I'm not on the mailing list, so this post may get rejected. Therefore I'm CCing Vicki and Andy directly.<br><br>What you need is a way to say "no" and "not now".<br><br>One way to do that is to set priorities. Let users set the priority of their requests but once a day a manager should review all new items and change any priorities they disagree with. Sometimes this is done by a committee with representatives from all areas. They are called a MRRB (MR review board, or Bug Review Board). They meet once a week. Requests are left at the default or user-set priority until the meeting happens, at which time the priorities might be reset.
<br><br>Another thing you can do is make sure you have 3 policies in writing:<br>1. what constitutes an emergency? (definitions of what is a priority 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.)<br>2. how do people report problems? (submit a bug request.... don't bother my damn employees)
<br>3. what is the scope of what the team works on? (i.e. we do fix bugs in these 3 areas... we don't fix bugs with other people's systems, etc.)<br><br>#3 is most likely not a problem.<br><br>When I say "in writing" I mean that they are documented and management above you goes to bat to enforce those policies. If a priority 1 bug is "only emergencies... and an emergency is defined as something that will DIRECTLY prevent tomorrows newspaper from getting out on time" (if you work at a newspaper) then management has to be willing to support you when you change a pri-1 to a pri-2.
<br><br>As Andy alluded to, I make these points in Time Management for System Administrators. (<a href="http://www.everythingsysadmin.com">www.everythingsysadmin.com</a>). It's also in a chapter called "Crawl Out of the Hole" in the next edition of my other book, due out in June.
<br><br>Good luck!<br><br>Tom<br>