The problem is that if they aren't paying close attention, they will skip past the department field and an unintended department will result, with no warning. If the department field is blank, they won't be able to skip past the field, but will have to enter the correct department, lessening the odds for user error.

I'm sure you will agree that lessening the odds for user error is a worthy goal for software, all other things being equal. As is the goal of increasing user satisfaction. This is not the first time I have heard this complaint.

Steve