I am pretty sure author is not thinking about teams talking to upper management, but rather upper management talking to teams, claiming the project will succeed

I am pretty sure author is not thinking about teams talking to upper management, but rather upper management talking to teams, claiming the project will succeed while it is really on the failing track and needs urgent intervention. I've seen this once in my career: one of the project directors claiming the certain project is fine in the face of opposite evidence, doing nothing while it went further and further off-track, until the customers (who have seen the status reports) asked for a deliverable and everything just collapsed. This was very amusing to see from the distance, but if I really cared about the project I would be very disheartened. (But I would not call this director "moron" - they got their 7-figure salary for few years, and while they did lose their position, I am sure they will eventually find a new project to lead) Re 2nd part of your message: 100% agree, never judge people by a single event, everyone has a bad day sometimes. However if that's your team-mate and you have a few month worth of experience working with them...