Dealing with none technical IT Managers

New one today

Using the ticketing system to give you a telling off on an unrelated subject (probably for other people to see them being the boss)
 
Stuff I do is so over peoples heads most just let me do what I need to do get the job done. 99% are happy with my results so they don't mess with me. Its the fucking muppets from 3rd party companies that get on my nerves. Especially Telcom guys bunch of wire pushers try to tell me how my Network should be organized or telling me my VPN tunnels are not allowing their voip traffic through when I tell them that is quite impossible, yet they claim that they don't know networking. Or printer techs telling me that you can edit TIFF files like word documents with out any special apps. Or Security alarm installers telling me that my network is malfunctioning because their system is not recieving a heartbeat to their monitoring. They did their own wiring nor did they check the ethernet module configuration.

I fucking hate fixing other peoples shit.
 
Guys, guys, guys. :confused:

Why is anyone surprised that a "manager" isn't (any longer) technical. :( If the guy was once technical, that was before he/she had to deal with budgets and headcount and the HR dorks and all the "executive types" who want special treatment because they lost their RSA keyfob and they are in Hong Kong, and some other "end user type" who wants his Palm Treo 600 supported because you can now BYOD, and ensuring that his IT department goals are now "aligned with business objectives" ... plus all the other idiocy that you always find in any large company.

So how is he/she supposed to keep up with technology in their "copious spare time?"

Is it any surprise that Scott Adams was a network engineer for PacBell before he quit his day job to be a full-time cartoonist?:rolleyes:
 
big roll out day, massive server change over etc manager called in to say they are having a holiday day. No notice, just didn't come to work on the big day! The next day they planned in meetings all day and said no one was to contact them.

nice.
 
All the bullshit we see in this thread is the reason I am now a consultant/contractor. If some paper pusher at a client site gives me shit, I go over his head to the director of IT (or whoever signs our PO/invoice) and get what I need. They are paying for me to perform a particular task or provide a service, and don't usually take to kindly to middle managers holding things up.
 
Stuff I do is so over peoples heads most just let me do what I need to do get the job done. 99% are happy with my results so they don't mess with me. Its the fucking muppets from 3rd party companies that get on my nerves. Especially Telcom guys bunch of wire pushers try to tell me how my Network should be organized or telling me my VPN tunnels are not allowing their voip traffic through when I tell them that is quite impossible, yet they claim that they don't know networking. Or printer techs telling me that you can edit TIFF files like word documents with out any special apps. Or Security alarm installers telling me that my network is malfunctioning because their system is not recieving a heartbeat to their monitoring. They did their own wiring nor did they check the ethernet module configuration.

I fucking hate fixing other peoples shit.

A-frickin-MEN. Preach it man! and like Shiznit said, why I went back to contracting. Even though it's babysitting on a broader scale, but now the office politics are easier.
 
Stuff I do is so over peoples heads most just let me do what I need to do get the job done. 99% are happy with my results so they don't mess with me. Its the fucking muppets from 3rd party companies that get on my nerves. Especially Telcom guys bunch of wire pushers try to tell me how my Network should be organized or telling me my VPN tunnels are not allowing their voip traffic through when I tell them that is quite impossible, yet they claim that they don't know networking. Or printer techs telling me that you can edit TIFF files like word documents with out any special apps. Or Security alarm installers telling me that my network is malfunctioning because their system is not recieving a heartbeat to their monitoring. They did their own wiring nor did they check the ethernet module configuration.

I fucking hate fixing other peoples shit.

OH THE FUN TIMES HEY ! atleast when i do wiring for you, I do it how you want it, and it always works afterwards :)
 
Guys, guys, guys. :confused:

Why is anyone surprised that a "manager" isn't (any longer) technical. :( If the guy was once technical, that was before he/she had to deal with budgets and headcount and the HR dorks and all the "executive types" who want special treatment because they lost their RSA keyfob and they are in Hong Kong, and some other "end user type" who wants his Palm Treo 600 supported because you can now BYOD, and ensuring that his IT department goals are now "aligned with business objectives" ... plus all the other idiocy that you always find in any large company.

