Comment Re:Plumbers (Score 1) 417
Having worked on both sides of the IT support fence, I like the plumbing analogy.
If the plumbers started mandating toilet times and protocols, and required you to get management approval for each piece of toilet paper you planned to use, a month in advance, then you have a problem.
If the company employees insisted on their right to relieve themselves in their offices, and demanded to know why someone isn't there in five minutes to clean up after them, you also have a problem.
If your IT department are blissfully ignorant as to the needs of the organisation, and there is no oversight of what they do, then you have a problem.
If your IT department are forced to jump on demand, and are never given the chance to address network security, stability, or backups appropriately because they are always supporting random device X that has nothing to do with the job (until data is lost, and everyone suddenly remembers that backups *are* needed), then you have a problem.
As with many things, there is a healthy balance between the extremes that a company should be aiming for. It's all common sense, and sometimes, it's not all that common.