This should be a lesson to all the young IT people out there.
If the employer has "cool" perks like an on site keg or other such nonsense then they have problems keeping employees because they are terrible and they are trying to gain allegiance through stupid crap you shouldn't care about more than how you are treated.
On-site-business-hours booze isn't a perk, it's a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that if your employees were sober they would quit.
This should be a lesson to all the young IT people out there.
If the employer has "cool" perks like an on site keg or other such nonsense then they have problems keeping employees because they are terrible. They are trying to gain allegiance through stupid crap you shouldn't care about more than how you are treated and you should run away.
This is 100% because my boss isn't here, and his boss isn't here, my entire department only has low level people on site this week because they went to the carribean, so there's nobody with any authority to tell sales division to fuck off shit happens
Also the particular customer who's autocomplete I fucked up is the decision maker for a big client
This should be a lesson to all the young IT people out there.
If the employer has "cool" perks like an on site keg or other such nonsense then they have problems keeping employees because they are terrible. They are trying to gain allegiance through stupid crap you shouldn't care about more than how you are treated and you should run away.
This is 100% because my boss isn't here, and his boss isn't here, my entire department only has low level people on site this week because they went to the carribean, so there's nobody with any authority to tell sales division to fuck off shit happens
Oh I know but there IS a reason they implemented some of those things and its because upper management and pay is terrible.
I am not trying to talk down your job or anything or even say you shouldn't have taken it. Just that there are warning signs to this kind of stuff and that is one of them.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
special team: uh... no we don't? we thought IT did it. Isn't that right engineer?
engineer: yes, IT has the installers and config information for this software
me: no, we don't. It used to be part of a big installer package that you built, but when you updated the software you stopped maintaining that installer and now we only have bit and pieces (and not the ones the user wants)
engineer: well, I totally gave it to you [no he didn't] but here let me link it to you [attached link to a 3rd-party filesharing site because why not who needs to use the myriad of ways to share our licensed products internally]
me: ok. 1, can't even access that because that site requires a licensce I don't have and 2, no you never gave us the installers jesus christ what do our customers do when they need to install this ish
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I figured they would have just emailed a 20 meg installer.
and it wasn't even dropbox
like come on dude if you're gonna use one at least use the good one
Aioua on
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
This guy isn't even going to wait until my manager gets back from vacation he wants me to fill out all this shit now
I really don't feel comfortable writing an official report the client is going to read about how I fucked up without having any higher ups to talk to about it
This guy isn't even going to wait until my manager gets back from vacation he wants me to fill out all this shit now
I really don't feel comfortable writing an official report the client is going to read about how I fucked up without having any higher ups to talk to about it
goddamnit
At this point I'd start looking for a new job. Because even if you survive this, you don't want to keep working here. I get that your problem is that your boss is out, but if that's the kind of viper's den you're working with when he's gone, you're fucked.
Like, we've all dealt with people trying to pick on us when the boss is gone. It happens. But these people sound like they're trying to hurt your career, and fuck that noise.
This guy isn't even going to wait until my manager gets back from vacation he wants me to fill out all this shit now
I really don't feel comfortable writing an official report the client is going to read about how I fucked up without having any higher ups to talk to about it
goddamnit
You don't write it up like that.
You write it up like you were diagnosing the issue and to cover all anomalies for the source of issues you cleared the cache which reset the autocomplete list for outlook.
The autocomplete list being cleared is actually something that happens fairly regularly even without IT intervention because it's not meant as a replacement to the address book.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I mean I literally pressed the clear autocomplete button and hit yes because I thought that's what she wanted me to do, and I was being a moron so I backed nothing up first
This guy isn't even going to wait until my manager gets back from vacation he wants me to fill out all this shit now
I really don't feel comfortable writing an official report the client is going to read about how I fucked up without having any higher ups to talk to about it
goddamnit
You don't write it up like that.
You write it up like you were diagnosing the issue and to cover all anomalies for the source of issues you cleared the cache which reset the autocomplete list for outlook.
The autocomplete list being cleared is actually something that happens fairly regularly even without IT intervention because it's not meant as a replacement to the address book.
And I would ask to know what in the contract language makes your firm responsible for temporary or transient data like autocomplete. Is there a clause in the contract that indemnifies you for that?
I bet there is. At the very least it says no where that you're responsible for it's maintenance.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I mean I literally pressed the clear autocomplete button and hit yes because I thought that's what she wanted me to do, and I was being a moron so I backed nothing up first
so I probably deserve to be fired
Ok. Stop it.
