[aruanan]

Why is it that management thinks it knows better than the people who actually do the work whether or not the work can be done? I've seen this phenomenon both in industry and in education. Now, it may be true that management would know better than the ones who actually do the work whether one way versus another will cost more, but how much has this fire cost beyond what it would have cost to maybe put it out at the less than 100 acre stage?

[B4Ranch]

Probably in excess of 50 million dollars. The last cost I read was 52 million.

[Grampa Dave]

You are correct in that management in industry is often as bad as management in government.

We used to see smart and capable young people promoted in our company. If they went to the home office, in 3 months they hated the sales staff, the customers and spouted the insider mantras. The good field managers if they survived the first couple of years of field management became real supporters of the good sales reps and customers. This often made the home office nervous and these managers often would be harrassed into resigning to go back to being sales reps or leaving the company or into taking promotion into the home office to become a corporate Borg.