Random Tech (or IT Work!) Fail

[Ratatapa]

Same boss just came to see me

-Hi just to inform you that we are ready for the Warehouse physical upgrade so we will do the Electric test today in 3h, and it will last 3h, please be here in case stuff happens
-What electric test? Why are you telling me this 3h in advance when i have stuff tonight? (It's my mom bday party)
-Well you're the IT you're suppose to be available 24/7 so we need you to stay here
-Can we do this thursday or next week?
-No we said tomorrow stop asking questions


FFS

[Hellfury]

Don't worry we have encrypted drives. Disregard that no one ever shut down and/or lock their computers.

You probably know this already, but at least on Windows systems you can set a GPO for this. I have _EVERY SINGLE REGULAR COMPUTER_ set to 10 min idle - lock, no exceptions, not even for me. everyone else hates it, but it works pretty well.


I actually had one dude tell me that he had been trying to hack it, because it annoyed him. it feels very weird being a bit over 30 and having to publicly dress down a dude 20 years my senior for being a complete idiot. I could have dragged him away for it, but he unloaded his stupidity in public, there weren't that many people there, and I needed to make a point.


(he tried a lot of different stuff from what I could tell, but every time he logged onto the domain the computer had the GPO step in an override it, he could''ve put in something to make the system think he was active, but eventually I would have found out, and it would have been a quick trip to the VPs office.)


And Ratatapa, this is how our job is, we feel you, but unless you land a gig in one of the anomaly companies, it's how it is

[Zetanio]

Fuck that, don't show up.

[Hellfury]

It's funny because it is true.


Also, standardization is the way to go. You can't standardize everything, but you can put some limits on stuff to make it bearable.

Images might not be feasible (it's not for us), but you can script so much that you're close enough for jazz anyway on the standards, and then see it vary a bit depending on hardware / business line setup etc. you won't get all the way, but you'll get far! (disclaimer about windows update and all that jazz breaking stuff)

[Yabby]

Same boss just came to see me

-Hi just to inform you that we are ready for the Warehouse physical upgrade so we will do the Electric test today in 3h, and it will last 3h, please be here in case stuff happens
-What electric test? Why are you telling me this 3h in advance when i have stuff tonight? (It's my mom bday party)
-Well you're the IT you're suppose to be available 24/7 so we need you to stay here
-Can we do this thursday or next week?
-No we said tomorrow stop asking questions


FFS

I don't agree with Hellfury on this, this isn't how it should be. It is one thing to be on call 24/7, i get it, but something that is planned, no. You don't just spring shit like that on people, IT or anyone. Never stop looking until you are happy, the job is out there.

[Hellfury]

I don't agree with Hellfury on this, this isn't how it should be. It is one thing to be on call 24/7, i get it, but something that is planned, no. You don't just spring shit like that on people, IT or anyone. Never stop looking until you are happy, the job is out there.

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't think this is how it _should be_, I am just stating that it is very common



To grossly generalise and exaggurate, management tends to look a little down on IT even when dietyfying them, and are so used to the "everything just works" from Apple & co (which it doesn't, but that's another story) that they do not grasp the complexity of a lot of technical installations, and (and this feels especially true with older management people) a lot of them still seem to carry a fair bit of "this person works for me and is a tech, NERD!" forgetting that we hold the keys to their entire organizations (and while a service part of the company, very often outrank them, severely). Of course there are companies that aren't like this, but a lot more are.


I'm head of IT for a company spread across around 20 locations, 230+ computers and cellphones, 20+ servers, hundreds of users. Almost everything the company does is on some kind of technical platform that (outside of shadow IT) falls under my domain (haha...) and IT still isn't considered part of the companys general strategic planning or for that matter taken too seriously by the rest of management/upper management, and people still think it's a good use of my time to go replace a keyboard on the other side of town.



On the bright side, this means that there's a lot of meetings I do not need to attend. And the company is halfway done implementing the technical foundation of Microsoft 365 A5 and I'm pretty sure the rest of them still haven't really grasped what is about to hit them like a tonne of bricks around christmas time when I'm done :D


(Heck, a couple of years ago, they called in an external consultant to "review the IT operations of the company". Of course he couldn't really find jack to complain about and his understanding of complex operations were 15-20 years out of date, didn't understand why we had so many VMs rather than consolidating, complete BS, waste of time, insult to me, and the final report was such a piece of crap that the company refused to pay for it and the external consultant wandered off with his tail between his legs.)

[Ratatapa]

I don't agree with Hellfury on this, this isn't how it should be. It is one thing to be on call 24/7, i get it, but something that is planned, no. You don't just spring shit like that on people, IT or anyone. Never stop looking until you are happy, the job is out there.

Problem is that this job was awsome 2 years ago

[Corrderio]

Encrypted drives?!?! sounds like you guys are 100% protected from everything!.

I remember one user got flagged because she was going to certain sites from home. Turns out it was her child, but she asked how he was able to do that if the drive was encrypted......

