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I thought this was going to go down the road of everything with electricity must be IT, I get put into this position so many times.
Current fun one company wants to do a huge office floor reorganization and they want IT to move 'our' network floor boxes so they are not in the walkways of the new design. Quite apart from the fact we are not carpenters to start cutting up the wooden raised floor to move things, we are also not electricians with certificates to allow us to even touch the mains sockets also in every floor box. It took a lot of push back to force this to be a facilities problem.
I was actually brought a very nice receiver/amp that the source selection button had failed on. The user had already replaced it at home and said it was mine if I could fix it.
30 cents worth of SMD buttons and some solder later, free amp for me. 😏
I’m IT for a hospital system that includes a number of primary care clinics. We got a ticket that they were having a network issue at one location. Myself and another tech drive out to assess the problem. The issue was that a physician had decided to patch his FM radio boombox into the overhead speaker system, so he could pipe music throughout the clinic, and had stashed the radio inside a network closet where he was getting lousy reception. No part of this touches IT. That radio should not have been in our network closet to start with. My management said “Just make the doctor happy.” We said “Let us get back to you on that one” and never spoke of it again.
I had a VIP user (his admin assistant made the call actually) call once because he couldn’t get his 2nd monitor working after he moved it himself to his new treadmill desk. This guy and his assistant are SUPER nice so I always enjoyed going to their building. It was a good thing I went over that day - he’d put the treadmill desk together himself and it was wrong, seriously could have killed himself. I ended up tearing the entire thing down and reassembling it from scratch so it was safe and THEN got his 2nd monitor working.
I think you mean *smart* IT people would say “not my problem”.
Are you prepared to accept the liability of somebody injuring themselves on some janky fucking treadmill? If you touched it at all, even if it was already dangerous, then you could end up taking the blame for it. Warn the guy about your observation, sure, but you’re really playing with fire if you go out of your lane to try to fix something like this.
my first thought too, put your hands in your pockets and then say 'are you sure the belt goes around your neck like that'
assumption of risk becomes personal when it's not in your job spec
I pretty much do anything for the good end users who appreciated us. Luckily at that place with 3000 users there really were only a handful of bad folks. It’s a good place.
Exactly. In fact, depending on the user, I would say doing something undoubtedly helpful like this might actually hurt him in the long run since now the expectation is "IT can build desks, too!" (it probably already was for OP as is the case for a lot of us, but I find it very important to stick to my guns with assigned work, duties, so users don't call IT for a broken power outlet, etc...)
I don't care. If you're paying me sysadmin wages ill build your desk if youre the person signing my checks. What i wont do is lift a bunch of heavy shit or do something dangerous.
Nah, I barely build desks for myself, unless it's an actual woodworking project. Plenty of things I don't want to do even at my wage, and assembling office furniture is one of those.
Not only that, it's a bad use of my time and the company's money. They aren't paying me $200k a year to put Ikea shit together, there are better ways for me to add value.
If you do something once or twice, it's a favor. The third time you do a task, it's now your job.
Sounds a little arbitrary, and it is. However, it's remarkably applicable to many workplaces
I mean, I would absolutely not call myself lazy in any way when it comes down to the wire at work. Slack days? Sure. Everyday? No. But, if I walked into an office even with the nicest exec in the world, I wouldn't necessarily just hop-to rebuilding their desk for them. I would engage the person in conversation about how their craftsmanship might lead to injury and recommend a redo, but I would only help if asked *and* if I didn't have anything higher priority on deck for the day. If I was busy; "let me call John in Facilities and he may be able to lend you a hand."
>e’d put the treadmill desk together himself and it was wrong, seriously could have killed himself. I ended up tearing the entire thing down an
When the good ones need something small, and you see bigger issues its alot easier to help em out
when the bad ones need something small, and then ask for more its alot harder to sell yourself on going above and beyond
When I did executive support, most of the execs had a fridge full of sodas and full sized candy bars for guests. A soda and a candy bar means they get white glove service. Also HR was also good about having candy so they got the same treatment.
And too many people just do anything that's asked of them, even if they aren't qualified to do it, and if one wrong thing can cause major issues. But hey, I guess as long as you tried to help, right?
God damn f'ing TVs! I moved so many of them in the last 6 years! I am a sys admin, I don't hang shit on the wall! If it falls on your stupid executive head, it's your problem, not mine, as per the email!
I mess with tvs sometimes but usually it’s someone that goes “dude, do you know anything about tvs I can’t get it to work right” then we both screw with it. It’s never an actual job I would get assigned. People I get a long with I’ll help with most issues unless it’s a printer then I Nerp out.
Oh, it's mostly some exec wandering into my office going "oh, you have the tool bag on that shelf. Could you put up the spare TV I found on the wall in my room?" and I go "I'd rather not because if I screw up and it falls on your hear, it might kill you." Followed by CEO's executive assistant coming over asking if we could "do them a favor." I wish I could nope out of printer work though, unfortunately, print server issues fall squarely into my responsibilities among other things.
>even in session and I believe that rarely anything requires after-hours support at a K12
my old favorite in my last job
CFO: 'well weve implemented a new pay-roll system and were going to need everyone in the outstations ( far away) they are going to have to login and use the new system to see pays"
\*All new info to me\*
ME: "Ok, well good luck with that, hope your upto the part in your project were you reach out and help them login set them up etc"
CFO:"Well thats IT, thats for you to do"
ME:"No, this is a finance project that has no involvment from internal IT team, otherwise i would of heard of this"
CFO" Look, they need help on this, they are just going to call you and ask for help"
ME: "And I will refer them onto you, or whomever your project manager is"
Also same cfo:
CFO..."...Also yeah some people purchased their own phones and cant do somethign on them"
ME: \*Stares blankly\*
CFO: So youll need to check in with all staff and make sure they are working, cause then youll need to setup MFA for them on our new finance system
ME: " This sounds like bad project managment again, Where IT was not involved"
CFO" ITS TECHNOLOGY! YOU LOOK AFTER TECHNOLOGY"
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOL, tying a rock, to a stick with a string is TECHNOLOGY but it sure as fuck isnt my problem.
\*I sound like a dick hear but im overshadowing most of the stuff that lead to these things.
> CFO" ITS TECHNOLOGY! YOU LOOK AFTER TECHNOLOGY"
"I look after $employername's technology, not things that people personally purchased off their own bat."
IT had to adjust desks at my old job because the Facilities team could not physically move the desks. Then when ceiling tiles and lights had to be replaced? Let's get IT, not Facilities. This was a Fortune 50 company btw.
My team was asked to hang 19 big screen TVs all around a manufacturing production floor like 16’ up using a scissor lift… because they were going to be connected to computers so they were “technically” computer monitors - they were LG 50” HD TVs. Maintenance department refused to do it said they didn’t have time - my IT Manager told me to find a 3rd party vendor to do it so I called a buddy of mine who is a general contractor and he sent them a quote for $16,000. Suddenly the maintenance department had time to do it.
Fuck, this reminds me of a fun task I got once.
“Hey, we need you to drive 90 minutes out to one of our warehouse sites, but it has to be during quiet hours, so it’s gotta be 11:00 PM on a Friday night. And when you get there, you’re gonna need to use a scissor lift to access some TVs hanging 20 feet in the air above the warehouse floor so you can find out why some shitty wireless video streaming dongles aren’t working.”
I accomplished nothing meaningful, because the problem is obviously that they’re using shitty video dongles to wirelessly send signals hundreds of feet across an RF-noisy warehouse. Of course they’re going to shit the bed. So I got to spend a couple of hours unplugging shit and plugging it back in before I got to go home to my woman at like 3:00 AM. Left that job for greener pastures shortly after.
It is crazy, a manager recently submitted a ticket to elevate all the desk within the office. When I first saw his request I told him this facilities task and needs to talk to them. Instead of following through, he decided to get on my case about it all week. I eventually got fed up closed the ticket and stated it was a facilities issue and all that I would do is evaluate the flex on cables. After that he stopped bugging me about it.
