Tuesday, January 6, 2009

More tales for the New Year

I really, REALLY hate this time of year.

Work gets slow.

And when work gets slow, managers tend to have extra time on their hands..

Restless managers are NOT good. They get into things, they "tinker", and they just get to be a MAJOR pain in my butt.

Let me ask you something..

Just because you don't have something to do, do you go out and start taking parts and pieces off of your car because you think it'll run better?

Do you give the licensed mechanic advice about how to do his job because you read somewhere that doing this one job will save time and money?

What? You don't?

Then explain to me why so many folks assume that since they own a computer and can operate a couple of programs, that they can tell me what needs to be on their computer, what needs to be removed, and how I can effectively "speed up" the networking lines and communication?

Simple fact is that if I were to bring any of these folks into my office, they'd be floored at what was in there, and no clue where to begin.

When it comes to major installations like mine for computer stuff, please let the folks who know what they're doing get their jobs done.

I mean, if you want to get your job done, that's fine..

But please.. PLEASE let me do my job as well, and don't screw around with things you know NOTHING about!

Let me give you this example:

Today I came into work with two computer towers sitting on my workbench. This was news to me, because when I'd left on Friday everything was cleared, and all was good in IT-land. Upon further inspection, I find a Post-It note on the side of one of the machines.

It read: "Removed some unnecessary programs from the desktop, and now it won't work" *manager's initials here*

I sigh, and fire up my workstation computer. After slaving the "dead" tower to my workstation, I go over the programs that were uninstalled before the comp went dead.

Here's a list of the "unnecessary" programs that were removed by this helpful manager:

Microsoft Word.
Microsoft Excel.
Powerpoint.
Microsoft Office suite 7.9
Outlook Express
Lotus Notes
and finally:
System Comp Manager.

This last was the one to kill it.

The System Comp Manager is the script written by MY network manager for all computers linked to the network. Without this script in place, the network then will delete all company hardware from the machine attempting access to the network, effectively shutting it down.

Was dipweed manager to know this?

No.

All he needed to do was leave the machine alone, and let the computer do the job it was designed for.

All in all, he removed the basis for the paperwork templates he uses for reviews (Word), the templates he uses for production reports (excel), the templte he uses for weekly updates (powerpoint), the email program he uses for inter-office and personal mail (Outlook Express), and the corporate email system (lotus notes).

Let's just say that I came a bit unglued this morning, and I used my best judgement in allowing someone else to talk with this specific manager...

I put a call into my supervisor's office, and sent them the entire details of what happened.

This was about 2 hours ago, and I still haven't seen or heard from him since the call was put out that he was needed for a phone conference in the front office.

I hope he learns his lesson!

More next week on things you really shouldn't do to the office computers!

6 comments:

PinkPiddyPaws said...

ha..ha.ha... NIIIIICE!!!

Mines good too. While I was on vacation they (the ubiquitous they, the collective they) decided to install a new phone system and internet service for our secondary company. They have it all set up to install tomorrow.

Did they give ANY thought to the fact that the server they plan on putting on that new internet connection needs to be accessible to everyone on the current network? Did they give thought to the wiring issues that needed to be handled prior to install? Did they give thought to the current phone system and the numbers that are on it and will have to be released for the new phone system?

NOPE.
They just waited until I got back Monday and said "this is what we've done..make it work please".

Fuckers!!!

liz said...

Do you mean to tell me I have no right to uninstall software from my work computer just so I can waste an entire day not working because my computer doesn't work?

How unfair.

Nanny Goats In Panties said...

"I removed some unnecesary programs from the computer and now it doesn't work?"

Seriously? That's a note for Dilbert if I ever saw one.

And what manager doesn't need Word and Excel?

I know I don't know the guy, but what an ass.

Thinkinfyou said...

I take it he wasn't hired for his brain!?!

Hubman said...

Wow. I've had some bad managers in my day, but I think yours takes the cake.

MS Office, unnecessary?

You can't make shit like that up, can you?

Jormengrund said...

PPP: Yeah, don't you love it when folks who know NOTHING about the things we do make decisions and then expect us to "fix" all of the "little" details?

Liz: Far be it from me to tell you what you can and can't do.. I know what I'd PREFER you DIDN'T do, but that's really just semantics, isn't it?

NGIP: Yeah. I got in today to a nice note "asking" me to talk with him before taking "extreme action" again. I wrote him an email telling him to consult with me before "tweaking" his computer towers again. We'll see who wins this one..

TOY: Nah. He's just good at driving slaves. If he weren't so good at that job, this place would never have hired him..

Hubman: I don't make up stupid stuff like that. Honestly, there are times I really wonder how some of these folks ever made it through gradeschool, let alone high school or even *gasp!* college!