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Your employer is poo poo
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Apr 28, 2017 17:13
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How many hours does it take you to reformat a PC? And both you and the employee are basically out of commission during that process? Can you take your salary per hour and your employee's salary per hour (don't forget to factor in other benefits) and then multiply it by the time you're both wasting on this? Then add in a bit for "slow computer wasting time" (find a whitepaper or article somewhere). Then go to your boss and say "We are spending >$50 on this, it's just not showing up on a spreadsheet somewhere because we don't track it. The business would make more money if we spent $50. Can we put in the budget to to replace 5 computers a month with SSDs?" If they don't get that argument, they're morons. It's not uncommon to be shot down if you say "I think we should spend $5,000, it would be good." Form an argument and push. Unless you've got an IT boss over you, that's part of your job, convincing people to make the right decisions in IT. And I understand that you have special circumstances, but feeling stuck at a job like that is not a healthy way to be. Are you going to retire there? If not, you're going to have to make a move sometime. Would you rather do that when you have a job or when they lay everyone off because they're too stupid to spend a little money to make a lot more money? If they're not spending the money in this scenario, what else are they not spending money on? Backups? UPSes? Hardware warranties?
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Apr 28, 2017 17:25
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You have huge red flags, unless you feel staying there is making your resume look really good due to responsibilities and title you need to get out while it's good. Good news is you have a job, you can be picky in your search. You can't be as picky when you don't have a job. That company is going to go bankrupt, if you can't afford to replace stuff you are dead.
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Apr 28, 2017 17:37
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Thanks Ants posted:Your employer is poo poo pixaal posted:You have huge red flags, unless you feel staying there is making your resume look really good due to responsibilities and title you need to get out while it's good. Good news is you have a job, you can be picky in your search. You can't be as picky when you don't have a job. That company is going to go bankrupt, if you can't afford to replace stuff you are dead. These are all good points. GargleBlaster posted:
This is the most short sighted toxic bullshit ever. Not to point the finger but get your skills up, get a new job. Dont enable lovely companies to stay lovely. Because that is exactly what you are doing.
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Apr 28, 2017 17:54
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Internet Explorer posted:How many hours does it take you to reformat a PC? And both you and the employee are basically out of commission during that process? Can you take your salary per hour and your employee's salary per hour (don't forget to factor in other benefits) and then multiply it by the time you're both wasting on this? Then add in a bit for "slow computer wasting time" (find a whitepaper or article somewhere). Then go to your boss and say "We are spending >$50 on this, it's just not showing up on a spreadsheet somewhere because we don't track it. The business would make more money if we spent $50. Can we put in the budget to to replace 5 computers a month with SSDs?" Heh, well will see if it's possible to quantify slow computers. The mindset of the accountants I've dealt with on trying justify things based on dividing people's approximate salary into hours though has tended to be "well yeah but we're already paying them that anyway and now you want me to make this number bigger" Structurally it's semi complicated. There are two of us in IT, but we both share the same line manager so hierarchically in the company we're the same, but he's the manager of the IT department and gets to make the purchasing decisions - and he hates spending money as well (so they love him). So I basically have to go through 2 layers of this. It's actually not in my job description to steer decision making (that's the manager's responsibility) and I'm not really paid enough to care, it's basically like "we pay you to do what we tell you, not to question the decision making processes" (okay, they've never directly said that, but that's the feeling) but of course it's hard not to care I don't think they're going under any time soon. Maybe they would lay me off one day given that it's a 1:30 ratio of IT staff to users and I've been there long enough to get a decent payoff and notice period. Granted, it's easier to get a job when you already have one. The CV would indeed look impressive so perhaps I'd not struggle too badly and would benefit from the payoff, who knows. They do spend money in certain places - generally in constantly shuffling offices around. I think IT is seen as an unfortunate expense though. Trying to improve our image to being seen as an asset instead of a liability is one part of my plan - though a lot of it would be much easier with investment  Chicken and egg...
