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Liberally snippingSuper Soaker Party! posted:We never got the expected email of "<dude> did not show up and/or left early, this is a pattern and is unacceptable" or even just "hey where is the hell is <dude> he was supposed to be here today". ... So clients were apparently happy (Jedi mind tricks?), but I would not say he was effectively getting things done. A friendly face goes a long way when doing customer facing support. When I worked at an MSP I was constantly requested as the preferred tech to come on site because I was "easier to work with". When I started at my current position, the first 6 months I was here I got constant comments about how much friendlier I was than the previous guy. I don't even consider myself that good, but I did a lot of non-tech customer service work before getting into IT, and I've always brought that experience with me when working with users. If this guys customer service skills are such an outlier, maybe look into some training for your other technicians. quote:So yes, we gave him 7 months of that, but there were in fact a bunch of incidents where WE needed something to be done onsite, and if it was after 2 PM, we couldn't depend on that getting done. These are all perfectly valid reasons to fire the guy quote:Incidentally, this is going about the same as the last time I posted. I'm not sure if it's my writing prompting people to debate, or the avatar making everyone think I'm a cranky keyboard warrior, but I don't think these back-and-forths are particularly useful or amusing to anyone, so eh. If anyone else wants any specific details before they conclude this firing was Wrong and Bad just let me know! Chill Winston.
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Jan 14, 2020 23:42
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skipdogg posted:I think getting rid of the guy was the right move Agreed - it sounds like this guy was doing onsite tech support (desktop support)? Absences like that are behavior I'd excuse from a consultant building out infrastructure, not the guy who's slow at doing password resets. In other news, had an informal performances review today which went very well. Got the standard "you're great we love you great things are ahead of you" spiel, nary a word of criticism even when I explicitly asked for it. So Pretty good all around! I'd be happier with a raise of course... But it's only been four months and I'll keep. To make this on topic I was low-key worried as I've a bad habit of waltzing in at 9:15-9:30 most days but my management doesn't care so But hey I get all my work done and look fab too. And you gotta be memorable somehow! The Iron Rose fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jan 15, 2020 |
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Jan 14, 2020 23:47
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Cat Army
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You absolutely were right to fire the guy, but also the guy owns
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Jan 15, 2020 00:00
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I'm normally "if they're getting the job done then what's the problem" but in this case the job wasn't getting done, so out they go. Not having received a complaint from your clients isn't the same thing as them being happy.
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Jan 15, 2020 00:34
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The Iron Rose posted:Agreed - it sounds like this guy was doing onsite tech support (desktop support)? Absences like that are behavior I'd excuse from a consultant building out infrastructure, not the guy who's slow at doing password resets. It's this. The only takeaway I'd have from this is that you guys don't have the right processes in place if this guy was able to pull this off and you all had no idea until the client complains. That's embarrassing.
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Jan 15, 2020 01:39
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Internet Explorer posted:It's this. Sounds like there were specific and pointed emails trying to get him to do his drat job. I think they knew what was happening. If it was me, I would have saved up a minor task for that client then sent it through when you knew he wasn't at his job but should have been.
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Jan 15, 2020 02:08
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Guys if you start agreeing with me I won't know what my role is anymore
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Jan 15, 2020 02:22
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:I only report to one person, but it doesn't seem unusual to have other managers on projects you're working on. They can't exactly give you orders directly, but technically speaking they're above you on the org chart. Same here. I have one boss but I also have a Fullstack Leader who is who gives me my actual work. We are also owned by another bank in another country...whose directory structure/org. chart we don't have any way to view. Every time one needs to work with them, its a via crucis of calls/teams chats/whispering like a retarded game of Latino telephone. Regarding Office Space...I keep trying to be Peter but I'm starting to understand Milton's wisdom. Gasoline as a company improvement tool is underrated.
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Jan 15, 2020 02:57
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:We are also shutting down guests, physically moving hosts to a new chassis, installing flex fabric modules and mezzanine adapters and all sorts of other changes I don't see documented anywhere. Listen I'm invested in this story and I need updates.
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Jan 15, 2020 04:05
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Super Soaker Party! posted:Guys if you start agreeing with me I won't know what my role is anymore You're a terrible person and everything you do is wrong. What did you do, again?
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Jan 15, 2020 09:17
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How much was this guy making? You mentioned Cali salary, like, 80k+ to sit and do nothing?
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Jan 15, 2020 14:02
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mattfl posted:How much was this guy making? You mentioned Cali salary, like, 80k+ to sit and do nothing? 80k to do password resets? 50k is closer to what I'd expect.
