I think the tone is intended to mimic the acerbic and deadpan style of satire of the original "A Modest Proposal".
Through the years, referencing that title has indicated author understands the proposal in question is a truly terrible idea, satire, deliberately ludicrously bad (solving hunger by eating babies) in order to point out it's a seriously skewed problem.
It's not clear this author thinks his proposal is ludicrously bad, or satire.
Re:A Modest Proposal for Hourly Billing
by Wowfunhappy on Friday July 10, 2020 @11:54AM
(#23792814)
I believe the author thought the proposal itself ("I will bill you hourly for the time I spend I spend reviewing your hourly bill") was a terrible idea, and in that section, I understood the tone. But he kept it up for the rest of the article as well, despite explicitly saying "Alright, that was fun, but now I’ll break character." I don't think he was being satirical at that point.
I feel guilty for complaining about the tone rather than addressing the substance, but it was really hard to concentrate on the substance through the tone, and I think the tone speaks to the level of empathy the author has for his colleagues. That matters a lot when you're making an argument like this.
Business is business, but the people who work for you deserve to be treated with some degree of empathy and respect. If the author thinks how he writes, I would not want to work for him, ever, regardless of how I billed him.