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Apr 28, 2017 18:04
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If IT is seen as a liability that is a fundamental failure on the part of the person responsible. Hell I think most of us like to be frugal, but there isnt even a fine line between frugality and ludicrously cheap. If your profit margins cant handle basic simple things that fail regularly, thats just asking for a catastrophic failure. Id be getting into a proper shop friend, besides go hang out with the database people most of them are borderline on the spectrum anyways, you might be the bubbly social one of the group 
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Apr 28, 2017 18:09
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sneakyfrog posted:Dont enable lovely companies to stay lovely. Because that is exactly what you are doing. I think "enabling" is giving me a bit too much credit. When I leave one of two things will happen 1) They breathe a sigh of relief at being £20k per annum better off and toss the local IT company a fraction of it to cover for the other guy when he's on leave and everything carries on as it did before (albeit with more stress and overworking for the other guy, and without the nice little automations and intranet-based data retrieval things I keep knocking together for them), or 2) They do as I've seen in other departments over the years: hire someone new who starts off bright eyed and enthusiastic, they spend a year learning how the company works, then see what's going on get worn down and leave, and the cycle continues. Neither of these will change the management, assuming that is the problem. Time will though (everyone retires eventually) meanwhile I can at least try and influence things from inside, even if it's mostly unsuccessful
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Apr 28, 2017 18:20
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GargleBlaster posted:I think "enabling" is giving me a bit too much credit. When I leave one of two things will happen ok, how about this one. Go take care of you by working for a proper shop and learn how things are done when you apply thought and money to them as opposed to trying to keep a sad leaky unmaintained boat afloat with a bucket. You learn bad habits when halfassing some bodged up "solution" because you cant do it properly because you get hamstrung by a nonexistant budget. Just take care of yourself friend is all im saying.
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Apr 28, 2017 18:56
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sneakyfrog posted:Just take care of yourself friend is all im saying.
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Apr 28, 2017 20:04
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so at this point because i am morbidly curious, what kinda setup you got? 50 users in what kinda domain and like what is your structure friend? How much mentor-ship do you have and experimentation room you got?
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Apr 28, 2017 21:02
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Appreciate your input sneakyfrog. Thanks for the human being treatment Well, will keep an eye on what comes up locally - though unless it's WiFi connecting sheep it's not "all that often" around here (I'd rather live where I am, it's nice) but you never know. It's worthwhile trying anyway - part of my job description is quite heavy on developing the company website but the process goes through Marketing and the person in charge there literally ignores me most of the time and actively tries to outsource it from under me which tends to make me nervous about HR one day using "a big part of your job doesn't happen so you're fired" without giving me a chance to explain. They can legally do that now with no warning if it's with a payoff (it's called a settlement agreement) Windows domain, VMware servers mostly. Samba services on Centos (set up and configured myself, took quite some reading and tweaking to get it talking to the DC properly) because they're cheap but to be honest I feel right at home with Linux servers and Samba 4 is excellent so that's something that worked out. My mentor is Google and I can experiment with ideas as long as it doesn't cost anything other than time, haha GargleBlaster fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 21:26
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GargleBlaster posted:Appreciate your input sneakyfrog. Thanks for the human being treatment i was more asking what forest functional level is your domain running on from a windows side, or are you.. (sigh) the linux guy? TehRedWheelbarrow fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 21:28
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Try and work towards the RHCE and find a gig where you can work remotely
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Apr 28, 2017 21:30
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sneakyfrog posted:i was more asking what forest functional level is your domain running on from a windows side, or are you.. (sigh) the linux guy? Ah hm, to be quite honest when you talk about forests and trees I'm quite lost (pun unintended!). Theres a domain. It's... flat? On a personal level I'm a fan of Linux servers (though feel that in a business environment it has no place on a desktop). Professionally plenty of experience with Windows BUT not at the scale where you start talking about forests. I'd have thought that's normally bigger companies If it helps it's like OU=Everyone GargleBlaster fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 21:37
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GargleBlaster posted:Ah hm, to be quite honest when you talk about forests and trees I'm quite lost (pun unintended!). Theres a domain. It's... flat? I am jacks complete lack of surprise. lol ok, how about this what is the operating system of the main domain controller? protip friend if you feel strongly about windows being a primary desktop operating system, you should hit the books about the backend.  forest in this case is a group of trees, your metaphor is actually accurate. Trees though in your case are the interactions between a primary domain and its various subdomains. and in the windows environment can be interconnected at various functional levels with other trees. forests contain many trees and its pretty much the scope of the domains that you control and their interactions.
