Getting Rid of Staff With High Access?

HikingStick writes "I've been in the tech field for over 15 years. After more than nine years with the same company, I've been asked to step in and establish an IT department for a regional manufacturing firm. I approached my company early, providing four weeks notice (including a week of pre-scheduled [and pre-approved] vacation time). I have a number of projects to complete, and had planned to document some of the obscure bits of knowledge I've gleaned over the past nine years for the benefit of my peers, so I figured that would give me plenty of time. That was on a Friday. The following Monday, word came down from above that all of my privileged access was to be removed — immediately. So, here I sit, stripped of power with weeks ahead of me. From discussions with my peers in other companies, I know that cutting off high-privilege users is common, but usually in conjunction with a severance offer (to keep their hands off the network during those final weeks, especially if there is any ill-will). Should I argue for restored access, highlight the fact that I am currently a human paperweight, request a severance package, or simply become the most prolific Slashdot poster over the next few weeks? Does your company have a policy/process for dealing with high-privilege users who give notice? What is it, and do you make exceptions?"

Comments

Re:Back pain

[HEbGb]

You're an asshole.

You ARE doing your job

[EriktheGreen]

What's wrong is your attitude.

You're not entitled to be given interesting work, worthwhile work, or any work to do. The company has no obligation to you other than to pay you once you tell them you're leaving.

They actually have no obligation to anything else while you work there, but I digress.

Get over yourself... you're actually complaining publicly because your ego is bruised. How dare they take away your access before your last minute! Don't they know how valuable you are? It's insulting.

Get over it.

Re:It's really the company's decisionMANAGEMENT BO

[Nom du Keyboard]

You are leaving. The company is far less interested in what you can do for them in your last few weeks than they are in learning how to live without you. That basically requires that they cut you out of the loop as soon as possible.

Is this in some high-level manager's training handbook? At the top level of management do the courses teach you especially how to handle I.T. departures as a special case? This approach appears so common that one is left to believe that it must be being taught in secret (secret so that I.T. doesn't rebel overall when they find out about it) to managers everywhere.

Production processes don't run on user accounts.

[jotaeleemeese]

Period.

End of discussion.

The original poster is a cowboy of the profession.