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Bob Morales posted:Super-stupid and random question. What kind of business do they do? Can you suggest your firm set up a department to steal their business seeing as the custom is coming through your door anyway? I was told last week to secure funding to expand a small network.. I was told today I can spend £25k The Risk Manager who asked me to do that then told me to secure an additional MPLS circuit 'just in case' a project in the pipeline steals my existing MPLS circuit (long story) Could have told me that before I asked for £25k! I asked the risk manager if he had any funding for a spare MPLS circuit and he said no it's up to me if I want to so it or not... Joy
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Jul 29, 2014 23:28
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I go to work in shirt and tie, it seems to help with being young, not that it should matter but it's my preference. Uniform is just a polo shirt but I like a tie. Working in my IT department this week includes the risk manager telling me to deploy non-compliant systems then getting told off for not using change management processes that he signs off. When I say telling me to do this I mean setting deadlines of end of the month to roll out a currently non-existent network (and applications) to approx 400 staff If I had actually done this I would have been butt hosed by the change management board and the risk manager would have claimed to have only suggested that I did it (he has previous) Whilst he was doing this he told my site director (amongst other senior management) the network was actually in place. Luckily someone equally senior to the risk manager stepped in and told him to shut up ( essentially) The risk manager then said fine but if the network isn't there you must be non-compliant with some wider business processes which caused an amusing element of panic this morning Interestingly it did reveal a number of middle managers who have basically sat with no access to things they should be reviewing and instead of approaching IT and saying how do I access x y or z? They've decided to twiddle their thumbs and do nothing. Oh politics!
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Aug 7, 2014 23:23
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SaltLick posted:I work in a jail and wear the same lovely khakis and polo every day because jail smells like bad easy mac and despair. I went to the interview in a suit. Wear a suit this is easy stuff. High 5 jail working buddy! Our place just smells of cleaning fluids because all the prisoners do is clean clean clean... I now associate the smell of cleaning products as jail smell
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Aug 8, 2014 18:13
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I don't have a degree or many IT quals for that matter but I seem to be getting by on delivering projects well I guess My boss has worked his way up from the bottom and so did his predecessor so there is hope for me yet In the mean time it became apparent this week that I will need to performance manage my assistant out of my department very soon. It's not pleasant but I'm always up for learning new skills... I guess?!
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Aug 15, 2014 21:27
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Hughmoris posted:I need some opinions here. I work in clinical informatics at a smaller hospital, its a new job that I've been doing for 3 months. I provide solutions and support for our doctors and nurses etc... I'm not a programmer in the least bit but I've been trying to teach myself. I've wrote several small scripts that has made our team's life easier and removed some of the workload. I've been on the other side of a comparable situation twice (sort of, I think...) I'm not a programmer, no one in my company is employed to do any programming. We've had a couple of 'hobbyists' come in and make super spreadsheets full of complex vba etc and both times I highlighted to their managers they are not employed to program poo poo, nor am I a programmer, my boss does not want me spending my time programming and if your member of staff gets hit by a bus and that spreadsheet breaks, you are screwed. Are you ok with that? Both times, the manager in question has basically said 'I'll take the risk because it makes life easier' I'm not exactly sure what you are doing in your job, but if they perceive what you are doing as something that the business will want, that they have to then support but didn't have anything to do with, I can see why they might want to nip it in the bud and say go away. It really depends on if you are supposed to be doing this sort of thing as part of your role and/or have the backing of your superiors to do it. If you are not I think all you can really do is put the appropriate change requests in and let the right people take care of it. (I'm making a lot of assumptions so shoot me down...)