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Jan 15, 2020 14:25
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PBS posted:80k to do password resets? 50k is closer to what I'd expect. Same, but California, so I just assumed the salary would be stupid high.
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Jan 15, 2020 14:31
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Absent on-site support and management that's ok with it is how shadow IT operations spin up. "I was gonna ask the dude but he's never here, so I took this equipment and set up this thing. And it works! Kinda." After another year the client would be in serious disrepair. It would come to a head as either your org being blocked on a major project, or their org hiring somebody new in management who would see this garbage and directly attribute it to your bad company. Like somebody said above, silent clients are not happy clients. They're disasters brewing in the dark.
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Jan 15, 2020 15:04
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I'm scheduled for a work trip next week. It's important that my flight I arrives before noon. The office manager that handles flights calls me to her desk to look at options. She goes on the flight portal and searches. When the results come up, I ask her to sort by arrival time. She flat out refuses and says no it doesn't work that way. She just won't do it. So it's sorted by price and there's like fifty options all random arrival times. She just refuses to click the drop down. It's infuriating.
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Jan 15, 2020 15:52
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Jerk McJerkface posted:I'm scheduled for a work trip next week. It's important that my flight I arrives before noon. The office manager that handles flights calls me to her desk to look at options. She goes on the flight portal and searches. When the results come up, I ask her to sort by arrival time. She flat out refuses and says no it doesn't work that way. She just won't do it. So it's sorted by price and there's like fifty options all random arrival times. She just refuses to click the drop down. It's infuriating. You are totally getting the cheapest flight and it will arrive at either 11:59am or 3:44am
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Jan 15, 2020 16:01
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Thankfully we use concur and the finance person has some kind of "acceptable limits compared to the median". As long as our flight is within that range we can book whatever we want from the portal.
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Jan 15, 2020 16:53
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The flight I suggested a week ago is now twice the cost.
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Jan 15, 2020 17:18
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Get those MQDs!
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Jan 15, 2020 17:35
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I've been working for three months as a technician in the repair department of a local electronic store chain. I was supposed to shadow for two weeks with one of the experienced techs; he turned out to be an insufferable jerkoff and left me on my own after a day and a half. I had my own hobby experience, and A+ certification and Google and I eventually trained myself. Also, "Ask questions!" is a poor substitute for training. I'm tired of taking things in stride (my equipment doesn't work, they don't have work shirts my size, when I ask for help I get smarmy responses from Dick Tech) and I am just sunk into a state of feeling sorry for myself. I love this job and I am doing really well...but I feel like I have no frame of reference to judge my performance. Besides the dick, my coworkers are actually positive and non-toxic and they agreed that I basically had no training. I don't know if I belong here because I'm not doing corporate IT but I've been putting off this rant and couldn't anymore. Edit to add that my previous work experience involved caring for adults with developmental disabilities, and I realized that I was managing my interactions with the smarmy git like he was one of my higher functioning autistic clients. He fits that bill perfectly, down to his constant vocal stimulation habits and utter lack of empathy or social skills. ParserGirl fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jan 15, 2020 |
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Jan 15, 2020 19:53
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ParserGirl posted:I've been working for three months as a technician in the repair department of a local electronic store chain. I was supposed to shadow for two weeks with one of the experienced techs; he turned out to be an insufferable jerkoff and left me on my own after a day and a half. I had my own hobby experience, and A+ certification and Google and I eventually trained myself. Also, "Ask questions!" is a poor substitute for training. You're a computer toucher just like the rest of us. Ranting here is fine. I'm sorry to hear about a coworker being a dick. You said 'one of the experienced techs', plural, can you ask to shadow somebody else at least unofficially. Just go and sit beside somebody who isn't a dick and discuss what they're working on.
