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I came within inches of being plastered across the front of an SUV when crossing Pennsylvania Ave one night in DC -- it would've taken quite some time to figure out what it was that I did to my systems, as management never gave me a chance to document everything. (I kept a quote up on my wall from my boss's boss : "Documentation is phase two")

Last year, my roommate's dad, the senior network engineer for the Prince George's County (Maryland) public school system died of a heart attack a week before classes started back up ... I know he was obsessive enough to have documentation, but I have no idea how useful the documentation's going to be to anyone else who didn't understand the ins and outs of the system.

...

So yes, these sort of things happen. Although my final end at that job was probably closer to Terry Childs, but it's a long story. I'll wait to make a judgement on this case, as if it were anything like my situation, he may have been set up to fail. (I've since been told that my project manager was told to harass me 'til I quit ... it's possible there was more going on under the surface than people want to admit).

They'll think that you've been padding your estimates, and will start setting unrealistic time constraints (as the management in the original poster's question has been doing).

When you're dealing with management like what is described, if you manage to finish it in 3 days, you don't want to be seen as a miracle worker, or they'll start dumping you on multiple time-critical projects, each with timelines that are unrealistic if you were dedicated to them full time.

Do the good work, do a good job, but if you're dealing with idiot management, as was described, you'll want to make sure that you write some extra unit tests, and review the documentation a half dozen times for spelling errors, so you don't come in too far under your estimate.

Oh ... and I'm speaking from experience. I had the same sort of situation as the original poster, and I asked for clarification as to whom I was supposed to be reporting to -- the answer I got back was 'any manager with an emergency'. I asked who defines what's an emergency, and asked if it was only (insert list of 38 managers in our division), or if it applied to the whole company.

If you're in that type of situation, get the hell out as soon as you can -- it's not worth the stress. Sure, it's nice to sit back and relax while you're collecting unemployment for a 'use of sarcasm' incident (it's a long story), but it's easier if you never let it get that far.

Can anyone provide 'wish-I-would-have-known' issues regarding the politics, expectations, and monetary realities of working for a major department within a large University?

http://www.annoying.org/gw/2004_gap_survey.txt

http://www.annoying.org/helpdesk/96may17.dogbert

http://www.annoying.org/wh40k/rhino/

I mean, when I think 'double duty', I think of it doing two things at once. And well, in the case of a computer, it's heavy, it generates heat, and it may be strong enough to prop something up.

So in that case, I'd have to say that I've used a Wang before to keep pizza warm in the machine room (it was just the right size on top for a large pizza, and conveniently table height).

I've seen towers used as stools, older generation systems (Honeywell, Wang, etc), used as tables, but in those cases, they're normally not still running, or they're running next to nothing, so they might as well not be doing their primary job.

Then we get to what I think of as 'recycling' more than 'double duty', which normally involves keeping the system from being able to do its primary function because it's doing something else. Fishtanks, tables, shelves (IBM 7171 terminal server; Wang) and beer fridges all seem to be fairly common.

(Please note -- there's more than one set of pictures, and they're still a year old...the house may be messy, but it's no where near where it used to be, now that my brother took most of his stuff to college, and isn't using my place for storage. I don't have any recent pictures, so the Honeywell's not there yet, and the reel-to-reel tape drive's buried in crap in the pictures I have)

I mean, when I think 'double duty', I think of it doing two things at once. And well, in the case of a computer, it's heavy, it generates heat, and it may be strong enough to prop something up.

So in that case, I'd have to say that I've used a Wang before to keep pizza warm in the machine room (it was just the right size on top for a large pizza, and conveniently table height).

I've seen towers used as stools, older generation systems (Honeywell, Wang, etc), used as tables, but in those cases, they're normally not still running, or they're running next to nothing, so they might as well not be doing their primary job.

Then we get to what I think of as 'recycling' more than 'double duty', which normally involves keeping the system from being able to do its primary function because it's doing something else. Fishtanks, tables, shelves (IBM 7171 terminal server; Wang) and beer fridges all seem to be fairly common.

(Please note -- there's more than one set of pictures, and they're still a year old...the house may be messy, but it's no where near where it used to be, now that my brother took most of his stuff to college, and isn't using my place for storage. I don't have any recent pictures, so the Honeywell's not there yet, and the reel-to-reel tape drive's buried in crap in the pictures I have)