More shit that pisses you off: What does that say about the quality of your emails?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > More shit that pisses you off: What does that say about the quality of your emails?

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nielsm: Jun 1, 2009

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

YES.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:06

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 11:26

Japanese Dating Sim: Nov 12, 2003; hehe; Lipstick Apathy

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

Congratulations dude, that's awesome. You're totally fulfilling my "gently caress THIS JOB" fantasies by getting a much better job after quitting (I actually do love my current one though), and you deserve it.

Fingers crossed that this one has that perfect balance of staying interesting but not stressing you out every day. The pay's definitely right!

Edit: Are you still working on your Net+? Heh.

Japanese Dating Sim fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Feb 26, 2015

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:08

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

Congratulations. Make it the place you would want to work at as a tech.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:12

Taeke: Feb 2, 2010

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

I never post in this thread, hell, I'm not even in IT, I just read it for the stories but I just want to congratulate you. This is really good to read.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:13

DigitalRaven: Oct 9, 2012

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

YEEEEEEEAH!

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:16

m.hache: Dec 1, 2004; Fun Shoe

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

I still expect wild tales of IT dumb fuckery from you. Better work on your Creative Writing skills.

You've set a precedent.

(Congrats though)

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:16

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:16

vibur: Apr 23, 2004

Congratulations, DT! :bravo:

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:18

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

I just realized that not only do I now have the same title as my old boss they still haven't filled the VP of I.T. opening that triggered my departure.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:22

Kidney Stone: Dec 28, 2008; The worst pain ever!

Dick Trauma posted:

I just realized that not only do I now have the same title as my old boss they still haven't filled the VP of I.T. opening that triggered my departure.

Haha! They're hosed!

Congratulation from a dude in freezy Denmark :refurb:

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:29

Paladine_PSoT: Jan 2, 2010; If you have a problem Yo, I'll solve it

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:44

Dunno-Lars: Apr 7, 2011

Dick Trauma posted:

I just realized that not only do I now have the same title as my old boss they still haven't filled the VP of I.T. opening that triggered my departure.

They get what they deserve. Huge congratulations, very happy to hear that you are doing good.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:45

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Tired of random people just coming over to a member of my IT team and plopping down in front of their desk an explaining a problem with no regard to what they're in the middle of working on. Sent this email out:

quote:

All,

The IT department uses a helpdesk to ensure that all issues are tracked and that we are able to prioritize requests and assign the appropriate staff member so that you receive quality service. Please create a helpdesk ticket whenever possible instead of contacting a member of the IT department directly. Of course, emergencies are the exception to this rule.

You can access the user portal at http://helpdesk/portal (or use the Helpdesk shortcut on your desktop), from here you can see all of your open and closed tickets including latest comments, reply to open tickets, or reopen a closed issue if it is not resolved. Before calling or sending a request for a status update, check the portal, you can usually get the most up to date status here.

Bob Morales | IS Manager

Eerily quiet for about an hour. Someone finally put a ticket in.

quote:

Authorize.net amount received was $466.73 and the order 563722 amount was $467.61. There is an .88 cents difference.

I think someone may have added something on. What do you think?

So the guy who got the ticket replies with an explanation, closes the ticket, then just walked over to explain it to her in person. Ugh. Baby steps.

Also heard from the girl in accounting, via text. "I know she put a ticket in. I told her to. We're all mad at you even Mary (their boss)"

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:48

Methylethylaldehyde: Oct 23, 2004; BAKA BAKA

Dick Trauma posted:

I just realized that not only do I now have the same title as my old boss they still haven't filled the VP of I.T. opening that triggered my departure.

Now instead of dumb poo poo your IT boss makes you do, it's dumb poo poo the rest of the VPs and C-suite idiots do. Entirely different brand of stupid, with different infuriating little gotchas.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:55

Inspector_666: Oct 7, 2003; _{benny with the good hair}

Paladine_PSoT posted:

Gonna drink some scotch for DT so hard tonight.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 20:58

meanieface: Mar 27, 2012; During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Dick Trauma posted:

I just realized that not only do I now have the same title as my old boss they still haven't filled the VP of I.T. opening that triggered my departure.

Congratulations! You're now the hero of the Phoenix Project!

Go be awesome.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 21:05

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 21:20

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

I think I prefer your old av

# ? Feb 26, 2015 21:29

nitrogen: May 21, 2004; Oh, what's a 217°C difference between friends?

Dick Trauma posted:

Reminds me of the time I had to explain to the helpdesk guy what a "dongle" was.

"You see, when a PC and copy protection love each other very much..."

Careful, people have gotten fired for that.

http://arstechnica.com/staff/2013/03/donglegate-is-classic-overreaction-and-everyone-pays/

# ? Feb 26, 2015 21:38

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Thanks Ants posted:

I think I prefer your old av

Oh goddamn.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 21:48

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Thanks Ants posted:

I think I prefer your old av

I don't know what's wrong with him; most people don't like the sight of blood but DT seems to be obsessed with it.

