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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a parent of a college student and someone who has been in the workforce for over 36 years...[b] there is no such thing as a strict deadline in the real world. [/b]Unless you are carrying the new kidney to a patient, most deadlines are important but not the be all end all. Sure you may feel bad or a boss my be disappointed for a bit but after a day or two - other more important things come up.[/quote]
Remind me never to hire you or your children. When I tell you to have something done by Friday, that's not a gentle suggestion. [/quote]

Wow aren't you a tough guy.  No wonder you clawed your way to middle management.[/quote]

I was thinking this was a distinctively middle management POV. When your job is making sure the people doing the work are on time and on task, you think all deadlines are crucial — your power comes from imposing/enforcing them and you’re evaluated wrt how well you manage that.

If you’re a professional who is hired for/evaluated based on expertise, deadlines (generally) matter less than whether/how well you solve the problem your client needs help with. And lots of your projects may be unpredictable in terms of how much time they will require. You aren’t doing the same well-defined task over and over again.  So communication is key — as are triage skills when balancing the demands of different projects/clients. Sometimes meeting a particular deadline is crucial (and it’s important to be able to recognize those situations), but other times, a deadline is provisional/a check-in point and can be renegotiated (or becomes irrelevant because you hit that stage/milestone) earlier.[/quote]

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