This is just extremely (almost comically) bad project management - nobody should take a senior engineer's estimate and apply it to a new hire or jr engineer. I

This is just extremely (almost comically) bad project management - nobody should take a senior engineer's estimate and apply it to a new hire or jr engineer. I've never been a PM but from my planning discussions with mine all have adjusted for seniorness, familiarity with the codebase, and skillset. When I give an estimate I am only asked to give it for myself, it's the PMs job to adjust. I guess I've been lucky because I've never had a PM that did that poor of a job. Maybe because it's because I've almost exclusively worked at companies that provide work to a paying customer, because that environment really depends on good project management.