"We mention the above because this week's On Call, sent by a reader we'll Regomize as "Jack," involves a supposed IT manager who was startlingly ignorant of basic technologies. Jack's tale comes from his time working at a large western country's tax office. 'I lovingly called it 'Idiots R uS' while I worked there,' he told On Call (yes, the odd capitalization in that quote is a clue)."
"In Jack's telling, this tax office never hired managers from outside the organization. 'They rose from new hires, most of whom are only required to have passed high school,' he wrote. 'Those who learn the 'Survivor Method' - Outwit, Outlast, Outplay - can become a manager in a few years.' Achieving managerial status does not, however, require newly minted leaders to know what their minions do at work."
"Of course some struggled to do this, and Jack took many calls from users who couldn't connect. One such call came from a manager who got off on the wrong foot by blaming Jack for not being able to connect to the VPN. 'I could hardly get a word in edgewise during the abuse alleging it was my fault,' Jack told On Call."
The tax office promoted managers from within, often from high-school-educated new hires, using an informal 'Survivor Method' path to leadership. Managerial promotion did not require knowledge of subordinates' work. Remote workers were required to use a VPN before logging into remote Windows sessions, and many users struggled to connect. Support staff received repeated calls about VPN failures. One manager angrily blamed a technician, then proved unfamiliar with basic diagnostics when asked to run a traceroute. A directory lookup revealed the caller was an IT manager, highlighting institutional ignorance and communication failures that burdened support.
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