Is Negativity Towards Previous IT Employee's Normal Behavior?

NetworkingStudent

Is Negativity Normal in the IT world?

I'm just wondering if this is normal in the IT world.

At work I hear negative comments about the employees that used to work at my current employer.
Usually this happens when their name comes or a ticket/account they used to work on comes up.
I have worked with some of these employees, and some of them left before I started my employment at my current employer

Every time that person's name comes up there is something negative to say from other employee's.

I never hear the positive things they have done.

I try to focus on the positive.

I don't make comments, because I feel it's better not to say anything at all.

My question are:
Are the employee's jealous or bitter because of the employee's departure?

Is this normal behavior for IT pro's?

Why can't anyone focus on anything positive to say?

SweenMachine

I think it is a case by case and job by job basis.

My current company, there is virtually none of that. My previous one, there was a lot of that

This isn't an IT world thing. It's a WORLD thing.

I don't think the IT world is any different than any other employer.

-scott

lsud00d

Scott nailed it...it's not anything specific to any industry...it's just people being people.

I wouldn't fall into the trap, especially if that person was gone before you were even there. It's classless IMO.

Jon_Cisco

I agree it's more about human nature. Ignore them if possible.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Happens pretty much everywhere in all honesty, and people suck. Just ignore those comments and focus on the positive. Sometimes people are bitter because someone left and they had to pick up the slack, or they lost their go-to person and when they get stumped they don't have that person to fall back on.

I know that will happen with me when I leave my current position here soon. (Got an offer yesterday and now negotiating pay/etc)

N2IT

Oh yeah it's everywhere. I sympathize but never partake.

srabiee

I've noticed the same thing but have no explanation.

cwshellhamer

I once worked at a FedEx warehouse when I was in high school.... still to date the best job i ever had! Not because the work was "enjoyable", but because my boss made the work seem less tedious and actually praised people for doing well and helped/guided those who needed it. I told him when i quit: "I'd work for him until i die if i could". Its all about the people you work with/for that make a job what it is, i say more so than what your doing.

Iristheangel

In my experience, lazy engineers always blamed any issues on the last person to quit. It was their way of avoiding doing any real work, design, or clean-up and trying to completely avoid responsibility. It's a fallback to not have to proactively do anything to improve the environment. I'm sure not all environments are this way but if you happen to work with a LOT of lazy engineers and the blame game is played on whoever left in the recent past, I think that says more about them than the person who left.

si20

I work in security and people are leaving all the time...there is no training. Managers who have came from nowhere, studied the ITIL course and think they're world-class IT Managers - it's an absolute shambles. No one knows about security. My team doesn't know about pen-testing etc. I'm one of three in the entire room who has any IT related qualifications. We all hate the place but it's a job that pays....

I suspect lots of people will leave my place because it's absolutely horrible working under non-IT managers who expect you to fix faults within 5 minutes. In my previous workplace, people had a little rant but nothing like this. Where I work right now is horrendous.

kbowen0188

I think one of the reasons you never hear about the things they do right is because the state of the industry assumes that their employees give 110%. Just doing their job isn't enough, they expect them to excel. Therefor, they never remember them for being a good employee. They will just remember all the mistakes they made.

Of course, they could have just been a bad employee.

NetworkingStudent

Thank you everyone for the comments.

It's good to know that this attitude isn't specific just to the IT industry.

Two of the co workers left on bad terms.

One guy just straight up left with out a two week notice.

Just before he left he started making mistakes.

Another kept making mistakes, and his last mistake was a server went down ,when he was on call during the weekend.

He just acknowledge the notification ,but he didn't do anything else.

He was offered suspension ,but he just resigned instead.

The more I think about this, the more I understand it.

It's so easy to point fingers at someone else, rather than yourself.
It takes a bigger person to admit that they may have made a mistake.
After someone leaves the work place hindsight really is 20/20.

I won't partake it these games.
I'm going to try to give 110% or more everyday.