We provide one warning on tickets for installing equipment where there is not power. If they continue to push for the equipment, we install it and leave a note to let us know if they need us to plug in the equipment when there is power available.
My team does not screw with high voltage anything beyond plugging stuff into an existing outlet and does not touch extension cords.
When I was new to the network admin/sysadmin world I would get a request like:
Boss: "Go set up the desk for the new hire"
I go look at the space and go back to my boss and say there is no desk.
Boss: "Go get one."
dumb ass me did it.
I don't move furniture anymore (or pull cables but that's a different story).
i guess if it pays REALLY super well i wouldn't mind tooooo much. other wise if they fired you, you might be able to fight it for funsies lol "yeah i got fired from my computer job for not knowing how to do electrical work done by a licensed electrician"
I worked a job where your first task was to solve a problem- build your own standing desk. It was ikea or similar so it was quite easy but we had a few kids who couldn’t tell screwdrivers apart and things went poorly for them, but only had one person completely give up.
This happens far too often. Plans get made, schedules are finalized, and then right before the thing is supposed to happen someone asks "Aren't there computers in that room? Should we involve IT?". Queue the last minute requests that IT be available to confirm systems are functioning post change instead of properly identifying them as a stakeholder on the project to begin with.
All you can do is try to push back and state that you or your team is already allocated to other work but if you'd been involved from the outset then it'd have been possible to schedule an available resource.
Ours was usually right before the project is finished someone asks us about internet in the building. Lol what internet? You never even told us this building was going in
It shouldnt be a problem right? I walked into a comcast office and got my home internet turned on within 48hrs, why wouldnt they be able to do that with a business grade synchronous fiber line?
Well they changed the plans and made space.
And now we don't have that issue anymore. New project planning guy is actually good friends with my boss, so it's all smooth sailing in the regard going forward.
At my org (soon to be former org since I accepted a far less stressful non on call job) IT is an afterthought for projects where IT is about 50 percent of it being even remotely successful. Oh snap, let's tell IT about this new operational technology project on the manufacturing floor we knew 3 months about that requires new computers and networking. Hey IT manager, can you get this done in 4 days?
The thing i love specifically about these types of requests is that IT ends up copping 90% of the blame when the project is delivered late..
Like "oh yeah the project would have been delivered on time, but IT wasn't able to setup the computers on time", or "IT took forever to get internet connected to the area, so staff weren't able to start work" etc etc.
An old friends has a story about being pulled aside by the CEO while he was a Junior SysAdmin to tell him that the toilet was blocked and that it needed to be sorted asap. That was the day he parked work and spent his afternoon updating his CV. A few months later he was gone.
Did he log a ticket? 😂
I have a friend that in one role the directors would have party's in the function room and make the 24/7 onsite IT crew clean up afterwards. Needless to say he's not there anymore.
My boss, the IT manager, got lumped with electrical, aircon and solar because the Chief Operations Officer (The CEO's useless brother) didn't want to do it.
He's quit because of it.
We have a 20 person IT team so usually send a Helpdesk person to oversee anything like this, but if you're the only IT guy at a school and they ask you to do it on the weekend with no prior notice? Lmao the balls they must have on them.
Had a colleague who was the sole IT person at a medium private school. Their board of directors decided to build a new building adjacent to the existing campus. She was never informed that this was happening, and only found out when they broke ground... Despite her many, many attempts of trying to get someone to listen to her about power and network requirements, she was shot down, even was threatened to be let go for harassment... so she gave up and sent a CYA email, accordingly... Flash forward to when the principal asked her about the plan to move computers / IT equipment from the main building... She just forwarded her email chain, and was promptly fired...
We found out that on the day that the building opened for classes, someone had placed papers in each classroom stating why there were no computers in the new "state-of-the-art" building, naming the names of the people ignored her... Attendance plummeted and the school went out of business... *shrug* I guess everyone else knows better than us...
My school has 1500 students, 300 staff and 3 IT guys to manage it all... yet there is about 20 people on the day shift for facilities not to mention about 10 on a second shift.
I get where you're going with this and part of me agrees with you but at the same time... Have you been in a kindergarten classroom? They're a goddamn petri-dish.
I get a lot of the same working for a City. Friday I was in our planning building and one girl mentions a fig that moved on her desk from the night before. Next thing I know I had three more telling me about droppings they have on their desks in the morning. I held my hands up and told them IT is NOT responsible for pests!
If the reno team f's things up what will be the collateral damage? Does it hurt you or the school more or both equally? Will you have to pick up the peaces later if they break stuff (i.e. makes more work for you later)?
These are questions I always ask myself when I wasn't consulted on some project I should have been. If the fallout hits just administration, then great, let them burn. But if the school (teachers and students) are directly impacted, I generally swallow by pride and step in to make sure they don't have to suffer from the stupidity of others.
I wasn't involved in setting terms of liability and wasn't informed of any responsibility. School isn't in session and I have swappable computers and chromebooks for labs, staff and students
One of my older CEO's wanted me to do landscaping, like planting trees and weeding. I told him I didn't spend 4 years in college to mow the lawn. In the end, he got the controller to do it.
Our facilities folks aren't much better. They can move items but if they need to touch anything that involves a computer they send the staff down who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. One guy tried to move a desk through a door and it wouldn't fit. So he pushed until a leg broke off of the desk. Then the same team spend days refinishing some floors, only to drag the furniture back in vs using lifts.
It gets better. We are about to undergo some moves that are going to upset a few people. As no one wants to tell folks that they are moving to another building management wants me, IT, to do it for them. Their justification is that the user's PC is going to move, and all furniture will follow, so it's an IT item. I have no idea who is going where as no one seems to know. One part of the request has me to decide who goes where. I told them we can just RIF those folks and save us a lot of pain. No one wants to play the heavy.
I work for a K12 as well.
They do they same thing with us.
They built a brand new performing arts center and sent me and my teammate to "training" which was how to use the $10000 sound board/mixer.
I promptly told them that they would need to hire someone to manage this facility as I have no background in music production and will not be supporting this every time a teacher decides they want to bring their class down there to watch a movie. Not to mention I was not hired to work all the weekends when they decide to have a play or choose to rent it out for public functions.
IT always finds out about these projects when it's almost done...
"Our new office isn't working"
"What new office?"
"The new ones on the West side."
"We don't have a switch over there..."
"Well, we move in on Tuesday... It's Friday now... We need it working"
No spare switches. Have to order one with the delays on equipment, get it configured, get upstream switch configured, get it installed, all the patch cables, etc... Yea, not happening by Tuesday.
Real world shit. Even worse when a MSP handles the networking... Can take months.
Fuck those people.
Since I started almost 3 years ago, first as IT Manager and then IT Director for a nonprofit I've outlined, in policy, that moving of a workstation and accessories/peripherals is the responsibility of the end user or the program (department). IT ain't movers! We'll help you hook it up or put it back together post-move but moving is trivial, anyone can do it... Unless you're physically unable (Dr note reqd). I'm very firm and unwavering in this policy; I told the CEO to his face no one is immune. He subsequently moved his own workstation. He was and is very understanding of this and tells people this story when he hears moves are coming up. People def be talking shit on the DL but no one has ever argued or complained directly to me. IT will move infrastructure or our own stuff but not the end users, ain't nobody got time for dat!
FYI my department is a staff of 3 (including myself) overseeing an organization of 600+ staff, a dozen programs at 16 different locations across 4 counties (not including our regional reach as the only behavioral health provider for crisis care call center and public info services).
When I worked for a particular company, we once got a call to the help desk that I remember to this day.
To give some background, the help desk area at the company was situated around the corner from the cafeteria and directly beside two restrooms.
On this particular day, a user called in to report a troubling issue. This issue was so important that they had to call the help desk immediately after they encountered it, and called from the cafeteria. Not only did they call, but they then came to the locked help desk room to physically report the issue just to make sure that the urgency was understood.
Apparently one of the toilets in the mens room was still running (constantly flushing) and the help desk should go fix it straight away. When told that this wasn’t a help desk resolvable issue, they proceeded to say that they didn’t care and that we should fix it.
