"We not only handled all the programming, but also general tech support -- fixing terminals, phones and other broken equipment for 100-plus bond traders and sales people," says fish.

"Needless to say, we were constantly interrupted, to the tune of 30 to 40 requests a day."

Unfortunately, not everyone understands the challenging environment. In fact, the loudest critic of fish's group constantly complains that the programmers don't get anything done, they don't know how to prioritize their work, and generally they don't know what they're doing.

Then comes a reorganization -- and who should end up with oversight responsibility for fish's group? Who else but the critic.

And he knows just how to straighten out this crew. "In his new role, he wanted to know everything we were doing and approve every request," fish says.