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Defusing the Threat of Disgruntled IT Workers
snydeq writes "According to computer forensics expert witness Keith Jones, for every logic bomb on the network or Terry Childs case that makes it into the press, there are 98 other incidents of disgruntled IT pros damaging company assets that you never hear about. And though most IT workers are too professional to take out their grievances on the systems they've worked so hard to maintain, unless management takes note of the growing discontent in the IT workplace, it may fall victim to the unspoken 'ticking time bomb' lurking within its call for IT to do more with less, InfoWorld reports. Drastically understaffed, battered by interminable hours and impossible demands, many IT folks are being pushed to the brink by management that neither trusts nor supports them."
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Firing someone? For goodness sake's be sure to do it in a way that allows them to get unemployment payments. I'm been fired from several jobs over the past twenty years. I'm not a bad worker. But this industry (electronics/computers/high tech) goes through employees like rubbers in a 5 dollar whorehouse and then tosses them away like used Kleenex when they've served their purpose.
Let's see. I got fired from Hewlett-Packard for having a picture of Claudia Schiffer in a evening gown (not nude) on my PC. 'Creating an environment conducive to sexual harassment' even though I was the only person working in the room.
Hmm... I got fired from a small medical equipment company in silicon valley when my boss overheard me say that 'white smocks are for white schmucks'. The boss decided that all employees had to wear white coats to work; blue jeans and button down shirts were no longer allowed. I actually got an unemployment check when I told the hearing judge that 'forcing Asian workers to wear white smocks was an insult because in VietNam and China only corpses were wrapped in white. The boss was telling the workers that they were nothing more than dead meat."
Oh and I got fired from Tektronix when I got blasted right in the eye with melted wax from a printer. No one noticed that the drain on eye-wash safety-station directed water directly onto a power strip. Of course it was all my fault. As always.
I got fired from the German milling machine company where I had worked for six years when I demanded that the American employees get the same stock-option package as the German employees when the company went public. Since the USA branch was a subsidiary, wholly-owned by the German parent. The German manager claimed that he felt threatened and intimidated: he was six foot-eight inches and I'm five-foot seven. Ja-Ja.
My point is that in a non-unionized cowboy industry like electronics people get fired constantly for practically nothing. If it hasn't happened to you, then it will sooner or later.
If you want to seriously decrease the possibility that someone will 'go postal' when you fire them, then you must do in a way that enables them to get unemployment insurance. Believe me the weekly checks go a long way to 'smooth out the transition process'. It's a no-brainer and it doesn't cost the company any money. I can't understand why managers would pride themselves on firing someone in a way that makes it impossible to get unemployment. But they do.
Management (particularly the paranoid ones) have an odd idea about what constitutes a 'logic bomb'.
I left a job about 5 years ago in which I was responsible for maintaining half a dozen servers. To make my job a little easier, I had set up a watchdog system which would check the health of the system periodically and page me in the event a server went down. I had it set to page me and e-mail me both at work as well as my home address.
When I was leaving, I gave my replacement instructions on what to do, including which file to edit to replace my e-mail addresses with his. To date, I still receive the occasional 'server down/server up' e-mail at home. When I ran into a fellow engineer (still with the company), I told him about the situation (in the context of how screwed up the company still is). He got a concerned look on his face and told me I should contact their IT people immediately to get the situation remedied. Or they might run across one of these messages and figure it was a part of some hack. I replied that the only thing it demonstrated was the companie's inability to follow written instructions.
Have gnu, will travel.
Insultingly low pay? Fresh out of a 4-year college, your average salary will be 50% more than a teacher, and they need a masters!
Nearly illegal hours? Care to guess how long doctors, lawyers, engineers, and managers work? I'll give you a hint, it's also a lot.
Disrespectful management? Everyone gets this from time to time. If it's that bad, quit. Not all managers are disrespectful.
Jobs moving overseas? Go tell some layed off factory workers. I'm sure they'd love to hear how much you're suffering.
Fact is, IT workers have it far, far better than the average American/citizen of (insert your country here). You make good money, and your job isn't physically dangerous. Yes, it's not all butterflies and cupcakes, but no job is, barring rockstars and whatnot. Try being more positive, and realizing just how well off you are. It goes a long way.
One of my many ex brothers-in-law is an MBA. 30 years ago I was talking to him over beer about *exactly* the same problem that this article is about. No respect. No compensation for work done. No upward path in the company...
His response? Yeah, in business school they teach us that engineers are stupid. If you were a business major you would know what to do. When the boss says "do it" the correct response is "what's in it for me?" And if they don't answer with what you want you don't do the extra work.
Work 75 hours a week for a fixed salary? He thought that was just too cool. He loved the idea of getting nearly two peoples worth of work for the cost of one. So what if it ruins your health. They are planning to get rid of you before your bad health starts to raise their costs.
So... about a month later my boss told our group we were going on mandatory 60 hour weeks and we would be required to work Saturdays. Don't like it? To bad. In an open meeting I asked why I should do it. He said if you don't you'll be fired. I said "OK." If you fire all of us you won't get the project done. The rest of the staff caught on to the fact that we had the power. A couple of hours later we were told we would get 50% extra pay for working 50% extra hours.
Sounds great... I was fired within a month of the end of the project.
I learned the lesson. Management loves screwing employees. They get off on it the same we techies get off on learning and making things work. The techies have the real power and the managers know it. They love the fact that we won't use our power. If you want to be treated well by management you have to organize and be willing to shut the company down.
You want to be treated fairly? Quit your bitchin' and organize. Of course, we're so tough and love that libertarian fighter jock image so we don't organize... And the managers laugh and laugh and laugh at us all the way to the bank. And we keep being treated like the idiots we are.
When I was a technical director in the game business my manager called his business plan "burning babies". You hire an out of school power fool and work them until they can't take it any more. Then they quit. You don't even have to fire them.
Stonewolf
Let's also not forget the malevolently incompetent. As an example, I blew away a bit of important data through not checking my rsync flags. I immediately tracked down the data's owner and explained the situation so that we could take measures.
I didn't think much of it at the time, but a coworker later pointed out that I could have not said a word, closed the shell window, and they'd never have known who did it; the fact that I didn't showed "character." I'm not sure if I agree with that part of it, but I DO know an awful lot of people I've worked with in the past who would have hidden it and never said a word about it...
...Being your own boss isn't sleeping in till noon and taking days off when you want...
From my experience it's even worse than that.
When I was contracting I didn't take *any* vacation days. I found it hard to let billable hours slip through my fingers, mostly because I was never quite sure how long the current situation would last, when the next contract contracting opportunity would arise, etc.