• Rob (unregistered)

    Militant bosses - hateful and frightening in equal quantities. I think Jon did the right thing.

    Particualrly nice captcha image today, BTW.

  • RobTF (unregistered)

    Sounds like it was extracted from a book of short stories.

  • RandomDreamer (unregistered)

    TRWTF - if companies aren't dishonest during the interview, there wouldn't be many WTF stories.

    Vice versa, if candidates don't lie during the interview, there wouldn't be many WTF stories neither.

    FRIST

  • (cs)

    So the WTF is ... what? That their ad hoc systems worked and they were happy with them? Or that Jon thought he could waltz in and "improve" everything? I'm confused.

    Addendum (2008-09-17 11:36): Oh I see. Any failure to use Active Directory is a WTF. Got it. Never mind.

  • MT (unregistered)

    I feel for Jon but the "horrible boss" stories are all basically the same. Hope we get a CodeSOD soon.

    I also have a very pleasant captcha image this time round. Lovely color scheme.

  • Mike (unregistered)
    RandomDreamer:
    *FRIST*

    A swing and a miss...

  • JimmyVile (unregistered)

    However, his wife sounds absolutely lovely.

  • pete-the-meat (unregistered)

    and then jon was a zombie

  • Brian B (unregistered)

    Smiles are free. Smiles from quitting a job you hate: priceless.

  • Jeff (unregistered)

    It's like the start of 2001...only when the monkeys see the monolith, they throw poop at it.

  • (cs) in reply to gabba
    gabba:
    So the WTF is ... what? That their ad hoc systems worked and they were happy with them? Or that Jon thought he could waltz in and "improve" everything? I'm confused.
    A hammer "works" for driving screws, too. However, it's a much better idea to use a screwdriver.
  • Tim (unregistered)

    Yeah I don't really see the WTF. Who needs 'domain' for 8 machines? All they really needed was a NAS system with a decent backup protocol.

  • Argh (unregistered)

    I've worked with ex-military and they are very efficient. Unfortunately they are also, by extension, ex-government. They've mastered the skill in passing the blame to others when they screw up. As for being excessively obstinate to change, that might be more a symptom of the aging IT dinosaur.

  • Richard@Home (unregistered)

    The biggest WTF of the whole story is that he wanted them to use SharePoint.

  • J (unregistered) in reply to Brian B

    Quitting a soul-crushing job is truly a euphoric moment. The only feeling that's better is finding success at a new job while the previous employer runs his company into the ground.

  • Jeroen Brattinga (unregistered)

    Zen thought for today: sometimes the best things are found on your way out. :)

  • Phantom Watson (unregistered) in reply to Jeroen Brattinga
    TFA:
    File storage was handled by random file shares on different systems.
    Gah!

    Arbitrary != Random

  • Crabs (unregistered) in reply to J
    J:
    Quitting a soul-crushing job is truly a euphoric moment. The only feeling that's better is finding success at a new job while the previous employer runs his company into the ground.

    I'm going through this now. It's bittersweet because my roommate still works at the old company, but I get all the good stories.

    When I put in my 2 weeks, it was funny how happy people said I looked, and how they had never seen me smile since I started working there. I had to let them know that, in most circumstances, I'm a pretty happy guy. It was the job that made me a souless shell.

  • (cs) in reply to J
    J:
    Quitting a soul-crushing job is truly a euphoric moment. The only feeling that's better is finding success at a new job while the previous employer runs his company into the ground.

    That's very true! When I left my last job (pc tech) to go for a new one as a systems administrator, the feeling was indescribable. My last boss found every way possible to screw me over while I worked there, and I put up with it because I needed the money, and when he wasn't around the job was ALMOST enjoyable. Since I've left, I hear everything is falling apart because he can't find another miracle worker willing to solve any problem and work any hours needed for a low wage.

    Sucks for him.

  • (cs)

    Jon was again white as a sheet, but nobody gave it much thought as, indeed, he had always been that way.

