winscape 2204

Ah, but you're talking about engineers, who aren't normal people. Once you cross over into the PHB realm, you find many people who see everything as a zero-sum game, i.e. you can only make a gain at the expense of someone else. In such an environment, backstabbing makes perfect sense, because if others can't get something then there's more of it for you.

From the manager's viewpoint (and he doesn't have to be male) there's a very good purpose. It's all about status. I, too, have been in environments where the manager gets the fanciest machine for his occasional bits of e-mail and web surfing, while the lowly data entry clerk has to spend all day squinting at the smallest, cheapest monitor they could find.

And it isn't just computers. When a PPOE upgraded to a new telephone system, the vendor provided training sessions. The trainer showed us the different telephone sets available, from a simple 500-style set to the super-duper multi-line phones with an LCD screen and a gazillion buttons. She pointed out that a manager only needed a simple set, since all his calls (and probably those of one or more other managers as well) would be handled by a secretary who really needed one of the super sets. She also mentioned that most companies ignored this common-sense advice and gave the fancy phones to the managers, leaving the secretary to juggle their calls on the barebones set.

She was right - once our phones were installed, this is exactly what happened. Common sense finally prevailed, and the secretary got a phone that was adequate for her needs - but not until the ego card had been played for a while.

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