Manager: We (meaning you) need to do task A. How long will it take?
Me: Task A will take X days to do.
Manager: That seems awful long.
Me: How long do you think it should take?
Manager: It surely could not take any longer than Y days.
Me: Ok, it seems you have an answer to your question then.
Later:
Manager: It’s been Y days, why isn’t task A done yet?
me: suggests anything extra not on the critical path but useful
lead: grumble dont bother automating it, just do a manual minimal local fix!!
later same issues appears
repeat local fix * 1000