  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to Phantom Watson
    Phantom Watson:
    TFA:
    File storage was handled by random file shares on different systems.
    Gah!

    Arbitrary != Random

    ln -s /dev/random file

  • Matt (unregistered) in reply to Brian B
    Brian B:
    Smiles are free. Smiles from quitting a job you hate: priceless.

    Walking around the place your last 2 weeks with an ear to ear shit-eating grin: even more priceless!

  • blueberryboy (unregistered)

    indeed, the real WTF is that he wanted them to use Sharepoint. That must be the crappiest system I've ever used. Why use sharepoint when you can use network drives? It's harder to find anything from sharepoint and even uploading documents is much harder than just draging things in explorer.. ok, maybe in a really big company with huge amount of traffic etc, but come on, this wasnt a huge corporation.

  • (cs) in reply to gabba
    gabba:
    So the WTF is ... what? That their ad hoc systems worked and they were happy with them? Or that Jon thought he could waltz in and "improve" everything? I'm confused.

    Addendum (2008-09-17 11:36): Oh I see. Any failure to use Active Directory is a WTF. Got it. Never mind.

    Sounds like he might have been hired to use his 14 years experience in IT to manage the IT systems.

  • A Gould (unregistered) in reply to gabba
    gabba:
    So the WTF is ... what? That their ad hoc systems worked and they were happy with them? Or that Jon thought he could waltz in and "improve" everything? I'm confused.

    Addendum (2008-09-17 11:36): Oh I see. Any failure to use Active Directory is a WTF. Got it. Never mind.

    I thought it was the general idea of hiring someone, and then doing everything in the exact opposite way. Why hire someone with years of experience in system administration, and then not listen to them?

  • Dmitri (unregistered)

    So wait a minute, not only did the guy feel the need to enterprisify the hell out of their 8-client network (which seemed to be working fine), but he also wanted to inflict Sharepoint on the poor users?

    Had they wronged him somehow?

    (and his domain server was also the firewall - how does that strike anyone as a good idea?)

  • Philluminati (unregistered)

    I like happy endings :-)

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    I really should do that as well. My life is being wasted here.

  • Bernie (unregistered)

    God, what a jerk this Jon guy is. When you only have eight machines, do you really need to set up a Windows Domain Server? Sure, maybe a file server is needed but any Linux box with Samba can do that, you don't need to add another point of failure with a Windows Domain Controller. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

  • Sue D. Nymme (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that he didn't quit the first week.

  • (cs) in reply to J
    J:
    Quitting a soul-crushing job is truly a euphoric moment. The only feeling that's better is finding success at a new job while the previous employer runs his company into the ground.

    Truth. Except in my case I was pushed out before I could quit.

  • MPL (unregistered)

    Ok, so setting up a heavy-duty "enterprisey" system for an 8-client network is probably overkill, but the company was described as "up and coming", and they hired an IT expert to work on their network.

    Clearly, the company thought that, although it was only 8 people now, it was going to get much bigger. And if you have a choice to make your system scalable early or late, it's much less painful to to BEFORE it gets big.

  • (cs) in reply to gabba
    gabba:
    So the WTF is ... what? That their ad hoc systems worked and they were happy with them? Or that Jon thought he could waltz in and "improve" everything? I'm confused.

    Addendum (2008-09-17 11:36): Oh I see. Any failure to use Active Directory is a WTF. Got it. Never mind.

    That's the dumbest straw man I've heard this week. The list of problems with their ad hoc systems was given: decentralization of data, no backups, and no access control.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Rob
    Rob:
    Militant bosses - hateful and frightening in equal quantities.

    I once had an ex-military elementary school teacher to which I think the same applied. Thankfully he didn't last till retirement since apparently schools aren't as lenient as the military on locking children in closets for a whole day.

