An "end user" chewed me out today for re-imaging his computer

[undeterred]

I just found out yesterday that he is a liberal. I didn't back up his computer. Our users are supposed to store everything to the network. He didn't and I obliterated his stuff.

He came out with a little speech like "I know you IT people know everything we do and you think you have power over all of us... Is this your idea of showing us who's boss?" He said he was going right to my supervisor, but apparently he didn't.

I was dumbfounded, and I discussed it with my supervisor, who put the blame back on the end user.

Yesterday I found that an end user had 42GB of MP3s on our storage server. I didn't delete it, but I reported it. People hate that we make the rules and occasionally enforce them.

Huge culture gap between end users and IT.

[ghostsofgiants]

1. Just curious...

How is the fact that he's a liberal relevant at all?

[undeterred]

4. maybe its not

but usually if someone posts something about a person being a jerk, we all assume that person is a freeper and thats why they act that way

i felt like this person was accusing me of being "big brother" and it felt weird to be on that end of things...

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Yeah, it kinda bugs me when people make it a point...

To mention the person was a Republican when the act of assholery itself was completely non-political.

[Random_Australian]

2. Awww! Don't worry, there are good people out there but there are

always fools to hide them.

For me:
Allowed: 2.0 MB (To temporarily store some documents and stuff, not a big thing)
Used: 0.0 MB :)

[sbj405]

3. It's good that your supervisor supported you.

Not sure what him being a liberal had to do with the story, though.

[Deja Q]

5. Wow, your company allows MP3 downloads?

And, yes, it was the end-user's fault for not backing up data.

[undeterred]

8. Officially we don't allow them

And if we had the space and if we weren't having problems with the backups taking too long and causing servers to crash, it wouldn't be an issue. But there are a few people who have been abusing the lack of enforcement, and guess what- ALL of them are managers!

[Nickster]

7. Holy crap,42 Gig of MP3s?! Where does he find the time? n/t

[undeterred]

9. He must multi task.

[Pierre.Suave]

10. no kidding...

thats a lot of multi tasking.

[ContraBass Black]

12. Isn't that several months worth of continuous playback?

:crazy:

[undeterred]

19. Actually the guy has a DJ business on the side

and he's been warned before. I think he uses the company network for backup.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

14. I have about 50gigs

However, when I buy a CD, I convert it into MP3s on my computer. I have a nice set of stereo computer speakers and it's just easier to control my music collection via iTunes than it is to actually change CDs.

[smtpgirl]

17. The Help Desk Manager tweeks at 10Gb of email, MUCH

less MP3's.

[hyphenate]

11. I have often found

that it is the stupidest end users who are the most nasty when it comes to spreading blame, because they want to Cover Their Own Ass. They know they did something REALLY stupid, and don't want to catch the blame, so they put it on the IS people.

I used to be point person in my department for all the computer ills before they got handed to the IS people. I used to have to clean up the little messes before they turned into big messes, and thankfully the IS people never had to see the little shit. Of course I wasn't being paid extra for that, it just happened that I knew what to do when the idiots on the computers fucked up.

When a user really fucked up, there was no way to hide the extent of their damage, but at least they couldn't blame it on the IS people!!

[smtpgirl]

16. AMEN!!

Do you want to work at my help desk?

I am in NOVA

[hyphenate]

24. Thanks

:) But I've kind of "retired" from that sort of thing on a regular basis. The only job I did recently was help a friend figure out a new program. He and his boss were having a devil of a time with it--the boss is not really hep on computers at all, and my friend is a Mac user who isn't very technical at all.

[smtpgirl]

18. Most can't send a simple attachment, then

IT "cleans" up with recovering a HDD and other little files along the way.

Shouldn't make fun, that is my living, but PEOPLE ARE DUMBASS FUCK NUTS, WHEN IT COMES TO A COMPUTER.

'nuff said, I will shut up now

[swag]

13. Funny shit.

Thanks for posting.

[smtpgirl]

15. I have has experiences with that

Hey that storage was the company's, that asshole had free storage since forever.

One warning, can you put your files on the network.

If you can't do that, well don't use a company provided PC.

End of story

Hope the user reflects on that, UMMM, NO, no another dumbass user!!

I have has 3 years of that bullshit, DELETE IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

[sendero]

20. Where my wife works..

... the MP3s are a termination offense. They don't usually fire someone the first time, but after a couple of warnings they will.

Company computers are for company business. I don't understand why so many folks have such trouble understanding that.

Wanna bet that the files you lost in the reimage were not company business either? :)

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. Looks like you've correctly diagnosed the problem

Loose screw on the keyboard...

;-)

[Magrittes Pipe]

22. I'd get fired if I had 42 gigs of MP3s on my work server.

No matter where you work, information assets in the office are the property of the company. Few people are gonna get shitcanned for checking their personal email every now and again; but if you abuse company resources, there are consequences.

Those MP3s belonged to your company, not the end user, as they were on the company's server. End of story. If he/she wants to bitch, you should contact that employee's supervisor. ;)

[undeterred]

25. The person with the 42 GB is a great employee

I don't know why he does stuff like this. If it were a questionable employee they would use it against him.

[MrScorpio]

23. 42 GBs? That's about 8,000 songs

I should have met this guy

[jrandom421]

26. Sometimes it's good to be the evil SysAdmin

Since personal storage is redirected to the network (can't store too much on the local systems with 8 Gb hard drives and Windows XP and essential business apps), I run scripts that will detect and report such things as pictures, movies, music and so on. Once I have the list of what users have what files, I take that to the CIO and CEO and I get the okay to totally delete stuff. Talk about wailing and gnashing of teeth!

Some users have gotten pretty inventive. Lots of more wailing and gnashing of teeth when I disabled local software installs, CD burning for limited users, and access to USB ports. One user had his MP3 collection on 550 floppies (big compressed file, split into 550 segments). One user attempted to replace the hard drive with a 400Gb SATA drive, but couldn't get past the BIOS password.

I've had all sorts of threats and attempted intimidation aimed at me. If my referral to the CIO, doesn't defuse them, the one statement that totally derails them is "Hmm, unless you own the company, the Supreme Court has stated that this is NOT 'your' system, but the company's property."

[ChoralScholar]

27. Do you read

www.techcomedy.com?

I am ChoralScholar there also.