Sadly, that's true :( . If the IT executives don't defend the work of the backend people, they're screwed. I worked for close to 2 years on a new backend for t

Sadly, that's true :( . If the IT executives don't defend the work of the backend people, they're screwed. I worked for close to 2 years on a new backend for the insurance company I work for. A new, street-smart guy started getting cozy with management (instead of doing his assigned work), went behind the back of the IT manager and convinced another department to give him some money to build a colourful new frontend (which basically called the new backend and displayed the results, the money went into design and showed), and the company ended up firing the (pretty clueless) IT manager and putting the new guy in charge, over the guys that worked on the backend that made everything possible (both our fault and the clueless IT managers' that this happened, but it still sucks).