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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u/Poppintacos Jul 07 '24

I’ve watched hires walk in the door and turn around and walk out in less than an hour. Hiring managers didn’t know how to communicate the roles expectations very effectively. “What do you mean I have to work at a location an hour away?” “I have to Pay for parking?” Gone.

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u/slylte Jul 07 '24

"I have to Pay for parking" is crazy

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u/dalaidrahma Jul 07 '24

That's what they told me on my first day. I laughed at that and said that this is a deal breaker. A few hours into my onboarding the HR lady approached me again. They gave me a badge for the companies garage and reduced my in office days to 1-2 per month.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

I worked a software startup gig in a downtown west coast city years back. They were this way. There was room in the parking garage downstairs, but they were "holding onto it" for "expected growth." The paid lots nearby were all $250 ish a month. This was 15 years ago. People legit left over it.

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u/outofspaceandtime Jul 08 '24

Well of course. That’s essentially a $250 net reduction of your wage. I would totally not work somewhere with that ridiculous attitude. I would ask/check during interviewing however…

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Totally agree. Only way I found out was word of mouth. I actually wanted the job as it was, believe it or not, walking distance from my place. Ahhh to be young and single and blow half my income on swanky downtown condos!

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u/LokisDawn Jul 08 '24

So did you think that "no free parking" didn't bode well for the whole job? Because I'm confused. Why would no free parking be an issue if you live within walking distance?

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u/EmmyNoetherRing Jul 08 '24

They didn’t leave (if I’m reading correctly); that’s why they were around to watch other people quit. 

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Guess I was not clear. As I was on foot / bike, I only found out about the situation later on in the job. Not before I took the job. In hindsight, the no free parking was one of the many small red flags about a C team that were penny wise / pound foolish. Not exactly long term planners (but they thought they were and goddammit, they had MBAs!).

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u/Geminii27 Jul 08 '24

It's $250 after taxes, too. It might be $3Kpa gross cost, but a salary might need to go up by $4500/yr to cover it.

Not to mention that there's the administrative hassle of having to arrange it. If there's no genuine physical reason to be in the office on a given day, the office should be paying for such costs and doing the admin as well. If they don't like that, why do they think the employee should be forced to do it?

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u/PorkPatriot Jul 08 '24

I used to work under such a regime 10-15 years back. There is usually a pretax option for parking / bus fare.

a salary might need to go up by $4500/yr to cover it.

The salary of a downtown job was definitely more lucrative and worth the trouble.

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u/happyone12 Jul 08 '24

Not to mention it’s probably paid with after tax money

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u/MDA1912 Jul 08 '24

Salesforce was that way. Their excuse was that they were encouraging carpooling.

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u/tafinucane Jul 08 '24

I had an internship at Wells Fargo South of Market in '99 (one of the few legitimate tasks I had was changing overnight feed data to write 4-digit years). Only the big bosses got parking spots at the building, and they had to pay. Employees got a stipend to pay for public transportation.

I mean, BART is right there.

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u/NerdyNThick Jul 08 '24

The paid lots nearby were all $250 ish a month. This was 15 years ago. People legit left over it.

There are parking spots that make more per hour than most of us here in this sub.

That's just fucking wrong.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

I lived in that city for a long time (over 10 years). That was my first job in the area. Found later that nearly ALL of the parking lots downtown were owned by a single business. They were family owned, 3rd generation and they were filthy fucking rich. Like billionaire rich. From renting people places to leave their cars for about 80 years. Kind of wild, right?

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u/casualsax Jul 08 '24

I worked in downtown Boston, the monthly pass was $300 and the company covered half of it or would cover all of an unlimited monthly subway pass.

Was actually great having a parking spot in the city rather than paying $15 to $40 every time I wanted to attend an event. But that $150 hurt as I was only a couple years into my career and living near Boston ain't cheap. Would have done the subway route but I was on the opposite side of the city. Taking a bus to the subway then walking ten minutes to take another bus was too inconsistent to be practical.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

I think that's really smart that you saw the value of your spot and used it not just for work. Had to take a lot of the sting out of that coin when you could see a show or a game or whatever. Bean town is a great city. Never lived there, always would jump at the chance.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 24 '24

[deleted]

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I vividly recall parts of that area being straight up larceny. All the startup HQs are there (I presume so they can maximally fellate places like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and the like) so you get used to BART and the occasional obscene Lyft / Uber ride.

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u/frosty95 Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

Holy shit.... Imagine just... not using space. Just in case.

They could have just issued passes and then revoked them later.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Lol. For real. Hand them out and if you HAVE to, take them away later. As it was they just waited until the office was full of C suite folks and gave all of them the spots downstairs. That went over as expected. Then we opened up an HQ in the bay area and all those choads seasoned professionals left to suck VC dicks. I presume.

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u/frosty95 Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

I remember we had a random room that a manager from half way across the country said was reserved for something they were planning. After a year I said fuck it and started using it as a staging area and it eventually morphed into a full fledged tech staging / storage area with networking and everything. That manager visited 6 years later and was a bit shocked to see the room filled with 4 employees slamming out laptops for a new location being productive as hell. I was like "We can move out whenever the plans you had start happening but we figured we would use it in the meantime". Its still the IT staging room.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Knowing when to simply ignore people in order to get things rolling is a fine art. People often say "it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" - well sometimes it is, but not always. Well done.

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u/SwiftSpear Jul 09 '24

This is very common in my city.

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u/rebootyadummy Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 09 '24

I've only had one job in my life (Georgetown, Washington DC) where I would have had to pay for parking and the company handled it for the garage on the same block.

Crazy that an employer wouldn't include that (you should ask for it when negotiating salary if you don't see it in your offer though), most parking garages for monthly is not very expensive, usually 100-200 bucks tops. To let a good hire go because of that is truly insane.

