Sounds like you worked in some dysfunctional places. If things worked that bad on the communication/management level, I'm not sure any system really had a chance of working well. If you get an experience like "to slap developers into rushing even more." then the problem seems to be somewhere else and I'm not sure we can judge agile itself from this.
I've never seen a perfect place, but I'm sorry you had experiences like that. There really are places which function better and actually do friendly cooperation across levels.
If someone’s work history is littered with only dysfunctional companies, are we sure the companies are 100% of the issue?
> If you get an experience like "to slap developers into rushing even more." then the problem seems to be somewhere else and I'm not sure we can judge agile itself from this.
Oh, absolutely. Agreed. That's why I left several places during the course of the last 10-ish years.
> I've never seen a perfect place, but I'm sorry you had experiences like that. There really are places which function better and actually do friendly cooperation across levels.
Well, I just recently finished a limited term contract and started looking for a full-time employment (contracting is exhausting). Shout if you have anything. :) I mellowed out quite a lot in the last years and my comment above is just a triggered reaction.