There is something to be said about pushing engineers to tighten their deadlines. It's not necessarily out of a desire to shift blame. Instead, it's often to en

There is something to be said about pushing engineers to tighten their deadlines. It's not necessarily out of a desire to shift blame. Instead, it's often to encourage them to work hard for the same amount, and to think up novel solutions to problems where others might not have. In other words, it's an attempt at maximizing productivity. Start ups and some teams are running on legitimately small budgets and squeezing every moment of the process will net a large outcome if done consistently. Having said this, the idea that you can ask for something in 2 weeks when your eng estimated 4 weeks is ridiculous. I would automatically add 50% to my eng's estimates because their estimates are probably too ambitious to begin with (I fall to the same problem when estimating my own work). If you consistently get undercut in your estimates, get out! I've seen this behavior most often in marketing agencies and game companies. I would not work for these types of people regardless of the money they are paying.