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Geeks gone wild: Disgruntled IT staff wreak havoc

REBECCA DUBE

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 10:11 PM EST 31/07/08

Disgruntled IT staff can, and do, wreak havoc ...Read the full article

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  1. - Nostradamus from Canada writes: Go Terry!
  2. Aldous Huxley from Memphis, TN, United States writes: While I don't condone what he did, I can certainly understand why he did it. As an IT person, I'm constantly being abused and berated by the general user community, usually for issues caused by themselves, or totally out of my control. It's a thankless task, and it seems like the higher you go up the corporate food chain, the IT-dumber the people are. One time a travelling VP called me from China at 4:00 AM to tell me that she couldn't 'get the internet'. When I tried to explain to her that there was nothing that could be done from this end, she got irate. "I don't want to hear any excuses!", she barked, "Just fix it!".
    I bet it was at least twicw as bad for Mr. Terry, as he had to deal with civil servants.
  3. slapdash dapoint from trawna, Canada writes: sometimes, ignorance is bliss for others.

    while i don't condone retaliation against the comapny (though sometimes it's just what's needed, it seems), i believe it's a completely understandable reaction on an induvidual level.

    i had a friend who got royaly screwed over by a marketing exec in a smallish company, even threatened to withold pay in some instances. on the last day of their contract, payment secured, my friend accidentally wiped all the exec's files off the network and fdisk'd their local drives. they still smile when they tell the story.

    taking adequate steps to secure your IT holdings doesn't always come down to hardware and software, there's an enormous gap in general people skills that needs to be addressed.
  4. dave ross from Canada writes: Yeah yeah, pity the poor IT folks. Guess what, just about everyone under the level of VP gets screwed over at just about every public and private organization. Some IT people have an advantage in being able to more effectively and dramatically retaliate. The rest of us are left with the option of "going postal".
  5. FOODY FOODY FOREVER from Canada writes: Way to go Terry hold tight
  6. T Rimmer from MB, Canada writes: Oh, yes, the EVIL techies who tightly hold control, and keep the rest of us from doing our jobs! How terrible!!!

    Why the articles about a VERY small fraction of passive-aggressive jerks who exist in EVERY industry, not just IT? How about writing a story about the IT "geeks" who work until four or five in the morning, after already putting in a regular 9-5, just to make sure that you have access to your precious email at eight AM? How about a story about how the IT techie is the guy who suffers the screaming abuse of a pumped-up middle manager who feels that it's okay to hurl verbal abuse at someone because they're "just the IT geek".

    These people take more abuse on a daily basis than you might realize. They're generally a LOT smarter than your average office worker, but are treated like the idiot cousin who couldn't get a "real" job. They're treated the same way that everyone treated those weird kids in high school who were in the AV club, and who came to work the overhead projector for the English teacher who couldn't manage it. More often than not, they also get to play the role of fall-guy when those same middle managers fail at something -- "the system was down" is a common refrain in many offices where Mr Middle Manager simply couldn't do what they committed to doing, or made the bad decision to go golfing rather than put in an afternoon of work at the office.
  7. Itsagoodthingwedont Getallthegovtwepayfor from ON, Canada writes:

    Pi$$ me off .... Pay the consequences
  8. H M from Canada writes: I can't help but think it's an effective way to show upper management what valuable employees the IT people are, and how much power they can wield should they so choose.
  9. Luke Powell from Canada writes: Interesting story about how this ISN'T a case of an IT guy gone rogue; rather, it's a guy who became a little too obsessive over an extremely complicated network: http://tinyurl.com/6l5svn
  10. Michael Feighney from Toronto, Canada writes: I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, but most of us just do our job until we're outsourced by some idiot who admits that he doesn't care about his salary because his bonus will be based on the precieved savings he's gonning to realize by putting the IT department on the street. And then they wonder why everything falls apart when the people who REALLY know how the business works, aren't there anymore. Just becasuse you can outsource my job for 10% of what I get paid doesn't mean it will be done with the same level of skill and knowldge. When business started to convert the knowldge that their line staff had to the programmers and business analyst in the IT department, they effectively moved the business there too. So when you outsource the IT guys you loose your business.
  11. Stude Ham from Outremont, Canada writes:
    this behaviour just happens to happen in practically every IT shop simply because the so-called managers can't even count on their own fingers. It's very easy to trigger such hostilities under those circumstances.
  12. Wandering Willy from Kelowna, Canada writes: They set his bail at $5,000,000 dollars for not divulging a computer password? You have to be freaking kidding me! He could always use the excuse that he forgot what it was.......but a couple million might help his memory.
  13. Peter The Not Quite Great from Edmonton, Canada writes: I don't want our IT staff to go bad, I just with they would "go competent".
  14. Dennis sinneD from Calgary, Canada writes:

