They say
“That deadline was impossible.”
Your response
“It may have been. Tell me when you first knew the deadline was at risk and what you did then. We also need to look at how the date was set and whether it was realistic.”
01
First, check this
Did you set or accept the deadline without enough information about the work, dependencies, or competing priorities?
02
Why this works
Two questions matter: whether the deadline was realistic and whether the risk was raised early enough. The manager may have imposed an impossible date, while the employee may still have waited too long to say so. Examining both prevents the conversation from becoming an argument about blame and produces better estimates, commitments, and warnings next time.
03
Don’t say
“You agreed to it, so it couldn’t have been impossible.”