He came saw and conquered
Posted by XeonVega@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 35 comments
So I`m an IT-Administrator working for a company in the automotive industry and we recently hired a new head of sales.
The Guy was.. lets say very motivated in every single aspect.
So, he decided to simple do a complete changeover of all the hardware in his department that was originally scheduled by us all by himself. In some cases I would appreciate this kind of help but in that case he really went all out.
He simply removed whole network sockets with a screwdriver because he couldnt figure out how to get the cable of of the sockets.
But my personal highlight was him simply trying to remove a power strip mounted to a conference table.
He assured me he did do this before and about 2 mins after that sentence, all the power in the building went out which led to us restart everything in waves since just putting the power fuse back in position would´nt work (everything would try to start at the same time)
The end of the story is that he got a ban from doing anything technical by himself again.
Help is nice, but only if you know what you´re doing!
-- my first post and english is not my first language, hopefully it meets expectations!
johndcochran@reddit
attributed to Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord 1878-1943
Stryker_One@reddit
I love these "English is not my first language" posts, and then what follows is the most flawless English ever written.
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
Haha thanks, but it's true tho.
WinginVegas@reddit
Had one like this years ago, also on the days of WIN 3.1. I had set up a network for a law firm, this being in the days of Tokenring networks. Had everything working, one machine as the file server (okay repository, not really a server) and all the secretaries mapped to save files there, with a tape backup to protect the files.
One of the ladies had her husband drop by and she mentioned something about the new network (better than the sneaker net they had before) and he "knew" about networks because his office had one. So to "improve" things, he copied his autoexec.bat, config.sys and startup files into her computer, which of course didn't have the right settings for the law firm or mapping. Her computer stopped working at all, couldn't boot properly and she was dead in the water. So he "fixed" two other computers because he was sure that this would get them all working.
Needless to say, nothing was working and filing dates were missed because they couldn't access case files. I had to rush there that night and redo all of the computers with the corrected files and then came in the next day to explain that no one was to do anything to any of the computers.
She called him while I was there, on speaker, with the two attorneys who owned the firm and told him he was not allowed to touch anything ever again. He was certain that something else HAD to be wrong because those files worked perfectly at his company.
artieart99@reddit
Funny story, glad he got put in his place.
Your English is fine. You communicate better English than most Americans would be able to communicate in your native language.
boo_jum@reddit
Is he banned from using tools now?
one_tarheelfan@reddit
Threat of immediate termination if he touched more than a mouse and keyboard. You don't need "his kind of help," ever.
nighthawke75@reddit
Picking heavy things up, moving them, putting heavy things down.
Perfect, hired!
Just about what his interview in a nutshell was.
Reinventing_Wheels@reddit
Are you sure this guy wasn't a mole working for your competition, trying to bring down your whole operation?
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
The way he managed head of sales gave me the impression at some day
bd82001@reddit
I had two idiots decide they were going to complete a planned office reorganization over the weekend so they could be the heros.
Unfortunately, around 10 minutes into their victory celebration, the telecom contractor arrived and asked who the morons were that moved all the furniture from its carefully planned positions and covered all the underfloor cable access points.
While blame was being laid upon the nonparticipants, the electricians showed up and joined the commotion.
The outcome was that both contractors left, big boss had to pay a penalty because the site wasn't ready, and temporary laborers were hired to put the furniture back in its planned positions. The contractors went to other jobs and charged their emergency rate to come back on Wednesday. Original laborers scheduled for Tuesday were rescheduled to Thursday and charged a rescheduling fee.
Oh, and because we were a state government agency closely related to a federal government three-letter agency, all the connections were hardwired. The boss told everyone they could take leave for the day, but most of them declined. They were then told to report to a different site (a warehouse with some office space and a classroom) and work from there.
Once everyone was at the warehouse, it was discovered that because of security controls, about half the people couldn't do any work. Panicked phone calls were made to the central IT organization, which told them it would at least Wednesday before all the coordination necessary for the changes could be completed, and that they really should have paid attention at the business continuity meetings.
The final result was Dumb and Dumber were the heroes for taking the initiative, the people who developed the plan for the move were all idiots, all the technology people were too stupid to live, the finance manager almost had a stroke (figuratively) die to the cost overrun, and everyone spent two days surfing the web (even those who could actually work).
SidratFlush@reddit
He wasn't immediately fired and escorted from the building?
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
No, actually it was his first week at the company and HR saw it more like "wanting to help the company/us"
Geminii27@reddit
By being incredibly stupid? By not asking before destroying multiple pieces of equipment? And they hired him as the Head of anything?
Tyr0pe@reddit
Bananas are pretty complex! Banana DNA is like, 60% similar to human DNA.
MaDNiaC@reddit
/u/Geminii27 has been oddly quiet since this comment dropped.
Geminii27@reddit
You're right, bananas are too complicated for that guy.
SidratFlush@reddit
Well it's certainly a training budget write off I guess.
RamblingReflections@reddit
I initially read this as “immediately fried,” and tbh I’m surprised that’s not what happened when he tried playing with live power strips. 🤦♀️
Gadgetman_1@reddit
I would have been banging on the door to HR the moment he started on the network sockets. Getting those replaced is expensive!
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
Yup, unfortunatly I saw it after the damage was already done, I found it funny at first because it was so unbelievable stupid
IAMA_Plumber-AMA@reddit
Sounds like a meth-head I once knew, he'd get tweaked out and try to take apart random appliances with a flat-head screwdriver at like 3AM.
Langager90@reddit
This post reminded me of a tale by Selben.
If you're in the mood for a bit of managerial horror, read on: https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/6nbvfc/well_aint_this_nice_yall/
Environmental_Pin95@reddit
When people not in IT want a pc inventory LOL! I just smile at them and walk away.
ManosVanBoom@reddit
What did he do with the power strip to cause the outage?
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
He tried to unscrew some of the screws at the power strip while not turning of the power first
ALazy_Cat@reddit
Please be joking
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
The pinnacle of human evolution
anomalous_cowherd@reddit
Well, the pinnacle of that strand of it, at least. It won't go any further.
fitzburger96@reddit
Natural selection at its finest
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
Oh and btw, is it Okay to post multiple storys in a day?
I´m a long time reader and work in IT for around 9 Years now, so I have some stories to tell
nl_dhh@reddit
As far as I know there's no rule against it, so feel free!
Looking forward to hearing more about this genius.
XeonVega@reddit (OP)
Unfortunately the next one would probably be about a user that, instead of opening new mails when they arrive, opens a new outlook instance for every mail.
WhiskyTequilaFinance@reddit
Ohhh, I see we have similar colleagues! Looking forward to new stories. 😀
VanorDM@reddit
Many years ago I got a call about Word not working. Get there and the PC boots up to
*System disk not found. *
This was back in the 90s the days of Win 3.1
Apparently a guy decided to help the cute girl fix her word problems by formatting the HD.
had to format as a system disk, and then reinstall everything.
Good news is that Word worked when I was done...