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Sep 17, 2014 01:14
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demonicon posted:So I was hired a few month ago as a Senior developer. Today my boss send a new organization chart around in which I am marked as the technical lead for the team. No one talked to me about this. You need to talk to your boss and work out exactly how much your neck is on the line If you are ultimately responsible for anything you need to speak to this guy and say either 'ok I back your idea' or 'I think we need to run your idea past boss' If he is the sort of person who is going to say 'no we don't need to speak to boss, I can make the call' I guess you have to say 'well I'd really appreciate it if you ran it by boss' If he still doesn't I guess you can say 'ok well I will back you but it's your call and on your head be it' I'd also start carrying a notebook and if he is the sort of person to go along that patch you can write down what was agreed and the fact he wouldn't speak to the boss thereby covering yourself. As a aside - I'm not sure where to ask this, I need to build a report using crystal reports (and SQL) which I've never done before. I'm ok with how reports work and SQL queries but does anyone have some good tutorials on combing the 2? For my first report I'll be giving the user date parameters, grouping various fields across tables and some sub totals within the report if that helps anyone point anything out
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Sep 20, 2014 11:47
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There is something about IT departments- yes fixing problems immediately is the best and quickest way to fix it but if you don't tell users why they've lost their system in a way that is meaningful to them, their next step is to say that the companies systems don't work or aren't fit for purpose which is ultimately going to give the IT manager a headache which in turn gives the techs a headache because manager is left wondering why he has angry users!! This week I've been spending most of my time arguing with people who are matrix managed and forget where their loyalties should lie. I've had a particular department manager try to ditch our companies official system for a homemade spreadsheet on the basis that the companies official system doesn't work (to be fair it doesn't at the moment until we get some additional feature licensed) His mistake was when he told me to butt out because it's not a systems issue but a political issue Not sure how he is going to get his spreadsheet on my network now but ok!
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Oct 3, 2014 00:06
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Tab8715 posted:When giving out references, at what stage of the interview process is this done? I had an employer ask for them immediately which I thought was a little brash. At my work they asked if I had them ready quite promptly because it effected my security clearances. I guess that is probably the exception to the rule though. In my job I accidentally found out a senior manager is being removed from one of my projects for basically being a bit of a political animal and annoying everyone. At the same time I feel a bit sorry for him because despite this he was the main person going 'hey guys you aren't delivery x y or z' and he's been kicked out while the people who aren't delivering have taken over Little bit more to it than that but interesting times. I've also been told my assistant is leaving me but she is rubbish so I'm happy and also my seconded assistant who is a lunatic and just makes the rules up as he goes will be leaving me soon So even though I have no team above or below me at the moment I am oddly quite happy!
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Oct 28, 2014 00:38
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It was my assistants last day today. Hooray (they were bad...) And they got the job ad out today Time for beer!
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Nov 21, 2014 20:14
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myron cope posted:Yeah this is good. Other people I've seen be way to specific on what is wrong and/or who is fixing it. I give "we're looking into it" or "I need to talk to my supervisor about this" answers a lot. Not that I'm a black box and everything from me is a cryptic response, but I try to be careful about who I tell what things. Telling too much to the wrong person can backfire easily. I think a fun game would be "you're 3rd in the queue, I will be with you soon " But the fun is adjusting the number to see if you can disgruntle the person but not enough so they react to it.. Or I just have a childish sense of humour. I had an ongoing CCTV fault, there was a guy who kept going " oh windows, I have a *nix DVR that just works" every time the DVR breaks he calls and criticises windows. I think next time he does it I will email him and his boss using phrases such as "submit a business case for my consideration " and "you are banned from raising tickets on the basis that windows is not fit for purpose as the other dozen windows based DVRs we operate are fine" as he just tries to summon me for geek chat ugh
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Dec 16, 2014 00:17
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jim truds posted:One of the trainees asked me what Heat was after I asked him to open it. It is the ticketing system that we use. He has been using it for 3 weeks. I'm getting heat early next year - never used it, any good? We are going for a self service portal as we want users to log in and report their own issues Should be fun
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Dec 16, 2014 19:41
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jim truds posted:It is decent, a lot of it depends on how you set it up and use it. It has a lot of modules and is very flexible in how you set up the workflow. Also don't agree to be a heat admin, the documentation from front range is pure poo poo. We already have a Heat admin who is confused because our segment of the company work in a totally different way to anyone else in the company  I'm not looking after any of it in fact which is kind of nice
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Dec 16, 2014 23:18
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I was thinking about it today and I've had 6 managers in the last 12 months. None of which have given me an appraisal. Clearly I'm a terror
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Dec 17, 2014 20:44
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Am I the only one that's skeptical that it's the real NK making these threats
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Dec 18, 2014 23:19
