I guess it belongs here?

Legal Secretaries at the law firm in question who worked for powerful partners decided to use "Perceived Power" to claw their way to the top. Not every legal secretary deserves the honor of being called a DEB, no, only the meanest of the mean, who blames the computer, the program, and the IT Department for the mistakes she makes. Then makes it her goal in life to use that perceived power to work her way into a management position to gain control of the IT department's development because she thinks she knows more than the people who have computer degrees and 10 years or more experience in the field. She starts by badmouthing the IT department, in public, using words that would make a drunken salior blush. To translate it into a worksafe description, she basically says the IT department could be better staffed by trained monkies and gets managers, partners, and other important people to believe in that. Hearing the many legal secretaries badmouthing their department, one of the IT staffers comes up with a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) to describe this sort of person. Hence the term DEB was created.

I am amazed that the Dilbert comic strip has not yet picked up on this yet, it is pure gold.

You get a legal secretary who was able to create a job position for herself in management to take control of the projects and development of the IT department, and anyone who dares stand up to her is crushed and loses their job.

You will most likely find in their possesion this book:
[link|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553212788?v=glance|http://www.amazon.co...53212788?v=glance]

Other managers use this too, be very careful when dealing with this sort of individual. They can use their percived power to influence people to do whatever they want. There is no real power, only what the person makes people perceive he or she has. Since society works on perceptions, this can be very powerful indeed.

I apologize for propogating it, but felt its origins needed to be told.