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Comment on We’re Fucked, It’s Over: Coming Back from the Brink

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"Nothing is beneath a leader in times of crisis"

I've worked for people that believe this, and others that don't. Nothing builds morale and loyalty like rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard stuff with your employees.

I once had a project manager who couldn't write a lick of code, but whenever a deadline approached or something blew up, he'd be right there at 10pm with everyone else bringing in fresh pizza, testing whatever he could, and giving pep talks. Contrast this with someone that says, "get this done by tomorrow, OK?" and then walks out the door. Who do you think is going to have a higher performing team in the long run?

I'd rather be working for the project manager that tells everybody to go home at a reasonable hour, get a good nights sleep, and come back fresh in the morning. That's the most productive. It's amazing how often an intractable bug in the evening becomes an, "ah hah, it's x" in the morning.

>"Who do you think is going to have a higher performing team in the long run?"

The project manager who manages the team, schedule and risks such that things don't routinely blow and run down to the wire would be preferable to either.

lol. In a perfect world where bugs never happen, estimates are always perfect, and last-minute top-down requirements changes never occur, I would totally agree with you.

In the truly long run, one of those teams will either burn out or die of a collective heart attack from all the late nights eating pizza at its desk. Still, it's nice when someone chips in to do additional testing before release.

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