So how is he/she supposed to keep up with technology in their "copious spare time?"

Is it any surprise that Scott Adams was a network engineer for PacBell before he quit his day job to be a full-time cartoonist?:rolleyes:

As an IT manager one should still keep up with technology. They don't have to know how to configure something and set it up, but they should at least have a general idea of what's what.

For example, a manager of a server group should know what ESX server is. They don't need to know every specific version (unless they are in the process of buying it then they should inform themselves) but they should know what it is.

When a tech says "we can't do it that way because of NNN" the manager should be able to understand why instead of getting pissed off and saying "well make it work anyway!".
 
Stuff I do is so over peoples heads most just let me do what I need to do get the job done. 99% are happy with my results so they don't mess with me. Its the fucking muppets from 3rd party companies that get on my nerves. Especially Telcom guys bunch of wire pushers try to tell me how my Network should be organized or telling me my VPN tunnels are not allowing their voip traffic through when I tell them that is quite impossible, yet they claim that they don't know networking. Or printer techs telling me that you can edit TIFF files like word documents with out any special apps. Or Security alarm installers telling me that my network is malfunctioning because their system is not recieving a heartbeat to their monitoring. They did their own wiring nor did they check the ethernet module configuration.

I fucking hate fixing other peoples shit.

I'm an enterprise WAN data tech. The reason the "telecom guys" try to tell you how your network should be organized is because you have no freakin' clue what kind of utterly moronic network configurations we run into daily. If we see something and it doesn't make any sense, it's much more likely that it's a complete hackjob than something sophisticated. Unfortunately some techs make assumptions based upon that, and some simply aren't passionate enough about their work to care about learning more than the bare minimum.

I speak to IT managers all day, because these are the idiots that call us to place service tickets to tell us our network is down when their own network rack is completely without power. But they'll argue with us for 20 minutes about it before they'll go in there and look at whether their equipment is running, because frankly they don't have a clue WTF they're looking at and they know it.
 
As an IT manager one should still keep up with technology. They don't have to know how to configure something and set it up, but they should at least have a general idea of what's what.

For example, a manager of a server group should know what ESX server is. They don't need to know every specific version (unless they are in the process of buying it then they should inform themselves) but they should know what it is.

When a tech says "we can't do it that way because of NNN" the manager should be able to understand why instead of getting pissed off and saying "well make it work anyway!".

Meanwhile, back in reality... :(
Yes, you are correct, but the chances of an IT manager actually being capable and competent in IT is very rare.
 
As an IT manager one should still keep up with technology. They don't have to know how to configure something and set it up, but they should at least have a general idea of what's what.

For example, a manager of a server group should know what ESX server is. They don't need to know every specific version (unless they are in the process of buying it then they should inform themselves) but they should know what it is.

When a tech says "we can't do it that way because of NNN" the manager should be able to understand why instead of getting pissed off and saying "well make it work anyway!".

Despite what I wrote and you quoted, I agree at least 100% with what you said.
 
As an IT manager one should still keep up with technology. They don't have to know how to configure something and set it up, but they should at least have a general idea of what's what.

For example, a manager of a server group should know what ESX server is. They don't need to know every specific version (unless they are in the process of buying it then they should inform themselves) but they should know what it is.

When a tech says "we can't do it that way because of NNN" the manager should be able to understand why instead of getting pissed off and saying "well make it work anyway!".

I agree 100%

A technical IT manager needs to have a basic grasp of enterprise IT and a basic understanding of how their own business network is setup and run.

nontech IT managers don't need to know sod all but need to have a decent helpdesk manager / 3rd line manager and must listen to them without overruling them on tech issues.

All managers MUST BE CONSISTANT! There is nothing worse than having to second guess a manager because they flip flop around. "Why did you do that? You should get xxx person to do that and not waste your time!" next time "Why didn't you do that? Its your job not xxx persons!!"
 
It sounds like the problem is bad managers not non-technical managers.

Get a new job. Problem solved. Don't tell me the market sucks in your area and blah blah blah you're only believing what sucky managers want you to believe when they want to make you think 60 hour work weeks is the norm. If people don't put up with bad managers and bad companies then they won't thrive they way they do.
 
