My way or the highway (reprise)

In my original post My way or the high way I pointed out a bunch of reasons that a boss type person @ BigCo might be seen as a pain in most respects. It seems I was remiss and I left out one of the ways that this syndrome can manifest. This new way to manifest this syndrome is something like this:

It wasn't something I sanctioned or choose and as such should be turned off immediately.

Now there are certainly times where in a security conscious world that this particular decision making process might make sense. However, I am of the opinion that this process is more of a pissing match then it is really about solving problems.

My Reasoning: Bosses rarely if ever know what the developers need better then the developers do. So once the boss makes the "my way or the highway decision" to turn off something that the developers use and have made use of - the only thing she is doing is harming the organization that she counts on the most. Once might additionally argue that the farther up the "boss chain" or "chain of command" she sits, the less likely the decision is going to be based on fact or need and the more likely it is to be based on some wild personal feeling or desire to do something different.

In the end - I personally think it should be forbidden in companies for CIOs/CEOs to be making decisions about the individual software that developers 3, 4, 5, levels under them in the BigCo food chain use. They are just not in any position to make that decision wisely from where I sit.