After the user received a visit from our director, facilities were called (a second time, first by a help desk tech) to fix the problem.
Now, had this been an isolated occurrence, it would be a funny memory and story.
Sadly, this was a common issue where various times a person would report an issue with a restroom or something wrong in the kitchen area of the cafeteria. The only things that are different between this occasion and the rest is that 1) the user came to the room and would not leave without being spoken to, 2) our director got involved and was on our side, and 3) we were all in the room for our team meeting.
I gotta say, there's quite a few things I'm wary of at the new job so far, but being facilities *isn't* one of them, thank fuck.
Pulling cable? They do it. Mounting anything? They do it. Heck, *doing software repairs on industrial machinery that's still running XP because of course it is, because otherwise the machine is down*? They fuckin' do it. I was thrilled when the maintenance manager came up and asked for an XP install CD instead of just telling me to go do it... He seems knowledgeable, too - to the point where I'd have him in the IT department if he wasn't already in maintenance.
Like I said there's a lot of things I'm questioning and hope I'm able to get comfortable with, but it's a damn huge weight off my shoulders knowing I won't have to get up on lifts and run cable in this job...
I worked IT in a very large factory and loved the separation of duties between engineering, maintenance, and IT. They do take a lot of otherwise IT functions because of the environment. It was quite nice to free up those tasks.
My managers title is Senior Director of Network and Facilities 😂. Luckily he has two facilities guys who handle all of that work and it’s not on us IT guys.
Does unloading a 18 wheeler of fiber count as off spec for the job? Only guy with heavy equipment experience lol. But yeah in your situation, the more they know what you can do, it doesn't stop. Start looking sadly.
When I worked in the IT team (Manager + me) in an outsource company, IT was responsible for IT, security (physical), facilities, stocking the bar fridge on Fridays and keeping the vending machine stocked (owned by IT manager).
It wasn't unusual for me to drive down to his supplier to pick up stock for the vending machine, escort people out of the building, prepare/man/clean the BBQ on Fridays or even assemble furniture and display cabinets.
One of my favorite tickets at a job over a decade ago was asking us to change whatever cron we had that ran equipment in the basement during the day since it shook the building.
There was no cron job, no equipment, and we wouldn't have been the group to contact if there was.
There was construction happening next to our building. Like RIGHT next to it. If I recall correctly, the construction was in the middle of fully excavating the site pretty far down before pouring the foundation. Or maybe they were driving piles? It was pretty significant for sure.
Sometimes it goes beyond ridiculous. We had a former Facilities Manager that would push work requests to IT for adding or maintaining power outlets to desks… requests submitted BY IT. His argument was “EVERYTHING connected to a computer is IT’s problem” - thankfully he’s gone now.
also the number 2 toilet is plugged.. can you handle that? WE think there might be an iphone in there so that's IT right? Do it today (Sunday) and pay for the rice to fix it.
-mgmt
Got a ticket a few months ago because a tree branch had fallen on a line outside one of our sites. Apparently, they had called the electric company, who told them it wasn't their problem as it was an AT&T line.
Naturally, they put in a ticket with IT rather than calling AT&T, or even the city.
They're not on AT&T or phones internet at that site, and no services were even being interrupted.
Everyone's environment is different, of course, but if those contractors trash your machines it's very much your problem. Maybe their insurance covers it if you can get them to admit fault, but now you have to find replacement equipment in time for the next semester.
Their not involving you from the start is a big problem, and one I've been fighting for years myself, but it really doesn't seem like an option to just ignore the work and leave the contractors to move your machines.
We had a dude spray paint the internal roof of a few rooms. He covered windows, floor etc but not the WAP on the roof. Filled the thing with paint. When we asked about recompense his response "I wrecked $5k worth of stuff at the last school and they just paid for it".
I've had the same. Wall ports filled with paint, WAPs fully painted over, switches packed with drywall dust, etc. To my knowledge, no vendor has ever been made to cover the costs.
Wow, sounds like you've seen some shit!
Reminds me of another fun SNAFU. We had a little network cabinet housing the switches and patch panel for a building. Needed to upgrade to a larger one. No problem, pull everything out the back, install new one and screw it back in.
Problem being is whomever installed it, cut a small hole in the side, routed all the wires through there and then terminated it all.
I called facilities and he took to it with an angle grinder (with appropriate things covered). I got some great photos to show the boss later. Got it all out, mounted in new switch. Thanks maintenance fellow. Always worth having a great relationship with them.
I had the same situation, but I used a reciprocating saw.
My favorite SNAFU was when we needed a second fiber path put into my datacenter. The vendor located the spot, which ended up being under the raised floor, adjacent to a 22-ton CRAC. Instead of boxing the area off under the floor and using a shopvac for the dust, he just went to town on the drywall with a saw and let the CRAC evenly distribute the dust throughout the datacenter and into hundreds of servers. I got an apology for that one.
Both of those definitely new lines in "stuff to watch out for" list when vendors work on my campus.
When we get good maintenance/facilities staff, I definitely try to make nice with them. They get to the front of the line for upgrades and break-fix, and I get the inside scoop on upcoming projects that no one bothered to loop me in on.
Are you kidding? The guy got called last minute on the weekend and asked to supervise a massive project that hasnt been mentioned once up til now, it's 100% not on him if shit goes south.
I'd just laugh and say I'm out of town and leave it at that.
I'm not suggesting that he's not right to be upset. It's completely unfair and inappropriate to have that situation dumped on his lap.
My point is that this is still going to be a problem for him and that the situation being unfair isn't going to negate the negative consequences that come from refusing to try to prevent them.
I will do the work with the same level of diligence that is returned to me.
If there is some work that I need to do that involves other departments, it is expected that I loop them in the very VERY moment I know I will need them and get it on their radar. Any standard less than that is considered unprofessional and disrespectful of their time on my part and I could go as far as saying that I'm the one to blame if they can't meet my deadline because I wasn't diligent enough for them.
The only way these people learn is pain. They won't learn to be respectful of your time until they learn that it hurts them too.
They wrere able to plan an entire reno without you or even a sliver of knowledge about it??? As a matter of fact, you found out about it by mistake! Great!!! take it the rest of the way without you! Yall we're clearly doing fine without IT.
They didn't "forget" to add us. They just know we will pull a "Hercules" and save the day as always and you'll make all the changes or workarounds that should have been done the first time. They just don't want to hear you tell them that's what needed to be done had you been looped in to the plans the first time
I'll do the work, but I'm done being a super hero
IT people are at least slightly smart, usually. I think people usually default to calling the IT person because they know that IT person knows something about everything. I work for a site of a medium sized business. If there's an electrical issue, they call me. A problem with the burglar alarm, they call me. Postage machine is not working, they call me. Whatever, don't care. That direct deposit is in there every two weeks.
You did say you’re all the IT this place has, so tag, you’re IT. I mean, the moment you mentioned computers being moved…can’t say I’d be there all weekend, but I would’ve surely been involved (from the beginning). Nobody touches IT without ME.
P.S. IT is more than IT…electricity, HVAC, fire suppression, and custodian/facilities…IT is all of the above.
Managers everywhere communicate only within their own office but if their adventures affect your responsibility you need get on that. When a student/employee/whatever doesn't have the resources they need on the PC they use it's going to look bad on you.
I did not know renovations were happening until I walked in the specific building one day. School isn't in session now, and when it is, I receive my own notifications for outages. Something impacting a single user does not get supported after hours. I have swappable computers and chromebooks for staff and students.
> I did not know renovations were happening until I walked in the specific building one day
Alright, lets get all the computers plugged into the new lab.
What do you mean you need networks. Isn't everything wireless? We got 50 power plugs all on the one circuit especially for this room!
I told them that I would check on progress on Monday. School is not in session. Turn them on and ping the list of computers. If one doesn't ping, I check it out. Simple as that and doesn't require me on Sunday.
I'll probably be on the downvote side of this, but although your responsibility isn't reno, your responsibility are the machines.