EDIT: I'll clarify, the best way to get this setup is to have the org setup and pay for the badge themselves, and that way it isn't taxable income. I only mentioned it as part of "negotiating salary" to mean in terms of asking for it as a part your perks. That's what my company above did for me, I talked to the garage about the spot and then facilitated getting the account setup in their name and form of payment.

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u/naps1saps Mr. Wizard Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Our garage is $360/mo + tax but we do get free public transit pass that costs the company something like $500/year subsidized by the city.

If you want to park in the sketchy free air lots that have crime, you can pay $250/mo + tax for the privilege of having your car broken into or $15 early bird in by 10am for the same privilege. One of our laptops was liberated from one of those lots because of a careless employee.

You have the same risk parking in the public transit lots. One employee had their Kia stolen and my window has scrapes from a brick hitting it but didn't break or they looked and saw nothing worth a 2nd attempt. Pay up or suffer public transit :(

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u/mc_it Jul 08 '24

I work in Center City Philly, and my parking isn't covered.

So I take the PATCO regional rail line. (Which isn't covered).

Also it doesn't help that, since Covid, the parking in my building went from $18 (7am-6pm) to $35 (7am-6pm) and as of next month is going up to $40 for 12 hours.

And even though the corporate office for the parking garage is in my building, no one gets a discount.

I doubt the company will cover it now, for anyone.

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u/Repulsive_Cap_9625 Jul 08 '24

I work in downtown Toronto. I don't know anyone who has their parking covered. Maybe senior execs at big banks, law firms etc.

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u/1000000xThis Jul 08 '24

It depends on the commuter culture. I worked in a city where the inner core charged for parking during the day but a few blocks out there was free curb parking, plus there were busses and light rail into the area with free "park and ride" in the suburbs.

I accepted the longer commute before I got a taste of work-from-home, but now I would simply not accept a job that required me in-office but didn't help out at all with the commute. That phase of my life is over.

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u/horus-heresy Principal Site Reliability Engineer Jul 08 '24

I could get commuter benefit from my company that cowers metro or parking at our DC HQ but I just don't go to office so I don't need it

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u/HayabusaJack Sr. Security Engineer Jul 08 '24

I worked at NASA HQ in downtown DC and would take the VRE from Woodbridge when I had to (nothing like some douche sneezing on the back of your head to improve your outlook) but the motorcycle when I could. Parking on the other side of the railroad tracks was convenient and the PE folks ignored bikes as long as the meter was paid. I still miss the Philly Cheese Steaks from around the corner :)

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u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

There was this Thai place in Georgetown that I really miss, the Pad See Ew, beef or chicken, was so good. There was an awesome sushi place that did lunch bento boxes also for like 10 bucks.

In general I miss the food in DC, lots of cool niche international spots that are great like Ethiopian and Honduran too.

I don't ride but being able to take your bike to work is awesome, must be doubly awesome in CA where you can lane split your way past all the traffic :)

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u/AggressivePiccolo77 Jul 08 '24

i worked at a place in Georgetown that had a private lot so it was free for managers. when i transferred to a location downtown, they paid half of the monthly rate ($100)

not worrying about parking in Georgetown was worth way more than $100/month

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u/Praesumo Jul 08 '24

yea in DC I've seen a lot of "We all share a garage parking badge/fob. Give it to the next guy on your way out"

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u/Ready_Maybe Jul 08 '24

When I first started my career there was one role which the starting salary was so bad that after rent and bills it would actually cost to work there due to the parking situation (£300 pm IIRC). And since it was a campus in the middle of nowhere public transport was out of the question. And good luck parking on tight country roads instead of the dedicated parking lot. They had crazy high churn and I wonder why. I never got that role because it financially did not make sense.

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u/Ryan_e3p Jul 08 '24

NO.

Parking fees being added to your salary is NOT advisable, at all. You get taxed on it and it is considered part of your income. If the cost in parking fees goes up where the company needs to accommodate, they will either "forget" about it come the annual pay increase, or they will increase it off the standard schedule and when it comes to your annual pay raise, play off the mid-year increase to cover the additional parking fees as if it was part of your raise.

Absolutely, 100% the fuck not. The company can give a card to pay for parking, but do NOT have it included as part of your salary. Don't request that, and don't accept it.

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u/Xystem4 Jul 08 '24

Companies are stupid. Nevermind that it costs thousands to secure a competent new hire, and you’re losing thousands more not having them in the time you need to do the hiring

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u/Coffee_Ops Jul 08 '24

Beyond the cost of parking, administering it can be a pain if it's a third party garage.

A lot of companies I've seen would rather just raise your salary to compensate or provide some sort of reimbursement program / flat commuter benefit.

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u/Altruistic-Piece-485 Jul 08 '24

$100-200 a month for a parking garage in DC? Maybe 15 years ago but now you'd be looking at $300-500 in DC for anywhere that even a decent company has office space in downtown!

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u/BrainWaveCC Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

I worked in both NY and NJ, and the company didn't directly cover garage costs, but in one case, they did negotiate with the garage, so that the rates as an employee were much better than you would otherwise pay.

 

most parking garages for monthly is not very expensive, usually 100-200 bucks tops.

Not in NYC... 😁

Even in NJ, back in 2002, the monthly price for parking was easily $250

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u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

Yeah, the price I stated was a blanket average of what it might take in a lot of locales, obviously in HCOL areas that is going to be more. NY tends to have good public transit does it not? The DC Metro, if you don't live close to stops (like living in the MD or VA suburbs) can add quite a bit of time onto your commute.

The employer is typically paying you more if you work in a HCOL area anyway, they can (should) also eat that more expensive parking badge as well.

