I was that guy at my previous job, and had a much better experience.
For starters, at that company, I always fortunate to have a manager that had my back when it came to deflecting requests that didn't come from him or her. If a random person reached out to me with a request to do some non-trivial work that I either didn't have the bandwidth or interest to do, all I had to say was, "Sorry but I don't have the time to look into this right now. If you need this prioritized, please run it by my manager." 99 times of 100, my manager never heard from them.
The biggest upside to being the go-to guy for people across the department/company is that you get to collect acquaintances and contacts. It's a fun little micro-superpower. Extremely valuable when you need some bit of info from someone outside your team, or need someone to cut through some red tape to get something important done. It means I also have a modest network of people to hit up when I go looking for new opportunities. (This is how I have landed 100% of the jobs in my decade and a half of civilian employment.)
For starters, at that company, I always fortunate to have a manager that had my back when it came to deflecting requests that didn't come from him or her. If a random person reached out to me with a request to do some non-trivial work that I either didn't have the bandwidth or interest to do, all I had to say was, "Sorry but I don't have the time to look into this right now. If you need this prioritized, please run it by my manager." 99 times of 100, my manager never heard from them.
The biggest upside to being the go-to guy for people across the department/company is that you get to collect acquaintances and contacts. It's a fun little micro-superpower. Extremely valuable when you need some bit of info from someone outside your team, or need someone to cut through some red tape to get something important done. It means I also have a modest network of people to hit up when I go looking for new opportunities. (This is how I have landed 100% of the jobs in my decade and a half of civilian employment.)