I recently stumbled upon a book by Thomas Craughwell about urban legends [1]. While reading Craughwell's book, I realized that I have been the victim of urban legends at work. Someone (sometimes me) has taken a legend as truth, acted on it, and had it end badly. Understanding what is legend and what is truth can help when managing IT and other work.

Here are three urban legends I've encountered at work and how they either backfired on me or caused me grief when trying to manage projects.