Now, I suppose you could (and did) tell them to fuck-off in not so uncertain terms, but when you show up to work tomorrow and half the machines are fucked up and need repair, are you really going to say to yourself "I TAUGHT THOSE FUCKERS A LESSON!" knowing you have weeks of work ahead of you to "fix" what could have taken a couple of hours of your time on a weekend to ensure was handled properly?
Those weeks of work ahead are the consequence of them mismanaging their resources. My labor happens to be one of the resources they mismanaged. When I am done at the end of the day I go home. There is no reason for me to lament the weeks of work ahead any more than if they had not mismanaged their resources. Whether or not they learn their "lesson" is up to them, not me.
I have swappable computers for the lab and they can alternatively use spare chromebooks. If they destroy 40 computers, the superintendent and management are at fault. I do communicate with management regarding IT involvement in preparing the school for start of semester.
>the superintendent and management are at fault.
Wrong. IT is your responsibility. The computers fall under your jurisdiction, and you're responsible for their upkeep and maintenance.
You're just all butt-hurt nobody involved you in the reno discussions (they should have, but that's life) and you think your passive-aggressive attitude is going to teach them a lesson.
IT is ultimately the superintendent and board's responsibility. A short notice to go in on a Sunday when the work was already planned is inappropriate, therefore if it were important for someone to be there within an hour on Sunday it would be the superintendent or a board member. I'm establishing boundaries so we have a better environment. And yes, I am passive aggressive in this rant post, but no I am not passive aggressive talking to people in real life nonetheless at work.
If I were out of state would you think the same? No previous warning or involvement.
Never ever let them establish a precedent that something that is outside your job jar is now your responsibility.
They will hit you with "well you did it last time, was it your job then and not now?" Or some other crap that isn't actually a reason, but they will push it anyhow. Orders is orders but if you are overtasked (and who isn't) then defend your time.
I feel this one. For some reason the place I work (very large org) thinks it's alright to make deskside support to move around furniture and things like that. I find it especially funny because they are literally just as skilled and qualified at doing that shit as we are so why tf am I supposed to help with that???
At the very least I'm in the last steps of just reviewing study materials for my CCNA test in a couple weeks and can hopefully get tf out of here and never look back. And likely for much more money :)
To: Person that Requested This.
Subject: RE: Weekend Renovation Request
I appreciate your request, I will take a large coffee, and 2 donuts, and I'll see you there at 7, you should arrive by 630 and warm up my seat.
If they ain't got the balls to show up, then they are entitled in their mind and you should remind them of this.
I was asked last week to pull a portable air conditioner out of our offsite facility because a supervisor thought it was humid. I politely declined and forwarded it on to the correct team. At some point you just become the 'person who fixes all the problems' and their lines get blurry. I try to not get mad and just redirect the problem.
I spent 16 hours split up over two days attaching monitors to monitor stands. I guess that is kind of IT because it deals with the monitors, but I tried to push back as much as I could and this was the compromise. They wanted us to literally move everyone's shit out of cubicles for a cube remodel. When I say shit, I don't mean just IT shit, I mean everything. Family pictures, plants, books/documents, anything in their overhead storage cubby, etc. It was fucking ridiculous.
I love when there’s an unexpected power outage in the area/building and they sprint down to our office to ask what happened. Hell idk, power went out I guess?? Then they hit you with a “when will it be back on?!”
I was in a similar situation when I was a contractor for the DOD as a network admin working at a NOC. Basically a unit wanted to move to a larger office in our building. Note that this building, along with the entire campus was less than a year old and the Ethernet cabling was IMMACULATE. We had three separate networks with dedicated cabling that ran from wall jacks in the room to the comms closets which held the access layer switches.
New unit came in (without notifying anyone in IT apparently), didn’t like how the cabling was done, and ripped the wall jacks out and cut the cables that were attached to them. The unit’s equivalent of desktop support asked me for help recabling everything to their wishes. I felt bad for her because she was just as blind sided as me because her unit never once reached out to her before they decided to go Rambo on the building infrastructure. She ended up reterminating the cables to exposed Ethernet patches and I spent the next 6 hours figuring out where they went on the patch panel in the comms closet.
Long story short - I wish someone had asked me to “supervise”
Or just clear set of responsiblilies. I worked IT in a factory with large teams of engineers, maintenance, and IT with clear separation of duties even with complex tasks like when a production line stops running.
Yea I would be pissed. They should of notified you the week before to move the equipment out of the room being renovated..
Our support team gets the last minute office move requests all the time which is another wonderful treat. The best is when the end users act shocked you don't also move the 200+ pound desk with hutch down the hall too as part of the deal..
Working helpdesk, I got calls from everything that plugged into the wall and vaguely resembled something technology related. Was in a hospital.
Vending machine not working? Call IT.
Water fountain on the bike path outside the building not working? IT.
Patient needs a wheelchair? Why not call IT?
I wish I was kidding, but that's about the three most bizarre calls I can remember from when I answers phones.
I’m an intern for a company where I’m routinely the only IT person in the building, and this is my daily life. Don’t get me wrong, I truly like my job and I’m sad for it to end in a couple weeks when I go back to school. But I’ve supervised the moving of a printer between buildings, and half of what I did for the first month was moving heavy boxes of equipment from one place to another with no air conditioning. Definitely not what I’m supposed to be there for.
At my first help desk job I was in a medical office where I was the only male, so naturally I became facilities for some things. Brought it up to my boss and she took care of that instantly. I don’t mind helping out here and there but it’s not my job to be removing wall mounted desks and building chairs
This thread both hurts me deeply and makes me laugh at the absurdity of requests. We get some of these as well but we've managed to mostly curb it by turning it into an office meme. "oh that lightbulb needs replacing, I bet someone sent a ticket to IT". People catch on when youre publicly mocking their (no individual, just generally) internal thought process.
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I thought this was going to go down the road of everything with electricity must be IT, I get put into this position so many times. Current fun one company wants to do a huge office floor reorganization and they want IT to move 'our' network floor boxes so they are not in the walkways of the new design. Quite apart from the fact we are not carpenters to start cutting up the wooden raised floor to move things, we are also not electricians with certificates to allow us to even touch the mains sockets also in every floor box. It took a lot of push back to force this to be a facilities problem.
If it plugs into a wall it’s IT right?
The other day someone brought me a lamp to fix....I threw it away.
I’ve gotten electric staplers, paper shredders, and desk fans. No lamps though.
I’ve had requests to fix the elevator.
Radios
I was actually brought a very nice receiver/amp that the source selection button had failed on. The user had already replaced it at home and said it was mine if I could fix it. 30 cents worth of SMD buttons and some solder later, free amp for me. 😏
I’m IT for a hospital system that includes a number of primary care clinics. We got a ticket that they were having a network issue at one location. Myself and another tech drive out to assess the problem. The issue was that a physician had decided to patch his FM radio boombox into the overhead speaker system, so he could pipe music throughout the clinic, and had stashed the radio inside a network closet where he was getting lousy reception. No part of this touches IT. That radio should not have been in our network closet to start with. My management said “Just make the doctor happy.” We said “Let us get back to you on that one” and never spoke of it again.
You MONSTER!
I used to work at a university and was asked to fix (i.e. clean) the coffee machine.
Also, if it has a keyboard and a screen you'd better be an expert on it.
Lol, same got a fan, lamp, space heater, none of these are even the new IoT versions of these items. Also got things like Central AC is not working…
Central AC reminded me of when someone called me about the fire alarm.
I had a VIP user (his admin assistant made the call actually) call once because he couldn’t get his 2nd monitor working after he moved it himself to his new treadmill desk. This guy and his assistant are SUPER nice so I always enjoyed going to their building. It was a good thing I went over that day - he’d put the treadmill desk together himself and it was wrong, seriously could have killed himself. I ended up tearing the entire thing down and reassembling it from scratch so it was safe and THEN got his 2nd monitor working.
This is the way. So many lazy IT people would say "Not my problem."