You need to stop beating yourself up right now and know that this shit happens in IT and you need to go in there confident that you didn't break anyone's ability to do anything.
Be honest that the client was not clear and you thought you were providing a solution to the issue.
I mean I literally pressed the clear autocomplete button and hit yes because I thought that's what she wanted me to do, and I was being a moron so I backed nothing up first
so I probably deserve to be fired
No you don't.
The issue right now is you think you're to blame for this, but the person was unclear, and ultimately, was using the software wrong.
You also should highlight that you attempted to fix it but the user wouldn't give up the computer to complete the process, further absolving you and probably making it more difficult to restore in the future.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
this CIO has been here less time than I have, he started last Monday
his boss, the head of the division, is also on vacation
he shouldn't fucking be filing an official incident report without clearing it first : /
Oh.
Well then, you have a choice:
1. Write the report, and blame him for making you do it. You have to divorce yourself of the consequences for your company. They put a shithead in charge, this is what happens. Make sure your peers are aware of the situation, and what you are being forced to do, and who is doing it. Document what's happening. BCC all correspondence.
2. Tell him you're not doing anything until your boss is back. You simply cannot make a decision about incident reports, that's above your paygrade, and you know your boss would be pissed if you did. If he threatens you, again, document everything. Do not fill out the report under any circumstances. If he can fire you, and fires you, show up on Monday morning, and speak with your boss about it.
this is just a bunch of exec dick waving, you'll be fine
the client isn't going to give a shit about your report because they're getting cash money back
if anyone's going to get grilled it's the CIO for refunding the client for a stupid reason
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
This guy isn't even going to wait until my manager gets back from vacation he wants me to fill out all this shit now
I really don't feel comfortable writing an official report the client is going to read about how I fucked up without having any higher ups to talk to about it
goddamnit
"Auto complete list cleared to correct problem in application. User failed to save contacts in Contact List. Recommendation: additional training for user on correct usage of Outlook."
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Yes I know exactly what's happening, he got called by them because he's the escalation point from sales for irate customers, he took the easy path (instead of just getting yelled at) and opened up the checkbook, and then realized that he'd have to say why so he had to escalate it to SOMEOBODY FUCKED UP HARD land and dumped it on me because I'm the lowest paid person in the incident chain
Literally all you need to do is write, "There was a miscommunication during the troubleshooting process. Noncritical data, an autocomplete list for typing email addresses, was lost in the process."
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Literally all you need to do is write, "There was a miscommunication during the troubleshooting process. Noncritical data, an autocomplete list for typing email addresses, was lost in the process."
Then the question becomes "if it's so noncritical, why were 2 engineers pulled from other tasks to do an emergency shadow recovery?"
Literally all you need to do is write, "There was a miscommunication during the troubleshooting process. Noncritical data, an autocomplete list for typing email addresses, was lost in the process."
Then the question becomes "if it's so noncritical, why were 2 engineers pulled from other tasks to do an emergency shadow recovery?"
of course that's not a question for me
It's not your fault they are over reacting to a non critical IT issue.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
also, don't fill out the report. if you say your manager will have your back, than your manager will have your back on that too. Tell them that the report has to be filed through your manager and your manager is not in until monday, so it can't be filed until then.
Also, for the love of god it isn't your fault. Shit happens. Christ, yesterday I broke voicemail for the entire company for an hour and a half while troubleshooting something on a new exchange setup. I fixed it, apologised to the 2 people who noticed and moved on.
Shit happens, and every so often you're going to break something, even if purely by accident. And sometimes it will happen to important people. The key is how you deal with it after, (i.e. was it something preventable, could you do the task again in another way without breaking it, etc). But if you treat every mistake/shit happens moment like it is the end of the world you're not going to last all that long working in this field. And please don't mistake how I mean this. I'm not meaning to talk down to you, or say anything bad. You just have to learn to not have the attachment in certain situations, because it'll happen more than you think.
As someone from a different technical field who reads this thread for everyone's zany stories... do NOT complete that incident report until your manager is back. There is no reason that it can't wait for Monday.
I once wiped a dude's computer because I forgot to check if his bitlocker key was stored in AD before updating his BIOS
that was fun
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
also, don't fill out the report. if you say your manager will have your back, than your manager will have your back on that too. Tell them that the report has to be filed through your manager and your manager is not in until monday, so it can't be filed until then.
Also, for the love of god it isn't your fault. Shit happens. Christ, yesterday I broke voicemail for the entire company for an hour and a half while troubleshooting something on a new exchange setup. I fixed it, apologised to the 2 people who noticed and moved on.