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Apr 28, 2017 22:06
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Right ok, it's more or less as I thought. But to my knowledge, there's no real need for those levels of subdivision in a company our size on a single site, especially when people come and go and move from department to department like pawns. I know enough about the backend just have never seen the need to go that deep (that said, not been job hunting for bigger places either, so fair point) We're on 2008r2 for the DC right now. Planning on a newer version seeing as the desktops are W10 and the 2008r2 WSUS is a bit half arsed with W10 but.... You guessed it 
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Apr 28, 2017 22:54
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GargleBlaster posted:Right ok, it's more or less as I thought. But to my knowledge, there's no real need for those levels of subdivision in a company our size on a single site, especially when people come and go and move from department to department like pawns. I know enough about the backend just have never seen the need to go that deep (that said, not been job hunting for bigger places either, so fair point) I was guessing 2003 so its not quite as horrible as i was  ing about so i could properly lambast you for something out of your control. realistically take some time to learn the windows aspect if IT is your intent unless you prefer to stick to linux, enterprise IT is a lot of windows of various flavors all loving each other to oblivion unless you have good IT. Linux shops i cant speak of honestly but if thats your boner and your daily driver for everything hell that might be your jam. e: Yeah forests is beyond the scope of this thread unless you are really really anal. It was more of a question i asked in a windows guy way TehRedWheelbarrow fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 22:59
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redeyes posted:I have no idea why you waste time loading that garbage.. but yeah I stock cheapo Sandisk 120 and 240GB drives. I can get about %50 of people to upgrade because omg slow computer... it's my biggest upgrade by far. This is what I'm going through right now in a way. They're rolling out new computers to get caught up. I have i5/8gb/250gb ssd computers I'm upgrading for replacements because they're still depreciating and only 2 years old. But no they want to put out the new computers with hdd's instead. Because they're faster. 
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Apr 28, 2017 23:43
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I just took the last 2003 server in our environment down, and the VP of IT asked me this afternoon to run the numbers for a new fleet of Dell Precision workstations with 8-16 GB RAM and SSDs. I feel really bad now after reading the last page of this thread. 
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Apr 28, 2017 23:48
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Kazinsal posted:I just took the last 2003 server in our environment down, and the VP of IT asked me this afternoon to run the numbers for a new fleet of Dell Precision workstations with 8-16 GB RAM and SSDs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc on the other hand... you have a vp of it? are you interloping mr big IT man? TehRedWheelbarrow fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Apr 29, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 23:59
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Nah, it's a fairly small shop. The company's only about a hundred people, more than half of which are network and voice guys. So the VP of IT is really "executive for 65% of the company".
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Apr 29, 2017 10:11
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Thanks Ants posted:Your employer is poo poo Thread title.
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May 2, 2017 12:15
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Potato Salad posted:Thread title. Perhaps but we are about to go through a sharepoint reimplementation so I think the current title is also still good.
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May 3, 2017 18:17
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yeah sharepoint spawned the current one. Currently I am trying to explain to users why no, I cant automate everything about a crm database, no i cant have it just read your mind and If I could I wouldnt be working for you.  : but I know what I want it to do!
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May 3, 2017 19:09
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GargleBlaster posted:Heh, well will see if it's possible to quantify slow computers. The mindset of the accountants I've dealt with on trying justify things based on dividing people's approximate salary into hours though has tended to be "well yeah but we're already paying them that anyway and now you want me to make this number bigger" I have found in these types of situations the best route is to explain exactly what the issue is to the user and be truthful, let them know nothing you do will fix the slow computer issue other then replacing the hard drive with an SSD or the whole computer. This frees up your time and also puts the pressure on management from the users. Management doesn't listen to IT but as soon as enough people complain or an out side auditor recommend something they are all over it. With requests coming from the users impacted directly rather then IT they usually end up getting approved. Individual departments or departments managers may also have budget to spend 40-100$ per user even if IT doesn't. You just have to learn to play the game. Good luck!
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May 4, 2017 00:20
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GargleBlaster posted:Please see comments about not being able to spend money. If you can't get some SSDs or extra ram (depending on what the slowdown issue even is) to tide you over until you embrace our Apple overlords and switchover end users to shiny new macs (it's incredible how so many issues just disappear when that happens), you might look into building a few department specific standard images with imageX (assuming you're still on 7, otherwise DISM for 8 & above) and redeploy those when machines start making GBS threads the bed. I'd also fiddle around with your startup software/services in msconfig and slim that down as much as possible. Depending on your organizational back end you could do some other really cool stuff, but that would help keep machines in a consistent, known good state, especially if users already keep their files on some flavor of networked resource. Quite often it's easier to just start from a known good state than try to follow some fiddly stupid issue down the rabbit hole to hell. This is also assuming it's not just a hardware problem, I'd also check stuff like smart status on the hard drives because I usually figure fivish years is a good estimate for the lifetime of a business machine platter drive. Pitch SSD replacement as pre-empting imminent drive failures and data loss if necessary.
