I’ve spoken at length in the past about how dangerous it is for tech support individuals to indulge the wizardry delusion. What you’re doing for the hapless users is not magic, and if you let them think you’re a magician, you’re going to be in serious trouble the first time you have to do actual magic.
But looking at the problem through the eyes of a manager, or lead, or just the senior-most guy in the house on an understaffed and busy day, there’s a certain amount of appeal. Users sometimes have the tendencies of an annoying 4-year-old, mostly around tantrums and “WHY?” and asking for things that they can’t even name. At a time like that, how much easier is it to put down your foot and say NO, this has to be reimaged and encrypted. NO, you must complete the attestation before you are allowed onto the network. NO, we will not bring your hamster back to life.
The irrational demands of department managers – or worse yet, their admin assistants – are frequently impervious to reason and logic. At times like that, the ability to stand on high and proclaim ex cathedra just makes things go so much more smoothly. Which is one reason I’ve always aggressively sought the explicit backing of management on policy questions – life is so much simpler when you can flatly declare something and have it backed up all the way up the chain.
Maybe this is part and parcel of my whole “I AM THE GOD OF HELL FIRE i am, right?” thing.