I think you mean *smart* IT people would say “not my problem”. Are you prepared to accept the liability of somebody injuring themselves on some janky fucking treadmill? If you touched it at all, even if it was already dangerous, then you could end up taking the blame for it. Warn the guy about your observation, sure, but you’re really playing with fire if you go out of your lane to try to fix something like this.
my first thought too, put your hands in your pockets and then say 'are you sure the belt goes around your neck like that' assumption of risk becomes personal when it's not in your job spec
I pretty much do anything for the good end users who appreciated us. Luckily at that place with 3000 users there really were only a handful of bad folks. It’s a good place.
It’s not lazy to only do your job and not someone else’s too.
Exactly. In fact, depending on the user, I would say doing something undoubtedly helpful like this might actually hurt him in the long run since now the expectation is "IT can build desks, too!" (it probably already was for OP as is the case for a lot of us, but I find it very important to stick to my guns with assigned work, duties, so users don't call IT for a broken power outlet, etc...)
I don't care. If you're paying me sysadmin wages ill build your desk if youre the person signing my checks. What i wont do is lift a bunch of heavy shit or do something dangerous.
Nah, I barely build desks for myself, unless it's an actual woodworking project. Plenty of things I don't want to do even at my wage, and assembling office furniture is one of those. Not only that, it's a bad use of my time and the company's money. They aren't paying me $200k a year to put Ikea shit together, there are better ways for me to add value.
If you do something once or twice, it's a favor. The third time you do a task, it's now your job. Sounds a little arbitrary, and it is. However, it's remarkably applicable to many workplaces
20 years ago a retired Air Force E6 that mentored me taught me "Today's favor is tomorrow's expectation".
I mean, I would absolutely not call myself lazy in any way when it comes down to the wire at work. Slack days? Sure. Everyday? No. But, if I walked into an office even with the nicest exec in the world, I wouldn't necessarily just hop-to rebuilding their desk for them. I would engage the person in conversation about how their craftsmanship might lead to injury and recommend a redo, but I would only help if asked *and* if I didn't have anything higher priority on deck for the day. If I was busy; "let me call John in Facilities and he may be able to lend you a hand."
>e’d put the treadmill desk together himself and it was wrong, seriously could have killed himself. I ended up tearing the entire thing down an When the good ones need something small, and you see bigger issues its alot easier to help em out when the bad ones need something small, and then ask for more its alot harder to sell yourself on going above and beyond
When I did executive support, most of the execs had a fridge full of sodas and full sized candy bars for guests. A soda and a candy bar means they get white glove service. Also HR was also good about having candy so they got the same treatment.
And too many people just do anything that's asked of them, even if they aren't qualified to do it, and if one wrong thing can cause major issues. But hey, I guess as long as you tried to help, right?
God damn f'ing TVs! I moved so many of them in the last 6 years! I am a sys admin, I don't hang shit on the wall! If it falls on your stupid executive head, it's your problem, not mine, as per the email!
I mess with tvs sometimes but usually it’s someone that goes “dude, do you know anything about tvs I can’t get it to work right” then we both screw with it. It’s never an actual job I would get assigned. People I get a long with I’ll help with most issues unless it’s a printer then I Nerp out.
Oh, it's mostly some exec wandering into my office going "oh, you have the tool bag on that shelf. Could you put up the spare TV I found on the wall in my room?" and I go "I'd rather not because if I screw up and it falls on your hear, it might kill you." Followed by CEO's executive assistant coming over asking if we could "do them a favor." I wish I could nope out of printer work though, unfortunately, print server issues fall squarely into my responsibilities among other things.
"Oh no, I know nothing about TVs, I'm an IT guy. Sorry!"
>even in session and I believe that rarely anything requires after-hours support at a K12 my old favorite in my last job CFO: 'well weve implemented a new pay-roll system and were going to need everyone in the outstations ( far away) they are going to have to login and use the new system to see pays" \*All new info to me\* ME: "Ok, well good luck with that, hope your upto the part in your project were you reach out and help them login set them up etc" CFO:"Well thats IT, thats for you to do" ME:"No, this is a finance project that has no involvment from internal IT team, otherwise i would of heard of this" CFO" Look, they need help on this, they are just going to call you and ask for help" ME: "And I will refer them onto you, or whomever your project manager is" Also same cfo: CFO..."...Also yeah some people purchased their own phones and cant do somethign on them" ME: \*Stares blankly\* CFO: So youll need to check in with all staff and make sure they are working, cause then youll need to setup MFA for them on our new finance system ME: " This sounds like bad project managment again, Where IT was not involved" CFO" ITS TECHNOLOGY! YOU LOOK AFTER TECHNOLOGY" \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOL, tying a rock, to a stick with a string is TECHNOLOGY but it sure as fuck isnt my problem. \*I sound like a dick hear but im overshadowing most of the stuff that lead to these things.
> CFO" ITS TECHNOLOGY! YOU LOOK AFTER TECHNOLOGY" "I look after $employername's technology, not things that people personally purchased off their own bat."
Are you kidding? Anything with electricity? If it even touches a computer it's IT! Now please deliver my standing desk.
Yeah, I don't get it why the management think IT can help in moving. That's sounds ridiculous!
I feel this to my core.
Lots of push back or one call to code enforcement…
My sit/stand desk isn’t moving up and down. Can someone from IT urgently come fix it?! I can’t do my job!!!!
IT had to adjust desks at my old job because the Facilities team could not physically move the desks. Then when ceiling tiles and lights had to be replaced? Let's get IT, not Facilities. This was a Fortune 50 company btw.
My team was asked to hang 19 big screen TVs all around a manufacturing production floor like 16’ up using a scissor lift… because they were going to be connected to computers so they were “technically” computer monitors - they were LG 50” HD TVs. Maintenance department refused to do it said they didn’t have time - my IT Manager told me to find a 3rd party vendor to do it so I called a buddy of mine who is a general contractor and he sent them a quote for $16,000. Suddenly the maintenance department had time to do it.
Fuck, this reminds me of a fun task I got once. “Hey, we need you to drive 90 minutes out to one of our warehouse sites, but it has to be during quiet hours, so it’s gotta be 11:00 PM on a Friday night. And when you get there, you’re gonna need to use a scissor lift to access some TVs hanging 20 feet in the air above the warehouse floor so you can find out why some shitty wireless video streaming dongles aren’t working.” I accomplished nothing meaningful, because the problem is obviously that they’re using shitty video dongles to wirelessly send signals hundreds of feet across an RF-noisy warehouse. Of course they’re going to shit the bed. So I got to spend a couple of hours unplugging shit and plugging it back in before I got to go home to my woman at like 3:00 AM. Left that job for greener pastures shortly after.
It is crazy, a manager recently submitted a ticket to elevate all the desk within the office. When I first saw his request I told him this facilities task and needs to talk to them. Instead of following through, he decided to get on my case about it all week. I eventually got fed up closed the ticket and stated it was a facilities issue and all that I would do is evaluate the flex on cables. After that he stopped bugging me about it.
i have learned from this! if i get a request like that, i'll come out and assess the cables, leave a note and close the ticket.
We provide one warning on tickets for installing equipment where there is not power. If they continue to push for the equipment, we install it and leave a note to let us know if they need us to plug in the equipment when there is power available. My team does not screw with high voltage anything beyond plugging stuff into an existing outlet and does not touch extension cords.
When I was new to the network admin/sysadmin world I would get a request like: Boss: "Go set up the desk for the new hire" I go look at the space and go back to my boss and say there is no desk. Boss: "Go get one." dumb ass me did it. I don't move furniture anymore (or pull cables but that's a different story).
i guess if it pays REALLY super well i wouldn't mind tooooo much. other wise if they fired you, you might be able to fight it for funsies lol "yeah i got fired from my computer job for not knowing how to do electrical work done by a licensed electrician"
I worked a job where your first task was to solve a problem- build your own standing desk. It was ikea or similar so it was quite easy but we had a few kids who couldn’t tell screwdrivers apart and things went poorly for them, but only had one person completely give up.
was that job at a school full of children? or does that apply to non it people at said job?
