The Dirtiest Jobs in IT

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Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 9, 2011 @04:23AM from the but-someone-has-to-do-it dept.

snydeq writes "Carcasses, garter belts, anthrax — there is no end to nasty when it comes to working in IT, as the fourth installment of InfoWorld's Dirty IT Jobs series proves. From the systems sanitation engineer, to the human server rack, surviving in today's IT job market often means thriving in difficult conditions, including standing in two feet of water holding a plugged-in server or finding yourself in a sniper's crosshairs while attempting to install a communications link." In case you missed them, here are the first three parts.

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Porn industry by x*yy*x · 2011-05-09 04:24 · Score: 3, Interesting

A few years ago I was really actively working on porn industry, but against common believe it's not really that dirty. Well, for the women maybe. But otherwise it's really professional and actually a fun industry to work on.
Re:Porn industry by robthebloke · 2011-05-09 04:35 · Score: 5, Funny

I once arrived at work super early, and caught a cleaner whacking off to a porn site in my office. I don't think it's possible to feel as dirty as staring down at your keyboard/mouse realising that you've been using that for weeks. Ugh. Obviously they went straight in the bin.... (and the cleaner was sacked on the spot)
Re:Porn industry by pixline · 2011-05-09 04:38 · Score: 3, Funny

Maybe it WAS a cube farm and it made porno boring and repetitive...
dunno if it was boring, quite sure it was repetitive :)
Re:Porn industry by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-09 04:39 · Score: 3, Insightful

Depending on the industry where this happened (such as healthcare) leaving a terminal available for a cleaner to access would also be a sackable offense.
Re:Porn industry by royallthefourth · 2011-05-09 04:41 · Score: 3, Funny

Actually, it sounds like your keyboard was what received the sacking
Spiders by Wyatt+Earp · 2011-05-09 05:03 · Score: 3, Interesting

Worked in a server room in a basement that was on a heavily wooded property, spiders, salamanders and moles weren't uncommon. I got bit in the head by a Hobo Spider, necrotic tissue and nerve damage ensued.
1. Re:Spiders by JonySuede · 2011-05-09 05:23 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  it was probably a brown recluse spider not the Hobo Spider since the tissue necrosis cannot be reproduced in the lab using that spider venom. For more info read : An approach to spider bites. Erroneous attribution of dermonecrotic lesions to brown recluse or hobo spider bites in Canada. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15455808
  
  --
  Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
2. Re:Spiders by Wyatt+Earp · 2011-05-09 05:37 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Except for taking the spider to the Oregon Poison Center at Oregon Health Sciences University, where it was shipped off to Oregon State and they said "It's a Hobo Spider" and Brown Recluse not being native to the area.
  A spider that was identified as a Hobo Spider (Tegenaria agrestis), it bit my head, other Tegenaria agrestis and T.domestica were seen in my building and in my basement, I had tissue necrosis and nerve pain.
  I've read the NIH report and all the drama on the Hobo vs Funnel Webs vs Brown Recluse, the scaring is more similar to Tegenaria duellica/T.agrestis/T.domestica but the spider chewing on my head was a T.agrestis.
  http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00042059.htm
End user support by gmuslera · 2011-05-09 05:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

Your mind will be turned into mush in just a month. Hunting backups in Fukushima suddently looks like a healthier alternative.
1. Re:End user support by d'fim · 2011-05-09 05:58 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Hunting backups in Fukushima
  Be vewy, vewy, qwiet.....
  
  --
  Adherence to the truth is a form of disloyalty.
snydeq Has the Worst Job in IT by RobotRunAmok · 2011-05-09 05:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

Could it get any worse than astro-turfing for InfoWorld? Probably not. Maybe if it became common knowledge that InfoWorld actually pays Slashdot for placing his astro-turf slashvertisements...?
Re:Porn industry by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-09 05:39 · Score: 3, Informative

Who said that the cleaner was logged in as GP? Any of my coworkers can log into my PC, and I can log into any of theirs. Since so many things are tied into having a user ID and password (payroll for one), I wouldn't be surprised if the cleaning crew have logins as well.