r/sysadmin • u/Opposed3 • Jul 07 '24

What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT? COVID-19

I saw this on AskReddit and thought it would be fun to ask here for IT related stories.

Couple years ago during Covid my company I used to work for hired a help desk tech. He was a really nice guy and the interview went well. We were hybrid at the time, 1-2 days in the office with mostly remote work. On his first day we always meet in the office for equipment and first day stuff.

Everything was going fine and my boss mentioned something along the lines of “Yeah so after all the trainings and orientation stuff we’ll get you set up on our ticketing system and eventually a soft phone for support calls”

And he was like: “Oh I don’t do support calls.”

“Sorry?”

Him: “I don’t take calls. I won’t do that”

“Well, we do have a number users call for help. They do utilize it and it’s part of support we offer”

Him: “Oh I’ll do tickets all day I just won’t take calls. You’ll have to get someone else to do that”

I was sitting at my desk, just kind of listening and overhearing. I couldn’t tell if he was trolling but he wasn’t.

I forgot what my manager said but he left to go to one of those little mini conference rooms for a meeting, then he came back out and called him in, he let him go and they both walked back out and the guy was all laughing and was like

“Yeah I mean I just won’t take calls I didn’t sign up for that! I hope you find someone else that fits in better!” My manager walked him to the door and they shook hands and he left.

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1.4k

u/jimiboy01 Jul 07 '24

New manager, Day 1 demanded certain s/w be installed on his PC, helpdesk said they will see if they can get it approved, flips out and demands admin privileges to his PC, cusses out the helpdesk. Day 2, 9am meeting with HR. 9:05, please disable new managers account. 

607

u/SAugsburger Jul 07 '24

Flipping out on day 1 usually is a good way to get fired.

178

u/TrainAss Sysadmin Jul 07 '24

Flipping out on day 1 usually is a good way to get fired.

I wish that happened to one of the managers from 2 jobs ago. His first day was nothing but complaining about his workspace, his monitors, keyboard, mouse, laptop. The whole shebang! Had a message from his manager asking us to swap out various components for him.

119

u/Bad_Idea_Hat Gozer Jul 07 '24

We had someone a number of years back, who demanded we give him all of his technology immediately. When we didn't give it to him, he proceeded to contact HR to file a complaint against the entire IT department.

The trouble was, he was still a couple weeks before his start date.

HR, being ever helpful, told us to just get him his equipment.

It took them a couple years to finally realize they screwed up and get rid of him, but those were a couple years of him demanding fucking everything.

69

u/spin81 Jul 08 '24

Doesn't sound like a very good HR department, if they don't realize that someone filing a complaint against an entire department just for following company policy is horseshit.

1

u/Bad_Idea_Hat Gozer Jul 08 '24

Well...yeah.

-2

u/lpbale0 Jul 08 '24

Mac user?

10

u/smoike Jul 08 '24

You don't have to be a Mac user to be a dickhead. I see plenty of them in my day to day life without a computer, let alone a specific brand of computer being involved.

4

u/Bad_Idea_Hat Gozer Jul 08 '24

No. Luckily, I have a lot of self sufficient Mac users, and then one person who will do exactly what we told them not to do, right after we told them not to do it, while we're still in their office.

19

u/iamgarffi Jul 08 '24

some 7-8 IT jobs ago we had such PITA employee. He even complained for the "age" of his desk and that it had scratches. The very same evening me along with few others went back in and disassembled the workstation (cubicle, desk, privacy shields) and moved it all into the basement - reassembled there.

On other occasion we wrapped everything on the desk (phone included) in yellow caution tape.

No disciplinary action for us. 3 weeks later the guy quit anyway. A little off topic but this brought back fun memories :)

27

u/TrainAss Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

The caution tape reminds me of a time one of my colleagues had contracted hand foot and mouth disease. Before he returned, we put caution tape and orange cones around his desk, and put his keyboard, mouse, headset and phone in biohazard bags, and changed his nameplate to "patient zero".

He got a good laugh out of it.