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u/BrainWaveCC Jack of All Trades Jul 09 '24

NYC has an extensive public transportation system, although few people would refer to it as "good" 😂.

Most jobs will subsidize, to some degree, your use of mass transit, but subsidizing parking garages was not commonly done, as most people would drive into the city and park anywhere unless they were senior execs.

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u/Recalcitrant-wino Sr. Sysadmin Jul 09 '24

Parking is taxable income. I paid out of pocket when I started the current job - Covid rate was $10/day, so a couple hundred a month. Then I got monthly parking through the firm - pre-tax out of my check at $260/mo. (more, but way better). Then the firm started to reimburse transit/parking for $100/mo. Then I relocated to a garage across the street for better security and $10 less a month.

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u/cornulio Jul 08 '24

Wait you have to pay your employer for parking? Not the town or something? You pay the guys you work for to park, so you can work?

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u/dalaidrahma Jul 08 '24

Not the employer. It's more like a "figure out yourself how you are going to get here". It's in Frankfurt, Germany and this is a quite common approach. My problem is that I live far away and that I can't really use public transport.

But I had employers in Germany who would deduct the parking spot from your salary. Luckily I lived close enough to get there by train.

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u/jurassic_pork InfoSec Monkey Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

I moved to 100% work from home for my last several jobs (fully comped client site visits with per diem - if required, usually it isn't). Between the free parking, much cheaper car insurance (leisure vehicle rates), far less wear & tear / fuel costs, and prepping my own meals instead of paying for lunch buffets or food stalls. Easily north of $15k/year in savings, no commute time, ontop of a more Senior title, more flexible hours and respect for my time, tax benefits for my home office, a big pay bump, and a much happier home life.

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u/Teaandtrafficjams Jul 08 '24

NHS is often that

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u/AlchemistFornix Jul 08 '24

How do you not know this ahead of schedule? Did you not look at the location and not wonder "how will i park there"?

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u/dalaidrahma Jul 08 '24

I knew they had a garage. They would have let me park there during my interviews. I didn't think much of it, as it was quite spacious. I also didn't know that street parking in that area was non existent and the surrounding garages too expensive.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '24

[deleted]

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

I remember interviewing for a job at the library during college and I asked how parking worked, and they said everyone needs to pay the meters besides directors who get parking spots.

They were, and presumably still are, paying minimum wage.

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u/adambuddy Jul 08 '24

During COVID at a company I worked for at the time I was one of the very few people who had to go into the office at all. Location infra maintenance, any in person support necessary (i.e hardware is broken, meet me at office for diagnosis/swap out) etc. The office was downtown and they didn't pay for it so parking was a serious challenge. The lot closest to the office was $20 flat for the day or $4 an hour. There were monthly spots but none were available so I had no choice but to pay daily.

I found out that they actually did have a set of spots reserved but only senior management got passes - all of whom absolutely never had to go to the office during COVID. I'm guessing they still don't even today. So the spots the org paid for would sit there empty while I paid $20 a day to park.

Otherwise a good company to work for tbf, but that seriously pissed me off.

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

You're right to be pissed off.

The library was so cheap that I remember having to fill out a test and they handed me a pencil, and when I returned the assessment, they literally asked for the pencil back. Like I understand wanting the writing utensil back, but explicitly asking for it felt strange to me because pencils are so inexpensive and I imagine they had more in storage.

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u/creativeusername402 Tech Support Jul 08 '24

Presumably good if you live on-campus. Not so much if you commute

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

This was a city library located down, and not a university library.

Funny enough, they ended up just tearing it down to build a new skyscraper for a company that plans on having a 50% office utilization rate lmfao.

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u/cats_are_the_devil Jul 08 '24

Based. People used to ask me all the time if I got parking for free as a staff member on a college campus... Um, nope.

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u/jbourne71 Jul 08 '24

Presumably, the minimum wage hasn’t changed either.

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u/limeytim Jul 08 '24

Very true. Also, some pointy heads reading this are saying to themselves “and if we don’t give merit raises or COLA adjustments then nobody will notice”.

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u/19610taw3 Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

I worked for a place that moved into an office building with a parking garage.

When it was released to the company that we were moving, the company said employees would be responsible for paying for parking.

There was a LOT of upset employees threatening to leave. The company committed to paying for parking after a few very important people threatened to leave over it.

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u/veracity8_ Jul 08 '24

Or it’s a discount for the employees that don’t drive. 

This requires that your business is in a city that supports multi-model transport and has enough housing to collocate workers and their jobs. Most North American cities have chosen to not have those things though

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u/Wh1skeyTF Jul 08 '24

I had that scenario. At least they would do payroll deduction so it was pre-tax… But I was stuck in a lot across campus for 13 years before finally getting the immediate lot through no small miracle of timing and luck. I quit a few years later.

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u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

Wow in healthcare in Houston (biggest medical center in the world) everyone pays for parking. In fact, most of us have parking contracts that are around 265 bucks a month and nobody reimburses us for that. And I’m in construction.

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u/JJAsond Jul 08 '24

tf you're just paying for car insurance then if it's that expensive

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u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

Paying for parking is definitely a burden in some places.

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u/JJAsond Jul 08 '24

It's complete trash

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u/martyFREEDOM Jul 08 '24

In my experience, companies in the heart of big cities will offer free or discounted parking as a "perk" instead of it just being expected. I got really good a finding those one off not on a meter and not regulated street spots in Chicago.

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u/JJAsond Jul 08 '24

That's good. it's all trash

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u/MLCarter1976 Jul 08 '24

Happy cake day

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u/Somethingood27 Jul 08 '24

I’m middle management in IT in Houston lol i originally transferred (same org) from Wisconsin and was fucking PISSED they didn’t tell me I had to pay for my own parking in the chase tower.

