>It's not like that, it's often exactly that.
And it usually is sold also from within from know-it-all primadonnas who want to climb the ladder. Or at least put something "spectacular" on their CV.
Get promoted/leave for more money after 18mths.
2 years rolls around, everything is on fire but the guy with the matches is nowhere to be found.
Sounds very very familiar to me.
When our sysadmin left, we migrated all our websites from leased hardware servers to cloud hosting and were able to use that head count to hire a developer instead, who has built great new web apps for staff and customers.
I understand the temptation to be cynical, but these really are useful tools. I say embrace change; it's fun.
Recently, I even told him just to tell me what he wants to achieve because his implementations do not make sense and its my job.
At least my boss also let's me do it my way, still annoying.
It's not like that, it's often exactly that.
I'm extremely fortunate in that while my boss sets the goals he never specifies how they should be achieved.
That means I get to implement them as we need them.
I'll never underestimate the value of smart management :).