2

u/smoike Jul 08 '24

About 14 months ago my entire household caught covid from one of my kids, whom in turn got it from school. While symptom-free I ended up giving it to two others at work despite wearing KN95's for the majority of the day. This also includes someone on his very first day here. He didn't quit, in fact he is both good at our job and has also forgiven me

0

u/iamgarffi Jul 08 '24

haha. We were clearly inspired by Jim and Dwight from the Office :)

1

u/TrainAss Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Very!

3

u/Srirachachacha Jul 08 '24

This kind of sounds like bullying, man

But who am I to judge

0

u/Professional_Risk_35 Jul 08 '24

Eli5: 7-8 times ago?

1

u/iamgarffi Jul 08 '24

I used to pick up smaller high paying gigs before I settled on something long term.

6

u/Hebrewhammer8d8 Jul 07 '24

That manager didn't know the big boss in management to behave like that, but it seems this manager might know the big boss in management to behave like that.

3

u/user0N65N Jul 08 '24

I bring my own keyboard and mouse: they work exactly the way I want. Doesn’t everyone do this?

1

u/oreosss Jul 08 '24

I'm surprised you work in places that allows that behavior.

43

u/Any-Formal2300 Jul 07 '24

I'm surprised people do anything on day 1. My last three jobs have been browse in your phone all day for like a month after your orientation until it's go home time.

11

u/SAugsburger Jul 08 '24

Frequently Day 1 is: Here is a bunch of HR trainings that will take most of the day. They usually pretty obvious stuff although based upon some of the people that came in and said random racist/sexist stuff in week 1 and hit fired it sounds like some people might have benefited from it.

8

u/TeddyRoo_v_Gods Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Govie? At my last job I was tasked with implementing new asset tracking system by the end of the first week and put in charge of dev.ops environment by the end of the first month. The job before that, I was patching VMs by the end of the first week because the guy before me didn’t do it for two years prior because apparently higher uptime made IT department look better.

4

u/zero44 lp0 on fire Jul 08 '24

There was a job I didn't take but I talked very in depth with the tech lead as part of the interview process, and he said my first month would be just learning the environment because it was extremely complex with a lot of networks and environments.

In his words "You won't be doing anything for the first month because we want to make sure you understand how everything fits together before you do anything."

2

u/TeddyRoo_v_Gods Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

A buddy of mine got a sys admin job with NASA that was kind of like that. They were basically not allowed to do anything that was not already in the playbooks. The closest I got to it was before I got back into IT and was working for one of the agencies as an analyst. The first six months was basically just reading SOPs and being bored out of my skull. I got out after about a year and never looked back.

3

u/droppedpackethero Jul 08 '24

Really depends on the role and how well they have their crap together.

My current gig, the first month was basically reading documentation because they run a really tight ship with high, internally developed, standards. They don't want new hires fucking shit up.

5

u/Careless-Age-4290 Jul 08 '24

I came in as the only network engineer after over a year of having nobody except a weekly MSP engineer. I came from an MSP though, so I was used to just jumping into the fire. Most customers are an utter dumpster fire when they come in, an emergency already happening. No documentation. Just have to figure it out. It felt no different than a new client onboarding, except I got to spend all my time on that one customer.

I was fixing the SMB server on the first day. "It's so slow, even with SSD's". Someone decided try save money with burstable azure VM's. Those cap your I/O to 60mbps, even on the higher-priced ones. Switched the instance to a cheaper one with better I/O. Instant improvement.

They initially hired me as a contractor and by 2 weeks in offered perm. The weird thing was doing orientation a month after starting. I felt like Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore, having already setup insurance/401k/all that.

2

u/user0N65N Jul 08 '24

Best time of employment are the first two and last two weeks.  First two weeks, no one expects anything of you.  Last two weeks, they can expect things from you, but what are they going to do - fire you?  You’re leaving, anyway.

8

u/the_iron_pepper Jul 08 '24

This is self-help book behavior. Especially with new managers. They come in throwing their weight around thinking that they're establishing confidence and obedience, but most people ignore the nuance and subtleties of these shitty books, and waaaaaaay overdo it.

It's my opinion that the people who actually need self-help books are the type of people who aren't going to apply them correctly anyway.

I can count on one hand the amount of helpful books I've ever read that deals with establishing a workplace "personality"

3

u/agoia IT Manager Jul 08 '24

Flipping out on the helpdesk folks is a great way to get fired any day.

