Why, yes, I _DO_ work in IT

[digitaldiscipline]

Money shot:

While everyone would like to work for a nice person who is always right, IT pros will prefer a jerk who is always right over a nice person who is always wrong.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137708/Opinion_The_unspoken_truth_about_managing_geeks

Comments

[ruefullyamused.livejournal.com]

I agree with that and I'm not even in IT :P

[faience.livejournal.com]

Heck yes.

I don't think this is a truth about managing geeks -- it's a truth about managing intelligent people.

[y2kdragon.livejournal.com]

I'll second that comment. Smart people will work around many personality issues if the manager in question knows their stuff. In the long run, ID-10-T managers will end up being "jerks" to a smart person anyway.

[drcuriosity]

Very nice. I'm now going to drop that link into an IRC channel full of sysadmins :-)

[chiller.livejournal.com]

God, that's so true. You can't look up to a boss who's not always right. When you get one who IS, it's ok to flat-out worship them, while SUCKING ALL THEIR KNOWLEDGE OUT OF THEIR BRAINS.

Basically, this is my career, right here. Not so much on the shoulders of giants, as staring at you from inside their eyeball.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Thirded. I'm a PA/office manager. Jerks who can make a decision & give the team some concrete direction are infinitely preferrable to nice fluffy idiots who can't make a decision to save their lives & leave the whole team floundering about aimlessly.