  • (cs) in reply to Tim
    Tim:
    Yeah I don't really see the WTF. Who needs 'domain' for 8 machines? All they really needed was a NAS system with a decent backup protocol.
    The story says they had 8 machines, yet it indicates there were at least three managers. Unless several employees share PCs, that's the real Initech WTF.
  • (cs) in reply to blueberryboy
    blueberryboy:
    indeed, the real WTF is that he wanted them to use Sharepoint. That must be the crappiest system I've ever used. Why use sharepoint when you can use network drives? It's harder to find anything from sharepoint and even uploading documents is much harder than just draging things in explorer.. ok, maybe in a really big company with huge amount of traffic etc, but come on, this wasnt a huge corporation.
    So you don't need document versioning, shared access, or WAN access unless you're a huge corporation? Sharepoint may be overkill in this situation, but there are certainly advantages to these kinds of systems even in small groups. Try applying your statements to source control software instead of documents and you'll see what I mean.
  • Bit Terbastard (unregistered) in reply to Brian B

    Yea, the woman knew something was wrong when her husband looked happy.

  • J (unregistered) in reply to Brian B

    Amen

  • (cs)

    I take it that John is Caucasian since he was "white as a sheet"...

  • NiceWTF (unregistered)

    Refusing to get yourself locked in to Microsoft Sharepoint is, however, not a WTF.

  • Rich (unregistered)

    TRWTF

    did some hardware and Active Directory configuration... <snip> ... he'd set up in SharePoint.
  • BobB (unregistered)

    I left a job I was unhappy with November of last year. At first the job didn't seem so bad, but as the days carried on... No documentation of systems, no accountability from other members in department, scope creep, scope leap, scope sprint, the ability of ANYONE in that building to come by my desk and give stupid requests (My particular favorite was an 'important person' absolutely needed to have FLASH installed!), bosses who would not stick up for you, department heads who were lazy and absent most the time, the hurdles involved in getting any equipment, lack of a reliable backup system, reluctance to do off-site backups, security risks, did I mention scope creep?

    All this things made it very hard to get anything done. The bosses had no spine, and would not tell a customer 'no'. This enabled the creep. It got to where I was touching systems and desktops (wtf? I thought we had a team that did nothing but this) of programs I was vaguely familiar with cause no one wanted to get in trouble. I could never get project documentation done to a level I was satisfied with cause everyone had a damned fire I was supposed to put out. Hardware was either minimal and barely running or way overblown for what the system needed (seriously, a quad dual-core with 8G of memory for something with a database on par with my college projects?) cause it was someone's pet project. Finally fed up with it, I started looking for another job and found one. The day I walked into my boss' office and handed him a copy of my resignation, it was the happiest day I had in a long time. Felt like whoever had their thumb on me and was pressing down, finally let go. I was gracious about it, documented as much as I could, taught whomever came up to me when I was asked and tried to go out on a good note.

    After a few days at my new job, I was getting contacted by my old employer, whom was asking questions. Questions I might add that had documented answers. I kept referring them to the documentation. It was starting to get annoying after a while though, it was as if no one was even bothering to read the file names to see if I had something written for them. After like two weeks when a problem cropped up in the system I hadn't heard of before and they asked if I could help them fix it I basically told them: I can come work on it during the weekend, $400/hr, 3 hour minimum. That stopped that, and I've been happy ever since.

    Not sure if this makes me an ass, but I tried to be nice and I sure as hell wasn't going to keep fixing that system (there are experts for this thing out there that would more than happily do this for them).

    BTW - If you're wondering why the system had such issues, see previous annoyances listed in first paragraph.

