Share Your IT Horror Stories 6

[Mike555]

My first IT boss once said to me "No matter how difficult your job may seem at times, you always have it easier than someone else." For some reason those words stuck with me, and I remember them often whenever difficult situations arise at work.

In that spirit...

This is always a topic I like to bring up around fellow IT colleagues. Tell us about the worst situation (horror story) you've ever encountered while working with IT. Everyone has atleast one story to tell.

I'll go first:
I was once hired by a small company to upgrade their entire network from Windows NT to Windows 2003/XP. This company 20 employees but no IT staff in-house. They'd purchased 20 new PCs and a Win2k3 SBS Server, but it was all just sitting around waiting to all be installed. Management told me they wanted to get the server installed first, and then worry about the PCs later.

Among other things I needed to check leading up to the installation, I needed to ensure I knew the local administrator password for each PC. (In order to add an NT machine to a win2k3 domain, you need to log on locally and manually add it most of the time.) I was told by the manager that all local admin passwords were blank. I checked 5 computers to make sure that the passwords were blank, and they were, so I continued under the assumtion that all 20 local admin passwords were blank.

I dedicated an entire Saturday to perform the installation, and when that time came I showed up and began the installation. Everything went fine until I realized that besides the 5 workstations I had initially checked, the other 15 workstations required passwords to log on locally.

To make a long story short, no one knew what the passwords were, not even company management. We were also unable to contact the folks who originally installed the PCs. Because of this I had to take a week off of work at my regular job and stay on site to install all the new XP machines because the NT machines were useless. The one-day project turned into a week-long hell.

Please share your stories too!

--
Mike

 

[hilfy]

SQLSister,

I couldn't agree with you more! My current job is great - the CTO for the company and my boss are both women, about half of the programming team I'm on are women, and I've never had any trouble with our DNS support team.

At my former employer, however, I regularly had problems with the IT staff at our clients. We provided to hospitals credentialing/administration software that was, in general, used by some fairly low-level clerical types. When we had to get a hospital's local IT folks involved in a support issue, it was not uncommon to get that sort of treatment - even after I explained that I was a programmer and the architect of the system we'd installed. In some of these places I had no doubts about why our users were very reluctant to call their local IT support staff.

-Dell
(Despite the name, yes, I am female!)

 

[Dollie]

SQLSister,

I'm one of the lucky few that don't have a "girly" voice. I've been told that I sound like a feminine man or a 1-900-Dirty operator. Sometimes the main problem is my name! (Thanks Mom!)

My boss loves the fact that he's got a woman in charge of the system, and enjoys the look of surprise that he gets when he introduces me. Respect at work has never been a problem.

Most times, if I have to call technical support somewhere, I get intelligent people who talk to me like an intelligent person (once I get past level 1 support). When I call companies like our e-mail provider, I've learned to ask for a specific person that will talk to me normally instead of condescendingly.

It's frustrating, but I figure I'm better off with a glass ceiling than a glass cliff!

 

[SQLSister]

It's not just in IT, my sister is the director of a medical research center and people still try to treat her like she is some low-level clerical person. But they don't ever do it twice.

And yeah there are plenty of IT support staff people I dislike dealing with too because they are arrogant jerks. And I've noticed that the more arrogant most of them are, the less they actually know.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[Onyxpurr]

I agree with you too SQLSister. Fortunately though I was broken in well at a construction company. It wasn't as bad as movies and television would have you believe though. Most of the guys I worked with were considerate, however I had to give as well as I got in the way of office humor and not putting up with anyone's guff.

The worst I was ever treated (sexism wise) was actually witha woman. She had the gall to tell me to get her a cup of coffee. I just stopped where I was and gave her a funny look. To which she replied, "Oh, I guess that was inappropriate, huh?" Well, duh!!

I pretty much love my job right now. It's stressful at times, but the people are good as well as my boss.

My ideal job would be to teach or write someday.

 

[Dollie]

A little off topic but.... maybe it's time for a "Women in IT" group?

 

[SQLSister]

You want to start it, I'd be happy become a member.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[hilfy]

So would I!

-Dell

 

[dyarwood]

Not to poke the fire but why would you want to separate yourselves from the rest of the IT world.

P.S think some of the comments you have received are disgraceful.

 

[lespaul]

I'll be there too!

les

 

[SQLSister]

I don't think anyone is planning to make the group their only home here. But there are somethings that the women might like to talk about that we can't say in a public forum. Believe me the stories you've seen here are by far the mildest I have. But do you really want to hear about things like attempted rape, etc?

I'm glad you think this stuff is disgraceful. Gives me hope for the future. Slowly these attitudes are changing.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[rosieb]

I'd join!

I'm not a separationist, but I do think that women in IT have a specific set of problems to deal with, and I think that most men find it hard to understand those problems as they just don't encounter them.

