Introducing The 28 Series: Because Every Project Takes 28 Times Longer Than It Should
Welcome to The 28 Series — a darkly funny and painfully accurate look at why every workplace project takes 28 times longer than it should. From blockers and bottlenecks to endless meetings and 5pm “quick calls,” we’re exposing the real reasons your “quick task” has become your life’s work.
In the workplace, time isn’t a resource — it’s a casualty.
Projects stretch.
Budgets bleed.
Sanity evaporates.
And somehow, the task that should’ve taken two weeks is still dragging on 28 months later, like a corporate hostage situation with coffee instead of ransom notes.
Welcome to The 28 Series — a painfully accurate, darkly comedic dissection of why workplace projects never, ever, EVER finish on time.
James Mason
Meet the Seven Deadly Delays (AKA — Everyday Office Life)
Because the reasons are always the same:
Time Stealers
People who ask for a “quick update” that lasts 47 minutes, five tangents, a personal story about their dog, and still ends with: “So where are we with this?”
Blockers & Bottlenecks
Those mysterious figures who hold unlimited power simply because they won’t reply to an email.
They often reply three weeks later with:
“Sorry — missed this!”
We know you didn’t. You saw it. You ignored it. On purpose.
Delusional Stakeholders
The ones who say:
“Can we add this tiny feature? It’s only small.”
Ah yes. The phrase that has single-handedly destroyed every Gantt chart since 1997.
The Corporate Liars
“It won’t affect the timeline.”
“This is only a minor change.”
“We have full buy-in.”
No, you don’t.
You barely have buy-toleration.
The Classic — The Client's Fault
And sometimes, yes.
It absolutely is.
Under-Resourced Teams
Your four-person workload.
Your one-person team.
Your zero-person budget.
Best of luck.
James Mason
The Meeting Menace
Endless meetings with no actions —
Or worse — actions nobody follows.
You leave with:
- no decisions
- no clarity
- Three new calls in the diary
And the meeting notes read like the script of a hostage negotiation.
James Mason
The Project Manager Who Thinks You Work for Them
A magical species that believes:
- Their deadline = your emergency
- Their panic = your problem
- Their project = the most important thing happening on Earth
“I’ve had to get this project finished as the business will lose revenue.”
Yes. That’s tragic. Tell someone who cares — ideally someone on your payscale.
The 5 pm Ambush
The smarmy Teams call at 16:59.
You accepted by mistake because your mouse betrayed you.
And suddenly, you’re dragged into a group video meeting while secretly eating a doughnut the size of your face.
Camera off.
Mic muted.
Life choices questioned.
Running Over Time? Of Course It Is.
The project is always running over.
It’s the law of the workplace.
- The plan was wrong
- The estimates were fiction
- The optimism was delusional
- And Janice didn’t respond because she was “in focus mode”
Focus mode = online shopping.
And Here’s the Real Reason…
Every project has:
- Too many cooks
- No recipe
- A broken oven
- And somebody shouting, “We needed it yesterday!”
But there’s one universal truth:
The deadline doesn’t move because the work takes longer —
it moves because someone writes a new deadline after the old one is ignored.
And so begins The 28 Series — a satirical documentary-style journey through every frustrating, ridiculous, avoidable reason workplace projects never finish on time.
