@Dan yeah, you want to be known as a crappy IT person? Never talk to your customer (be it external or internal). Or just as bad...people simply won't know you at all. Which makes it that much easier for them to let you go if they have to decide on someone to dismiss.
Bottom line is, am I out of line when my manager says I need to figure out how to fix the issue - to tell him he really needs to want to in order to do so?
I don't think that's my job to fix, and normally I'm not one to say "hey, not my job bro"
@cole Yeah - This is squarely on your manager, who doesn't seem to know anything about managing IT... How does he/she even have that job? Is his/her manager just as incompetent???
@cole - I've worked similar if I hear you right. TrackIT was for break/fix, inventory, and purchasing. Actual projects were tracked externally using Project Management techniques and Asana.
But a "Director" should be directing the business... Giving it direction. He shouldn't be worried about what you're doing; but setting goals for managers and ensuring those managers have the tools they need to accomplish those tasks.
@ChrisS like you said but I'll rephrase it some..."Lots of people in charge --get promoted over time for no real reason and never understand their new role properly...due to lack of training IMO -- I'm used to it."
@ChrisS you're right that the Director shouldn't be messing with the details of Cole's job. If he is, then he's neglecting some of his key duties. Get involved with a key project's details from time to time? Sure. But he should be focusing on bigger pictures/goals/KPIs for the dept that align with the company's goals.
I've been put in charge of security here recently, first task was to tell Windows Admin to deploy WSUS in production and office. That was 3 month ago, still not "ready" :/
Patching/WSUS is like insurance...it "costs" and you'll probably never need it...but when you don't have it and things go bad it'll cost you even more.
I don't get upset about work anymore. At the end of the day, if they want it done a certain way - fine, as long as I get their stupid idea in writing and a paycheck.
I'm also a bit more mercenary with how I deal with these things, my wife keeps moaning about her colleagues and I just don't understand why she won't leave
Cole also works for a very large ship...and those don't like to turn quickly. I'd be willing to bet 99% of the issues will still be there next year too.
@cole Oh...no doubt IT projects themselves will get done...I'm talking about actual change within the dept./mgmt. in regards to how things are done and people are treated.
@Iain yeah I read yours and then his and had to read his again. "I don't want you to recommend a product...I'm just wanting you to recommend a 3rd party tool." OK then...good talking to you...
@ewwhite the problem with pastebin is twofold: One if they delete it from pastebin now the question makes no sense anymore (all the context is gone), and two it screws up Google (because the content / error message / etc. isn't here).
Company's MX records show two servers. They each fail regularly, but I have yet to catch them both down at the same time. Our Domino server fails to send occasionally. I'm worried it might not be trying the second server. Our problem, or theirs?
because I'm tempted to just tell them 'fix your fucking servers' and not give a damn... but I don't want to be that guy. :P
Why do my one-line answers to stupid questions always generate more rep than the detailed, carefully researched answers that I used to post, back when questions were more interesting and software recommendations were on-topic?
This must reflect a fundamental flaw in the system.
@cole You'll hate print servers less once you've tried the absence of print servers. Unless they're running Windows Server 2003 or older, in which case you'll hate them forever.
@ewwhite I went to his live show in Seattle several years back. There was a LOT of swooning going on in that room. I wonder what teenage Ira would have said if someone told him he'd have to fend off amorous admirers in his middle-aged years.
Sadly, the grip angle on that ASCII art has better ergonomic angle for natural wrist position & sight alignment than most of the modern pistol designs produced nowadays.
Well, let me fire up vCenter and see what we've got going on at our remote sites...
@ewwhite OH, seems that we're lame. We have 2 NICs for the management network (failover) connected to one vSwitch, 2 NICs connected to another vSwitch for all our traffic... and two unused vSwitches that look like they would be used to segregate traffic if we bothered to do that.