Comment On On the Job Training

This was Ted's fault for not locking down the production server!

In other words, shit rolls downhill.

This is a great first outing, Scott! I know there are going to be some douchebags dropping by to rip on you, but I won't be "that guy". Keep up the good work!

You skipped the part where Ryan hit 'Reply All' to one of these emails, or at least replied to key members of management, that he was following Ted's instructions, right?

Even if such an email gets you in trouble, it's got to be better than starting a career at a company with a black mark on your record that's not your fault.

I didn't mind reading it.

I enjoyed the read as well.

...not the kind of thing Ryan wanted to hear on a Monday morning...
...at his desk at 2:52pm the previous afternoon...

But wait, that would mean working on a Sunday.

m a t t:

...not the kind of thing Ryan wanted to hear on a Monday morning...
...at his desk at 2:52pm the previous afternoon...

But wait, that would mean working on a Sunday.

I caught that and thought maybe I misread something.

I enjoyed the post. I like hearing about what happens in other workplaces. Poor Ryan.

...not that Ted and Ryan spoke much after this, as Ted was rarely^Wnever at his desk

and to this day, his body has yet to be found.

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

M'kay, Initech is a good company.

Bill Lumbergh:

M'kay, Initech is a good company.

...and well documented by TDWTF.

anon:

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

Dood, u mispelled assburgers.

"None of our customers' web servers are online!" is not a question.

Carl:

"None of our customers' web servers are online!" is not a question.

Damn! You beat me to it. If only my web server hadn't been off line!

TL;DR Version:

Company's production data gets deleted. Douchebag sysadmin blames junior developer, but it turns out the sysadmin gave the junior the wrong server info. Douchebag sysadmin weasels his way out of trouble and everything returns to normal. Junior hates douchebag sysadmin with a passion and avoids him from then on.

m a t t:

...not the kind of thing Ryan wanted to hear on a Monday morning...
...at his desk at 2:52pm the previous afternoon...

But wait, that would mean working on a Sunday.

I'm still trying to figure out how Ryan could be on a conference call with Ted, but still "thrusted out Ted's own documentation".

Is this some kind of adult party line feature?

frits:

anon:

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

Dood, u mispelled assburgers.

I don't have assBurgers. I always go through White Castle!

Captcha consequat -- shorthand for consequently he/she squat (i.e. consequat and shat in the forrest).

TRWTF is that there were no obvious indicators that this was a production server vs. a test one. From the training material to the server names/paths...something should be there to clue you in.

Welcome Scott! Always good to see a new editor. Are you a forum regular under a different username? If so, please let us know what your old handle was. Other than that, looking forward to reading more from you and good luck at TDWTF!

+++AAA SUMMARY, WOULD READ AGAIN

anon:

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

Stereotypes are there for a reason - that reason being that they are very often true. Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes and experience fully bears me out on this one.

However, I've never heard of the stereotype that says all programmers have aspergers - are you sure you've checked your stereotype dictionary and aren't just making up any crap that supports your little rant? Because funnily enough, that's exactly what a lazy sysadmin would do!

So :
- all clients' servers were down, because data from a single server was deleted
- junior had access to the root of production server
- or even better: senior gave his credentials to junior
- they had a backup (strange, when combined with previous points)

anon:

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

HAHA! Wait, am I offended?

What if Ted and Ryan are the SAME PERSON?!?!

One thing I learned quickly when I started working in the "real world" is to learn the balance between CYA'ing and being diplomatic enough not to make enemies. Apparently there were people before me who weren't so adept at this skill, as I often heard comments like "Yeah, that guy? Good coder, but man, what a prick. He doesn't work here anymore, if you get what I mean." By comparison this made me pleasant and likeable, which was a great head start.

Always send emails confirming important decisions that were made in a meeting or water-cooler conversation. Put the blame on bad information, and leave a hint of who you think is to blame if appropriate, but don't name names unless it's really serious. And, be willing to accept blame when it is due. Nobody's perfect, and nobody likes it when someone thinks they are.

After Ted blamed the fault on Ryan's "inexperience", Ryan should have replied-all saying something like, "I apologize for the mishap. I followed the instructions that I was given to the letter, but unfortunately the information incorrectly referred to the production servers. I have asked Ted to provide me with the correct information so that this sort of error will not happen again."

A message like that communicates that Ryan is willing to accept at least partial blame, is proactive about asking for correct information, is aware of the situation and will make sure not to repeat the error, and deflects the blame for the initial error without pointing accusatory fingers (though anyone with a brain can easily deduce that it was Ted's fault). It also sets up the next move to be Ted's: if he doesn't fix the error by providing updated information, everyone will know.

Anonymous:

anon:

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

Stereotypes are there for a reason - that reason being that they are very often true. Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes and experience fully bears me out on this one.

However, I've never heard of the stereotype that says all programmers have aspergers - are you sure you've checked your stereotype dictionary and aren't just making up any crap that supports your little rant? Because funnily enough, that's exactly what a lazy sysadmin would do!

I used to have aspergers. Now I have asp.netergers.

A message like that communicates that Ryan is willing to accept at least partial blame, is proactive about asking for correct information, is aware of the situation and will make sure not to repeat the error, and deflects the blame for the initial error without pointing accusatory fingers (though anyone with a brain can easily deduce that it was Ted's fault). It also sets up the next move to be Ted's: if he doesn't fix the error by providing updated information, everyone will know.

I would definitely try and do that as well. Nobody's perfect, Ted made an honest mistake, I wouldn't want to point any fingers unless really instructed to.