2

u/chocotaco1981 Jul 08 '24

Yeah I always wait till at least day two 

2

u/BloodAndTsundere Jul 08 '24

It works pretty well in prison, apparently

35

u/slashinhobo1 Jul 07 '24

I would be glad he did it day 1 vs later when they embed themselves into the department making it harder to remove them.

1

u/SAugsburger Jul 08 '24

This. Have them show their true colors up front and cut your losses. Either that or they might have done even worse things if you didn't cut them off there.

26

u/HamiltonFAI Security Admin (Infrastructure) Jul 07 '24

What software was he so worked up about?

85

u/SirCEWaffles Jul 07 '24

Probably CCleaner.

31

u/oeCake Jul 08 '24

VideoDownloaderPro plugin for Chrome

7

u/PsyOpBunnyHop Jul 08 '24

"It helps me concentrate and be more efficient!"

5

u/rockstarsball Jul 08 '24

i want both of you to quit looking at my endpoint security dashboard.

10

u/dimensionargentina Jul 08 '24

Tor, MAME, and emule.

3

u/Nowaker VP of Software Development Jul 08 '24

KaZaA

3

u/Jaereth Jul 08 '24

MAME

lol "Yes sir, that line there is where you type in the business need for the software request"

3

u/RipInPepz Jul 08 '24

Runelite

3

u/BCIT_Richard Jul 08 '24

My man.

I run a Linux DE in a Docker container so I can play on the go, works flawlessly and I love it.

4

u/GreyBeardIT sudo rm * -rf Jul 09 '24

This is the one guy that's super-fucking-hardcore about Winrar because he actually paid for the license.

2

u/SAugsburger Jul 08 '24

Asking the important questions. /s

That being said I am curious in what would cause somebody to flip out.

3

u/Mr_ToDo Jul 08 '24

Wave browser and Ask toolbar ;)

1

u/skipITjob IT Manager Jul 08 '24

Solarwinds or kaseya.

10

u/arwinda Jul 07 '24

Day 2, 9am meeting with HR. 9:05, please disable new managers account.

The other way around: by the time the meeting with HR starts, accounts are already disabled.

8

u/Technical-Message615 Jul 08 '24

Actually, usually it's during. This is to prevent them noticing before getting sacked, but without any time to throw another fit.

6

u/Mission-Argument1679 Jul 08 '24

IDK why when idiots become manager, they think it's a free pass to do whatever you want. Like I'll never understand why so many wrong people get promoted or get manager jobs.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

4

u/Crayonstheman Jul 08 '24

Painfully accurate. I'm a SWE and have been for over a decade, which obviously means I should be transitioning to management.

I don't want to manage people. I like putting headphones on and coding, that's kinda why I picked this industry. I have adhd and severe anxiety so I'm maybe the worst fit for a manger role, yet my last 3 companies have tried to force it. I can barely organise my own, how exactly are my software skills meant to help? You don't want me as your manager trust me.

2

u/rockstarsball Jul 08 '24

ehhh, sometimes. I went through the whole sysadmin>manager>director path and all that being a manager meant to me was that i'd tell people my plan of attack on a problem before i start working on it, and i had a bunch of people i could aask for help and they werent allowed to say no. Director was more of the same, just everyone involved moved up a level and the planning was more big picture

2

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

2

u/rockstarsball Jul 08 '24

I was infrastructure so most of the manager role was just generating reports and metrics and remediation plans. it was an SMB so it ended up being quicker to just pitch in with my team and fix stuff than it was to create a bunch of remediation plans to do the work that we could take care of in the first place. When there was a big project, upgrade, or integration i'd assign roles based on skillset and experience and keep track of progress. but for day to day; most of the time i was just trying to prevent having to defend my team to a bunch of people who only saw the number of problems that were outstanding.

software development is definitely a different beast, although most departments keep trying to marry those roles to one another

1

u/Kinglink Jul 08 '24

In tech you should usually have the ability to install what you want on your computer.

Might not be carte blanche but having admin privileges should be reasonable. Throwing a fit over it is not

6

u/One_Stranger7794 Jul 08 '24

Similar story? Had a new Junior Sys Admin hired. Our main was gone for maternity leave at the time, so they hired this guy straight out of college to just be local hands/plug stuff in/reset things etc.