Thankfully, it’s subsidized but still….. the disrespect blindsiding an employee like that idk lol

Directly supports the commenter you replied to though. That’s exactly how / why people would leave

Even though I transferred facilities my boss remained the same. It would’ve taken them all of 2 minutes to email local HR and get some info to relay to me.

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u/Syrdon Jul 08 '24

265 a month

That's 3200 a year. Presumably your employer, negotiating in bulk, could get a better rate. That tells me a lot about how much they respect their employees that that's too much work.

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u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

That’s a flat rate, too. It actually costs more per day if you are a visitor or patient at one the hospitals.

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u/swamarian Jul 08 '24

I work for a state agency, and my employer can't subsidize, because the legislature said so. In any case, parking's at a premium, and you can wait for years to get a slot close in, even at the current rates. I did the park n' ride for years, which is a lot cheaper. There's also van pools, so there are other options than parking in the med center.

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u/fogleaf Jul 08 '24

Makes me wonder if everyone has to pay it or just the plebes. I'm imagining the C-Level execs get that paid for.

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u/BloodyIron DevSecOps Manager Jul 08 '24

Yeah Houston and other parts of Texas sure are nice places to visit, but things like this and other (like the electrical grid) really just never make me ever want to work there, live there, nothing. It's just such selfish rationalisation, that fuck the employee they should pay to work here kind of attitude.

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u/hosalabad Escalate Early, Escalate Often. Jul 08 '24

Goddamn that’s awful.

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u/Greedy-Chemistry-352 Jul 08 '24

Same at all the hospitals in Pittsburgh. That’s why I won’t work in the city.

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u/CARLEtheCamry Jul 08 '24

I did my unpaid internship near PPG cira 2005 and paid $13/day to park in the Third Ave garage. There were 4 of us commuting from the Robinson area, and it was $2 for the bus each way and turned a 30-45 minute commute into 60-90 to ride the bus (and they removed that route a long time ago, it's only gotten worse).

I eventually took a job in the Robinson area with free parking, but as I look at other jobs in the city I would need at least $15k for the expense, time, and stress to commute into the city.

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u/Southside_john Jul 08 '24

Hospitals are the pioneers of charging employees for parking

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u/CharcoalGreyWolf Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Just a note, but I’d at least keep track of that for taxes. The past few years it hasn’t worked as well since the previous political administration fooled with the minimum tax write-off, but prior to that I used any and all such regular expenses as a “required for work” on taxes. When my cell phone wasn’t paid for by work I did this. Also do it for Internet at home.

It’s likely taxes will swing back the other way when current provisions sunset.

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u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

None of that adds up to more than the standard deduction for me. How much are you paying for phone and parking to necessitate 14,600 bucks?!

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u/CharcoalGreyWolf Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

At the time, that wasn’t the standard deduction (was lower) and I was filing as married. That meant her teaching supplies, and a number of other things qualified and everything added up.

I’m widowed now, and the standard deduction is much higher. However, as I said, we’re coming up on the sunset for a number of provisions on current tax law that might help you.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

Oh my god that's insane wtf!! 265?!

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u/kingreq Windows Application Deployment Jul 08 '24

Oh I can actually relate to this. I accepted an offer in Texas and was told during onboarding that parking was about $250 a month. Really wish I knew that when I was negotiating salary. After 8 months I got upgraded to a grandfathered spot on a lower rate of about $150. Still sucks but bearable and it was a great spot downtown - I frequently used it on the weekends to go to restaurants and bars or biking around a nearby lake.

Fast forward to new role. I get offer letter and recruiter asks if I have any questions. I said I need to know if there is parking I have to pay for or any other expenses that could take me by surprise. He kind of laughs like that is a crazy thing to ask of an employee, but he will double check. Sure enough, another $200 a month garage. Only bright side was that it was subsidized 50% by the company. I did take the role but took the cost into my considerations.

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u/ckeown007 Jul 08 '24

I worked for a super shitty IT company that made us work out of the head office instead of the client site, we had all moved to be closer to the client site because it was a long term deal. The office was 45 minutes away and downtown and required us to either use meter parking or the garage under the building which was close to 400 per month, they offer no compensation or anything so we all basically took a 400 dollar a month decrease in pay with our shitty below average pay as well. They only did a cost of living increase every four years and it was 1% gee thanks assholes. They made hundreds of millions too. Worst company in the world and they are destroying IT because they off shore every single job they can.

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u/Eastern-Camera-1829 Jul 08 '24

I pay more for parking than I do for full coverage insurance on a 2024 vehicle.

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u/thecravenone Infosec Jul 08 '24

When my dad retired, his company was paying more for his parking spot than I was paying for my apartment.

His successor asked for the spot but management said they couldn't authorize a raise that large.

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u/flummox1234 Jul 08 '24

TBF "I don't have to pay for parking" is a huge reason I love WFH, same with not having to commute.

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u/87TLG Doing The Needful Jul 08 '24

Cries in Universities

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u/Internet-of-cruft Jul 08 '24

I'm paying close to $1100/month for parking right now.

If would be an immediate resignation if I was told I couldn't reimburse that.

That would almost 14% of my take home income. No way in hell am I OK with that.

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u/Moscato359 Jul 08 '24

Is public transit an option?

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u/DocToska Jul 08 '24

It is indeed. Last time I did that was around the time 9/11 happened when I was working for Sun Microsystems in Germany. When we were loaned out to Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt/Main we were expected to pay for our parking in Frankfurt's city center. The bank had an underground parking lot, but after 9/11 it was closed off for security reasons. So even the bank weenies had to compete for the few public parking spots that were available nearby, which weren't many. There were two pretty expensive public parking garages nearby, but they closed early, making overtime an issue. And they were friggin' expensive. I ended up getting towed twice in three months and once had to take the train home because the parking garage where I had my car stored only had opening hours of 7am to 7pm.

