This lit up my bogon detector.

I once had a serious run-in with a manager who said much the same thing about a different technology. He was (in my jaded opinion) a Control Freak. It was very important to him to extert an aura of being in control. Managing meant getting the good little sheep to go along with procedures, though in that strange way that often seems to happen, the procedures had gradually lost relevance to the work at hand.

Systemically, the affects were similar to what tilly described above. The good programmers got fed up and left, reenforcing his viewpoint that he needed to hire sheep that would behave. His department became an obstacle that the rest of the organization became creative in working around. The damage at that company took years to undo. (That company also had the codependent viewpoint that managers were to be supported in any argument with subordinates.)

If you're in the position of butting heads with a manager like this, it's tempting to hold on to the particular technical issue that you're trying to win approval for, but that's really not the underlying issue.

Ovid, if this is what you're running in to, I have a recommendation: Choose a font for your resume that faxes well. There are bigger organizations using Perl. They're just quieter about it.