I think I am truly lucky for the position I have.


However, with that said at the end of the day, the users are worse than the managers.


My supervisor is new, so I cannot speak about her. My previous sup was in the same boat as me....would have 2 hour long conversations about the idiocy that happens here. He left because of it.

The "no ticket no work" does not work out here. I still don't do the work, so the end user goes to their manager, their manager goes to their manager......then they get others attached.....etc etc....still don't do the work. Then my manager asks why, I say no ticket. He laughs and replies "good job".


I sometimes hate this job with a passion.....other % is wonderful.



Oh, and someone just emailed a ticket in for a site being down, no one can print......it gets P4 status because the drones in the helpdesk feel they do not get paid to read.


Welp, I am off to save the day.
 
I don't think a manager needs to know the technical details of everything that is going on. Realistically, that's asking an unreasonable amount of someone, and the ability to manage people effectively is not all that common. What a manager does need to know is the limits of their own knowledge, and how/who to ask for information. I have tremendous respect for a manager who will utilize all of their technical resources before making a decision on something that is over their head.
 
this thread makes me proud to be a IT manager who is involved and knows wtf is up...

i don't see how a non-technical manager could effectively manage a tech team...

i'm the one who has the ideas for rollouts of new technologies... it'd be impossible to be GOOD at your job not having a good technical knowledge...
 
One of the biggest issues in almost any industry, but especially I.T. is managers who are afraid of the people under them taking their job. Because of this you end up with morons who bullshit their superior so they keep their jobs and keep the company in the dark.

As an I.T. manager, while I try to know as much as I can, I know that I don't know everything. I've always surrounded myself with people who know more about specific things and can excel in specific areas. These people have helped me more than you could imagine and we've both benefited from keeping things horizontal vs. vertical when it comes to management.

I will say however that an 'I.T. Manager' with all the knowledge in the world but no business sense can be just as detrimental to a business as one with zero I.T. skills with a business background.
 
I will say however that an 'I.T. Manager' with all the knowledge in the world but no business sense can be just as detrimental to a business as one with zero I.T. skills with a business background.

this is true, but a lot easier for tech's to work under...



and i'm learning the business sense :p


easier to learn than the technical stuff...
 
Stuff I do is so over peoples heads most just let me do what I need to do get the job done. 99% are happy with my results so they don't mess with me. Its the fucking muppets from 3rd party companies that get on my nerves. Especially Telcom guys bunch of wire pushers try to tell me how my Network should be organized or telling me my VPN tunnels are not allowing their voip traffic through when I tell them that is quite impossible, yet they claim that they don't know networking. Or printer techs telling me that you can edit TIFF files like word documents with out any special apps. Or Security alarm installers telling me that my network is malfunctioning because their system is not recieving a heartbeat to their monitoring. They did their own wiring nor did they check the ethernet module configuration.

I fucking hate fixing other peoples shit.

The story of my life.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I got pulled into an informal disciplinary today and had my role reduced.

It was due to a mistake that my manager was told had been made (it was due to incorrect supplier information!) I prove and my manager even prove to himself the mistake hadn't been made, infact the mistake was quite the opposite it was a success yet my disciplinary still stands.

work that one out.

I just turn up, do as I am told and go home these days.

My manager tells me I may never be ready to be an "IT Manager"
 
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I got pulled into an informal disciplinary today and had my role reduced.

It was due to a mistake that my manager was told had been made (it was due to incorrect supplier information!) I prove and my manager even prove to himself the mistake hadn't been made, infact the mistake was quite the opposite it was a success yet my disciplinary still stands.

work that one out.

I just turn up, do as I am told and go home these days.

My manager tells me I may never be ready to be an "IT Manager"

Quit. Bad enviorment for sure if something like that happens and is said.
 
I got pulled into an informal disciplinary today and had my role reduced.

It was due to a mistake that my manager was told had been made (it was due to incorrect supplier information!) I prove and my manager even prove to himself the mistake hadn't been made, infact the mistake was quite the opposite it was a success yet my disciplinary still stands.

work that one out.