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flosofl posted:Absolutely. That's the second thing you do after immediately calling the police. If you have an internal Info Sec group, they'll usually coordinate all the internal incident handling. There's a ton of little things that need to be done to preserve state for when the police/FBI show up. But expect them to seize everything that could be peripherally related, so start spinning up the DR plan immediately, even if you do end up standing down. You'll look like a god drat hero when the transition is a matter of hours at most if they do get overzealous in the investigation. we actually have forensic investigators to deal with this. We double teamed the guy, escorted him off site whilst someone else got his PC pretty much like you said. we have physically separate networks, the snr admin decide he was too lazy to admin one of the smaller networks so he gave a software trainer who was 'into IT' domain admin rights because he couldnt be bothered to look after it the guy proceeded to try and use cain and abel to get mine and my bosses passwords to try and use on our corporate network i think the lucky thing for snr admin is when i discovered and called in the guys to deal with all this my boss was on leave & that he is soft or he would have been out the door i think
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Dec 22, 2014 23:21
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Hughmoris posted:How'd you figure out he was gunning for your passwords? Heh - he came to my office and asked me a really weird question to do with AD The answer was duh look in AD (can't remember exactly what he asked) For some reason we had roaming profiles so I decided the best way to stop him bothering me it would be nice to put an AD shortcut on his desktop... There I saw a shortcut to Cain & Abel ... Didn't know what it was at the time so I ran it and there was my password in plain text (cue alarm bells!) Interestingly there was one day prior to this I got a call from the department he worked in... A PC had lost the network and it appeared to be a patching problem- weird I've not been to that cab for a while... Went up there and it's a pain to get to, not only is it in the roof but you have to climb through pipes to get access to it - as I'm clambering over I'm pretty sure I woke this dude up, he'd obviously changed some patching then decided to have a nap before actually moving the PCs (or whatever he was weird!) Anyway, fast forward after he got fired and all the rest of it and I need to go to this cab for a job... I find a notebook which I didn't recognise, once again mine (and my bosses) password written in there. Mental! We also found print outs of things like how to get elevated cmd access. Glad I found it when I did and also glad our 'proper' network is pretty secure (along with this guy being pretty bad I guess)
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Dec 23, 2014 08:16
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I recently advertised a position which I was unable to fill due to it being in the middle of nowhere and no one with any experience applied. It is either already re-advertised or just about to go out again... But anyway, I had an internal candidate who didn't have any experience in IT apply - he has decided to email HR and demand an explanation as management encouraged him to apply as he is a respected member of staff who often helps colleagues with IT issues (etc etc etc) I don't know the guy personally so I had to go from his CV - interestingly his email to HR had more detail about his IT experience than his CV which is why he was unsuccessful. Should be an interesting chat when I give him feedback. Alas... I just want an assistant 
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Jan 14, 2015 19:31
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I had a job interview today (my boss recently moved to another dept in the company) It's a reasonably senior position and the HR manager conducting the interview seem to have an agenda against my former boss in terms of he worked from home more than he perhaps should of and missed meetings he should have been at (amongst other criticisms) On the one hand she had valid points however I would suggest a job interview was not the appropriate way to air this opinion which is quite disappointing to hear from someone equally senior as the role I'm applying for and she did say there would be feedback after the hiring process so I hope that can be a 2 way deal On the other hand we recently mobilised a major contract and lived in the same hotel for about 6 months so we know each other quite well so maybe she thought it was ok to talk like that with me.. Actually no!
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Apr 14, 2015 20:47
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go3 posted:HR having an axe to grind?! PCjr sidecar posted:Nope! I wont say it that plainly obviously. angry armadillo fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Apr 15, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 21:29
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KillHour posted:Was said change that this HR manager is no longer employed? no she's ok, she just really doesn't like how our junk filter works We have to block loads of outgoing email because of various policy. We have to manually release loads of emails daily - there is no agreed SLA/OLA but it's just accepted we will release your email within a couple of hours but we wont reply. I also gave her the tip that if you use plain text it helps because we block all outgoing images and that's 99% of the issue... A couple of months ago this particular HR manager sent us all an email whinging that her email didnt get released at 7pm but it was urgent and needed to go there and then. I took it upon myself to reply on behalf of everyone and point out we dont work out of hours, we generally dont reply but if you ask for a reply specifically in urgent situations I certainly would be courteous enough to give you one, I'm sure the other will to (I doubt it but I said it anyway, I think customer service is important in an issue like this but at the time I had a boss who should have been thinking I need to agree an SLA with the business here but not the point...) after my interview I asked around as to why we dont just change the system so it automatically tells the user when we press the release button making this point moot - apparently when there was less IT staff we used to get complaints if it took to long. so I twisted the other IT manager's arms to turn it on today. Ultimately it's a really trivial issue, it improves user satisfaction and we should be accountable for our actions especially whilst we lack an formal SLA I think. Never mind that it displays to this hiring HR Manager that I have clout among my (current) peers and respect for the users wishes whilst she ponders who to hire.