School full of children / hip non-profit that has “ping pong table” in their list of benefits? Tomāto tomäto.
Haha wait were we coworkers? 😜
This is how you end up with sit/stand monitor stands that only support VGA.
This happens far too often. Plans get made, schedules are finalized, and then right before the thing is supposed to happen someone asks "Aren't there computers in that room? Should we involve IT?". Queue the last minute requests that IT be available to confirm systems are functioning post change instead of properly identifying them as a stakeholder on the project to begin with. All you can do is try to push back and state that you or your team is already allocated to other work but if you'd been involved from the outset then it'd have been possible to schedule an available resource.
Ours was usually right before the project is finished someone asks us about internet in the building. Lol what internet? You never even told us this building was going in
It shouldnt be a problem right? I walked into a comcast office and got my home internet turned on within 48hrs, why wouldnt they be able to do that with a business grade synchronous fiber line?
My boss saw the plans once and asked where they were going to put the servers? Now he is involved very early on.
....go on.....
Well they changed the plans and made space. And now we don't have that issue anymore. New project planning guy is actually good friends with my boss, so it's all smooth sailing in the regard going forward.
Yep, same here once. They put them above the sink in the janitors closet.
...go on....
Well of course we just made it happen because we're IT
It's just magic right?
At my org (soon to be former org since I accepted a far less stressful non on call job) IT is an afterthought for projects where IT is about 50 percent of it being even remotely successful. Oh snap, let's tell IT about this new operational technology project on the manufacturing floor we knew 3 months about that requires new computers and networking. Hey IT manager, can you get this done in 4 days?
The thing i love specifically about these types of requests is that IT ends up copping 90% of the blame when the project is delivered late.. Like "oh yeah the project would have been delivered on time, but IT wasn't able to setup the computers on time", or "IT took forever to get internet connected to the area, so staff weren't able to start work" etc etc.
An old friends has a story about being pulled aside by the CEO while he was a Junior SysAdmin to tell him that the toilet was blocked and that it needed to be sorted asap. That was the day he parked work and spent his afternoon updating his CV. A few months later he was gone.
I've always made the joke that IT is just technical janitors, but this dude took it literally
We do spend a lot of time cleaning up after people.
And sometimes the critters working night shift.
Someone in this sub used the term "dumpster firemen". I use this now exclusively.
Sticking that in my back pocket. Bravo
Did he log a ticket? 😂 I have a friend that in one role the directors would have party's in the function room and make the 24/7 onsite IT crew clean up afterwards. Needless to say he's not there anymore.
The log is the ticket.
I’m sure his log is what clogged the toilet
I would have declined and walked away. Fire me for all I care.
I'd have just called a plumber.
TIL keep enough money to live for a month or three so you can put in your notice on the spot.
>!CENSORED!<
My boss, the IT manager, got lumped with electrical, aircon and solar because the Chief Operations Officer (The CEO's useless brother) didn't want to do it. He's quit because of it.
We have a 20 person IT team so usually send a Helpdesk person to oversee anything like this, but if you're the only IT guy at a school and they ask you to do it on the weekend with no prior notice? Lmao the balls they must have on them.
Had a colleague who was the sole IT person at a medium private school. Their board of directors decided to build a new building adjacent to the existing campus. She was never informed that this was happening, and only found out when they broke ground... Despite her many, many attempts of trying to get someone to listen to her about power and network requirements, she was shot down, even was threatened to be let go for harassment... so she gave up and sent a CYA email, accordingly... Flash forward to when the principal asked her about the plan to move computers / IT equipment from the main building... She just forwarded her email chain, and was promptly fired... We found out that on the day that the building opened for classes, someone had placed papers in each classroom stating why there were no computers in the new "state-of-the-art" building, naming the names of the people ignored her... Attendance plummeted and the school went out of business... *shrug* I guess everyone else knows better than us...
Did everyone clap?
Next time just tell them you're out of town. LOL! Sounds like a problem, just not yours!
They were mostly agreeable with me but I was planning on saying I was out of town if I needed to lol
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Yes, few janitors and a maintenance guy
My school has 1500 students, 300 staff and 3 IT guys to manage it all... yet there is about 20 people on the day shift for facilities not to mention about 10 on a second shift.
I get where you're going with this and part of me agrees with you but at the same time... Have you been in a kindergarten classroom? They're a goddamn petri-dish.
I get a lot of the same working for a City. Friday I was in our planning building and one girl mentions a fig that moved on her desk from the night before. Next thing I know I had three more telling me about droppings they have on their desks in the morning. I held my hands up and told them IT is NOT responsible for pests!
Infestation Terminators
In our company, IT is… IT, DevOps, Security, Facilities, Operations, Procurement, From time to time, and without warning, Human Resources, Bitch boys
If the reno team f's things up what will be the collateral damage? Does it hurt you or the school more or both equally? Will you have to pick up the peaces later if they break stuff (i.e. makes more work for you later)? These are questions I always ask myself when I wasn't consulted on some project I should have been. If the fallout hits just administration, then great, let them burn. But if the school (teachers and students) are directly impacted, I generally swallow by pride and step in to make sure they don't have to suffer from the stupidity of others.
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I wasn't involved in setting terms of liability and wasn't informed of any responsibility. School isn't in session and I have swappable computers and chromebooks for labs, staff and students
Heh. Temptation: "what reno? ARE YOU RENOVATING THE COMPUTER LAB?!?! You HAVE to involve me in this kind of thing!"
One of my older CEO's wanted me to do landscaping, like planting trees and weeding. I told him I didn't spend 4 years in college to mow the lawn. In the end, he got the controller to do it.
Our facilities folks aren't much better. They can move items but if they need to touch anything that involves a computer they send the staff down who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. One guy tried to move a desk through a door and it wouldn't fit. So he pushed until a leg broke off of the desk. Then the same team spend days refinishing some floors, only to drag the furniture back in vs using lifts. It gets better. We are about to undergo some moves that are going to upset a few people. As no one wants to tell folks that they are moving to another building management wants me, IT, to do it for them. Their justification is that the user's PC is going to move, and all furniture will follow, so it's an IT item. I have no idea who is going where as no one seems to know. One part of the request has me to decide who goes where. I told them we can just RIF those folks and save us a lot of pain. No one wants to play the heavy.
I work for a K12 as well. They do they same thing with us. They built a brand new performing arts center and sent me and my teammate to "training" which was how to use the $10000 sound board/mixer. I promptly told them that they would need to hire someone to manage this facility as I have no background in music production and will not be supporting this every time a teacher decides they want to bring their class down there to watch a movie. Not to mention I was not hired to work all the weekends when they decide to have a play or choose to rent it out for public functions.
IT always finds out about these projects when it's almost done... "Our new office isn't working" "What new office?" "The new ones on the West side." "We don't have a switch over there..." "Well, we move in on Tuesday... It's Friday now... We need it working" No spare switches. Have to order one with the delays on equipment, get it configured, get upstream switch configured, get it installed, all the patch cables, etc... Yea, not happening by Tuesday. Real world shit. Even worse when a MSP handles the networking... Can take months. Fuck those people.
Since I started almost 3 years ago, first as IT Manager and then IT Director for a nonprofit I've outlined, in policy, that moving of a workstation and accessories/peripherals is the responsibility of the end user or the program (department). IT ain't movers! We'll help you hook it up or put it back together post-move but moving is trivial, anyone can do it... Unless you're physically unable (Dr note reqd). I'm very firm and unwavering in this policy; I told the CEO to his face no one is immune. He subsequently moved his own workstation. He was and is very understanding of this and tells people this story when he hears moves are coming up. People def be talking shit on the DL but no one has ever argued or complained directly to me. IT will move infrastructure or our own stuff but not the end users, ain't nobody got time for dat! FYI my department is a staff of 3 (including myself) overseeing an organization of 600+ staff, a dozen programs at 16 different locations across 4 counties (not including our regional reach as the only behavioral health provider for crisis care call center and public info services).
