IT Manager & Excel

[Bruno_x]

Smitty, you are the winner
IT dept. and backups : big question mark

I did the followong with our IT guys : about a year ago my HD crashed with a lot of important XL files on it. IT replaced the HD and installed a fresh windows system. I asked "And my XL files ?" Answer : "Oops, the last backup of your XL files is ... somewhere at our dept."
They've searched 2 days... without any result. The 'Big Boss' heard about it and had a serious conversation with IT.
After 3 days I've set the files back from my own backup

 

[Cbrine]

My problem is that the only time I approach the IT department is when the problem is big enough that I can figure out a resolution to it. When that happen's the IT guys tend to run in the other direction when they see me coming. Out of the major problems that have occurred on my PC, they have only been able to help me out a couple of times. They haven't as yet been able to pooch my PC as bad as Smitty's though, and they haven't managed to short out any servers. So, I guess they aren't to bad.

 

[starl]

Here's one for you:
At my husbands company, the head of IT... doesn't know anything about computers. Seriously - she got the job because



she's the founders daughter.

The servers - last I checked, they had 4 - crash several times a day. Why - probably the load - all software is run off the servers, except Pro-E. But Autocad, all office software - run from the server.
Email - all email messages are read/scanned by an outside agency. Which causes quite a delay when emailing.

Now, the last company I worked for - the head office IT, were morons. I ran circles around them ... fixed a lot of their probs.. they didn't like me much. Local IT - smart guy - I helped train him and he wasn't afraid to let me help (we just kept it hushed - tho my direct boss knew.. so did the rest of the plant - but they also knew the help was needed). At least our servers were fairly stable.. a crash every months, maybe... that doesn't include the mail server
ok, enough.. I'm starting to get irritated..

 

[Smitty]

ok, enough.. I'm starting to get irritated..

This one will get you going then...The Head of our Unit's IT Department speaks and e-mails like this: "We're having a hard time locating all of the softwares for your new laptop." Or even better: "we have detected an unauthorized softwares on your pc/msn messenger/please delete the unauthorized softwares immediately." [sic]

"Softwares"? What the hell is a softwares?

And my new laptop still ain't ready!

And to top it off, on Friday, our busiest day (weekly deadline) and the day that's most stressful on PC's, servers, our AS400, and all systems in general, our entire IS Dept is off! They're on flex-time (corporate speak for 4 10's = 3-day weekends and we don't have to be "quite" so salary-competitve)...The problem is that we write $1+ million a week in our unit and a computer failure can mean the loss of tens of thousands of dollars; just to stay "salary-competitive" for 4 people. (Not to mention that our customers' ads don't run, costing them money, which is even more important!)

I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with unfortunate IT situations; our lives depend on this stuff so much nowadays that it's hard to be without. I remember when we actually used to see customers face-to-face...

Here's to hoping that your stuff is backed up, and that when your IT guy shows up he doesn't have duct tape with him...(Intern - Couldn't get the PC case to close...)

Smitty

For tales from the "Darkside's" perspective, see Sharktank

**** funny! (And entirely believable!)

 

[starl]

I am SO GLAD I"m my own IT dept...

 

[Smitty]

I am SO GLAD I"m my own IT dept...

Cheers to that!

I'm so glad that I'm an admin on my own machine!

Smitty

 

[RichardS]

I'm not an Admin on my machine, which is a hassle at times. Some of the programs I run have to run locally, and access the Registry, so if there is an update available, I have to go get the IT boys to log on and load it.

That said, we are pretty lucky here. Our guys (and girls) work late nights and week-ends when doing upgrades etc to minimise disruption. Server crashes, well they just don't happen. Mind you, we're a public hospital, so we can't afford down time, and we have made significant investments in redundancy.

Big project in about three weeks for our team is VoIP telephony, about 350 handsets to be installed. I hope my confidence in them is rewarded.

Richard

 

[Smitty]

Big project in about three weeks for our team is VoIP telephony, about 350 handsets to be installed. I hope my confidence in them is rewarded.

I hope it goes well! That's our next big project. Problem this time is that the VP of Finance decided on the system, so you know what that means... The old addage about the military: "mind you that you're using something built by the lowest bidder..." :wink:

How on earth do companies survive? (At least we're not as bad as California's utterly stupid bureaucracy ...)

Smitty

 

[WillR]

It seems that there is a common thread here....

Lots of incredible stories of incompetance from IT people

And a trend of the User being the one to finally restore order from their own backups or superior knowledge

Just where do these people come from

 

[Legacy 21301]

It seems that there is a common thread here....

Lots of incredible stories of incompetance from IT people

And a trend of the User being the one to finally restore order from their own backups or superior knowledge

Just where do these people come from

"Just where do these people come from"?

Beats me. I hadn't realised that there were any smart users available.