Good response bjk. I completely agree with you that it needs to be a two sided affair and this is seldom the case. I guess what I'm trying to say is this is the way things work and I don't see it changing. We either need to accept, adapt and move on, or we will continue to be unhappy and look for other jobs or whatever, only to go through the same thing again (not always, I'm sure there are plenty of employers out there who do 'get it' but I'm referring to the norm). The way to adapt is always present things in terms of cost benefit or ROI.

I don't disagree with you that resources are required to deliver results but it needs to be presented properly. If you are expecting empathy, then I think you'll be waiting a very long time. Think about services we use for personal things. Honestly, how often do we as individuals empathise with service departments/companies? If my internet drops out at home, I really don't care what reasons they give me, I just want it fixed and I don't want to have to spend more money on it. Stakeholders approach us in the same way.

I know this topic could go on forever with arguments back and forth. Believe me, I know what it's like and am in the same boat. But I've found my success rate has vastly improved after I started showing how investments actually save money as opposed to costing.