The best way I've found to deal with the patronising ones is to go into "super professional mode", don't smile - it comes across in the voice, ask for their name, position, and the details of their manager, "so that I can talk to someone who is capable of answering my questions".

Make sure that your male colleagues know that this is a matter you're handling, and ensure that they refuse to get involved.

I agree with SQLSister somehow the guys who patronise always seem to be the technically mediocre ones. If they're really good they don't need to score points. (The, technically, really good ones always seem ready to explain when I don't understand, treat me like an equal when I do, and listen when it's an area where I'm the expert.)

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[Onyxpurr]

Speaking of which, I find it sad that even though I could get the job of my dreams, odds are I'd still get paid only 75% on average of what my male co-workers are paid.

Anyhoo, anyone ever dream of doing grant work? Be the first person to successully invent or discover something?

 

[DoubleD]

Kudos to the women here for dealing with your situations gracefully. I appreciate your want of a separate forum, but I'm concerned about whether you'd be missing a crucial audience.

There is so much we men can learn by reading these discussions, I would hate to see your issues "hidden" away in a forum that men generally wouldn't read. I have complete respect for women, personally, professionally, and in the military. Unfortunately, not all men do, and I think there's value in them reading these posts and hearing your stories.

By creating a separate forum, I wonder whether some people would argue that you're actually promoting the barrier which we usually see you trying to break down.

If you choose to start a separate forum, good luck. I'll probably pop in to read just to gain insights into more effectively dealing with my female coworkers.

I am what I am based on the decisions I have made.

DoubleD

 

[Onyxpurr]

I agree with you Double D.

 

[pmonett]

There is a telling phrase written a few posts up : "the more arrogant most of them are, the less they actually know".
Arrogance and ignorance are very much linked, in my eye. The best way to do away with ignorance is to talk about things publicly.
In due course of time, arrogance will fade away.
That is why I agree with DD. Men need to read about how women think, since many of them could get a clue by suddenly realizing the importance of a remark they thought was insignificant.

Then again, women must also acknowledge that their tendancy to socialize may also mean that they infer too much from a man's comments. I'm out on a limb here, so I will state that I am in no way whatsoever trying to defend any guy who is sexist. I despise such attitudes myself, and will never condone that.
However, being (happily) married for the past 14 years, I can vouch that sometimes my wife infers much too much meaning from the simplest remarks. She has never had any reason to accuse me of sexism, but it does not keep us from having lengthy discussions and sometimes outright disagreements over a remark I made to which I gave very little importance.
Once again I am going to say that sexist remarks and condescending tones are inadmissible and should be dealt with immediately, and even vehemently if the situation calls for it.
Yet, if it is irrefutable that the male mind must make a great effort to put things in context and do away with past behavior (that is, thankfully, becoming rejected), it seems to me that the female mind must also learn to take some things at face value, without necessarily trying to understand any innuendo or hidden meaning.

Have I ticked anybody off ? I'm sorry if I did.

Pascal.

 

[SQLSister]

Double D

I am what I am based on the decisions I have made.

I love this phrase, wish more people thought that way.

Sometimes it gets tiring fighting the good fight. Sometimes you just need a place where people understand that you can go to rest and to let off steam. I don't think it willkeep anyone from discussing these issues in the appropraite regular forums. On one bulletin board where I hang out we have vorciferous political discussions and as we have a good division of both Liberals and Conservatives, it often gets pretty bloody. So we created a thread for the Liberals and a thread for the Conservatives where people go to hang out with like minded people when they need a break from the fray. It certainly hasn't cut the political discussion down one bit and has kept some people hanging around who otherwise would have gotten frustrated and left. This is kind of like that idea, especially since many women have no other women in IT to talk to in their workplaces. So sometimes you feel like there is no one out there who unserstands.

If we do this, I think it should be a public fora and men would be welcome to read and put in their two cents worth.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[lespaul]

SQLSister, I'd be interested in reading some of the political discussions, is that a public forum as well? If so, where can I go to join in?

Thanks!

Leslie

 

[SQLSister]

I don't have the link here at work, but I'll try to remember to post it when I get home.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[Dollie]

Just for the record.... I totally agree with the fact that women in IT don't often have any peers to talk to, no one around them that understands how difficult it can be sometimes. I also agree that men should be able to read the discussions and get involved in the issues.

I'm not a separatist except when it comes to past marriages

Right now, there is a cost associated with creating a forum, and it's something I just can't add to my expenses. I wanted to post about it so if someone else would like to continue the idea, they are welcome to. However, I think we're in as good a place as any because we've already discovered right here that we're in good company.

 

[Onyxpurr]

Just in case anyone was interested, I did start a thread regarding this issue in this forum.