We ended up taking away her telework because not only did she leave her laptop on and logged in all the time, she would log into our VPN tunnel and allow her kids to play on her laptop during that time.

What the hell? It's sad how some people know nothing of even basic technology.

[Yabby]

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't think this is how it _should be_, I am just stating that it is very common

It is, but only because people put up with it. During the last recession, i understood because I was the same way. I remember applying for jobs vs people with 20 years exp and willing to take 50k a year. Things have changed, and the time is hot to move on if you are not enjoying your current work. If you even have basic VMware/Virtual | Server | San understanding, you can get a job paying 80k+ easy.

I've had 4 other jobs before my current one. Normally left because of the reason listed by you and Ratatapa, or the pay wasn't going to go up much because it was a small company (My 1st job was just about putting in my time during school). Almost every job i left i still keep up with co-workers and almost all of them have said that things got better "Treatment wise" after i left. Mainly because you make yourself needed, and they see how good they had it. The last job i had, I was asked to come back with double the pay because no one could get the system working the same way (SCCM was my baby, it had almost 10k nodes on autopilot. I had each site doing bi-monthly image cycles on the weekend so each computer was refreshed every so often. The place ran like a well-oiled machine.) I took a consulting contract with them instead for a 6 month period because i enjoyed my current job too much (And i made them pay for doing little to nothing).

Problem is that this job was awsome 2 years ago

Time to move on brother.

[BaneTheBrawler]

You can't be afraid to jump ship, man. Unless the company goes out of its way to inspire personal loyalty (which from your descriptions, it is not) you are there to make money. If the money isn't enough for what you're doing, which it sounds like it's not, then it's time you found someone who will pay you appropriately. "My responsibilities outstripped my compensation and the company did not wish to revise either." is a perfectly reasonable reason for leaving. Probably wouldn't put it on a resume, but I'd say it in an interview.


One of the cons of being salary is that the company is incentivized to overwork you. In an hourly setting, suddenly it's "fair work for fair pay" and "if you are not on the clock, you do not do any work period." The thing is, the market right now is strongly in the employee's favor. If they don't pay you enough for that shit, find someone who will.

[Buffy]

I'm still trying to convince the bosses to spend money on getting everyone on the same manufacturer/OS.

We've got our compliance lady on a 7 year old Macbook. Another boss on a weird tablet laptop thing, another on an X1 Carbon, and the rest of the people are scattered between MacBooks and shitty Windows laptops (Including me)

It's become impossible to wrangle everyone on to video chats or anything else because someone is always having an issue and we're spread across the goddamn country. I'm trying to centralize our operations somewhere and hire a proper IT person but my patience for this is waning.

Amazon Chime is your friend for this.

[Yabby]

You can't be afraid to jump ship, man. Unless the company goes out of its way to inspire personal loyalty (which from your descriptions, it is not) you are there to make money. If the money isn't enough for what you're doing, which it sounds like it's not, then it's time you found someone who will pay you appropriately. "My responsibilities outstripped my compensation and the company did not wish to revise either." is a perfectly reasonable reason for leaving. Probably wouldn't put it on a resume, but I'd say it in an interview.


One of the cons of being salary is that the company is incentivized to overwork you. In an hourly setting, suddenly it's "fair work for fair pay" and "if you are not on the clock, you do not do any work period." The thing is, the market right now is strongly in the employee's favor. If they don't pay you enough for that shit, find someone who will.

^ this.

And remember, not like you risk anything. Just look for a job while still working. Once you have secured a better one, give your two weeks. Unless you are really happy with your job, you should always be looking for something better. Corps. don't give a shit about you, don't give loyalty to someone that could care less about you.

[Hellfury]

ngh, maybe I'm just not finding the right companies :/

[Ratatapa]

ngh, maybe I'm just not finding the right companies :/

or the good country!

[Zetanio]

Amazon Chime is your friend for this.

Teach this group of old people about another video conferencing service?

Surely you jest.

[Hellfury]

or the good country!

I am NOT moving to the US, holy shit no. I'd rather be stuck underpaid and underappreciated. xD
Would I like to earn more per year? of course, but $90k will do if moving to the US is the alternative

[Ratatapa]

I am NOT moving to the US, holy shit no. I'd rather be stuck underpaid and underappreciated. xD
Would I like to earn more per year? of course, but $90k will do if moving to the US is the alternative

I'm canadian biatch

[Ragns]

I swear every goddamn time a UI guy touch anything it never works on anything other than Safari on Mac.

[Corrderio]

Is it just me or does it seem like everyone who does UI gravitate towards Mac?

[Buffy]

Teach this group of old people about another video conferencing service?

Surely you jest.

I mean...it's one click download and install, works on phone, tablet, mac, and pc and has integrated voice and video capabilities, plus unique one time call in meeting numbers and can integrate with your organizations windows ANT server to let people log in with their username/password. It's pretty pimp.