Opposite experience here really. The team can pad up time estimate for a user story (or decrease total time available for user stories in the sprint) because th

Opposite experience here really. The team can pad up time estimate for a user story (or decrease total time available for user stories in the sprint) because the team wants to include time to get rid of some technical debt or other internal work. I do not understand how agile allows for easier micro management as you say. If some team outsider tells our team how to work we tend to invite them as a member to the team for the next sprint, to show us what they mean. That usually sets the discussion in the right direction. Since the backlog is highly visible, there is much better scrutiny of user stories for customers that have not yet signed a contract. There is also a built in stop of a sprint length before there is a review again of what the team has been ordered to do. Basically, if the team took something off the backlog, we know who put it there. The team is doing exactly what it should be doing, taking items in priority order. Sales people have been fired at work, developers have not.