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A bad manager's cynical advice, a production script that quietly became a permanent process for 300 users, and how to build a 'no' that actually sticks.

May 29, 202620 min

Show Notes

A bad manager once told me: 'if you get the work done, they will want more.' It was terrible advice in the moment. I've been thinking about it ever since. I unpack the real dynamic underneath that cynical observation: how organizations unconsciously reward the wrong behaviors, how emergency workarounds become permanent processes, and what it actually looks like to hold the line when everything in the environment is pushing you to just say yes. Featuring a prod incident, a request to update 300 users with a script, and a no that stuck.