Grats on your new gig, DT, you sick little monkey. (Edit: Or did someone else give that to you? Congrats on being the only person for which I've had to adblock an avatar TWICE, either way :v:

)

Bob Morales posted:

So the guy who got the ticket replies with an explanation, closes the ticket, then just walked over to explain it to her in person. Ugh. Baby steps.

This is 100% a success; the important thing is that the person with the problem is going through channels and not interrupting your techs, and if the tech wants to do a face-to-face explanation or a phone call or whatever, they can do that when it's convenient. Obviously if that tech wastes a ton of time doing this unnecessarily, you can work with him to correct that, but that's gotta be better than trying to herd cats from other departments.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 21:55

Gwaihir: Dec 8, 2009; Hair Elf

Gyshall posted:

Kill All Sales and Marketing People

With printers and faxes.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 22:01

Ynglaur: Oct 9, 2013; The Malta Conference, anyone?

Congratulations DT. More poo poo that pisses you off: at least sometimes we get to be smug.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 22:06

Methylethylaldehyde: Oct 23, 2004; BAKA BAKA

Gwaihir posted:

With printers and faxes.

Ballistically actuated printers, fired via trebuchet, between competing business silos.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 23:25

J: Jun 10, 2001

Dick Trauma posted:

After almost a full month of phone and in-person interviews and last-minute reference madness the HR VP just called to offer me the job I've been chasing. She wound up insisting on talking to my old CEO and I decided to go with it, contacting him first to prep him. She says he gave me a fantastic, detailed recommendation which helps balance out the stupid bullshit his company put me through.

I start Monday. Sr. Vice President of I.T. with my first six-figure salary, a large increase over my last position. Better late than never! I will put what I've learned at the last job into play here. Now my plan is to try and educate myself on the things that could help keep me at this level for the next part of my career, like project management. At 48 (even a young-looking 48) I have to make sure what I offer is in keeping with what employers expect of someone of my age and experience.

Thank you all for listening to literally years worth of employment drama. I can't tell you how many times it's helped keep me on an even keel, and it's partially responsible for how quickly I bounced back from my flame-out at the last place. I feel much better positioned to deal with this next job due to all the advice I've received.

Congrats! I can't imagine the awful feeling it must have been when they wanted to get the old CEO involved at the last minute, but I'm glad he came through.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 23:48

Sweevo: Nov 8, 2007; i sometimes throw cables away

i mean straight into the bin without spending 10+ years in the box of might-come-in-handy-someday first

im a fucking monster

Gwaihir posted:

With printers and faxes.

Speaking of printers, today I found out that in the year 2015 it's possible to buy a label printer that doesn't have ZPL emulation. And we just bought 12 of them.

(For those not in the know that's basically like a paint program not being able to load jpegs, or a text editor not supporting ASCII)

# ? Feb 26, 2015 23:52

Inspector_666: Oct 7, 2003; _{benny with the good hair}

The other day I got to install a bunch of extra poo poo because a Ricoh printer doesn't support PostScript unless you pay extra for a separate card, and they don't make a PCL driver for OS X.

# ? Feb 26, 2015 23:55

RangerAce: Feb 25, 2014

Inspector_666 posted:

The other day I got to install a bunch of extra poo poo because a Ricoh printer doesn't support PostScript unless you pay extra for a separate card, and they don't make a PCL driver for OS X.

Why would they make a free PCL driver when they have these perfectly good PostScript cards you can pay money for?

# ? Feb 27, 2015 00:14

Gucci Loafers: May 20, 2006; Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?

Dispatched to a client site to move around a few workstations. Second I arrive two co-workers immediately start arguing over who gets which computer and eventually all I need to do is move Bill's profiles from A to B and re-install Windows on A.

I move the profile over and I take a peak as to what's actually on A. There's a ton of documents, user data, programs and I get a feeling this is a bad idea. I bring this up with Bob and he tells me don't worry about it, there's a bunch of old programs, tons of previous employees have used it. He just wants it cleared and he'll restore the important stuff just get it up and running. I triple-check, he says go for it and I blow away the machine.

The next morning I get a call, I go on-site and a user is missing data. I tell Bob he told me yesterday that he told me to delete everything and he'd complete the rest. He replies "Yea, I told you reformat it, restore the data for Tom's profile and I'd put the programs back on."

:bang:

Fortunately, I saw this red flag and saved everything but IT is just annoyingly stressful.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 00:36

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

Tab8715 posted:

The next morning I get a call, I go on-site and a user is missing data. I tell Bob he told me yesterday that he told me to delete everything and he'd complete the rest. He replies "Yea, I told you reformat it, restore the data for Tom's profile and I'd put the programs back on."

Fortunately, I saw this red flag and saved everything but IT is just annoyingly stressful.

Hah, I did the same when we decommissioned our previous file server. I get a "Ok to go, all user home directories have been migrated, just turn it off and toss the disks in the shredder".

I got a gut feeling and stuck a USB disk in the server and made a copy of all the user data just to be sure. It's saved my (and the users') rear end four times in the past two months.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 00:43

RangerAce: Feb 25, 2014

Collateral Damage posted:

Hah, I did the same when we decommissioned our previous file server. I get a "Ok to go, all user home directories have been migrated, just turn it off and toss the disks in the shredder".

