Tech Support Nightmares - Management Level Story

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The Conservative
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Tech Support Nightmares - Management Level Story

Post by The Conservative » Fri Oct 14, 2022 6:55 pm

Ok, so here is the thing, I've been in IT for over 25 years now... I'm old enough to know better, young enough to know when to shut up, and I've worked my way back up to where I am after my last IT company screwed me. (They are now in trouble with the IRS, SS, DOR, and probably a few more of the alphabet soup because of the international screwup they are) I have worked my way up to be the East Coast Team Lead of the US (the current position now). So, I have techs up and down the east coast, I work, let's just say I know what I'm doing.

That said, let me regale you with the story of my realizing how messed up "home base" is.


I just started a new job originally as Team Lead for this site, and I have one tech with me (or had) to help me get up to speed, learn the ropes, and prepare to take on the world.

He didn't want anything to do with it, he was by himself for well over a year (due to COVID) and other things, and this was his first job. At first, I felt bad for him; I tried to make him realize he could talk to me to get things off his chest I could take over the tickets that come in so I could learn how things are done and make it easier for him to get his queue done. I knew he was working two jobs, trying to make enough money to get married before the middle of next year, etc. So don't get me wrong, I thought he had the drive to succeed.

It wasn't until two weeks in that I realized he tried to hide from me in the Build Room that which was where he took naps. Now mind you, I was willing to let him get an hour's rest or so on lunch or even give him some time to get ready for work when he first came in, but I realized he was getting very little work done.

I had managers around me come up and say they have caught him sleeping in the room, caught him sleeping in the car, etc.

I was pounding out between 5 to 10 tickets a day (small local workforce because people worked remotely and we were technically Tier II support) It was significantly a smaller count than I was used to, which was 25 to 40 tickets a day for Tier II. So I figured I would get him back into the loop because I have caught on pretty quickly and was ready to get back to work where it was needed. (I was given a positional raise of managing the other five facilities on top of this one) I technically caught him sleeping, but I was willing to let it go and put it into the brain bank for his review later.

I saw the Build Room for the first time, and oh, hell no... it looked like an F5 hurricane came through. Laptops all over the place in levels of disrepair, cables strewn all over the place, enterprise-level desktops on the counters looking like they were being used for something... I was a little taken aback, I didn't let it show. I asked him about the hardware, what was going on with it, and how the repairs were going, and asked him about the towers. He didn't have much to say and tried to circumvent answering. I again let it go, but I was going to bring it up with my boss. I start to let him take tickets again while I take the ones that require a more "senior touch".

Two weeks later, the kid doesn't come in. I asked my boss if he had heard anything, and he said no. A few hours later, I heard that the kid had fallen asleep at the wheel and driven into a telephone pole head-on. The kid came in two days later, sore but ok, I was willing to let things slide for a little bit because bringing up issues after an accident would look bad on my end, I felt. Especially after he told me he had his license suspended. (now I know you don't get it suspended by just one accident, so something was going on) I decided to tell my boss because part of the job is to DRIVE to and from work.

Three days later, he isn't in again, I think he found a job and gave no notice. (It is now Monday) Turns out my boss got a message, and he got hit by a drunk driver. He has a spinal injury and will not be in for the foreseeable future.

Now the fun begins.

I take all his tickets (70+) My Queue is now over 100 tickets because while he was gone, I was taking ALL tickets. I started getting pissed because I realized he documented NOTHING, so I took two days and start cleaning out the build room. The tech seems to have stripped the enterprise computers of any worth while tech, 3200Mhz ECC RAM (1TB worth), four Gen 10 Xeon processors, three NVIDIA 3080 Ti (12GB) variants, and about 1/2 a Petrabyte of SSDs.

That doesn't include the stuff from the laptops and whatever else was there.

So, now I am looking for a new tech because, at this point, this kid is not welcome back.

I have started documenting basic SOP, as well as keeping track of all the tickets, where they are, what phase they are at, and also to get the KPI for the complex back to something reasonable. Not to mention placing about $75k worth of back orders and trying to smooth out the clustertruck that the kid has left. As of now, the kid has left such a bad taste in the mouth of the company that I am trying to repair all goodwill, so the support in total isn't thrown out to the wolves. Where I am, is where the C-Class people reside, and you piss them off, as they say, SHTF quick with these peeps.

I am easygoing, I am willing to let people work as they are supposed to, and I am willing to let people get used to me because I know having someone to report to after being by yourself for so long can be jarring... but don't take my goodwill for ignorance. I see more than you think, but good lord, sometimes the truth is, techs can be as useless as tits on a bull and twice as devious if they think they can get away with it.
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C-Mag
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Re: Tech Support Nightmares - Management Level Story

Post by C-Mag » Sat Oct 15, 2022 8:51 am

Was his name Abraham Lincoln from Mumbai, with a Punjabi accent ?
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Re: Tech Support Nightmares - Management Level Story

Post by SuburbanFarmer » Sat Oct 15, 2022 2:05 pm

Sounds like he was a heroin addict tbh.
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The Conservative
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Re: Tech Support Nightmares - Management Level Story

Post by The Conservative » Sat Oct 15, 2022 5:59 pm

SuburbanFarmer wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 2:05 pm
Sounds like he was a heroin addict tbh.
My boss and I came to the same conclusion. But HR can't get rid of him because he was never written up. I think my boss and I will try using the "No Drivers License means not able to do his job." route so we can get rid of him legally.

I can't prove that he stole anything, but the parts are not in the computers. He was the only one with a key for the room (except the security and Infrastructure Director, which both know as much about as IT as my son does... which is nothing) for almost a year and about eight months...

I don't know what to say or think, but I know that he will not last two more months the way things are going if he comes back at all.
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The Conservative
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Re: Tech Support Nightmares - Management Level Story

Post by The Conservative » Sat Oct 15, 2022 6:00 pm

C-Mag wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 8:51 am
Was his name Abraham Lincoln from Mumbai, with a Punjabi accent?
No, He is first generation American; his parents are from Taiwan. No idea what his excuse is, but he better be looking for a new job while he is out.
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