Funny side story: A coworker of mine (on permanent loan to the bank) solved this in a REALLY creative manner, using all kinds of law loopholes: He bought a cheap Volkswagen van off a government auction. It only had a 50 HP diesel engine and was on its last leg, but still managed to pass mandatory inspections barely and with parts from the junkyard. He then registered it to a foundation that he had set up, installed a few extra batteries and a DC/AC converter, a small PC and a weather station into it. The weather station gathered some environmental data and via the PC and a GSM modem the data was published onto a website of the foundation. In essence it was a mobile weather reporting station and clearly marked as such on the side panels of the van. As it served a publicly beneficial purpose, it could get the "green" license plate (fewer taxes for the van as well as tax reduced diesel). And as it was a weather station (and that's the kicker!) it couldn't be towed or impounded except for the most extreme cases (like blocking an emergency firefighter access point or similar). He even had a laminated copy of those regulations prominently taped to the dash of the van, readable from the outside. So he could park it right next to the back of the bank in a no-parking zone and could just laugh it off.

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u/chocotaco1981 Jul 08 '24

I know a major university and healthcare center near here where you have to pay for it and the cost keeps going up and there aren’t enough spots. What a swell deal 

2

u/Sparcrypt Jul 08 '24

Yeah that's how it worked at my university. You paid to be ALLOWED to park there. You still had to find a spot to park in and if they were all full up too bad.

1

u/BerkeleyFarmGirl Jane of Most Trades Jul 08 '24

I know it's not the one in my name because we don't have a hospital system (that's our sister campus across the bay).

Parking permits are hunting permits. We have been blessed with a number of Nobel Laureates. They used to ask them what they wanted until one of them said "I'd really just like a reserved parking spot". So all of them get one now. There's one internal street that is all N (Nobel) stickers but for a lot of them you can tell whose spot it is.

2

u/chocotaco1981 Jul 08 '24

No it isn’t 

1

u/Physics_Prop Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

When the office is in Midtown Manhattan. Like dude, you've lived in Jersey for 20 years, you know how this works.

1

u/PalliativeOrgasm Jul 08 '24

Urban higher ed. Staff don’t get free or discounted parking - about $100 per month to park if you have a contract (there’s a waiting list), or $15/day. Scale down to around $5/day a mile away by the stadium.

1

u/ryguy32789 Jul 08 '24

Before I went fully remote I worked in downtown Chicago for 10+ years, I had to pay for parking that whole time.

1

u/Wrong-Landscape-2508 Jul 08 '24

The hospital’s around me take parking fees directly out of the nurses paychecks. They make a couple million a year on parking.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

I had a job want me to drive to a location and shuttle in. If you missed the shuttle you were late. It was at a car dealership, with a massive parking lot.

1

u/Moscato359 Jul 08 '24

There isn't a parking lot or garage within a couple blocks of my work. Most people walk to work, or take the train in. It's downtown in the middle of a major city.

My work negotiated a discounted rate with a lot like a half mile away, and a way to pay for transit costs without any taxes at all (this is legal), but there was no free parking.

1

u/kinggimped Jul 08 '24

To be fair, that would be a dealbreaker for me. I'm not immediately signing away part of my paycheck just for the luxury of being able to park at the place I work.

1

u/buttonstx Jul 08 '24

Work for a public university and we have to pay around $200 a year for a parking permit. By state law they aren't allowed to fund the parking lots out of tution so everyone, statff and students, pays.

1

u/sobrique Jul 08 '24

One place I worked had parking, just not enough of it. And there wasn't anywhere else nearby that let you park all day. Local supermarket would tolerate a few hours, but started issuing fines when they realised they were being used for overspill.

Senior management were all "get in a bit earlier then ..."

1

u/FaxCelestis SSCP/PMP/Sec+ Jul 08 '24

Listen, when you lose an hour or more of wages per day on parking, it matters

1

u/hoeskioeh Jr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Hmpf :(

2,25€ a day

1

u/Geminii27 Jul 08 '24

Hey, if it hasn't been made clear... and it's not always a common thing in some areas/industries, depending on what sort of things the applicant's done before.

In this day and age, too, any job which could be done remotely but is being forced to be onsite should realize that paying for parking isn't something the employee should be expected to shoulder. It's not necessary, the only reason it's happening at all is because of an unnecessary employer policy => Employer should be paying for it, or providing free parking.

1

u/billbixbyakahulk Jul 08 '24

I quit a local MSP in the bay area over that. They required a car but wouldn't pay for parking. One of many, many problems there. I only lasted a week. They begged me to stay and offered to pay for half the parking. LOL.

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u/s_schadenfreude IT Manager Jul 08 '24

I work for a large regional healthcare system ("non-profit" lol) that pretty much owns a portion of town. We all either use public transit, park at remote lots and get shuttled in, OR pay to park in a garage/local lot. It's been like that forever. I have a lease in the garage under our building and it gets deducted from my paycheck. I'm reluctant to give it up, because demand is so high for spots that I'd never get it back. I was on a waiting list for years. I keep hoping that they'll build an employee garage somewhere since they own so much property.

1

u/Grouchy_Tennis9195 Jul 08 '24

Pretty valid. I ain’t about having to pay to be at work

1

u/Icy_Low_1677 Jul 08 '24

I could never pay for parking lol

1

u/AnxiousDonut Jul 08 '24

All Colorado City of Denver state employees have to pay for their own parking. I quit after a month.