I got a gut feeling and stuck a USB disk in the server and made a copy of all the user data just to be sure. It's saved my (and the users') rear end four times in the past two months.

The potentially bad part of this is that now they're trained that when someone says "Get yo' poo poo" they don't have to worry too much because the IT guy always has a backup just in case, anyway.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 01:02

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

RangerAce posted:

The potentially bad part of this is that now they're trained that when someone says "Get yo' poo poo" they don't have to worry too much because the IT guy always has a backup just in case, anyway.

I look at it the other way around. It trains(or reinforces the idea in) the IT department/guy to always make a backup just in case, because really why the gently caress would any IT professional with more than a week's experience in the industry trust an end user with ANYTHING having to do with data management?

# ? Feb 27, 2015 01:11

Methylethylaldehyde: Oct 23, 2004; BAKA BAKA

Che Delilas posted:

I look at it the other way around. It trains(or reinforces the idea in) the IT department/guy to always make a backup just in case, because really why the gently caress would any IT professional with more than a week's experience in the industry trust an end user with ANYTHING having to do with data management?

When they get it in writing, and they can perform "Data Recovery Services" for $fuckloads after the users figure out they hosed up? It's made my buddy money more than once in the past. His contact even states he takes a one time encrypted backup for data recovery purposes, and lists the fee for such services.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 02:11

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

RangerAce posted:

The potentially bad part of this is that now they're trained that when someone says "Get yo' poo poo" they don't have to worry too much because the IT guy always has a backup just in case, anyway.

Turn it around, and use a situation like this to your advantage. Give them a suitably hard time about saying they were good, and tell them that you'll see what you can recover. Now you use this situation to manage expectations. If you "spend" the time right now trying to pull the data back, when there's real data loss later, people will (rightly) believe you did everything you could to pull off a miracle. If you just pull the data out of your rear end right now, during a real emergency people will be absolutely crawling up your rear end because you haven't gotten the critical financial data back now now now because it's month-end.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 02:12

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Methylethylaldehyde posted:

When they get it in writing, and they can perform "Data Recovery Services" for $fuckloads after the users figure out they hosed up? It's made my buddy money more than once in the past. His contact even states he takes a one time encrypted backup for data recovery purposes, and lists the fee for such services.

But that's doing exactly what I said: not trusting the user and instead making a backup of the poo poo they say can be deleted just in case. The fact that you can make extra money off the "emergency data recovery service" is fantastic and if you're in a relationship with the user where that's appropriate, then by all means. But that still starts with not trusting the user.

If I have to explain the difference between "click" and "right click," then I don't even expect the user to know what "delete" means, let alone know which files are important (or, again, even what files are).

# ? Feb 27, 2015 02:17

evol262: Nov 30, 2010; #!/usr/bin/perl

Wizard of the Deep posted:

Turn it around, and use a situation like this to your advantage. Give them a suitably hard time about saying they were good, and tell them that you'll see what you can recover. Now you use this situation to manage expectations. If you "spend" the time right now trying to pull the data back, when there's real data loss later, people will (rightly) believe you did everything you could to pull off a miracle. If you just pull the data out of your rear end right now, during a real emergency people will be absolutely crawling up your rear end because you haven't gotten the critical financial data back now now now because it's month-end.

You may be interested in such classic IT tales as "The Speed-Up Loop" if you think doing Daily WTF-worthy half-assing of your job to "manage expectations" is a valid or valuable strategy.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 02:20

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

RangerAce posted:

The potentially bad part of this is that now they're trained that when someone says "Get yo' poo poo" they don't have to worry too much because the IT guy always has a backup just in case, anyway.

It wasn't the users' job to migrate their data, it was the chucklefucks that decided that we're not allowed to store user data locally any more and that everything has to be centralized.

# ? Feb 27, 2015 02:30

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

Personal poo poo that pisses me off:

OSX update process: Download, install, reboot.
Linux update process: Download, install, reboot.

Windows update process: Download, install, reboot, OH LOOK, MORE UPDATES! Download, install, reboot.

I am on reboot 3 right now. What the gently caress Microsoft?

# ? Feb 27, 2015 03:21

Nintendo Kid: Aug 4, 2011; by Smythe

ratbert90 posted:

Personal poo poo that pisses me off:

OSX update process: Download, install, reboot.
Linux update process: Download, install, reboot.

Windows update process: Download, install, reboot, OH LOOK, MORE UPDATES! Download, install, reboot.

I am on reboot 3 right now. What the gently caress Microsoft?

Stop waiting 3 years to update?

# ? Feb 27, 2015 03:22

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 25, 2024 11:26

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

Nintendo Kid posted:

Stop waiting 3 years to update?

This is a fresh install of windows 8.1
Linux was the same amount of time out of date, I ran apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y and that was it, fully updated.
I did a fresh install of OSX10.9.0 a year or so ago and updated to 10.9.5 with a single click and one reboot, no more updates.

Why is windows so lovely at this?

# ? Feb 27, 2015 03:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > More shit that pisses you off: What does that say about the quality of your emails?

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