Back in '97 I was at VCDC - Orlando where Jim McCarthy was giving a “developer night” presentation. (How I think he got the engagement is another funny story... but I'll keep on track here.)
Toward the end of the discussion he's talking about the things that are done in desparation to ship a product and he opens the microphones for people to share their stories. I'm writing this as best I remember, but the punchline is one I'll never forget.
One guy gets up in front of the microphone and says...
We were working ungodly hours to ship the product and everything was breaking. Upper management was screaming at us and everyone was unhappy. So finally, the project manager calls us into his office and says -
“We're going to fire one developer a week until the product ships.”