I just turn up, do as I am told and go home these days.

My manager tells me I may never be ready to be an "IT Manager"

I agree with the above post.
Seriously, start looking for another job if you can.

I've seen work environments and situations similar to yours, it's very difficult to get back on top with such a poisonous atmosphere.
You obviously know what you are doing and I'm sure you could easily fill the role of IT Manager.

The only reason others might tell you otherwise is to make themselves feel better about their own insecurities within their profession and the industry.
 
Yes,

I think its bully tactics.

The thing is all the staff get one with me. I am good friends with them all and everyone dislikes my manager (even people who work in other departments)

Thanks Red Falcon, that actually made me feel better. :)
 
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I agree with the above post.
Seriously, start looking for another job if you can.

Totally agree with Red Falcon here. Next time there is any kind of cutback, guess whose name will be on the top of the list? :rolleyes: It's always better to look for another job while you have one. And in this job market, that's not a joke.
 
I just don't know what I have done wrong to be honest. I am the top technical guy here and have made some really successful improvements to the infrastructure. I have completed large projects on time, the people I work with like me, I am very flexible and I genuinely do care about the network and the IT department.

To be honest from what I have been told my predecessor had the same issues. The only people in my position that have "succeeded" have been low skilled / unqualified people during the time when the company was smaller and didn't have a multi national network. I think as soon as you need a select or enterprise Microsoft licence agreement you are no longer in the realms of being able to run your IT department like a small business IT department.

I honestly think my manager is trying to keep me down and is worried about me taking over him in the business. Hence not letting me leave the office to go our head office, telling me "he is the fucking IT manager" (actual words), trying to reduce my role, getting very angry and suspicious if I have a meeting with a member of staff without him, telling me I won't ever be an IT manager (I have actually held that title before but he hasn't bothered to actually read my CV), refusing to send me on training courses despite being promised that he would, telling me my CCNA, CCA, MCP, ITIL etc are worthless (I think that's because he doesn't actually have any qualifications), never actually sending me emails when he wants to complain or have a go at me so I don't have any evidence, disciplining me over success and never ever giving positive reinforcement.

What more can I do?
 
What more can I do?
Either take it up with HR or find a better job and let him try to do the job you're currently doing.

My story to add to the thread is pretty quick...
A few years back my company hired a outside guy to be IT's manager. I'll never forget that one day when we were having storms the power blinked a few times and the UPSes at everyone's desk were beeping when the power blinked. None of the pcs shut off mind you, they just beeped. He said they all should be replaced. ":rolleyes:" was pretty much everyone's reaction LOL
 
What more can I do?

First thing you need to do is man-up and quit letting people talk to you like that. People are not going to respect you if you let them walk over you. Remember one thing, it is YOU that will make him / her look good! Every boss you will ever have in IT will try to pull stuff like that if you are weak. It's better to understand this now then to wallow in your misery and being unhappy.

People are going to be haters when they feel threaten.
 
I just don't know what I have done wrong to be honest. I am the top technical guy here and have made some really successful improvements to the infrastructure. I have completed large projects on time, the people I work with like me, I am very flexible and I genuinely do care about the network and the IT department.

To be honest from what I have been told my predecessor had the same issues. The only people in my position that have "succeeded" have been low skilled / unqualified people during the time when the company was smaller and didn't have a multi national network. I think as soon as you need a select or enterprise Microsoft licence agreement you are no longer in the realms of being able to run your IT department like a small business IT department.

I honestly think my manager is trying to keep me down and is worried about me taking over him in the business. Hence not letting me leave the office to go our head office, telling me "he is the fucking IT manager" (actual words), trying to reduce my role, getting very angry and suspicious if I have a meeting with a member of staff without him, telling me I won't ever be an IT manager (I have actually held that title before but he hasn't bothered to actually read my CV), refusing to send me on training courses despite being promised that he would, telling me my CCNA, CCA, MCP, ITIL etc are worthless (I think that's because he doesn't actually have any qualifications), never actually sending me emails when he wants to complain or have a go at me so I don't have any evidence, disciplining me over success and never ever giving positive reinforcement.

What more can I do?

