Boss: I don't want you spending more than 30 min looking into the problem.

Me: ok

Go back to desk and read or watch some cs training. Maybe related.

Go back to boss.

Me: going to take (over estimate tome) to fix.

Boss: ok.

Go back to desk and fix in less time than estimated.

Look like gold.

Giving reasonable and consistent estimates is hard enough, and that kind of selfish nonsense gives us all a bad name.
I hope I'll never have to work with you.

@mrdooom
I hope not, but sometime in your career you may find yourself stuck in a situation where it becomes impossible to give 'reasonable and consistent estimates.'

The other person, for whatever reason, may have NO interest in your estimates. Based on their own uninformed metric this task should be 'easy.' Or an unrelated task a week before 'only took a half hours.'

Any attempt to reason with them is treated as you trying to waste time. They 'KNOW' how long it takes.

To not complete the task in the time they estimated gets you Yelled At. Again, they have no desire to listen to your side. They know better.

So I lie. Selfish. Yes. unprofessional. Yes it is.

But, it make them happy.
Work becomes bearable.

Some of us are stuck in unprofessional environments, and we do what we must to make it work.

With devRant we can rant about these things, and we hope others will be on our side without judgment, or need for a long winded backstory.

After all, I'm just here to rant.

My comment may have been a little harsh, so I apologise, but I stand by the sentiment. Your post read as more of a boast than a rant ("...fix in less time than estimated. Look like gold"), and I think it needed the extra context.

I have been in situations where my estimates were ignored, or budgets had already been agreed before the devs were consulted (thankfully it's never been as bad as you described). So I do understand, but I still don't agree with the method.