There's a fine line from shielding people from crap, and shielding people from reality. In my experience, the latter happens way too much.
So I prefer to shield people from having to deal with the crap directly, but I definitely inform them about said crap, and how what they do can help me keep the crap at arms length.
As a developer, shielding me from crap means forwarding customer/client e-mails to me and telling me what they said on the phone, but never giving them my direct e-mail address or phone number.
So I prefer to shield people from having to deal with the crap directly, but I definitely inform them about said crap, and how what they do can help me keep the crap at arms length.