My son is a programmer Tech Support |
| Posted: 31 Dec 2021 03:27 PM PST I was asked to lob this tale over to here. My kids wanted me to start sharing some of my stories from some of my old jobs on this Reddit page. Here is the background, 2003 I graduated from college with a BS degree in Telecom/Network Management. So …. I know a little bit about networking, computers, and other things in the computer world to be dangerous or helpful depending on the day. After graduating from college, the Computer/Networking job market all but dried up for a while. I had to take temp jobs where I can get them. Till I finally landed a field tech job, working as a full-time employee. I worked on, current at that time, major computer companies' desktops, laptops, and servers. I had to get an A+, and each computer companies' certification for all their system, so I can fix them. This means in about 2 months I knew a few things more on hardware and software on the computer system and Micro... well you know. While working at this company I became good at my job. I mean really good; I was number 2 Field Tech in the whole company in United State and number 1 in the Midwest. Here is where my story begins, I was getting started with my workday. Going through all of the scheduled jobs for the day, finding delivered parts for each ticket. When my manager called me into his office. I walked into his office thinking I might have done something wrong. Nope, it was a phone meeting with one of the clients talking about the customer that has been giving them problems, they have sent her a two-replacement desktop and still, she is having issues getting on to the internet. She is blaming the computer and the provider because this all worked before, she had to get a new computer and DSL line, and she was wanting her dial-up and old computer back but is stuck with the new stuff. Back in this time DSL (Before cable modems) was still a big thing and dial-up is all but dead. (RIP Dial-up, you had served us well.) I agreed to do this since I know computers and network, and the client was happy with my work, and wanted me to do this call for them. When it was done, they wanted a full report on what I did to fix the problem or not fix the problem. The meeting was done and my manager had me follow him to grab the parts that they sent to get this issue resolved. I was thinking maybe a motherboard, RAM, and networking card. Nope, I got a motherboard, power supply, processor chip, RAM, extended video card, cooling fan, networking card, Hard drive, floppy drive, CD ROM drive, and CDs to install an Operating System and drivers. Minus the desktop case I have a complete computer. Now the fun part, I had to inventory all of the parts, and then I decided to call the customer, que scarry music here. From now on the customer shall be named Karen. The following conversation of what she said, I might be missing or adding something, it was a long time ago, but this was the jest of it. Me calling Karen: Karen: Hello Me: Good morning my name OP, I am with you, insert the client company's name here. I have a ticket here to fix your... Karen: About, gosh darn time! (Sorry trying to be clean for the kids, it wasn't gosh darn. It was more an f sounding word and another D-word.) Me: Kindly replying, ...yes... I see here you want me there this afternoon... Karen: NO! I said I would like you to hear after 1 pm. I have other appointments I have to take care of, my time is important! Me: Again, slowly forming words to be kind and polite. OK, I will set up a time about 1:30 pm today at, insert Karen's address. I will call you before I head to your house, and when I am close to your home. Karen: Better get this fixed, none of you so call techs have gotten it right so far. *Hangs up* OH JOY! This is going to be a fun afternoon. Now one of my best skills is being able to put up with customers of all kinds. I believe in killing them with kindness, and imagining them being squashed by a boulder, anvil, falling plain, WWII bomb, hit by a train, and much more cartoony violence... Mother raised me on Looney Toons if you can tell. But I will never be mean to the customer, so I thought, there is a limit to a person's niceness. Me 20 minutes about to leave to Customer's house. Get an answering machine. "Hello this is Op, I am about to leave to head to your home, insert Karen's address. So, I am about 3 blocks from her house, it is about 5 min to 1:30, and I call her again. Karen answer: Karen: Where are you! You are going to be late. I was going to call your company to ask where you are at. I've been waiting all day. (People, I'm not even late. I called her made the appointment time, then called her to let her know I was on my way.) Me: Calmly, and nicely... I left you a message on your answering machine about 20 min ago saying that I was on my way, and now I am letting you am about to pull into your driveway. Karen: Fine! Just get in here and fix this darn thing, also the phone company is here working on the DSL maybe between you two I might get something working. I doubt it. Me: OK, I just parked my car and gathering my stuff now. Goodbye *Hang up* Can I mention here that she was all sorts of fun, she cursed like a sailor, acted like she was top dog, and looked down on me like I was scum and she smelled like she can brew her own liquor from her breath. Again, OH JOY!!!!! She begins to tell me how her son "the programmer" said she needed in order to keep up with the current time on the internet, because she was hosting a heart and gin card game site, and talking on other forums and how her old computer couldn't handle it. She ended up getting her Entryway. (It is not the real name of the computer or Company. You might know who I am talking about. All hail the black and white cow of technology!) As walked into her office I see the two computers that were sent before, that didn't work next to the wall by the door covered in dust. I asked why she had not sent them back to the company, and that your honor, is where I took the wrong turn from sanity lane and ended in crazy Ville. Karen: I know their game, they send me a broken computer, I call and complain that it is broken, they tell me, they are going to send me a new one but they want me to send them back the old one first, and that is when the close-up shop take my money and I am left high and dry! No money and no Computer, plus I am not going to spend my money on shipping those pieces of crap. And that my friends, is when I decided to step out to my car...because I forgot; wink, wink; my special tool to help check the computer internet processing. (There is no real tool like that, ha ha. My battle for this moment was RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!) I went out there to call my manager to confirm all this. He confirmed that she is indeed holding those desktops for ransom till her she gets a working one. At this point, I should break this down to you.