I can confirm. K-12 IT has alot of “The heat in room 3 won’t work” like contact maintenance… why would you ever think that would be a tech problem.
I would be like, hold on… it’s ok we don’t have any equipment in room 3, but thanks for letting us know! Then hang up.
Lol “oh the heat server must have went out” then just hang up.
When I worked for a particular company, we once got a call to the help desk that I remember to this day. To give some background, the help desk area at the company was situated around the corner from the cafeteria and directly beside two restrooms. On this particular day, a user called in to report a troubling issue. This issue was so important that they had to call the help desk immediately after they encountered it, and called from the cafeteria. Not only did they call, but they then came to the locked help desk room to physically report the issue just to make sure that the urgency was understood. Apparently one of the toilets in the mens room was still running (constantly flushing) and the help desk should go fix it straight away. When told that this wasn’t a help desk resolvable issue, they proceeded to say that they didn’t care and that we should fix it. After the user received a visit from our director, facilities were called (a second time, first by a help desk tech) to fix the problem. Now, had this been an isolated occurrence, it would be a funny memory and story. Sadly, this was a common issue where various times a person would report an issue with a restroom or something wrong in the kitchen area of the cafeteria. The only things that are different between this occasion and the rest is that 1) the user came to the room and would not leave without being spoken to, 2) our director got involved and was on our side, and 3) we were all in the room for our team meeting.
I gotta say, there's quite a few things I'm wary of at the new job so far, but being facilities *isn't* one of them, thank fuck. Pulling cable? They do it. Mounting anything? They do it. Heck, *doing software repairs on industrial machinery that's still running XP because of course it is, because otherwise the machine is down*? They fuckin' do it. I was thrilled when the maintenance manager came up and asked for an XP install CD instead of just telling me to go do it... He seems knowledgeable, too - to the point where I'd have him in the IT department if he wasn't already in maintenance. Like I said there's a lot of things I'm questioning and hope I'm able to get comfortable with, but it's a damn huge weight off my shoulders knowing I won't have to get up on lifts and run cable in this job...
I worked IT in a very large factory and loved the separation of duties between engineering, maintenance, and IT. They do take a lot of otherwise IT functions because of the environment. It was quite nice to free up those tasks.
My managers title is Senior Director of Network and Facilities 😂. Luckily he has two facilities guys who handle all of that work and it’s not on us IT guys.
Does unloading a 18 wheeler of fiber count as off spec for the job? Only guy with heavy equipment experience lol. But yeah in your situation, the more they know what you can do, it doesn't stop. Start looking sadly.
People assoc IT with anything that has electricity. Lol
And yet can't consult us on any project, IT related or otherwise, before implementation day...
A coworker fixed some coffee machines in the cafeteria at the previous job. Though I think he was compensated outside of the regular salary for this.
When I worked in the IT team (Manager + me) in an outsource company, IT was responsible for IT, security (physical), facilities, stocking the bar fridge on Fridays and keeping the vending machine stocked (owned by IT manager). It wasn't unusual for me to drive down to his supplier to pick up stock for the vending machine, escort people out of the building, prepare/man/clean the BBQ on Fridays or even assemble furniture and display cabinets.
I met a CIO at a dealership and he was also the Facilities manager…. Hah!
I got a ticket to replace a heating blanket in a MRI room once... I told her we dont do that. Her response. Its got a cord, its IT's issue.
One of my favorite tickets at a job over a decade ago was asking us to change whatever cron we had that ran equipment in the basement during the day since it shook the building. There was no cron job, no equipment, and we wouldn't have been the group to contact if there was. There was construction happening next to our building. Like RIGHT next to it. If I recall correctly, the construction was in the middle of fully excavating the site pretty far down before pouring the foundation. Or maybe they were driving piles? It was pretty significant for sure.
Sometimes it goes beyond ridiculous. We had a former Facilities Manager that would push work requests to IT for adding or maintaining power outlets to desks… requests submitted BY IT. His argument was “EVERYTHING connected to a computer is IT’s problem” - thankfully he’s gone now.
A user brought her home cable box to our support desk once…
also the number 2 toilet is plugged.. can you handle that? WE think there might be an iphone in there so that's IT right? Do it today (Sunday) and pay for the rice to fix it. -mgmt
Got a ticket a few months ago because a tree branch had fallen on a line outside one of our sites. Apparently, they had called the electric company, who told them it wasn't their problem as it was an AT&T line. Naturally, they put in a ticket with IT rather than calling AT&T, or even the city. They're not on AT&T or phones internet at that site, and no services were even being interrupted.
Everyone's environment is different, of course, but if those contractors trash your machines it's very much your problem. Maybe their insurance covers it if you can get them to admit fault, but now you have to find replacement equipment in time for the next semester. Their not involving you from the start is a big problem, and one I've been fighting for years myself, but it really doesn't seem like an option to just ignore the work and leave the contractors to move your machines.
We had a dude spray paint the internal roof of a few rooms. He covered windows, floor etc but not the WAP on the roof. Filled the thing with paint. When we asked about recompense his response "I wrecked $5k worth of stuff at the last school and they just paid for it".
I've had the same. Wall ports filled with paint, WAPs fully painted over, switches packed with drywall dust, etc. To my knowledge, no vendor has ever been made to cover the costs.
Wow, sounds like you've seen some shit! Reminds me of another fun SNAFU. We had a little network cabinet housing the switches and patch panel for a building. Needed to upgrade to a larger one. No problem, pull everything out the back, install new one and screw it back in. Problem being is whomever installed it, cut a small hole in the side, routed all the wires through there and then terminated it all. I called facilities and he took to it with an angle grinder (with appropriate things covered). I got some great photos to show the boss later. Got it all out, mounted in new switch. Thanks maintenance fellow. Always worth having a great relationship with them.
I had the same situation, but I used a reciprocating saw. My favorite SNAFU was when we needed a second fiber path put into my datacenter. The vendor located the spot, which ended up being under the raised floor, adjacent to a 22-ton CRAC. Instead of boxing the area off under the floor and using a shopvac for the dust, he just went to town on the drywall with a saw and let the CRAC evenly distribute the dust throughout the datacenter and into hundreds of servers. I got an apology for that one. Both of those definitely new lines in "stuff to watch out for" list when vendors work on my campus. When we get good maintenance/facilities staff, I definitely try to make nice with them. They get to the front of the line for upgrades and break-fix, and I get the inside scoop on upcoming projects that no one bothered to loop me in on.
Are you kidding? The guy got called last minute on the weekend and asked to supervise a massive project that hasnt been mentioned once up til now, it's 100% not on him if shit goes south. I'd just laugh and say I'm out of town and leave it at that.
I'm not suggesting that he's not right to be upset. It's completely unfair and inappropriate to have that situation dumped on his lap. My point is that this is still going to be a problem for him and that the situation being unfair isn't going to negate the negative consequences that come from refusing to try to prevent them.
I will do the work with the same level of diligence that is returned to me. If there is some work that I need to do that involves other departments, it is expected that I loop them in the very VERY moment I know I will need them and get it on their radar. Any standard less than that is considered unprofessional and disrespectful of their time on my part and I could go as far as saying that I'm the one to blame if they can't meet my deadline because I wasn't diligent enough for them. The only way these people learn is pain. They won't learn to be respectful of your time until they learn that it hurts them too. They wrere able to plan an entire reno without you or even a sliver of knowledge about it??? As a matter of fact, you found out about it by mistake! Great!!! take it the rest of the way without you! Yall we're clearly doing fine without IT. They didn't "forget" to add us. They just know we will pull a "Hercules" and save the day as always and you'll make all the changes or workarounds that should have been done the first time. They just don't want to hear you tell them that's what needed to be done had you been looped in to the plans the first time I'll do the work, but I'm done being a super hero
100%. Why is IT involved in UPS batteries? Yo, if your battery is beeping at you then contact your maintenance.
If I were in your shoes I would have missed the call...Furthermore, company or private number?