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Apr 15, 2015 22:06
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Colonial Air Force posted:We're hiring for a junior sys admin (I've posted the opening in the jobs thread), and I got two very interesting resumes today. That beats the electrical wholesaler and suit fitter (neither with relevant experience) that I got. Quote of the day at work today: "That ping probably just cost £350k" ahhh progress
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Apr 22, 2015 18:43
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What is the world of IT like in Australia. I have the opportunity to do some work over there later in the year. I suspect the opportunity to stay over will present itself and I'm open to the idea.
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Aug 3, 2016 15:26
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:This should give you a sense of the culture at my job. Our application support team works Monday through Friday, ostensibly. They also have an on call rotation for production issues, ostensibly. do QA and app support report to the same person within senior management? fair enough the first time the call comes in on a Sunday you are probably going to end up doing whatever they want but I'd be straight in on Monday saying make sure that doesn't happen again and I wont be answering the phone. Sefal posted:I went into a job interview last week. And god, it feels great to go in to an interview without needing the job. I was calm, asked questions I needed answers to decide whether or not to jump ship to them. 1. receive offer 2. ask for raise 3. raise rejected 4. accept offer 3. could also be raise accepted then it is simply up to you. 1. could also be no offer received in which case unlucky 
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Oct 25, 2016 11:55
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There are elements of management which are not my preference compared to being a tea bitch, such as responsibility However there are some elements which I do enjoy, such as compensation 
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Oct 25, 2016 22:43
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fluppet posted:Is it normal when interviewing for multiple jobs to be asked if you'll consider not taking the other interviews once the first offer comes in, and have I just potentially hosed myself over by saying that since as I've already done gotten past the tech tests? I assume you have the contract ready to sign and are able to adjust the compensation to suit Mr HR man?
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Oct 30, 2016 16:44
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I've got some fun politics to deal with this week I've been sent to Australia for a short term project, my boss has gone back to the UK for a week It has become apparent the rest of the team are jealous of my boss because he gets to go home and back quite frequently compared to everyone else who miss their family. To the point where apparently the project leader is about to escalate it I see both sides of the story as my boss is doing a lot work over here that is unrelated to their project and as he is business development he is compensated... Let's say differently to other people So when I say deal with politics, that really means I need to get on with my deliverables when, everyone I approach is going to cry at me because my boss gets to go home more frequently than them, my reaction will be I don't care so deal with it and give me the information I need. My boss knows when we don't really have anyone to back fill him if he refused to work out here and is very good at using that as leverage I'm happy to explain the reasons why my boss gets a different deal to everyone else but as the new guy in town I don't think it will be well received so a bit of smile and nod required here On top of that apparently when this contract goes live there is no IT people available and my name has been suggested - I've started my negotiation with I am happy to help but I assume you won't be keeping me here until contract go live (Xmas) and I am aware Mrs angry armadillo said I am not coming back here without her so I am pretty much going to have to say no unless you are willing to fly me home at the agreed time and then fly me back nearer the time you need me along with Mrs A.A. (Flights are in the thousands as policy for this is business class) I perversely enjoy all this
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Nov 2, 2016 16:55
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I was pretty much going to say invest in a notepad. The site I manage is so big and you have to get around it is inevitable people say can you do such and such while I've got you you here... fine. I also suck at logging my tickets so I just write down everything in my note pad and log it after 4pm at which point I no longer answer the phone. But I can do that in my environment, it's just about fitting in with what's around you
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Nov 4, 2016 16:53
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I'm mobilising a new contract. It's the first time our company have got a contract that requires 24/7 cover of some degree in this area, so none of the existing staff are contractual on call. Cue mass panic from mobilisation management. The mobilisation team are saying we should provide such cover (and that's about all the detail we get) and IT are saying tell us what requires 24/7 cover and what doesn't and how you will budget for this extra work. Meanwhile as the contract goes live shortly, the mobilisation manager wants me to stay on Australia longer, so that essentially she is comfortable with me being in a hotel away from my family and assumes I will deal with any 24/7 type issues as I'll have nothing better to do. (I guess I am just a resource really )That's ok to a point but it creates a Mrs Armadillo that is particularly angry (As she is in the UK) so I am hoping to broker some kind of deal by the local IT guys to cover this poo poo and that gets me back on a plane. (Aus is boring now I've been here long enough...)