Shit happens, and every so often you're going to break something, even if purely by accident. And sometimes it will happen to important people. The key is how you deal with it after, (i.e. was it something preventable, could you do the task again in another way without breaking it, etc). But if you treat every mistake/shit happens moment like it is the end of the world you're not going to last all that long working in this field. And please don't mistake how I mean this. I'm not meaning to talk down to you, or say anything bad. You just have to learn to not have the attachment in certain situations, because it'll happen more than you think.
I once brought down the sales software for the franchisees for a fortune 500 by screwing up the drive mounting file in UNIX at a previous job
Yeah, if the incident process requires your boss, then wait for your boss. Send your boss an email that the other guy requested one be done, but don't send anything back yet beyond "incident report is waiting on X's return".
I'm fairly certain that that guy wasnt supposed to issue a refund until the incident report was written, submitted, reviewed, and if your company was determined to be at fault, only then is a refund is processed. Sounds to me like this guy jumped the gun and is looking to cover his ass. So I'd mention to your boss that he already issued the refund before the report was done. And this is probably a good time to act coy and phrase that like "I'm not sure how the process works but shouldn't he wait to issue a refund until after the report is done?"
And I know it may've sounded snarky, but I was serious that the root cause here is a failure in user training. It doesn't help your clients if you fail to mention that because this issue will occur again. Auto complete cache corruption is a common issue and copying the file before you clear it won't help restore it.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
+6
KakodaimonosCode fondlerHelping the 1% get richerRegistered Userregular
edited October 2016
And I would be surprised if your boss or someone isn't at least checking emails while they all are off playing. If they're not, then they're being really dumb.
Edit: And the rest of what I was going to say
So I'd write up just a quick e-mail about what's going on and send it only to your boss. Honestly, if I got wind of something like this happening with someone working for me, I'd be pissed. And your boss is out there with his bosses and everyone else, so he can probably get one of them at least to send a "Knock it the f. off" message to the CIO before he ends up agreeing to give the customer their entire year for free.
Literally all you need to do is write, "There was a miscommunication during the troubleshooting process. Noncritical data, an autocomplete list for typing email addresses, was lost in the process."
Then the question becomes "if it's so noncritical, why were 2 engineers pulled from other tasks to do an emergency shadow recovery?"
of course that's not a question for me
"I don't know, that's not my purview."
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
"Technican(s) be re-trained on proper backup procedures before completing any work on client systems."
k well
Nobody ever finished my training because the guy training me walked off the job
If you don't give a fuck about your job, respond back, "CIO should learn the difference between business critical and non business critical IT issues before issuing refunds or discounts."
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
And I will reiterate that cache corruption cannot be repaired by taking a backup of the file after the fact. Backups are only useful if they occur before the incident.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Posts
On-site-business-hours booze isn't a perk, it's a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that if your employees were sober they would quit.
This is 100% because my boss isn't here, and his boss isn't here, my entire department only has low level people on site this week because they went to the carribean, so there's nobody with any authority to tell sales division to fuck off shit happens
Also the particular customer who's autocomplete I fucked up is the decision maker for a big client
Oh I know but there IS a reason they implemented some of those things and its because upper management and pay is terrible.
I am not trying to talk down your job or anything or even say you shouldn't have taken it. Just that there are warning signs to this kind of stuff and that is one of them.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
user: hey I need this software
me: oh, [special team] installs that software
special team: uh... no we don't? we thought IT did it. Isn't that right engineer?
engineer: yes, IT has the installers and config information for this software
me: no, we don't. It used to be part of a big installer package that you built, but when you updated the software you stopped maintaining that installer and now we only have bit and pieces (and not the ones the user wants)
engineer: well, I totally gave it to you [no he didn't] but here let me link it to you [attached link to a 3rd-party filesharing site because why not who needs to use the myriad of ways to share our licensed products internally]
me: ok. 1, can't even access that because that site requires a licensce I don't have and 2, no you never gave us the installers jesus christ what do our customers do when they need to install this ish
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Wow.
I figured they would have just emailed a 20 meg installer.
and it wasn't even dropbox
like come on dude if you're gonna use one at least use the good one
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I really don't feel comfortable writing an official report the client is going to read about how I fucked up without having any higher ups to talk to about it
goddamnit
At this point I'd start looking for a new job. Because even if you survive this, you don't want to keep working here. I get that your problem is that your boss is out, but if that's the kind of viper's den you're working with when he's gone, you're fucked.
his boss, the head of the division, is also on vacation
he shouldn't fucking be filing an official incident report without clearing it first : /
You don't write it up like that.