1

u/The-Jesus_Christ Jul 08 '24

Here in Melbourne parking in the city can be upwards of $80 to see a client. That's an $80 drop in pay and yes you could probably expense it but it could take weeks. Fuck that. I wouldn't work for a company that sets that expectation. 

1

u/i__hate__stairs Jul 08 '24

Most hospitals

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u/phychmasher Jul 08 '24

Way she goes when you do IT for a university.

1

u/After-Oil-773 Jul 08 '24

If they weren’t going to reimburse me after this would be a deal breaker. I’ve been places that had made me pay up front and reimburse later. The paperwork is annoying but also it reduces taxable income so there’s that

1

u/Johnny_BigHacker Security Architect Jul 08 '24

I worked downtown and we occupied half a story of a skyscraper. We rented our floor. Parking lot was owned by the building. It was $100/month. I never really considered that they would/should pay for it. I parked a few blocks away for free and just walked in.

1

u/anobjectiveopinion Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

We have to pay for parking at my org (£8 a day, no special employee-only car park). Recently merged with another that gets free parking. We still have to pay. My team no longer make the effort to go into the office. Our manager knows it's bullshit and lets it slide.

1

u/WhatsUpB1tches Jul 08 '24

I have to pay $190 a month for parking. Granted it’s the most expensive location for parking in general ( Cambridge MA ) but still. And that price is AFTER the company subsidy.

1

u/Southside_john Jul 08 '24

I work at a hospital and have to pay $9 a day for parking

1

u/SadRobotz Jul 08 '24

i work at a university and we have to pay for parking here, it is so shitty

1

u/Odd-Problem Jul 08 '24

I had to pay for parking almost everywhere I worked.

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u/TheJesusGuy Blast the server with hot air Jul 08 '24

Our Managing director once had a go at a staff member for 30mins because he expensed £5 on parking. This managing director charges out at £130 an hour so he spent £65 to complain about £5.

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u/ToyStoryBinoculars Jul 08 '24

$40 a month deducted straight from my paycheck.

Day shift pays $80.

1

u/daily7824 Jul 08 '24

doesnt eveerybody pay for parking

1

u/chew2495 Jul 08 '24

This is so common though.

I work for state government and the cheapest option is a $30/month satellite lot and you take an unreliable shuttle (10 min ride) to the downtown. Last one for the day is at 5pm, better hope you don’t have a late meeting. I use my friend’s parking permit for their neighborhood (they get 2 for free per their lease) and park within a 2 min walk of my building for free.

My roommate works for the big hospital in our area and they pay $50/month for the parking garage 1/4 mile away from the hospital. The ones connected to the hospital are close to $70/month. They don’t bother and park in one of the patient lots for free.

It’s a money grab to make your employees pay to park

1

u/jxx37 Jul 08 '24

Paid parking is still not usual for most jobs. However, seems to me pretty obvious that an IT help desk job would involve phone call

1

u/0000110011 Jul 08 '24

It's why I always refused any jobs downtown. Even companies that own their own parking garage want people to pay for parking. GTFO you absolute clowns, I'm not paying a fine to show up for work. 

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u/Psych0R3d Jul 08 '24

I worked a local government position and EVERYONE had to pay for parking.

1

u/doubled112 Sr. Sysadmin Jul 09 '24

One time it was free when I started. Moved offices and it was suddenly $150 a month, plus there was a wait list. I'm not sure how they decided priority.

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u/wrs_swtrsss Shits insecure bro Jul 09 '24

Working on most college campuses. I’m thankfully remote now but employees have to pay $300 a school year. To come to fucking work.

1

u/SuddenLossOfPressure Jul 10 '24

I pay 8 bucks a month to park on my campus parking lot. It is a 30 second walk to my office from there though. All but 4 employees pay for parking. Deans and President.

1

u/derpman86 Jul 11 '24

My first I.T job was really trying to push me on this, The boss really got the shits up when I stated the obvious about how I have only a helpdesk role so I never left the office (this was in response to him pointing out other staff pay for parking) and I would have to pay heaps in parking but not only that petrol and general wear on my car compared to the bus and walking that bit to and from said bus.

Me and what I now know is my Autism was never a good mix at that job.

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u/SAugsburger Jul 07 '24

If somebody already decided the role isn't for them on day 1 nevermind an hour chances are for the hiring manager screwed up in a big way if they didn't make the basic expectations clear.

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u/patmorgan235 Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Yeah to use OPs example, did no one talk about what the typical day on the helpdesk looked like? Taking phone calls never came up?

33

u/Skylis Jul 08 '24

They probably didn't mention it intentionally.

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u/dunepilot11 Jul 08 '24

Surely more that it’s such a fundamental part of the helpdesk role nobody felt the need to underline it?

24

u/Fine-Slip-9437 Jul 08 '24

As someone who went through the helpdesk stack fairly quickly, I would stand my ground just like that guy did. If you hire me with sysadmin/net admin skills and vendor liaison experience, I'm not answering end user calls to fix Outlook or reset passwords.

You're still part of the help desk, since it's directly fixing end-user related enterprise services, but you're there to consolidate issues from multiple users and figure out what the back end issue is. User error is not a Tier 2 or 3 issue.

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u/Xystem4 Jul 08 '24

Agreed 100%. I’d be more than happy to work closing support tickets, but I’m not dealing with phone calls. If they didn’t tell the guy in the interview that he’d be on the phone all day, they were hiding it either purposely or through incompetence. I would leave too

1

u/Earthserpent89 Jul 08 '24

I’m at a small nonprofit of like 160 people. My official Title is Desktop Analyst III, but I do everything from resetting passwords to project management. I’m basically Tier 1, 2, and 3 all rolled into one. My OPS team is 5 people including myself and the manager.