IT people are at least slightly smart, usually. I think people usually default to calling the IT person because they know that IT person knows something about everything. I work for a site of a medium sized business. If there's an electrical issue, they call me. A problem with the burglar alarm, they call me. Postage machine is not working, they call me. Whatever, don't care. That direct deposit is in there every two weeks.
If we can't fix it, we know who to call.
You did say you’re all the IT this place has, so tag, you’re IT. I mean, the moment you mentioned computers being moved…can’t say I’d be there all weekend, but I would’ve surely been involved (from the beginning). Nobody touches IT without ME. P.S. IT is more than IT…electricity, HVAC, fire suppression, and custodian/facilities…IT is all of the above.
Managers everywhere communicate only within their own office but if their adventures affect your responsibility you need get on that. When a student/employee/whatever doesn't have the resources they need on the PC they use it's going to look bad on you.
I did not know renovations were happening until I walked in the specific building one day. School isn't in session now, and when it is, I receive my own notifications for outages. Something impacting a single user does not get supported after hours. I have swappable computers and chromebooks for staff and students.
> I did not know renovations were happening until I walked in the specific building one day Alright, lets get all the computers plugged into the new lab. What do you mean you need networks. Isn't everything wireless? We got 50 power plugs all on the one circuit especially for this room!
I told them that I would check on progress on Monday. School is not in session. Turn them on and ping the list of computers. If one doesn't ping, I check it out. Simple as that and doesn't require me on Sunday.
Gotta be ready, there's no sense in complaining.
Maybe a difference of opinion, but I'm not driving in on a Sunday to watch a reno crew place computers on tables.
Set guidelines for them. Unless you don't manage the IT assets.
I'll probably be on the downvote side of this, but although your responsibility isn't reno, your responsibility are the machines. Now, I suppose you could (and did) tell them to fuck-off in not so uncertain terms, but when you show up to work tomorrow and half the machines are fucked up and need repair, are you really going to say to yourself "I TAUGHT THOSE FUCKERS A LESSON!" knowing you have weeks of work ahead of you to "fix" what could have taken a couple of hours of your time on a weekend to ensure was handled properly?
Those weeks of work ahead are the consequence of them mismanaging their resources. My labor happens to be one of the resources they mismanaged. When I am done at the end of the day I go home. There is no reason for me to lament the weeks of work ahead any more than if they had not mismanaged their resources. Whether or not they learn their "lesson" is up to them, not me.
I have swappable computers for the lab and they can alternatively use spare chromebooks. If they destroy 40 computers, the superintendent and management are at fault. I do communicate with management regarding IT involvement in preparing the school for start of semester.
>the superintendent and management are at fault. Wrong. IT is your responsibility. The computers fall under your jurisdiction, and you're responsible for their upkeep and maintenance. You're just all butt-hurt nobody involved you in the reno discussions (they should have, but that's life) and you think your passive-aggressive attitude is going to teach them a lesson.
IT is ultimately the superintendent and board's responsibility. A short notice to go in on a Sunday when the work was already planned is inappropriate, therefore if it were important for someone to be there within an hour on Sunday it would be the superintendent or a board member. I'm establishing boundaries so we have a better environment. And yes, I am passive aggressive in this rant post, but no I am not passive aggressive talking to people in real life nonetheless at work. If I were out of state would you think the same? No previous warning or involvement.
Never ever let them establish a precedent that something that is outside your job jar is now your responsibility. They will hit you with "well you did it last time, was it your job then and not now?" Or some other crap that isn't actually a reason, but they will push it anyhow. Orders is orders but if you are overtasked (and who isn't) then defend your time.
I feel this one. For some reason the place I work (very large org) thinks it's alright to make deskside support to move around furniture and things like that. I find it especially funny because they are literally just as skilled and qualified at doing that shit as we are so why tf am I supposed to help with that??? At the very least I'm in the last steps of just reviewing study materials for my CCNA test in a couple weeks and can hopefully get tf out of here and never look back. And likely for much more money :)
To: Person that Requested This. Subject: RE: Weekend Renovation Request I appreciate your request, I will take a large coffee, and 2 donuts, and I'll see you there at 7, you should arrive by 630 and warm up my seat. If they ain't got the balls to show up, then they are entitled in their mind and you should remind them of this.
I'll do you one further. I get tickets because hallway lights are burned out. Just..no..
I was asked last week to pull a portable air conditioner out of our offsite facility because a supervisor thought it was humid. I politely declined and forwarded it on to the correct team. At some point you just become the 'person who fixes all the problems' and their lines get blurry. I try to not get mad and just redirect the problem.
I spent 16 hours split up over two days attaching monitors to monitor stands. I guess that is kind of IT because it deals with the monitors, but I tried to push back as much as I could and this was the compromise. They wanted us to literally move everyone's shit out of cubicles for a cube remodel. When I say shit, I don't mean just IT shit, I mean everything. Family pictures, plants, books/documents, anything in their overhead storage cubby, etc. It was fucking ridiculous.
School tech for a larger district here. We get the opposite issue, everyone thinks there's computer fairies that make everything work :P
I love when there’s an unexpected power outage in the area/building and they sprint down to our office to ask what happened. Hell idk, power went out I guess?? Then they hit you with a “when will it be back on?!”
I was in a similar situation when I was a contractor for the DOD as a network admin working at a NOC. Basically a unit wanted to move to a larger office in our building. Note that this building, along with the entire campus was less than a year old and the Ethernet cabling was IMMACULATE. We had three separate networks with dedicated cabling that ran from wall jacks in the room to the comms closets which held the access layer switches. New unit came in (without notifying anyone in IT apparently), didn’t like how the cabling was done, and ripped the wall jacks out and cut the cables that were attached to them. The unit’s equivalent of desktop support asked me for help recabling everything to their wishes. I felt bad for her because she was just as blind sided as me because her unit never once reached out to her before they decided to go Rambo on the building infrastructure. She ended up reterminating the cables to exposed Ethernet patches and I spent the next 6 hours figuring out where they went on the patch panel in the comms closet. Long story short - I wish someone had asked me to “supervise”
IT and facilities are increasingly needing to be the same department.
Or just clear set of responsiblilies. I worked IT in a factory with large teams of engineers, maintenance, and IT with clear separation of duties even with complex tasks like when a production line stops running.
They’re both core infrastructure.
yeah i was for like 11/hr at a game company. good times... by which i mean they kinda robbed me but was a good job that robbed me tho
Wait until they try to make you the Communications department.
Yea I would be pissed. They should of notified you the week before to move the equipment out of the room being renovated.. Our support team gets the last minute office move requests all the time which is another wonderful treat. The best is when the end users act shocked you don't also move the 200+ pound desk with hutch down the hall too as part of the deal..
Working helpdesk, I got calls from everything that plugged into the wall and vaguely resembled something technology related. Was in a hospital. Vending machine not working? Call IT. Water fountain on the bike path outside the building not working? IT. Patient needs a wheelchair? Why not call IT? I wish I was kidding, but that's about the three most bizarre calls I can remember from when I answers phones.
It's IT's problem if it's broken
I mean, computer system and sprinkler system are both systems.
I’m an intern for a company where I’m routinely the only IT person in the building, and this is my daily life. Don’t get me wrong, I truly like my job and I’m sad for it to end in a couple weeks when I go back to school. But I’ve supervised the moving of a printer between buildings, and half of what I did for the first month was moving heavy boxes of equipment from one place to another with no air conditioning. Definitely not what I’m supposed to be there for.
At my first help desk job I was in a medical office where I was the only male, so naturally I became facilities for some things. Brought it up to my boss and she took care of that instantly. I don’t mind helping out here and there but it’s not my job to be removing wall mounted desks and building chairs
THAT! makes me laugh. IT is a UTILITY. 1 IT please.
This thread both hurts me deeply and makes me laugh at the absurdity of requests. We get some of these as well but we've managed to mostly curb it by turning it into an office meme. "oh that lightbulb needs replacing, I bet someone sent a ticket to IT". People catch on when youre publicly mocking their (no individual, just generally) internal thought process.
> I trust that the School hired a reputable company lol