I\u2019ve spoken at length in the past about how dangerous it is for tech support individuals to indulge the wizardry delusion. What you\u2019re doing for the hapless users is not magic, and if you let them think you\u2019re a magician, you\u2019re going to be in serious trouble the first time you have to do actual magic.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s a certain amount of appeal. \u00a0Users sometimes have the tendencies of an annoying 4-year-old, mostly around tantrums and \u201cWHY?\u201d and asking for things that they can\u2019t 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. \u00a0NO, you must complete the attestation before you are allowed onto the network. \u00a0NO, we will not bring your hamster back to life.<\/p>\n
The irrational demands of department managers – or worse yet, their admin assistants – are frequently impervious to reason and logic. \u00a0At times like that, the ability to stand on high and proclaim\u00a0ex cathedra<\/em> just makes things go so much more smoothly. \u00a0Which is one reason I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n Maybe this is part and parcel of my whole \u201cI AM THE GOD OF HELL FIRE i am, right?\u201d thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve spoken at length in the past about how dangerous it is for tech support individuals to indulge the wizardry delusion. What you\u2019re doing for the hapless users is not magic, and if you let them think you\u2019re a magician, you\u2019re going to be in serious trouble the first time you have to do actual … <\/p>\n