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Jan 15, 2020 19:58
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Thanks. I get along well with everyone else and I'm able to seek their help. When I have a lot of questions, though, my brain gets log-jammed and it gets hard to ask or figure out what to ask first. I'm worlds ahead of where I was when I started, now that I've gone through the rock tumbler of about 100 repairs.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:01
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ParserGirl posted:Edit to add that my previous work experience involved caring for adults with developmental disabilities, This will serve you well for a long time to come.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:02
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Don't stress. It usually takes 90 days to find your feet at a new job, and 6 months to really get up to speed and productive. Grab a little notebook and write your questions down and keep track of them. It helps me keep track of things.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:08
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mattfl posted:Same, but California, so I just assumed the salary would be stupid high.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:11
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ParserGirl posted:my previous work experience involved caring for adults with developmental disabilities, This sounds like valuable IT experience to me.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:12
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:In my experience, CA just costs more, you get paid the same. In my experience, California Helldesk makes $60k a year.... which is enough to rent a room in someones house, but not enough to get your own apartment. I'm getting out of helldesk soon, so soon. Can't wait for that pay bump as I get promoted to Sr. Infosec Analyst next month.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:13
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My department head is a nice person and thinks it'd be great if there was some kind of conference or expo I could go to myself; but as I am neither faculty, researcher nor undergrad / grad, there's no justification for me to go to any science-y events. As I make decisions on, and purchase just about everything computer related for faculty, staff & students in my department though, there must be some consumer electronics thing I could go to. Any suggestions I should look into? CES would be up my alley except it clearly seems like they're looking for industry marketing buttholes for attendees. I do not have 'media articles citing my name as an industry professional,' that seem to be one of their requisites. Oh well.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:49
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chin up everything sucks posted:This sounds like valuable IT experience to me. It's one of the things that got me hired and it comes in handy every day. They also have a soft spot for me because I was the last person interviewed by the well loved tech manager before he passed away. I learned that in the second interview and it was quite a curve ball.
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Jan 15, 2020 20:54
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5er posted:My department head is a nice person and thinks it'd be great if there was some kind of conference or expo I could go to myself; but as I am neither faculty, researcher nor undergrad / grad, there's no justification for me to go to any science-y events. As I make decisions on, and purchase just about everything computer related for faculty, staff & students in my department though, there must be some consumer electronics thing I could go to. Any suggestions I should look into? Sounds like you work in education, how about Educause? https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference Is there a specific vendor product or application you spend a lot of time supporting? Microsoft, VMWare, Google, etc all have major conferences. If your job deals a lot with  there are a ton of choices too.Might be easier to decide what you want to get out of a conference first, then find one that fits the bill.
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Jan 15, 2020 21:22
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:We are also shutting down guests, physically moving hosts to a new chassis, installing flex fabric modules and mezzanine adapters and all sorts of other changes I don't see documented anywhere. JohnnyCanuck posted:Listen I'm invested in this story and I need updates. Okay. To be transparent, I had asked for a maintenance window at 6pm and it was approved, but I didn't notify the organization. Oh well. I took advantage of the situation started at 5:30 instead. As the Vendor had advised me to do, I rebooted the pbx after enabling SNMP and it loving BROKE EVERYTHING OH MY GOD. Analog/Digital phones still worked but anything that involved network (so SiP) was hosed. We lost all IP phones and voicemail. Also we couldn't connect to the PBX in order to revert to a backup as advised. I told my boss that anything that relies on sip traffic is broken and I'm working on fixing it. Vendor's Tech had to come on site but couldn't figure out poo poo about what the gently caress the problem was.  We didn't get any tickets about the problem because the helpdesk was down as a result of unplugging a bunch of hosts. Which actually I appreciate. At this point, the guy who just started loving our virtual environment had gone home long ago. He physically moved a bunch of poo poo but didn't bring up any of the VM's on new hosts with new datastores connected. He sent me an email from home asking me to basically unfuck all the fuckery that he did, and CC'd my boss. All the while I'm still knee deep in the shitstorm that I caused. I noticed that the network ports on the main side of the PBX were dropping and renegotiating CONSTANTLY and at the same time. I checked our core network switch and that didn't show anything useful, just that the PBX was dropping and renegotiating those ports successfully. I checked ASDM for any traffic going to our failover site and got nothing, but then my boss noticed that the failover PBX was loving BLASTING the internet with ICMP traffic that was failing to go anywhere because that network can't reach the internet. Boss saw that and started OBSESSING about it. Explaining to my boss, "dude I don't loving know what the gently caress it's trying to do, but it's a whole lot of not my problem, I couldn't change it if I wanted to, and it has nothing to do with the poo poo we are trying to fix right now" was fun. Then my boss got an email from one of the sites that uses IP phones that said "Help phones don't work. Everything is broken! What do?" He starts running around like his hair is on fire screaming something to the effect of "DID YOU KNOW THAT ALL THE PHONES ARE DOWN? YOU SAID IT WAS JUST VOICEMAIL. WHY DON'T ANY OF THE PHONES WORK? HAVE YOU TRIED REBOOTING THE PBX? YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR A MAINTENANCE WINDOW!" With the vendor frozen scared and clueless about what the gently caress to do and how the gently caress to fix it, and the poo poo rising up to my chin, I said 'gently caress it' and pulled the plug. I connected all the PBX ports to a 5 port dumb switch and rebooted it. I told him to loving stand right there and count the number of times the link light on the port blinks. Then I went back to my desk and changed the datastores of all the fuckered VM's to point to the new SAN. And started spinning those VM's back up on the relocated hosts that had HBA's configured. Then I went back to the PBX and it seemed to come up just fine. I was able to connect to it on that 5 port switch, so I just plugged it back into our network and everything just started working so  Then I pulled the poor clueless pbx tech back into the room with my boss and told him that his poo poo is hosed and he needs to go back to the Vendor and have them ~*.JUST FIX EVERYTHING.*~ That made my boss happy and he left me alone while I unfuckered all the hosed poo poo and started a root cause analysis on what the gently caress happened with the PBX. Apparently the two sides of the PBX couldn't talk to each other because the network interfaces were flapping, so it wasn't able to failover properly. But it wouldn't have had to failover if the network on side 0 wasn't loving up. Somehow it appears that the PBX was trying to send all failover commands to the same interface that it was sending the commands from and that caused a shitstorm that crippled the whole thing. All told, the PBX problem cost me about an hour of my time to resolve, but I was at work till like 11pm unfucking the whole unplanned Host/SAN move and figuring out what the hell went wrong with the PBX, and writing up a giant list of poo poo that the vendor needs to fix or explain about the phone system before we accept the install as complete. So doing maintenance work outside a maintenance window? ★★☆☆☆ would not recommend. Doing it with your boss present? Absolutely loving not. loving everything and then going home leaving some other poor rear end in a top hat to fix it? Definitely. That's the way to do it.
