That sounds like an interesting variant of "managing up". I think I may have employed the opposite technique earlier in my career. When my direct manager would

That sounds like an interesting variant of "managing up". I think I may have employed the opposite technique earlier in my career. When my direct manager would state "Department X has decreed that Y must occur no later than Z so we have to do A,B,&C" I'd just ask what the projected implementation cost was for us. If it was anywhere near the annual profit my business unit pulled in, I knew I could rely on it never happening.