    Peter The Not Quite Great from Edmonton, Canada writes: "I don't want our IT staff to go bad, I just with they would "go competent"."

    I with a log of things to.
  15. Michael Taylor from Trenton, ON, Canada writes: I believe it is more a case of the disconnect between IT and management, both "corporate" and IT. I think one of the most severe shortages in IT is good IT management and leadership. While in engineering it not uncommon for older engineers to go off and complete a MBA to transition from a technical to a managerial role, it is still not common enough practice within IT.

    I don't think a MBA is a magic wand, but it does offer experiences professionals an opportunity to be treated like an adult, respects their professional experiences, but helps them refocus their talents from a typically detail-oriented role to a more abstract and less clearly defined role, while also tackling often very subjective realities such as managing the human aspect of IT and business.

    Just as engineers tend to promote from within, IT does as well, one benefit this has is that it bootstraps trust and respect, as their feel understood when talking with someone who knows the difference between a natural logarithm and a "regular" logarithm. As well, they want someone who can do back of the envelope calculations to catch the both the lying staffer and the doomed project. Or at least someone who can copy their own files.

    I think as IT departments mature, and their natural managers and leaders are actually given the time and resources to make the transition from a technical role to a managerial / executive role I believe many of these situations would be noticed and corrected sooner. This problem did occur overnight, it was allowed to build over years, numerous staff members and managers had to be compliance in allowing the scenario lay down the foundations. Some common-sense guidance (people should never be an irreplaceable critical component of any company / project) was ignored to let the happen.

    I believe it is a case of scapegoating a stressed and overworked employee, while his supervisions and management were incompetent for quite some time.
  16. Crash Test from Canada writes: I'll put this comment in caps so that it's easy to read:

    AS Luke Powell INDICATES, THIS ARTICLE IS ESSENTIALLY A WORK OF FICTION, SINCE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, OR IN THIS CASE DIDN'T HAPPEN.
    NO IT GUY GONE ROGUE, JUST A GUY WHO WOULDN'T DIVULGE PASSWORDS AFTER HE GOT FIRED.
  17. Mr. Coffee from Victoria, Canada writes: Nerds rule, suits drool. Thank the I.T. geek for working through the night upgrading the server so the brown-nosing middle manager can spend an hour or two surfin' the web on eBay and adult sites on company time.
  18. daniel saliken from Canada writes: A million years ago I graduated from university with both a business degree and a specialty in a particular field of computer science. I picked up the computer science part to have a "science" component for employability.

    The computer stuff was really freaking hard for me and was way more work then my other courses. I easily landed a job immediately in the IT field, but could not believe how little we were paid for what we did. I quickly left the field for double the salary doing half the work in an unrelated field within the same company. All these years later those same IT guys are still stuck in that ghetto working their asses off with no career path. Staff totally crap on them and though I am so glad I don't work there any more, the IT staff were the most honest, sensitive and easy going guys I ever worked with.
  19. Jimmy K from Toronto, Canada writes: Oh IT people... Do you all really work that hard, according to this hilarious movie you spend half your time playing halo. :)

    http://www.break.com/index/it-guy-vs-dumb-employees.html

    Watch, it's good for a laugh.
  20. G M from Canada writes: I feel for the system administrators. They only hear from people when things aren't working. Nobody ever goes to them and says, "I haven't had a problem in 3 weeks, good stuff!" It's just "How come I can't access this? Why can't I print? When will the system be back up?"
  21. A. Nonymous from Compensation Ville, United States writes: Pay your IT guys well. If they don't perform, tell them.