As the old saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished."

You have to stop doubting yourself or asking yourself these questions. You already know the answer. Your boss is a clueless idiot. Many of us have been in the same situation, and generally speaking, you can'f fix it without getting yourself into some pretty serious "office politics" situations. And sometimes the people who want to "help you" have their own agendas.

At a minimum, can you get transferred to a differentIf group and out from under this guy? Of course, once you do that, you have an enemy-for-life in that company. Maybe he will get fired because he is hurting the company, or maybe he will get rewarded because * his * scores for "employee satisfaction" go up after you're out of there.

Until you can transfer, or get out of the company altogether, a reasonable "survival" strategy is to be a "good soldier." Do what you're told, ignore the b/s, but put lots of energy into finding another job.

Just be careful how you do that. HR departments are known to search on job boards looking for resumes of people in their own company. And whatever they may tell you, the bottom line for HR is protecting the company. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Good luck, and remember that even though you don't know us personally, we're all pulling for you.

I'd like to suggest that people reading this thread PM the OP if they know of any job opportunities, good headhunters, etc., etc.
 
First thing you need to do is man-up and quit letting people talk to you like that. People are not going to respect you if you let them walk over you. Remember one thing, it is YOU that will make him / her look good! Every boss you will ever have in IT will try to pull stuff like that if you are weak. It's better to understand this now then to wallow in your misery and being unhappy.

People are going to be haters when they feel threaten.

I mostly agree, but a word of caution. If you confront this guy or challenge him in any way, he will take the initative with HR and tell them you are a problem. Then HR will say, "OK, you need to 'document' this guy so we can get rid of him without exposing the company to a lawsuit." And then this guy will proceed to set you up for failure in a way that you are shocked at your next performance review.

I was once in a group with a manager like that. When I joined the group, the other guys warned me about him. He was good at only one thing, "managing upward." But don't forget that guys like that have succeeded in their careers, and even moved up, with that strategy. You're aren't going to win going up against a pro in this area.

I'm speaking from my personal experience here. Better to give him very few excuses to attack you.

Of course, once you are out of this environment, you are free to do anything as long as you don't violate any agreements you signed when you joined the company or exited. If you're not sure here, you might want to consult an employment attorney. I know this may sound extreme, but this guy could damage your career if you're not careful, and you deserve better than than.
 
managers dont need to know "everything" that is why they are managers, they manage the people below them and use the skills they have to reach a goal.

Why have an I.T team if you can do it all yourself?

i was recently prompted to I.T Manager after going through the ranks, but i keep up to date on my stuff and i am still in charge of our networks and servers since i am the only real I.T guy, since i am also management development.

Having said that, many managers don't have a clue, they just know how to brown nose those above them and worked there way into their position thinking "this will be easy!"


Or the head chef at a steakhouse who's a vegan...

Stuff I do is so over peoples heads most just let me do what I need to do get the job done. 99% are happy with my results so they don't mess with me. Its the fucking muppets from 3rd party companies that get on my nerves. Especially Telcom guys bunch of wire pushers try to tell me how my Network should be organized or telling me my VPN tunnels are not allowing their voip traffic through when I tell them that is quite impossible, yet they claim that they don't know networking. Or printer techs telling me that you can edit TIFF files like word documents with out any special apps. Or Security alarm installers telling me that my network is malfunctioning because their system is not recieving a heartbeat to their monitoring. They did their own wiring nor did they check the ethernet module configuration.

I fucking hate fixing other peoples shit.


This is the boat i am in, i was until about a week ago a 1 man IT department and things got done, period, so people left me alone.
 
I got pulled into an informal disciplinary today and had my role reduced.

It was due to a mistake that my manager was told had been made (it was due to incorrect supplier information!) I prove and my manager even prove to himself the mistake hadn't been made, infact the mistake was quite the opposite it was a success yet my disciplinary still stands.

work that one out.

I just turn up, do as I am told and go home these days.

My manager tells me I may never be ready to be an "IT Manager"

Time to work on the 'ol resume.

I worked for a company like that a few years back. I came into work, did my job, and did it well. Within 3 months of starting at the company I was put onto a team dealing with the highest priority clients, some of whom were billed 9 digits yearly.