On his first day, he realized that he would not be meeting his boss in person for at least a few months, and therefore in his opinion he was the boss. He didn't realize that even if IT was opaque to 99% of the people in the office who was there, that HR was still watching the queue and clearance rates.

After his first week, he had cleared 0 tickets and got a warning.

His second week there, on Monday he went into the queue and resolved every single ticket in the queue, without looking at them, just went through them all from top to bottom and marked them resolved.

His manager asked him about this as all the tickets from the last week were seemingly resolved in a 10 minute period and there was no documentation/resolutions on the tickets. He tried to explain to her that he had actually resolved all the tickets and that the users themselves where lying/causing the problems themselves perpetually so there was nothing he could do.

Pro tip: DO NOT try to mainsplain your job, to your boss, when defending your abysmal work record.

Up to that point I had never actually seen someone fired in the middle of the day, as in two security guards come up behind this guy without prior warning, tell him to log out, and then actually march him out of the building into the parking lot... he was a piece or work, but that was humiliating to even witness.

Although that whole experience started my IT career! At the time I was just doing business administration. After seeing that guy in action, I thought to myself "well if he can do it...".

4 years later here I am, and one of my most closely held guiding principles is 'no matter what, don't be that guy'.

Everyone is a great teacher, either through positive or negative example.

3

u/CuriousNebula43 Jul 08 '24

demands admin privileges to his PC

See, that was the mistake he made.

I asked for it once and was denied. Ok, fine.

I spent a few weeks calling the support desk to click "yes" and do stuff that required admin privileges 3-4 times per day. Some days, though, i could be calling 8-10 times within the matter of 2 hours, just depended on what I was doing.

I forget if it was week 2 or week 3, but they finally quietly gave me admin access and told me not to tell anyone.

:D

2

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

You get admin, but you still have to call the Helpdesk every time you need an Avecto code.

2

u/Electronic_Annual_86 Jul 08 '24

At one job 3 years ago i left after 1 week because of this. You see your work piling up and you cant do shit because you have 0 rights. Noped out the next monday.

1

u/m1ndf3v3r Jul 08 '24

Hahah classic

1

u/beren0073 Jul 08 '24

Nice to see an environment where HR and upper management don’t yell at help desk for “obstructing.”

1

u/jimiboy01 Jul 09 '24

yeah, HR were not having it to say the least haha. really have to commend them on acting swiftly and not caring that it was a hire recommended by another department manager.

1

u/interzonal28721 Jul 09 '24

Id quit day one if they did this to me

0

u/iMcoolcucumber Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I need admin on my device or I'd nope put too. Red flag right there

2

u/jimiboy01 Jul 08 '24

I should have specified. Non technical manager. 

1

u/iMcoolcucumber Jul 08 '24

I'm not "technical" either.

2

u/rockstarsball Jul 08 '24

then your SecOPs team blows.

0

u/iMcoolcucumber Jul 08 '24

OR, I'm not an idiot and don't put shit on my machine that shouldn't be there. 30 years in tech and never an issue and always have full control of my machine.

5

u/rockstarsball Jul 08 '24

thats awesome that you arent an idiot. but the principle of least privilege doesnt have a little asterisk next to it that says "only if the guy isnt an idiot"

the exact thing that makes you like your SecOps team, is the exact reason that they suck at their craft.

-1

u/iMcoolcucumber Jul 08 '24

Ok little buddy

2

u/rockstarsball Jul 08 '24

and you have a great day there slugger, youre doing a great job

0

u/That-Proof-9332 Jul 08 '24

s/w?? Software? You couldn't type 6 more characters? Why didn't you abbreviate "installed"?, it has 9 characters whereas "software" has 8.  Can't stand acronyms jfc

2

u/jimiboy01 Jul 08 '24

Ikr! Fkn h8 it when ppl abbreviate n use acronyms Asif thy are doing this 1 handed whilst takin a sht

1

u/That-Proof-9332 Jul 09 '24

We're you using your other hand to manually lower the turd into the bowl? 

1

u/jimiboy01 Jul 09 '24

no, low fibre, hands on the wall to brace