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May 4, 2017 01:14
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sneakyfrog posted:yeah sharepoint spawned the current one. We hired an actual sharepoint developer and I have never been happier to be free of maintaining something internally.
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May 4, 2017 05:35
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Is there a dedicated Sharepoint thread? I feel like its grand enough in it's own complexities, that I'm surprised if there isn't a thread yet.
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May 4, 2017 12:17
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Beefstorm posted:Is there a dedicated Sharepoint thread? I feel like its grand enough in it's own complexities, that I'm surprised if there isn't a thread yet. Yeah, right here.
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May 4, 2017 14:26
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Hmmm, somehow Sharepoint already seems better.
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May 4, 2017 16:35
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lol
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May 4, 2017 16:56
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Expected an e/n suicide thread
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May 4, 2017 17:15
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I should've done this a long time ago... buying a cordless screwdriver makes installing crap like monitor arms dead easy! It is a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
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May 5, 2017 14:28
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Current status: Date and Time Trouble Began: 2017-05-05 Customer Equipment Validated: Yes Problem Detail/Request Information: States that a battery backup for their server smells like it's burning.
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May 5, 2017 20:55
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NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:Current status: Why did this not get pulled? I had another site ask me off hand once if I knew the battery 4,000 miles away from me smelled like burning. I had them sanity test it by plugging it in someplace else to verify it was the battery, it was the battery. I had them throw the UPS out and I shipped another one down while they plugged everything into the wall for a week. This battery had apparently been stinking up the place for 6 months, I wanted to make sure it wasn't a server or networking equipment since they couldn't tell me if the smell got better.
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May 5, 2017 21:00
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NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:Current status: 05/05/2017 20:23:48 GMT - Called client and was told the battery backup no longer has the odor due to the fire department coming out to the site and disabling the battery. I let X know I will set him up for dispatch for a tech to take a look at the situation. X says access hours are 24/7. (these are level3 tickets I'm cced on for some reason, I haven't been at this site in like 4 years  )
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May 5, 2017 21:25
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NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:05/05/2017 20:23:48 GMT - Called client and was told the battery backup no longer has the odor due to the fire department coming out to the site and disabling the battery. I let X know I will set him up for dispatch for a tech to take a look at the situation. X says access hours are 24/7. loving lol a few years ago we had a whole stack of lithium ion batteries go up in one of the storage rooms, that poo poo sucked and cleanup and decon of the office took close to a year
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May 5, 2017 21:27
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sneakyfrog posted:loving lol I can't tell if you're kidding because i know dont work with large (amounts of) batteries but in case you're not  The Li ions are pretty reactive but i thought that is fixed basically ~100% by the time the initial burning up completes and its all settled down into some used up oxidated state. Many months up to a year of cleanup makes it sound like it's suspended in a crystal lattice of anthrax and asbestos. Do you know what causes such a mess?
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May 8, 2017 21:31
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Old Binsby posted:I can't tell if you're kidding because i know dont work with large (amounts of) batteries but in case you're not not slightly kidding, about 150 or so pounds. It just happened while people werent at the office so the central ac intake sucked up a whole shitload of burning toxic poo poo and spread it all over the office.
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May 8, 2017 21:54
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Old Binsby posted:I can't tell if you're kidding because i know dont work with large (amounts of) batteries but in case you're not Educated guessing here, but I would thing the reason it took a year is as follows: 1. Investigate that this was an accident and not arson (1-4 weeks) 2. Identify everything that was contaminated: Carpet? Subfloor? Walls? Furniture? Drop-ceiling tiles? Framework for said tiles? Any overhead infrastructure, like air ducts or wiring or whathaveyou? (Two-four weeks, depending on testing, labwork, et cetera) 3. Formulate a plan to remediate the contamination (1-4 weeks) 4. Get the plan signed off by the client, the subcontractors who will actually do the work, and any of half a dozen local, state, and federal agencies (2-8 weeks) 5. Actually remediate the problem (4-16 weeks) 6. Retest everything to verify there's no further contamination (2-4 weeks) 7. Restore the building to usable office functionality (2-4 weeks) 8. Argue with insurance companies: Yours, landlord's, manufacturer's (∞ weeks) A year seems long, but not out of the realm of likeliness for what amounts to an unexpected chemical fire and associated cleanup.
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May 8, 2017 21:59
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