Justin:

m a t t:

...not the kind of thing Ryan wanted to hear on a Monday morning...
...at his desk at 2:52pm the previous afternoon...

But wait, that would mean working on a Sunday.

I caught that and thought maybe I misread something.

I always refer to Friday as 'yesterday' on Monday. Perhaps I'm not the only one?

genitus: the condition of thinking you're smarter than you actually are.

anon:

Gram ma:

Sysadmins are usually lazy assholes.

In other news, bears like to defecate in wooded areas and the pope occasionally goes to church.

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network.

In other news, tired, old stereotypes are still pointless, obnoxious, and not beneficial to the conversation.

I wish I had Asperger...I have no excuse for my behavior.

Volante:

Justin:

m a t t:

...not the kind of thing Ryan wanted to hear on a Monday morning...
...at his desk at 2:52pm the previous afternoon...

But wait, that would mean working on a Sunday.

I caught that and thought maybe I misread something.

I always refer to Friday as 'yesterday' on Monday. Perhaps I'm not the only one?

genitus: the condition of thinking you're smarter than you actually are.

I think that a lot of people do that - "yesterday" while technically meaning today - 1 day, often ends up being misused in the quick of the moment as the previous work-day or the previous time that what I'm describing occurred; and similar miss-usages for "tomorrow": See you tomorrow; and by "tomorrow" I mean Monday.

jonnyq:

You skipped the part where Ryan hit 'Reply All' to one of these emails, or at least replied to key members of management, that he was following Ted's instructions, right?

Even if such an email gets you in trouble, it's got to be better than starting a career at a company with a black mark on your record that's not your fault.

Actually, blame was minimized & the junior dev probably realised that he would gain more by having dirt on one of the senior sysadmins than by making a fuss.

When a senior sysadmin owes you one, your life can suddenly become a lot easier...

qbolec:

- all clients' servers were down, because data from a single server was deleted

All the sites were down & hosted on the same server?

That or they got their files off the same share.

cyphax:

A message like that communicates that Ryan is willing to accept at least partial blame, is proactive about asking for correct information, is aware of the situation and will make sure not to repeat the error, and deflects the blame for the initial error without pointing accusatory fingers (though anyone with a brain can easily deduce that it was Ted's fault). It also sets up the next move to be Ted's: if he doesn't fix the error by providing updated information, everyone will know.

I would definitely try and do that as well. Nobody's perfect, Ted made an honest mistake, I wouldn't want to point any fingers unless really instructed to.

You don't want to be an obvious arsehole, agreed. Play the naif who doesn't know he's been crapped-on like that little shit-inspection shelf in Eurofag crappers. Company wide email:

Dear all,

My apologies for the recent webserver outage. This was due to my inexperience in this field. I did not realise it was necessary to check that server names, install directions involving deleting vital data, and so on had been provided to me correctly by the senior employees responsible. In future, I will endeavour to ensure that this issue does not re-occur by verifying all information provided to me by Ted.

Apologies once again for the inconvenience caused.

Regards,

Mr Passive Aggressive
---


Of course, any time anyone tells you *anything* after this, you will need to confirm it with someone else 'because that's the procedure that was put in place after I followed Ted's instructions and deleted the webservers'.

Alternate Version where Ryan isn't feckless:
Ted blames Ryan.
Ryan responds immediately and truthfully (as far as he knows at that point), saying "I don't even know the address(es) for the production server(s)."

anon:

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network

Grammer nazi: it's spelt Asperger's or assburgers or even "arrogant sperg losers".

Meh, late to the party.

bd:

anon:

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network

Grammer nazi: it's spelt Asperger's or assburgers or even "arrogant sperg losers".

Or Asparagus. Yum! :)

qbolec:

So :
- all clients' servers were down, because data from a single server was deleted
- junior had access to the root of production server
- or even better: senior gave his credentials to junior
- they had a backup (strange, when combined with previous points)

Everybody has a backup. What's surprising was that they were able to restore from /dev/null.

I've got it. It's great. Better than anything else. I swear.

Nerevar:

I've got it. It's great. Better than anything else. I swear.

... the Asperger.

Mason Wheeler:

Or Asparagus. Yum! :)

Mmm. I can smell my pee already.

Seminymous Coward:

Alternate Version where Ryan isn't feckless:
Ted blames Ryan.
Ryan responds immediately and truthfully (as far as he knows at that point), saying "I don't even know the address(es) for the production server(s)."

Or "You told me I don't have access to the production servers until after my probation period, that should be impossible"

Ted left earlier for the bar that day, the day he became an alcoholic

bd:

anon:

And programmers are arrogant losers with asbergers and no concept of what it takes to run a network

Grammer nazi: it's spelt Asperger's or assburgers or even "arrogant sperg losers".

Grammar Nazi: you should not talk.

ObiWayneKenobi:

TL;DR Version:

Company's production data gets deleted. Douchebag sysadmin blames junior developer, but it turns out the sysadmin gave the junior the wrong server info. Douchebag sysadmin weasels his way out of trouble and everything returns to normal. Junior hates douchebag sysadmin with a passion and avoids him from then on.

...One day, Junior fails to report for work. Two weeks later, douchebag sysadmin's body is found in a shallow grave.

Yes working on Sunday. If you are in IT at all you know in order to work on production servers you need to work on a day they are not in use. WTF?

AdT:

Learning by doing is best. Learning by deleting is bestest as rebuilding the whole system is always highly instructive.

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