You write it up like you were diagnosing the issue and to cover all anomalies for the source of issues you cleared the cache which reset the autocomplete list for outlook.
The autocomplete list being cleared is actually something that happens fairly regularly even without IT intervention because it's not meant as a replacement to the address book.
so I probably deserve to be fired
And I would ask to know what in the contract language makes your firm responsible for temporary or transient data like autocomplete. Is there a clause in the contract that indemnifies you for that?
I bet there is. At the very least it says no where that you're responsible for it's maintenance.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Ok. Stop it.
You need to stop beating yourself up right now and know that this shit happens in IT and you need to go in there confident that you didn't break anyone's ability to do anything.
Be honest that the client was not clear and you thought you were providing a solution to the issue.
edit:
So there you go. Use that.
Don't go down with the ship out of guilt when you don't need to.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
No you don't.
The issue right now is you think you're to blame for this, but the person was unclear, and ultimately, was using the software wrong.
You also should highlight that you attempted to fix it but the user wouldn't give up the computer to complete the process, further absolving you and probably making it more difficult to restore in the future.
Oh.
Well then, you have a choice:
1. Write the report, and blame him for making you do it. You have to divorce yourself of the consequences for your company. They put a shithead in charge, this is what happens. Make sure your peers are aware of the situation, and what you are being forced to do, and who is doing it. Document what's happening. BCC all correspondence.
2. Tell him you're not doing anything until your boss is back. You simply cannot make a decision about incident reports, that's above your paygrade, and you know your boss would be pissed if you did. If he threatens you, again, document everything. Do not fill out the report under any circumstances. If he can fire you, and fires you, show up on Monday morning, and speak with your boss about it.
this is just a bunch of exec dick waving, you'll be fine
the client isn't going to give a shit about your report because they're getting cash money back
if anyone's going to get grilled it's the CIO for refunding the client for a stupid reason
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
"Auto complete list cleared to correct problem in application. User failed to save contacts in Contact List. Recommendation: additional training for user on correct usage of Outlook."
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Then the question becomes "if it's so noncritical, why were 2 engineers pulled from other tasks to do an emergency shadow recovery?"
of course that's not a question for me
It's not your fault they are over reacting to a non critical IT issue.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Also, for the love of god it isn't your fault. Shit happens. Christ, yesterday I broke voicemail for the entire company for an hour and a half while troubleshooting something on a new exchange setup. I fixed it, apologised to the 2 people who noticed and moved on.
Shit happens, and every so often you're going to break something, even if purely by accident. And sometimes it will happen to important people. The key is how you deal with it after, (i.e. was it something preventable, could you do the task again in another way without breaking it, etc). But if you treat every mistake/shit happens moment like it is the end of the world you're not going to last all that long working in this field. And please don't mistake how I mean this. I'm not meaning to talk down to you, or say anything bad. You just have to learn to not have the attachment in certain situations, because it'll happen more than you think.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
that was fun
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I once brought down the sales software for the franchisees for a fortune 500 by screwing up the drive mounting file in UNIX at a previous job
it probably cost the company 6 figures
I got less shit for that
I'm fairly certain that that guy wasnt supposed to issue a refund until the incident report was written, submitted, reviewed, and if your company was determined to be at fault, only then is a refund is processed. Sounds to me like this guy jumped the gun and is looking to cover his ass. So I'd mention to your boss that he already issued the refund before the report was done. And this is probably a good time to act coy and phrase that like "I'm not sure how the process works but shouldn't he wait to issue a refund until after the report is done?"
And I know it may've sounded snarky, but I was serious that the root cause here is a failure in user training. It doesn't help your clients if you fail to mention that because this issue will occur again. Auto complete cache corruption is a common issue and copying the file before you clear it won't help restore it.
Edit: And the rest of what I was going to say
So I'd write up just a quick e-mail about what's going on and send it only to your boss. Honestly, if I got wind of something like this happening with someone working for me, I'd be pissed. And your boss is out there with his bosses and everyone else, so he can probably get one of them at least to send a "Knock it the f. off" message to the CIO before he ends up agreeing to give the customer their entire year for free.
"I don't know, that's not my purview."
"Technican(s) be re-trained on proper backup procedures before completing any work on client systems."
k
If you don't give a fuck about your job, respond back, "CIO should learn the difference between business critical and non business critical IT issues before issuing refunds or discounts."