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Nov 11, 2016 12:18
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So I am sitting in the airport about to go home after completing my little project in Australia. My next move is to say thanks company for sending me out here on this very nice opportunity for international experience, my next step is to update my CV and foxtrot oscar my way outta here. I don't think it's going to go down too well when they find out, although i imagine the job market will pick up a bit after the new year. I need a new challenge or I may go insane
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Nov 18, 2016 13:42
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So tonight was the night I actually put my resume together and started applying for jobs. The first thing that became obvious is I cannot have my mobile phone on me in work. It will be sod's law my assistant takes a call from a recruiter but oh well, the plan is to leave anyway.
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Nov 28, 2016 00:06
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really not, i work in a prison so it's illegal. the only person i share my office with is my assistant and generally he is out the office doing support so shouldnt be a major issue, just a bit of a pain in the butt. although that is one of my reasons for leaving - things that should be easy, such as taking a private call when you have to, shouldnt be that hard. I get that i chose to work in a prison but, bored now
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Nov 28, 2016 00:15
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I did 8 months of travelling where I was only home at the weekends, even then I was starting my travel on Sunday night. It was fun at the time but I'd think twice about doing it again. Even recently, they sent me to Australia and I did 3 weeks, obviously I didn't come home at the weekend so I kinda got bored very quickly. Don't get me wrong it was a great experience but ultimately you are sat in a hotel room on your own with poo poo wifi for a lot of the time. It's not that great. In other news, I have a technical test on Friday for a job I applied for - I have not done been the interviewee for at least 8 or 9 years, I'm not a nervous person but this will be interesting...
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Nov 29, 2016 14:53
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Tab8715 posted:Well, yes of course it's a vulnerability but is it really bad enough to the point where we're personally limiting our ability to manage our own environment? It's analogues to "security through obscurity!". This is my life!
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Jan 6, 2017 16:26
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I was offered a chance to go to Oz this week. I said no (already been, my situation has changed and someone else can have a go) after I was asked I found out the CIO had said if anyone says no he fully supports that it isn't a simple thing to say yes to. So I guess what I am saying is some high level guys are reasonable edit: actually my non-IT boss was offered a 4 month secondment about 2 hours train away from here... it was initially offered to the guy the same level as me who reports to her and his answer was 'no thanks, that is of no benefit to me' - which, actually, he would of got a temporary promotion for 4 months, so if our shared boss ever left, then he could say I've done that job, I'm ready to step up. So I guess the moral of the story is you can say no, but it's how you say it
angry armadillo fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jan 12, 2017 |
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Jan 12, 2017 16:49
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The reason I've been offered a chance to go back to Oz for a few weeks (or at least from what I can piece together) is that the guy working there has a work life balance and says cya later at 5pm. However we've sent over a UK boss who is mental and works 24/7 - we think she is expecting the guy over there to deliver everything NOW and is upset that he isn't working 24/7 to do so. I guess managing expectations is a couple of words of advice I might offer but the other words would be I'll stay the gently caress away thanks
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Jan 12, 2017 17:09
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:Can't really get close enough to see what the gently caress is going on, but I'm thinking it's sewer. It's funny that your boss has taken the fall for this one. Surely the dig contractor is insured for poo poo like this
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Jan 17, 2017 15:57
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Yep, as long as you have the local root login for the ESXi host you can kickstart VMs from there including the DC. Once that's up, VCenter works like a charm. It was pretty easy once I stopped panicking. I had to do the same solution to a different problem - I was spending a few weeks on a project, went to remote onto a SQL server and couldn't... someone had done something and the windows firewall was just blocking everything. could get on the server via the host, which was fine as the host was still in the workshop where I was based but if that had been shipped to site, that could have been fun... I assume they found out what sent the firewall bananas before they did that but I had left the country at that point
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Feb 16, 2017 17:31
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If the guy was travelling in a non-work capacity were NASA ok for him to take a device abroad with sensitive data on it ?
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Feb 20, 2017 15:54
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flosofl posted:I thought he was returning from a professional conference? not according to the link posted quote:Two weeks ago, Sidd Bikkannavar flew back into the United States after spending a few weeks abroad in South America. An employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Bikkannavar had been on a personal trip, pursuing his hobby of racing solar-powered cars. He had recently joined a Chilean team, and spent the last weeks of January at a race in Patagonia.
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Feb 20, 2017 16:45
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The Fool posted:As someone with secret clearance, my policy when traveling abroad is to not bring devices with privileged information on them. I have a certain level of clearance, my employer does not let me travel with my sensitive devices. I found this out when they sent me abroad with a burner laptop and phone
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Feb 21, 2017 11:00
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