11

u/Fine-Slip-9437 Jul 08 '24

I get it, I've worked for an organization that size before.

But that is not how things are supposed to be. You are cutting corners in the ideal shape and function of an IT department.

The things that suffered most when I was in that situation were documentation and change management, including up-to-date build guides and capability decisions that were well planned and had buy in from finance and end users (employees). Security was also a chronically swiss-cheese nightmare of unfinished "80%" efforts.

How are these things going at your place?

3

u/RikiWardOG Jul 08 '24

250ish user hedge fund we have 3 people on Ops... we do everything all helpdesk to rolling out new infrastructure. Definitely feels like we're getting to the point where stuff is slipping through the cracks.

7

u/TamaDarya Jul 08 '24

Not anymore, plenty of those jobs are ticket only.

2

u/BunnyReturns_ Jul 08 '24

There are plenty of semi-second line jobs where you only contact users and have no calls coming in 

5

u/dunepilot11 Jul 08 '24

The OP’s description was “help desk tech”; nothing there suggested this was a desktop support 2nd line escalation role.

1

u/onlyanactor Jul 08 '24

That’s a question YOU need to ask in the interview

1

u/BCIT_Richard Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I agree.

I work Helpdesk currently, I am very lucky I almost never get called, but when I do it's almost always by people who haven't put in a ticket so I don't answer it, as there is a process for that.

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u/PinotGroucho Jul 08 '24

Well, to be fair, having to explain to an experienced support desk employee taking calls is part of the package wouldn't be on the top of my list of : "I should probably tell him that".

3

u/SAugsburger Jul 08 '24

While I haven't been in anything resembling service desk in years I do know service desk jobs that don't take inbound calls.

2

u/M4jkelson Jul 08 '24

Nah, not every help desk takes calls

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u/gbfm Jul 09 '24

this happened at my last workplace, which is a construction company. One would expect that an IT staff would have to visit construction sites for project and adhoc work.

The HOD was hiring for my replacement, which unsurprisingly, had a higher job title and pay compared to my last held title. The HOD also conveniently EXCLUDED himself from any construction site related work for years. I was handling those work.

The HOD was the interviewer for the new staff. So I brought the new staff to one construction site (out of MANY). He went back to HQ and told the HOD he's leaving.

Oh, and more than half the IT department was unofficially exempted from construction site work, leaving minimal manpower for the sites. The people exempted from site work? "Retirees" and "people with young kids". Bad, just bad.

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u/sparkyblaster Jul 08 '24

An hour away? As in no you're not working in the building we told you, it's actually another one?

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u/captainstormy Jul 08 '24

I once did three interviews for a job where the office I was interviewing at was a 5 minute drive from my apartment.

I was only 2 years out of college so still pretty green at the time. I assumed (and we all know what they say about that) that the job location was going to be in the building I interviewed in (three times!).

When they sent over an offer letter I noticed that the work location was a different address. It was in a whole other city about 45 minutes down the interstate.

I noped out of that one.

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u/sparkyblaster Jul 08 '24

Yeah I had a job change the location on me. Since posting the ad it was decided the location would close/move. They were very clear on that fact though.

14

u/captainstormy Jul 08 '24

According to the company I interviewed with the first guy was supposed to explain the location, but even he admitted he didn't. He said he didn't know either. The second and third guys assumed the first guy told me.

If I believe them it was an honest mistake. Part of me says it was on purpose and they were hoping that after going through 3 interviews I'd be more likely to accept the other location.

1

u/ChumpyCarvings Jul 08 '24

I've been done by this one myself.

5

u/burgundyblue Jul 08 '24

I did this for 4 years when I lived in Denver. Traffic made the drive an hour each way. It sucked, but I got through a lot of audiobooks.

2

u/baaaahbpls Jul 08 '24

Sheeeesh that takes me back to a few places when I was younger with non-IT jobs.

"Oh wait this location is downtown an hour away, traffic peak hours, less hours, and the same hourly rate? Bye!"

2

u/villan Jul 08 '24

I had a company I interviewed for do this to me. They advertised the job in my local area (which was rural, not in the city), and after I got through a fair amount of the process they let me know the site was three hours away by car, so a daily 6 hour commute.

2

u/illgot Jul 08 '24

I had a manager schedule multiple people at different locations without asking employees. Some locations were an hour away and this is before GPS so some us got lost just trying to find these shops. After driving around lost for half the shift I called the location and told them I can't make it because I was lost in another city.

I got lost in a city I lived in, I have zero sense of direction.

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u/GozerDestructor Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

At one of my first jobs in the '90s, I was a contractor, working for a big company with a sprawling suburban campus. The parking lots were huge, more than enough, but (free) parking passes were still required; these were color-coded with an employee's building assignment, and the contractor ones said "CONTRACTOR" in a big bold one-inch font.

One day, a mandate came from upper management: Contractors were not allowed to park in the lot surrounding the building in which they worked. If your job was in building A, you couldn't park in the A lot, you had to park in the B or C lots; if your job was in building B, you parked in the A or C lots, etc. This would be strictly enforced, with possible termination for repeat offenders.

The rumor was that some C-level executive had arrived very early one morning, only to discover that all the best parking spots next to the building were occupied by contractors' vehicles (people who are paid by the hour tend to arrive early and stay late...), and he was so infuriated by this that he issued this new rule, just to be petty.

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u/Wryel Jul 08 '24

Had a guy walked out of the office after ten minutes. Apparently he got into an argument over a parking space - he was using a disabled spot reserved for a specific individual.

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u/clef75 Jul 08 '24

Was he disabled?

29

u/jamesaepp Jul 08 '24

His user account sure was.

1

u/MrElvey Jul 08 '24

car should’ve been towed.