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Jan 15, 2020 22:46
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Educause is a good time for sure! It's been a few years since I've been, and I've never been to Boston...
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Jan 15, 2020 22:47
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Holy gently caress Charlie. Hope you get some atta-boys for that hellday
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Jan 15, 2020 22:51
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Hey thread, can anyone recommend a book, preferably a Kindle book, that explains some of the details of microprocessor design, and would be readable by me, a guy who majored in philosophy and learned all his computer skills from the internet? I was trying to explain to some guy why the number of extremely CPU-intensive processes his server could handle at once was a lot closer to the number of cores it has than the number of threads it has, and I realized that I was paraphrasing my memories of internet posts past. It'd be neat to actually be sure what I was talking about. That means I don't want to learn assembly language or anything, just have a deeper understanding of how the actual processor features interact with the higher-level world.
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Jan 15, 2020 23:47
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I'm sharing over the url to educause with my counterpart, this does seem on tone for me. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Jan 16, 2020 01:20
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So we're a little behind on our Win7 replacements and have a handful left to do. Not sure on the ETA but I doubt it'd take longer than a month or so. What sort of danger are people in if they don't have the extended support purchased? Just means no more regular updates? How often were updates happening, really?
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Jan 16, 2020 01:46
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cage-free egghead posted:So we're a little behind on our Win7 replacements and have a handful left to do. Not sure on the ETA but I doubt it'd take longer than a month or so. What sort of danger are people in if they don't have the extended support purchased? Just means no more regular updates? How often were updates happening, really? Updates happen monthly for all supported versions of windows so uh yeah that's a really weird question. The danger now is that people were likely holding onto exploits and waiting to use them in the wild until today, your largest vector of attack will always be people being people, so web browsing (clicking dumb poo poo)/email (clicking dumb poo poo) will still be the most common methods of attack.
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Jan 16, 2020 02:21
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Hey thread, can anyone recommend a book, preferably a Kindle book, that explains some of the details of microprocessor design, and would be readable by me, a guy who majored in philosophy and learned all his computer skills from the internet? I was trying to explain to some guy why the number of extremely CPU-intensive processes his server could handle at once was a lot closer to the number of cores it has than the number of threads it has, and I realized that I was paraphrasing my memories of internet posts past. It'd be neat to actually be sure what I was talking about. That means I don't want to learn assembly language or anything, just have a deeper understanding of how the actual processor features interact with the higher-level world. Tannebaums book maybe.
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Jan 16, 2020 04:09
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Replaced a few IIS servers last night as part of an upgrade to 2019. A dev checks over the apps and all seems fine. This has gone through 3 previous staging environments for testing the rollout. Fast forward to 2pm, he says he is seeing a new raygun error but doesn’t think it’s impacting usage since no one in the floor has said anything. Cut to 6pm, I get an email from a department manager stating that his users said this certain app has been down all day and they have been working around it. This app is apparently only fully functional in prod due to some vendor connectivity whatnot. Love 2 be notified of issues
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Jan 16, 2020 11:07
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In situations like that where some manager is screaming "this has been down for 12 hours why haven't you fixed it yet" I like to say, no, it's been down since I was made aware of the issue and not a moment sooner, and my level of freaking out will be keyed off that timeline, not yours.
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Jan 16, 2020 14:45
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