After a couple years, I was the unofficial lead (nobody actually went to the actual lead with questions because she didn't know squat) but at my performance review I was told that I wasn't getting a raise because my statistics weren't as high as the team's.

This was partly because of all the other crap that had been piled onto me by management because other people weren't capable of doing it properly, and partly because people on my team were working the ticketing system (opening fake tickets, leaving themselves logged into their phones on breaks, putting eachother on hold, etc). I didn't do any of that crap because I was too busy doing real work.

My boss challenged me to improve my aux times and ticket counts and I told her that fine, it was no problem. I told her we'd meet again in 2 weeks and my stats would be perfect. So for 2 weeks I played the games everyone else did. When we met again, my stats were the highest on the team. She asked me how I did it and I told her. Everyone on the team got written up save myself and 2 others (one of whom is now my fiancee) but still got pay raises because my boss said she'd already filled out all the paperwork for them to get raises despite the proof that they'd been cheating the system.

I was an idiot and worked there for another 2 years. The next year, nobody got raises because of "the economy". The year after that, nobody got raises because of "the economy", except for all the bosses and supervisors. After that I got the hell out of there. My fiancee quit just a few months ago... the company was in the middle of essentially collapsing in on itself. Good riddance.
 
Time to work on the 'ol resume.

I worked for a company like that a few years back. I came into work, did my job, and did it well. Within 3 months of starting at the company I was put onto a team dealing with the highest priority clients, some of whom were billed 9 digits yearly.

After a couple years, I was the unofficial lead (nobody actually went to the actual lead with questions because she didn't know squat) but at my performance review I was told that I wasn't getting a raise because my statistics weren't as high as the team's.

This was partly because of all the other crap that had been piled onto me by management because other people weren't capable of doing it properly, and partly because people on my team were working the ticketing system (opening fake tickets, leaving themselves logged into their phones on breaks, putting eachother on hold, etc). I didn't do any of that crap because I was too busy doing real work.

My boss challenged me to improve my aux times and ticket counts and I told her that fine, it was no problem. I told her we'd meet again in 2 weeks and my stats would be perfect. So for 2 weeks I played the games everyone else did. When we met again, my stats were the highest on the team. She asked me how I did it and I told her. Everyone on the team got written up save myself and 2 others (one of whom is now my fiancee) but still got pay raises because my boss said she'd already filled out all the paperwork for them to get raises despite the proof that they'd been cheating the system.

I was an idiot and worked there for another 2 years. The next year, nobody got raises because of "the economy". The year after that, nobody got raises because of "the economy", except for all the bosses and supervisors. After that I got the hell out of there. My fiancee quit just a few months ago... the company was in the middle of essentially collapsing in on itself. Good riddance.

So stupid isn't it, your review is based on how many tickets you can close and get as many people off the phone as possible. Kinda makes you wonder how you feel when you call tech support for a home product or something you bought. No wonder there is no more one touch fixes, its always the run around talking to this person that person etc etc.

it's the main reason why futureshop & bestbuy and other places are closing down. ( true fact BY the way ..
 
So stupid isn't it, your review is based on how many tickets you can close and get as many people off the phone as possible. Kinda makes you wonder how you feel when you call tech support for a home product or something you bought. No wonder there is no more one touch fixes, its always the run around talking to this person that person etc etc.

it's the main reason why futureshop & bestbuy and other places are closing down. ( true fact BY the way ..

Yep, the company is selling off its residential division because of the crappy reputation they made for themselves paying too few people to do too much work resulting in huge hold times and poor customer service.

I worked for another company after that job (this time as the official team lead) where our client was paying us 7 digits monthly (yes, they were important). They were really happy with us up until upper management stepped in and decided we had too many people on the team and it was costing them too much money. Our staff was cut from 18 to 12. This resulted in a cost savings of about 1% of what the client was paying us monthly, and increased workload by about 50% on the team, at a time our client was going through a change of management.

