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IT Management Always Blames the Worker Bees
An anonymous reader writes "A refreshing dose of sanity, It Management Fail: Always Blame the Worker Bees counters Security fail: When trusted IT people go bad, which advocates the usual reactive and punitive Big Brother measures for keeping those icky, untrustworthy IT staffers in line. Management really needs to look in the mirror when IT screws up."
If you do your job correctly, then everything runs smoothly and you don't get any attention (or credit) at all. But as soon as something goes wrong, it's obviously because YOU FUCKED UP, and you get LOTS of attention! Other than money, can anyone cite an upside to working in IT?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Sure they might do that.. If they were well paid and treated with respect instead of treated like a replaceable nameless cog in a giant machine.
Silly... i know... But hey.. If you want respect and loyality from the worker... You have to show them some yourself.
The workers are learning the lesson business is teaching them. Get whatever you can by any means. The only thing that matters is the bottom line.
Don't forget the ITExampleCorp that has 1500 legit copies of XP running on 1500 machines, but when the BSA come a-knockin' can't definitively prove that each machine has a valid license. Say, the machines started out OK, but over the course of business they got wiped, reinstalled, cloned, moved, repurposed, etc... There may still be 1500 licenses and 1500 machines, but that won't cut it when dealing with the BSA. In the end, ITExampleCorp is coerced into shelling out even more money to appease the BSA and be deemed "legit", even though they did nothing wrong.
So, yeah, suing a customer.
No, FOSS types love the BSA. Not only are they "vigorous" in promoting license compliance, but they're a walking billboard for the pitfalls of closed source/proprietary software.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
This is nothing new. Any industry is exactly the same. Blame it on whatever you like.
I used to work in IT - management would screw over the staff at a moments notice for no readily apparent reason.
I now work in Healthcare - where managed screw over the staff at a moments notice for no readily apparent reason.
It's called Capitalism.
Reminds me of the programmer joke:
A man flying in a hot air balloon suddenly realizes he’s lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts to get directions, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"
The man below says: "Yes. You're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."
"You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist.
"I do" replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but It's of no use to anyone."
The man below replies, "You must work in management."
"I do," replies the balloonist, "But how'd you know?"*
"Well", says the man, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s my fault."
I see this happen all of the time. It really comes down to the fact that IT workers in the U.S. have no power and virtually little recourse of any kind. IT could benefit from unionizing but there is such a pervasive culture of fear that it would never happen. Unions can prevent petty situations like the story above by setting hard and fast contractual rules with the force of law not some arbitrary HR policy. We are treated at best as an expendable asset and at worst, an intangible liability. I am in the process of starting my own business and if and when I get big enough, I plan to start a new trend in which the "throwing under the bus" mentality will not be tolerated!
You treat me like something you can squeeze work from and throw away when there's nothing left, so I treat you like something I can squeeze money from and throw away when there's nothing left.
The prisoner's dilemma optimal solution applies. I cooperate and adapt. You cooperate, so will I. You defect, so will I.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A former company of mine ran into this issue, and the issue was that over the years they had purchased from multiple VARs, some of which no longer existed. How do you ask your VAR to check your licenses, when the VAR has vanished from the earth?
This isn't even rare. Any company that has been in business for a significant amount of time (say, since Windows for Workgroups) will have gone through several VARs, had churn amongst all personnel who might know about licensing, and couldn't tell you where all their licenses are if you put a gun to their heads. I guess in that case you just re-purchase some subset of your licenses every few years. This must be the "rental" model I've been hearing about.
Even in cases where licenses were purchased directly from the vendor, the contract was sometimes vague as to exactly how many licenses of what type could be in use simultaneously. In the best of times it's a headache.
It's "showing intent" that's missing from the equation.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I agree with sibling. There are numerous ways to run a union. Furthermore, I'm of the opinion that unions have a bad rap because they piss off the top dogs in a company by demanding higher wages and healthy working conditions. And its these top dogs that then push this idea that unions are the root of all EVIL.
For Joe Average, they're actually a godsend by ensuring workers have a voice. Are you really getting your money's worth by paying into union dues? Unless you've elected a dunce of a representative, of course you are! It ensures employees have a seat at the decision making table, rather than getting railroaded. (Ergo the bargaining table, not the 'employer (or employee) is 110% right' table)
With IT making up such an important component of business now-a-days, there is no reason a worker should be treated like 80 hours per week, on-call weekends, cubicalized disposable refuse. Especially when you have CEO X crying out that they couldn't possibly afford unions, when he (and localized lackeys) still gets a massive end-of-year bonus.
(Of course, in the hopes of not being fired/ever being hired, I'm posting as ac)
I don't agree with her response, just think she is more sympathetic than the others. My problem with the way the whole tale was presented was that the company's actions, which in my opinion were very nearly as bad as "Sally's" are glossed over as perfectly reasonable. Of course you outsource the entire department. Of course you don't tell anyone till the last possible moment. Of course you don't provide counseling or job search assistance.
While their points about escalation of privileged and job separation are perfectly valid, their most "valuable" piece of advice for this one appeared to be "Watch your employees close when you're about to screw them, the sneaky bastard probably figured it out." They didn't even bother to mention being open and honest with your staff, providing transition services or any of the other things the company could have to done to prevent or cushion the proximal cause of the employee anger.
Sure, watch people, especially people under stress. Sure, don't give people access to systems they don't need access too. Sure, make sure you know who has what keys. Also treat people with a bit of respect and don't fuck with them any more than you have to at a bad time.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
The German's and French have been doing it for a very long time without their society collapsing.
And the English, and the Australians, and the New Zealanders...
I'm sure several more countries have similar attitudes, best described as "you're an adult, we trust you to behave yourself and make adult decisions, and if you don't, well, you're also adult enough to take the consequences". I just mention the places with whose work structures I'm personally familiar. The U.S., on the other hand...urgh...forget it, or at least on the east coast (everywhere I've worked, from Maine down to Georgia). In a country where personal rights are ferociously guarded, I don't know why this should be so, but I follow it so I won't get fired.
No, the problem is that some Americans have not had an evolution in their moral makeup since the Puritans landed.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Agreed, I'm pretty well paid and treated like a real person at my workplace, hence I hardly ever steal and keep my illegal porn operation small enough to not tax the company servers way to much.
/M