    I've seen too many companies where the IT guys are paid less than the floor cleaners, and are expected to work more then 8 hrs a day, and fix the managers' home computers for free on weekends to provide 'extra value'.

    While it's true the IT dept itself doesn't generate $ for the company, it ENABLES the company to function.

    Would u want someone making the same salary as the janitor managing your data?

    If you do, you don't value your data much, do you?
  22. S Van GOOGLE from Wallis And Futuna Islands writes: it sounds more a case of SF not having adequate strategic planning in place. Passwords kept only by 1 person.. not written down. Sounds like a network run by school kids. Its not IT v Everyone.. who in co's isn't an IT expert anymore? everyone is.. or thinks they are.
  23. Rose of Mississauga from Canada writes: WAY TO GO TERRY! Forgot the password after locking everyone out, yeah baby!

    IT guys and gals should be at the top of the food chain in terms of financial compensation. I graduated Sheridan College with honours in computer studies, but I have to tell you, the computer programming courses were absolutely brutal. I have to hire a tutor to keep my grades in the A-range, and studied nightly in order to sponge out the knowledge during my final exam. I definitely not programmer material, it does not come naturally for me.

    Anyone who is that bright to be able to write and troubleshoot programs, deserves to be paid well.

    It is a thankless job. Years ago when I was one of the few computer cowgirls already on the internet, my former boss expected me to train every hapless wienie in the office how to use a computer, access the internet, and email. Nobody ever said "gee, thanks for helping me out during the day, so you can stay late after work AGAIN to get your own job done".

    It's true, I do get paid double the pay for half the brain power.

    They p*$$ed Terry off, now pay the price dumb bells!
  24. Jo L from Moncton, Canada writes: I have a few friends who work in IT and it seems many of them work in highly stressful conditions and are often subjected to verbal abuse on the regular basis. I don't blame anyone for not helping an employer after being fired. Treat people right and they won't shut you out of your entire system. With that said take care that you're not hiring only one crazy person to manage all your important IT files.
  25. Steve Not an Alberta Redneck from Calgary, Canada writes: Reminds me of the IT guy who, when designing the payroll system, had it produce 2 pay cheques for him (in 2 different departments). Everything went well until they found out and fired him. He'd written another piece of code that scrambled things royally when his name was taken off the payroll system.
  26. Wendy Stone from Kitchener, Canada writes:
    What this guy did was to vandalize his employers' workplace.

    He changed the password codes to the computer system, which is a form of vandalism of the work equipment, no different than taking a sledgehammer to your work, and destroying your employer's desktop computer containing critical information that is sitting on the hard drive of that particular computer.

    You do that, and you should be fired, even charged. It's that's simple.

    As for all of you IT people who are cheering him on because you are so disgruntled and so hard done by, I have a suggestion: QUIT!!

    A lot of people are in jobs where they feel underappreciated and underpaid. Sorry, but you are not really so special just because you happen to know a computer language or two.

    So, if you really don't like it ... quit and find a different line of work. My guess is that you won't ... that you will stay in your IT jobs ... because you know darned well that if you leave there will be dozens of applicants lined up at the door to take that job. And you know, as well as I do, that there are worse jobs out there.
  27. P W from kelowna, Canada writes: In all the companies that i have worked for, the IT managers are usually former IT employees who have worked their way up. Somehow, somewhere, someone thought that being a good techie and will eventually make a good IT Manager. This is usually the case because only IT people actually understand IT people when they start spouting off in their unique way.

    Like with all 'trades' (and i use that term very loosely to include IT), being good in the field means absolutley nothing when it comes to managing that department. A good plumber in the field doesn't make a good trades supervisor. So for those out there that are crying "screw management!" aren't you attacking one of your own?
  28. M Hawk from Canada writes: Jimmy K....
    thanks for the link, that was pretty funny. worth the length of the clip.

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