  • (cs) in reply to Spacecoyote
    Spacecoyote:
    Jon was again white as a sheet, but nobody gave it much thought as, indeed, he had always been that way.
    His face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale. However, when he finally quit, he skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels 'cross the floor.
  • (cs) in reply to BobB
    BobB:
    I left a job I was unhappy with November of last year. At first the job didn't seem so bad, but as the days carried on... No documentation of systems, no accountability from other members in department, scope creep, scope leap, scope sprint, the ability of ANYONE in that building to come by my desk and give stupid requests (My particular favorite was an 'important person' absolutely needed to have FLASH installed!), bosses who would not stick up for you, department heads who were lazy and absent most the time, the hurdles involved in getting any equipment, lack of a reliable backup system, reluctance to do off-site backups, security risks, did I mention scope creep?

    All this things made it very hard to get anything done. The bosses had no spine, and would not tell a customer 'no'. This enabled the creep. It got to where I was touching systems and desktops (wtf? I thought we had a team that did nothing but this) of programs I was vaguely familiar with cause no one wanted to get in trouble. I could never get project documentation done to a level I was satisfied with cause everyone had a damned fire I was supposed to put out. Hardware was either minimal and barely running or way overblown for what the system needed (seriously, a quad dual-core with 8G of memory for something with a database on par with my college projects?) cause it was someone's pet project. Finally fed up with it, I started looking for another job and found one. The day I walked into my boss' office and handed him a copy of my resignation, it was the happiest day I had in a long time. Felt like whoever had their thumb on me and was pressing down, finally let go. I was gracious about it, documented as much as I could, taught whomever came up to me when I was asked and tried to go out on a good note.

    After a few days at my new job, I was getting contacted by my old employer, whom was asking questions. Questions I might add that had documented answers. I kept referring them to the documentation. It was starting to get annoying after a while though, it was as if no one was even bothering to read the file names to see if I had something written for them. After like two weeks when a problem cropped up in the system I hadn't heard of before and they asked if I could help them fix it I basically told them: I can come work on it during the weekend, $400/hr, 3 hour minimum. That stopped that, and I've been happy ever since.

    Not sure if this makes me an ass, but I tried to be nice and I sure as hell wasn't going to keep fixing that system (there are experts for this thing out there that would more than happily do this for them).

    BTW - If you're wondering why the system had such issues, see previous annoyances listed in first paragraph.

    Crap, I think I'm your replacement!

  • Ben4jammin (unregistered)
    Ok, so setting up a heavy-duty "enterprisey" system for an 8-client network is probably overkill, but the company was described as "up and coming", and they hired an IT expert to work on their network.

    Clearly, the company thought that, although it was only 8 people now, it was going to get much bigger. And if you have a choice to make your system scalable early or late, it's much less painful to to BEFORE it gets big.

    Exactly. The company I work for has purchased several other companies. We have seen some real crap technology infrastructure that is due to mainly two things: lack of funding and lack of planning. Lack of funding is understandable considering our management looks for "distressed" companies for us to buy and turn around.
    Lack of planning is a different issue. Without warning, suddenly you are expending WAY more energy/time than would have been needed to make that scalable foundation in the first place.

  • Some Wonk (unregistered)

    Is anyone else wondering why Jon's wife was smiling so much? I am still expecting Jon to come home early, and find the pool boy....well...you get the idea.

  • (cs) in reply to BobB
    BobB:
    Felt like whoever had their thumb on me and was pressing down, finally let go.
    I can just hear the "SPROINGGGGG!" and "Wheeeeeeee!"
  • (cs)

    This sounds like an absolutely normal story to me. Even more normal is the story that TDWTF crew highlighted above (BobB). I'm constantly seeing comments and stories on TDWTF where people are quitting and passing up jobs because of the WTF-y environment. But every place I've ever worked or interviewed for was exactly the same WTF-y way. Is this not normal? Because I think it is. Maybe that's TRWTF.

  • [twisti] (unregistered)

    Why would sitting around all day doing nothing make you white as a sheet ?

  • (cs)

    So Jon came home after being given a box to keep his stuff in and not doing much for the day ... and his face was sheet white?

    TRWTF is either how easily flummoxed Jon gets or how over-written this story is.

    Personally, after a first day like that, I'd be all rosy and energetic from all the rest I got.

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