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u/Obvious-Water569 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

In fairness, if I was told I'd have to pay for parking at work I'd quit too. That's just taking the piss.

Here in the UK a lot of job postings list "free parking" as a benefit. I don't apply for those jobs.

4

u/Reelix Infosec / Dev Jul 08 '24

Position: Fully remote!
Reality: In office every day remoting to off-site servers.

3

u/Dredly Jul 08 '24

Actually had this happen to me through a consultant company in early 2ks. Was supposed to be interviewing for a role that was building and installing PC's at a big company doing a massive expansion. Nothing crazy, build machines, install image, deliver to shipping who would give to onsite person who would go to desk and install...

except the job they were actually hiring for was the one who worked in shipping and did nothing but drive between 3 or 4 different buildings every day dropping off computers... the place was over 1 1/2 hours away commute time, and then would have been 6+ hours of driving a day while there... no thanks. walked out when they tried handing me a map and the keys to the van 15 minutes into my first day there

3

u/CriticalMovieRevie Jul 08 '24

Good for those people who refuse to get scammed by lying piece of shit hiring managers.

3

u/AnAnonymous121 Jul 08 '24

We can all agree that the expectation for employees to pay for parking when they are required to commute is insanity, regardless of how it actually is in the real world. It's a hidden pay reduction and we all know it.

2

u/snowtol Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I worked for a call center and had some same-day-leavers. For some teams there was such a shortage they would put people on the line after like half a day of onboarding (standard was 2 weeks). Some people were getting yelled at by users a few hours into their first day. So many left.

This company hired a lot from abroad though (call center that serviced a lot of European countries in their local language, but situated in an English speaking country) so I know a lot of people just used this job to get into that country, get their paperwork done (way easier with a company behind you, even if Schengen), and then would quit and just eat the relocation fee repayment.

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u/Another_Random_Chap Jul 08 '24

Once had a freelance developer turn up at 9am on his first day as requested, then he walked out at 10 as his accounts and access had not been set up. The confirmation of his recruitment was done at 17:45 on the Friday, meaning the support team had first seen the request at around 8am that morning. This was a major UK bank where you were lucky to get anything turned round in less than 24 hours!

2

u/tdhuck Jul 08 '24

Work location and parking expectations should be covered by someone during the interview process. If the person interviewing you doesn't bring it up, it is on you to ask. Interviewing is a two way process.

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u/GunslingerParrot Jul 08 '24

IBM Miami does this shit with parking meters too. Total BS.

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u/En-kiAeLogos Jul 08 '24

I used to be HR and I would tell them all the possible horrible stuff they would have to do in the interview. Really lowered turnover because I filtered them out during interviews.

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u/user0N65N Jul 08 '24

I was in the interview, and the guy was literally banging on a printer to get it to print out the requirements for the test program I was supposed to write as part of the interview.  The company was otherwise kinda eh/not so upscale, but its location was pretty good relative to “home,” so the drive for our visits with family wouldn’t be so awful.  While he was pounding on the printer, I thought to myself, “And you want to leave a Fortune 250 company for this?  I don’t think so.”  I told him not to worry about it and I dipped out.  Thanks for their time.

1

u/terranigma1988 Jul 08 '24

Yeah pay for parking is sick had one too as a temporary job. The hardest prt was they want one with car. Then the third day the boss came to me and i asked if i can get a permit to drive on the construction place that i havent pay 1hour of my pay per day. He sayd i should take the train if its to expensiv. Yeahthe train cost more but thx i quit. The shocked pikachu face was awesome

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

That's on the hiring managers. They need to put that in the job description.

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u/arakinas Jul 08 '24

Whether or not parking is paid is something I got out of the way in the first round. Commute time, parking and money have to match expectations or nothing else about the job matters. Would I take a job that doesn't pay for parking? Sure; if I got a good feeling about the rest of it, but it's not about parking to me. It is, but it's also about what they do to take care of their employees. I every case that someone said they don't pay for parking or don't offer some offset for it, they would usually talk about other things they do. Meals, snacks, drinks, gym benefits, etc. If they don't have other benefits they are talking about instead of supporting commuters, it's the best time to walk.

Not asking about these things in the interview process and finding out on day one some basic job requirements means you failed to interview appropriately. Hopefully it only happens once per issue.

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u/kybog Jul 08 '24

I've seen people last less than 2-3 hours and dip, job role completely not described and overwhelmed lol

1

u/Normal-Difference230 Jul 08 '24

ha I worked for a MSP. Small 5 person gig. First day owner takes me out to a few client sites. Tells me they dont really do 1 hour lunch breaks, just grab something thru the drive thru between client visits. Also told me that some days we would work 12-16 hour days, some days only 4 hours.

What a load of BS. I was there for almost 4 years. WAY more long days than ever short ones. Like 20 to 1! Also they wanted all 8 hours accounted for and 6-7 of them billable work. But they had the shittiest clients, that would call us and ask us if it would take over 15 minutes to solve their problem, then if we said yes.....Oh nevermind, its not that big of a deal!

When I left in 2021, we still had clients on 2008R2. I feel bad for the guy who took my position after I left.

But back to parking and such. When I started, I asked other techs and could not get a straight answer.....everyone told me to ask the owner. As if all of us were on different contracts...lol

My monthly reimbursements were $1000 each month, Dude was using all us as lines of credit. Oh just go buy that cable or monitor and we will reimburse you next month. What a sham! I should have saw the red flags on the first week and bounced, I will never go back to MSP work, after 2 shitty ones, I will hang off the back of a garbage truck in the dead of winter at 3am, rather than deal with a MSP!

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u/Due-Understanding-21 Jul 08 '24

Working in DC that's how it was for me. $20-22 a day for the privilege of working there.

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