Jason, I've had almost that exact scenario. I asked multiple members of the team, including the client's project manager, to let me know if the deadline changed because I had so much to do to meet the deadline. (And I had seen their plans and didn't see how they could meet it either.) They all said they would definitely let me know if it moved. They then continued to send me revisions/requests the week of the deadline. I confirmed that they wanted those changes and the deadline was still the same. I hadn't procrastinated the deadline; it was just unrealistic from the start. I pulled two all-nighters in one week, which led to a couple weeks of depression from the lack of sleep and ridiculously high stress levels. EIGHT weeks later, the project manager called and said, "We're wrapping up our plans, and I have a couple questions." I almost blacked out from the rush of emotions, and I didn't say a word for a minute or more. That day, I decided that there is a limit to what is reasonable. I will do what I can, within reason, to meet a deadline, but I won't subject myself to that level of stress and lack of rest again when I'm not the reason for the amount of work left near the deadline. In the end, the project was canceled by the owner before construction began, so it was literally all for nothing. (We did at least get paid, but no dollar value makes up for that situation.) All I asked for what the respect of honesty, and I didn't get it.
On the flip side, I am irritated and inconvenienced when we try to coordinate and not all the consultants have their drawings to the correct level on time.
My real frustration is that people who flippantly miss deadlines aren't really impacted by false/early deadlines, but people who take them seriously are the ones hurt by the lack of transparency.
I think my current favorite methodology from architectural clients is when there is a built-in group QA/QC set before the final deadline for which we're supposed to have everything sorted on our individual scopes at a level that the design professional would be willing to sign and seal. That set allows for coordination with essentially complete drawings instead of everyone coordinating the afternoon the plans go out signed and sealed because the consultant who works right up to the deadline every time sends changes. The QA/QC set is due a week or two before the plans go out for permit or bid, so we all have time to review the whole set for coordination items and make adjustments if needed. There isn't a perfect system, but I find that this approach is helpful.
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Heidi C. Wallace, P.E., M.ASCE
Tulsa, OK
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-28-2025 10:10 AM
From: Jason McCool
Subject: The Illusion of Urgency
"There seems to be a sort of cycle than can happen in which someone will make a false, premature deadline without communicating the true "drop-dead" deadline. But if that false deadline is completely unrealistic and they miss it, they then find out it wasn't actually a "real" deadline. (Or they pull crazy hours and put off other important tasks to potentially find out it wasn't necessary.)"
Been there, done that. Staying at the office til 11pm or midnight to meet a stupid architect's deadline, getting my 100% CDs out on time, and then getting an email 2 months later that they were finally getting ready to submit the complete package that they'd continued working on for 2 months after I thought everything was already coordinated and turned in. Hence my current cynicism about any deadline from architects. In their defense, they probably made up early deadlines because of past projects where they gave the real deadline and other project members missed it. But it just ends up being a vicious cycle. My response now is more along the lines of "I'll try to meet this deadline, but you'll get my work when I'm satisfied that it's safe. You do want your client to be safe in their own building, right?" Most of the time now, I'm actually working with fabricators doing delegated design, and while they're not immune from false urgency issues, they tend to be more grounded in reality and generally a lot better to work with than 90% of the architects out there.
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Jason McCool P.E., M.ASCE
Cabot AR
Original Message:
Sent: 07-25-2025 11:56 AM
From: Heidi Wallace
Subject: The Illusion of Urgency
We all know there are truly urgent tasks and deadlines, and others, not so much.
There seems to be a sort of cycle than can happen in which someone will make a false, premature deadline without communicating the true "drop-dead" deadline. But if that false deadline is completely unrealistic and they miss it, they then find out it wasn't actually a "real" deadline. (Or they pull crazy hours and put off other important tasks to potentially find out it wasn't necessary.) Then, in turn, they don't take future deadlines seriously, which increases the chances of more imaginary deadlines down the road.
In a similar way, if someone marks every email they send as "urgent," without regard for the actual urgency, suddenly nothing is perceived by the recipients as urgent.
For those who assign deadlines, how do you set clear expectations while also maintaining transparency about the reality of the situation? How do you distinguish and communicate truly urgent tasks from important but not so urgent tasks?
For deadline recipients, have you ever been burned by the illusion of urgency? How did it impact how you view future assignments from that individual/entity?
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Heidi C. Wallace, P.E., M.ASCE
Tulsa, OK
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