The real tragedy was that the European client never got its computer-based QC and tracking system. The IT guys who had arranged to get us fired didn't have the slightest idea of how to implement the complex systems we had designed. When the new plants went online, all quality control and tracking was being done by hand, on cards and sheets of paper. It was a catastrophe. We heard through the grapevine that customers were lining up in droves to cancel their orders. Fifteen months after they opened, both plants shut down permanently.

In IT, as with most human endeavor, fear of job loss can destroy a lot more than jobs.