I go back in and I said I forgot the tool, but I think I still fix the issue. I look at the telecom guys and they gave me a look. GET OUT, GET OUT NOW while you still can. These poor guys, one was at one side of the house where the DSL came in the other was in the room with me checking the line coming in and they are finding nothing. Karen is telling them they cannot leave till this is sorted out and she has talked to their manager and is staying. So, there I was in the house of insanity, I had no choice but to go in and look at this beast. (I mean the computer, not Karen. I was thinking it though) I stepped up to the computer, one of the Telecom guys is watching me. It boots to the desktop screen; I look and sure enough no connection. I check the back where your plugin for the network and there are no lights flashing for internet connectivity. HMM... I then go into settings to network and dial-up connection and there, boys and girls, I see it. LAN not showing any connection as though it was turned off. First thought this can't be right, this should be like this right clicked and there was my answer. I asked Karen "When you got this computer did you do anything to the setting?" Karen: NO! I don't know anything about those things? Me: Did your son help you set this up? Karen: No! he lives in another town and is 2 hours from here. (Why am I not surprised) Me: Well, I found the problem then, the LAN has been disabled. To tell the people who don't know if you disable the LAN on your computer, you are basically stopping your computer from accessing the network/internet. The only way of doing this is by going into the setting to the network folder right-click on LAN and click disable. I now know something is up. Here is where the real, real, real fun begins. The Telecom guys upon hearing this asked me if I was sure. I had him come over and showed him. I right-click and re-enabled the LAN and BEHOLD, like the clouds parting the sky to show the sun, I give you the internet. That is when Karen started to yell at me. Karen: You are a stupid person; you don't know what you are talking about! Since I have DSL, I don't need the LAN. My son, the programmer, told me so, he went to college and has a degree. You should be ashamed of yourself, not knowing this stuff works. That was when I turned down my nice polite self and told her the following. Listen here, I have a degree in Networking, several certifications that YOUR son, "the programmer," does not have. (I should have asked why she kept telling me her son was a programmer? ) I have pride in what I do, I am one of the best in my company, this is why I am here. Now you are fixed, these two guys are going to join me and leave. The telecom guys told me they couldn't yet. Since she wasted their time, and the problem was not on their end, they were authorized to charge her for the time they worked on the DSL line. I was told they have been coming here back and forth for two days, a total of 10 hours. I know that is not cheap, several thousands of dollars if I remember right. She is going to be charged for their time. Her face went white and started to studdered a little. Do you think this was the end...NOPE! We have not yet heard the cry of the wild of Karen. "I WANT TO TALK TO YOUR MANAGER!" .... Boys and Girls, I got the wild Karen cry. As soon as I got both desktops packed up ready to leave the house and to my car. Karen cries out to me; "I'm going to call your manager, and tell him how you didn't help me. That you don't know what you are doing and how my son knows more than you do." I looked straight at her gave her my company card, with the client's number in the back, and said go ahead. I'm about to do a full report on this and let them know that you or your son "The Programmer" disabled the network connection and that is why the other two computers don't work. Better yet how about I call them to set up a conference call with them right now, then I boot up the other two computers up and see if their network connection has been disabled as well. Then make a recommendation that they cancel any support for you since you have such a savvy son who fixes all of your computer need. Any which way I am done with this call and I am going to go home for the rest of the day. Before I left, I talk to the two Telecom techs gave them my number if their manager had any questions about what I have done. When I called the client and explained what I found, what she said, that they were going to scammer her out of her money and close up shop, and how she insulted all of us because her son "the programmer" knew more than us. They happily called her to inform her that her warranty is valid but they will not be sending any more desktop or onsite techs. Any and all issues will have to be shipped to them and they will get to it in the order in which it was received. In the tech department terms, this means: We will get to it when we want to and anything else that comes up no matter what it is will push you to repair to the back of the line till close to shipping backdate if you are lucky. I told my manager about this the next day, he just shook his head, said if she calls, he will get back to her in the order of the call was received.... maybe. Never did hear back from her. The other techs in the office heard about the ticket and every once in a while, I will get a call from them asking me since they have DSL should they disable the LAN? