Hot air balloon managers...

A colleague at work told me the joke below. It reminded me of managers in IT environments who make decisions based on factors other than technical relevance. Sometime ago a manger decided that her desktop support all required domain admin rights. It was because that is what they said they required to do the job. Requesting her to restrict the rights to a limited number of people in the company fell on deaf ears. What happened is that all users eventually ended up having rights to all other users folders and computers, which caused a major incident tsunami when a worm breached the environment. One of the desktop guys also loaded 3 different anti-spyware and anti-virus packages on each computer including the servers. The servers and desktops all ground to a halt with processing over utilization. Somehow the manager reasoned it wasn't her fault, and directed blame elsewhere. Additionally, hiding behind the excuse, "well, I don't understand the technology." That is weak. If that is the case, then don't become a manager with IT responsibility, because decisions are made on technical relevance.

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised my retrieval crew I would meet them in half an hour, but I don't know where I am."

The man below says: "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately five metres above this field. You are between 27 and 28 degrees latitude south , and between 24 and 25 degrees longitude east ."

"You must be an engineer," says the balloonist.

"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost.

"The man below says, "You must be a manager."

"I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

How many hot air ballonist manager's do you know?