Manger gives kudos to an engineering team for working weekends to hit a deadline he set three months ago... Isn't this just celebrating shit process?

My manager would have to give me pounds, and several hundred of them, not kudos, if I'm working weekends because of their shitty deadline

They will appreciate it I'm sure 😅 until the next plan ends up the same way.

Kudos are free. So is unpaid overtime. And it probably got him a sweet, sweet bonus, or at least some middle manager street cred.

Remember:
You are his career vehicle.

Sometimes these deadlines are inevitable. If there's regulatory milestones that need to be hit for instance, sometimes weekend working for a short while is required.

In that case then it needs to come with a crapload of extra pay, flexible hours, be no more than a few weeks, and preferably a nice bonus to engineering staff when the project is complete.

In reality, that almost never happens of course. It's usually overtime because of bad planning, little or no extra pay, and merely a pat on the back and "carry on" when it's done. Don't stay at those places.