" i've seen management say 'yes' to every demand and timeline from a client, then go to the techies and say the client is clueless and stubborn and insist that corners be cut to meet the deadline."

My experience is a little more insidious in terms that the things I want to do are 'not what the customer wants'. Speaking to the customer, you find out that there's a huge translation problem in terms of hitting their expectations. Removing the manager has meant more targets hit.

These days I try to get up as far as I can in the food chain so I can actually judge what the customer wants and needs...this would be nigh on impossible in a true corporate setting.

One other cute one was when I was asked to quote for a job, told my estimate was too high and had it overridden...only for the job to cost a bit more than my estimate because I wasn't told all the parameters.

Yes, I'm looking for another job, but not because of pink slips, but because I can do better.