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 31 Dec 2021 02:34 PM PST In the not so long ago, I left a very comfortable job, that while comfortable, was at a dead end, I was a desktop guy, and I was never going to get off the desktop team, and off of On Call. Ever. On Call was 3 weeks on, 7 weeks off. I was some kind of hybrid desktop/Junior sys admin type guy. I was spec'ing out enterprise hardware and then building images for them, Laptops, Desktops, All in One Machines, with 13 diff total images, plus automating out Bulk password resets, account type maintenance AD stuff /w powershell So in the age before the Great Resignation, before the Vid, I dolled up my resume and I went looking for greener pastures, and I found it. First sys admin Title bump, Pay bump, no on Call. Happily Ever After, or so I had thought In hindsight my entire interview process was one giant series of Red Flag, after I applied online, they emailed me and wanted me to interview the next day, I actually called in Sick to work to go that interview, after I interviewed at 11, they called me back by 1 with an offer, paperwork by 4. Signed sealed delivered. They told me that they were rushed this because the CIO and Infrastructure manager were both going on Vacation on in 7 weeks and they needed me to backfill both positions. They wanted me to give one weeks notice, but because of the On Call situation at my previous gig, I wasn't going to go out like that. I gave 3 weeks notice, and enjoyed saying goodbye to a great gig, but onward to greener pastures! Even though its is spring, the greener pastures are not green. I had 3 weeks to crash course the infrastructure environment to backfill the Infrastructure manager before he went on Vacation to a place where he would not be available to even answer txt messages if I had an emergency to reach him. So, Citrix, backups, AV, Cloud, Exchange, patching, the general environment, the whole shebang. And I did it, Then the CIO takes off the week after and I have to become the Telecom/Network guy (I am not a telecom/Network guy) So I have to crash course that in the next week, and I do that also, nothing broke and I didn't have an epic chance for glory or failure, but I was stuff daily without a safety net and I wasn't messing anything up Both the CIO and the Infrastructure come back and begin the most toxic, most browbeating, micromanaging environment to come into play. I've been there 1 month, and I need to make another 2 Months before I pass probation (Am Canadian) 2.5 Months for EI and I have some type of employee protection in place IT up to this point had always been a fairly collaborative place for me, where idea's get thrashed out on their merits and the strongest/most practical/ securest is adopted. So, I need to get a windows 10 rollout off the ground, But they've purchased 500 Dell Micro's spec'd /w 4 gigs of RAM, i5s and have been modified to have a VGA port added at the factory, like why have we decided to do this? (OS, Sophos, outlook and chrome will eat >4 gigs, like these machines should be usable) Well I'm told I don't know anything about hardware. Even though these guy hired me on among things I've done, running a Capital Refresh Project where I upgraded almost a million dollars worth of equipment, equipment that I spec'd off of business uses btw The CIO and the infrastructure manager, are some of the technically weak, sensitive about it, Techs I've ever come across. After that encounter, I stop volunteering my opinions, but it gets so much worse I turn down their company iphone 6 for my pixel 2, because my pixel is better. I'm not on call, I don't need a phone, I can check my emails on my phone, this shouldn't be a deal at all, I don't need a company phone. Well, that escalated to I have to take this company phone, and because the Pixel is not something that the company offers, should a user see my pixel, they will request one. Therefore, that iphone was to become my primary device, that I had to transfer my sim card into, without any kind of financial compensation. Even though I am not in a customer facing role, and I am again, not on call. Then, even though again. Not on call, I am "to be available" After hours should some sort of need arise. Again without any kind of compensation, which is illegal. But, if I push back, there just going to fire me, because I'm inside the probationary period, and have no rights. So they send me a txt after hours that I ignore because I'm out living my life. That I get chewed out about, because I'm "Not reliable". However when a core switch fails and I have to map the existing data connections physically from the core switch to the non virtual servers, remove/replace the switch and restore the backup to it. I can do that. I'm reliable for that. If I have a question about anything, I