The result was immediate; we began failing our monthly SLAs while the client's new management looked on and wondered why the hell their predecessors had hired us. Myself and our account manager had to fight to keep the client from leaving. We took a risk and ripped into our upper management telling them to give us our original head count back and not to mess around with our staffing levels again. I mean, with the account gone, we'd be out of a job anyhow. Management wasn't happy with us and gave us people to cross-train from other teams. It still sucked (bitter, cross-trained and already overworked people from other teams != new heads) but at least we managed to pull out of the dive, start hitting our SLA again, save the contract and our jobs.

The irony is that if we'd lost the account, upper management would have played it all out like it was our fault. And all over a 1% reduction in overhead. I hate upper management.
 
I'm an enterprise WAN data tech. The reason the "telecom guys" try to tell you how your network should be organized is because you have no freakin' clue what kind of utterly moronic network configurations we run into daily. If we see something and it doesn't make any sense, it's much more likely that it's a complete hackjob than something sophisticated. Unfortunately some techs make assumptions based upon that, and some simply aren't passionate enough about their work to care about learning more than the bare minimum.

I speak to IT managers all day, because these are the idiots that call us to place service tickets to tell us our network is down when their own network rack is completely without power. But they'll argue with us for 20 minutes about it before they'll go in there and look at whether their equipment is running, because frankly they don't have a clue WTF they're looking at and they know it.


I can completely understand this from both sides. The problem with telecom is a lot of the "older guys" at some companies don't get any training, which puts them in the same position as the rest of the people who just don't know networks.

I'm glad my current jobs staff is well trained in multiple disciplines (both voice and data -- the two are dependent on each other now) as I have worked with telecom folks who don't know what they are doing.

For the record, I implement and install phone systems of all sizes and we have three main types of customers
Those who manage there own networks and know whats up
Those who manage there own networks and don't have a clue/blame voice for all issues (usually resulting from a poorly configured network)
Those who let us manage the network for them

I like working with A and C the most, but I very often run into B.
 
New one for today

Was asked to make a change to our phone system, the support for this is contracted out (not a contract I setup)

I emailed and raised a support ticket for the change, I then called and asked for an ETA was told that it would be the same day. By the next day nothing had happened so I emailed again and then called again and requested an update as I needed the work done. By this afternoon the work was still not done.

I then got an email requesting an update from my manager, I sent a copy of the emails and also a summery of the phone calls and also explained that I would continue to try and get the contractor to make the changes.

I was then told by my manager I needed to "manage the contractors better" and also to "Stop hiding behind them"

Not sure what I am supposed to do really. It's quite hard to manage call centre staff that work for another company and as for the hiding behind them, I can't really work out what that means.

Its a bit mental working here at times.
 
I must be an exception, as I've had nothing but great managers up to directors in enterprise IT shops.... they understood the technology, the business, and above all, they understood technical people... my biggest headache came from project managers who really understood nothing.
 
I was then told by my manager I needed to "manage the contractors better" and also to "Stop hiding behind them"

Not sure what I am supposed to do really. It's quite hard to manage call centre staff that work for another company and as for the hiding behind them, I can't really work out what that means.

Its a bit mental working here at times.
He thinks you're making excuses and blaming the contractors that the work isn't being done.
I personally handle problems with our remote locations and sometimes the telco takes 3-5 days when they said they would only take one.

I personally think your manager doesn't like you for some reason. Clearly you've explained why things haven't gotten done. Thankfully all the managers I have at my current workplace are pretty decent. They all understand that sometimes things take a little longer then they want things to happen.

Take it easy Jay :cool:
 
Yes, that's what I thought as well. Not that I can really make an excuse for the work not being done, I don't do telco so its not really my fault. I just relay the requests.

Its shoot the messenger.

I think my manager is worried the person in my role will take their job. they seem to cycle the staff in my position ever few years by forcing them out. I also don't think they like the fact I have more qualifications then they do and more years of hands on experience. My manager doesn't even really know what a VLAN is and has probably never even seen the blue roll-over cisco cable.

My manager once asked why I needed to get quotes "It is waste of time"

My answer was simple "If I don't get a quote I won't know how much the item(s) costs"

Its simple things like that that make me really wonder about the mental health of people
 
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