am not to take notes. However, once I am given the answer, I should somehow be required to retain all of this info, and I shouldn't ask again for confirmation/clarification or ask that they just double check my work, because they've already told me. But, may the God of IT help me if I make a mistake/oversight such as a capitalization error on a SMTP email address. That's a browbeating I commit the unforgivable sin of composing internal e-mail communications with a "Hey" instead oh "Hi or Hello" and this is so embarrassing to my CIO, that going forward all of my email correspondence is now to be reviewed/approved. I am told that should I ever get a phone call I am to answer the phone going forward (my desk phone btw, that I don't get phone calls on, with my non user facing role) with "Good Morning/Afternoon, Islandlucky speaking, how may I help you?" I get a different after hour email another time from the infrastructure manager this time, while I'm out a living my life, again not on call. And again I don't respond to it. Well, I get hauled into a meeting with the CIO and Infrastructure Manager, where again, not too takes notes, they tell me that again they tell me that "I'm not Dependable" and that they "Don't think you have a Career in IT" (which is the most toxic thing anyone has said to me to date. I have Microsoft certifications and 10 years of experience in this field. I've worked my way up from L1 Helpdesk)That afternoon they change my title/roll to L2 Helpdesk and they have want me to work with a DBA now about SQL Database upgardes/migrations (Again, not a DBA Guys, and also, if I'm not dependable, don't make me run around database stuff) And for the record, the infrastructure manager is Terrible, he scheduled a reboot once in the middle of the night that interrupted a dot net framework patch that had to be removed/re added to use a critical piece of billing software that had to be updated on Each Machine. But, lets look at Islandlucy's emails to see if I used the proper Salutation. Oops messed up the Exchange server, no body's getting any emails for a morning, It's the summer now, I've reached out to recruiters to get me the hell out of this place, and I'm responding to any jobs that I'm most of the way qualified for just trying to get away from this place. But the IT Gods are making me suffer and the starts haven't aligned, The day before my probationary period expires, 15 days before I qualify for Employment Insurance. They let me go. They replace me with 2 helpdesk positions to rollout the win 10 image I've made on the MDT server I've setup. A couple months later, one night I start getting SMS alerts sent to my SIM Card, back home in the pixel 2 where it belongs. The SMS alerts are from a server closet at that gig. But, I shouldn't be getting these alerts as I am First of all, no longer at that company, and Secound of all, I NEVER WAS ON ON CALL Been a couple years since then, When that summer ended, I got a different sys admin gig, I've been flipping from gig to get looking for my forever job (I'm up 20k from that nightmare job, same title, better benefits, if you aren't happy at your current gigs my dudes, you should dust off the old resume and see whats out there) This morning, I've had some time on my hands, its quiet at the office, didn't get to take any time off around the holidays, and I look that Company's Linkedin up, to see whos still there. And lo and behold. Besides the fact that I still hate those idiots and I'm still salty about. They're both not there anymore. The infrastructure Manager got retired early and the CIO himself got fired 18 months ago. And hasn't found another gig yet. Looks like I wasn't the only on that Didn't have a career in IT. [link] [comments] |
| Predecessor?! - Part 2: The introduction Posted: 31 Dec 2021 07:07 AM PST So after what took place in part 1, we actually had a full day's worth of work ahead of us. It turned out that my predecessor was fired about 2 days before my 1st day. Usually that person would still be around to teach the new one, because our contracts in the holding say that you are still employed for the rest of the current month + 3 more months. So even if you substract his potentially remaining vacation days and overtime, he should still be around....unless the employer basically says that you don't need to show up while still paying you, which was the case here. Normally your first day pretty much ends after some introductions, getting your equipment, a tour through the all the halls, and you get shown where your office/cubicle is going to be. Not quite the case here. $boss and $external (the one from phone-call #2 in Part 1) were present. We were sitting in a conference room and they showed me a lot of information, pictures regarding the network, while I was setting up my equipment, as apparently my predecessor just factory-resetted the cell phone and laptop. Upon finishing the installation of the cell phone, it starts ringing. I saw that it was a cell phone number and just handed over the phone to $boss, as I felt like something was off here. $boss picked it up and talked for a bit.
awkward silencemore of thateven moresome sounds from windows
We proceeded to finish up setting up the laptop and joining the domain. After going through every VM at my sites, more administrative preparations and of course more pictures to look at, we set out to go through the halls, so I can introduce myself. What followed was going through a maze of halls in 4 different buildings at the main site, entering each office and repeating the same introduction over and over again. After about the 3rd stop it became really hard to keep a genuine smile on my face while feeling like a broken record-player stuck on the same loop for at least another 50 stops. The reaction I received varied. Some seemed enthusiastic to see a new face. Some were surprised and asked what happened with $predecessor....very awkward. Others just didn't seem like they cared and the last group seemed mad because they liked $predecessor. I mean they said it out loud like "Oh no, I actually liked $predecessor!". The first day ended with us visiting the other 3 sites and repeating the introduction-loop. On day 2 we looked for all the places in the production halls where the switches are located, and I got introduced how the Ticket System works and where to find some documentation about my local network and global network. That's it. At the end of day 2 both left and on from there on I was on my own. So I had to learn how things work on the fly, as what we went through was nowhere near enough with a network of this size, and with hardware/software I haven't used before...which I was supposed to set up at one of the other sites the week after. So on day 3 I sat down in my office and tried to come up with a plan. The server room and all (I don't know how to call those...rooms with no servers in them, but patch panels and switches) were a mess. Cable-management from hell, the ground is covered in boxes filled with random stuff that you can barely set foot into the rooms. I still didn't really know where to look if someone came to me with a problem that didn't just require a < 1-minute fix. After some thinking I decided I'd try to socialize with the others on site as fast as possible and find out (or at least get a feel) what transpired in the past with $predecessor. Because this would determine whether I would like to stay with the company or not. While socializing asking them if they have any issues/wishes I can help with. Colleagues who were older than me generally were pretty tight-lipped, but those around my age and younger were eager to share some information about $predecessor. My reaction to those stories varied from WTF?! to laughing maniacally. Since those stories were verified by multiple other colleagues, I was ruling out that some people could have been "just salty". #1: Special coffee
#2: None of my beeswax
#3: [insert Frank Sinatra's voice] And I did it....my waaaaaaay Conference call with all IT-personnel
$predecessor leaves the call and proceeds to do it his way #4: Rank means nothing if your ego is big enough Some colleagues told me that he would repeatedly have arguments with $CIO. Disagreeing and defying his orders. And the reason he would do it is because he supposedly knew better than the rest. From what I can tell today his knowledge was somewhat higher than an average intern. Problems that I've solved since, that he deemed impossible to solve and told the colleagues to "live with it", were so easy to solve. And he supposedly tried for hours on some of them. I hadn't encountered all of those problems in the past, but after 20 secs of googling I found the answer to why in one case a person couldn't print mails from Outlook. I mean it is the first hit when you google "can't print email from outlook". I still cannot wrap my head around to why he had his job for 3 years and what he thought the consequences would be just flat out defying one of the top people in the whole multi-billion holding. #5: Mirror mirror on the wall For whatever reasons $predecessor left a letter from the police in his office. It was a speeding ticket, doing 160+ km/h (~100 mph) where 120 km/h (~75 mph) were allowed. So I finally saw a picture of him. Needless to say bad quality, but I thought I could use that to start off a conversation with a colleague.
#6: No caption, just my favourite one $predecessor asks $external what to do in order to get 4th production site connected with the data center. So $predecessor has all the hardware needed (firewalls and switches) and this dates back to the point where 4th production site was just acquired and had to be set up. Besides a server cabinet the server room was empty in regards to "furniture".
A few days later....
He connects to $predecessor's Laptop and starts checking the settings of the routers, firewalls and switches.
Radio silence.... No words spoken.... Cursor is not moving.... Several minutes actually pass....
$external gave up and implemented those changes. Since then I've been to that server room. Still no table or chairs. Between us this has become one of the running gags whenever I have to go to that server room. No table and/or no chair = no work! The darn room next to it has both and you have a 5m cable then you can even sit at a table and do the work, if you keep the door open. There are several stories more, but I cannot remember all of them completely. This should be enough though to get the message across why $predecessor had to go. To this day I get several calls from places where he registered his company cell phone. I got text messages when his COVID-shot appointments were coming up, when he booked hotels, other doctor appointment reminders etc. He clearly didn't use it as he was supposed to. So they needed to get rid of him and knew he wouldn't take it kindly nor would he teach me during our time together. So why lie about it? Two reasons. One is that would weaken their position during $$$ discussions. The other one is that if I happened to know someone in that company, I could tell them and they could tell so on and so on, until it might have reached $predecessor. But why not openly say so during the first day(s)? I mentioned it in the comments of part 1. $boss didn't know how to say it. He comes across as very shy and unconfrontational. He probably wouldn't have known how to react if I had become somewhat aggressive with my attitude upon hearing his explanation. All in all they got a pass from me and I'm still there. The reason why I thought about writing about $predecessor was my most recent find the server room that I finally managed to clean up a bit. Hidden under several layers of other boxes, I find the treasure. A box full with about 100-200 Commodore 64 disks. You know...the This concludes the saga about $predecessor. Other stories I have in mind have to wait because of legal reasons (for probably another year). I hope you guys enjoyed and happy new year! [link] [comments] |
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