Am I going mad

kellyjd83

So I'm not exactly new here, I was a member back in 2016. Got some great advice from like minded people (gets ego inflation device from under the stairs). But found a role, that at the time I thought, yes I could finally get somewhere...

In the past I had created 2 discussions about "returning to IT" and "need advice for a career in Security", however I had to (sort of recently) delete the initial posts as I stupidly used a handle that was searchable by anyone that had knowledge of google dorking (I know, I know), which sadly cost me a job - though to be honest the chap that found both those posts sat in front of me at the 2nd interview so very pleased that he found these two that he went on to brag and flex his arms (I'm not joking, I wish I was but I'm not). 

Forward to my current predicament, I work for a firm in the UK  as an IT Support engineer, together with my colleague and now close friend. We work in a team of four, pretty standard setup: IT Manager, Infrastructure Engineer, and myself and my Colleague, I accept that an IT Manager has no need to solve issues that's why he hired us, it should in my experience come to the Inf Engineer and the two Support persons. However, and this is where it get's "odd", while we all have an idea what support engineers do and what (in theory, fyi we are labelled as 1st to 2nd liners) what an Inf Engineers is to have knowledge and experience wise. It comes to the point, where stepping away as I have to view the big picture it becomes clear as day, that my current situation within this firm is toxic. - Let me rephrase this:

On any given day, a user creates a ticket (this is outlined as the procedure in the IT Policy, and when I started was drilled into me as if it were the law of the land), the ticket is picked up and automatically assigned to whomever is under the title as "Lead", which is myself mainly as I was there when this software was put in place. These issues range from anything within the range of O365 (new users, mailboxes, distro lists, access to previous staff members), Intranet (permissioning, creation of areas by department, addins etc), Cloud file sharing (new users, new folders, new permissions, recovering etc), Active Directory (forgotten passwords, permissions, etc), Software installations & Licensing (obviously research is done first, non IT users will download from anywhere [ filehippo, fileshare etc], and whether the software has any issues within the arena of logging data, usage etc), hardware issues, Mobile device issues (approved apps, email issues, wifi issues, data issues, lost / stolen etc), this list goes on and on, so I'll break it into areas that we dip into on a regular basis: Audio and Video editing, cable patching, Conference room management, Events tech management, remote sat office management, IT Auditing, info sec training, GPO editing, Software roll outs, Asset management, IT Expense calculations, Salesforce administration, Powershell development, Jquery, Access control management and maintenance, backups, MDM management, Windows / Mac & Linux management (mac & linux are new, and has only recently come to light), trading software maintenance, Email header analysis, Writing documentation on how to do anything (powershell scripting, o365 features, mdm features etc) and from time to time giving advice to our managers (inf eng & IT manager) on whether security hardware should be bought from Ebay (alarm bells in my head go off, just thinking of it). 

While I'm away for medical reasons, I keep tabs on whats actually going on in the company. And have found that although the team is down an engineer for over 2 weeks now, things are sliding. To the point where my colleague is becoming sick due to stress. From what I gather, neither IT manager nor inf engineer are stepping into lessen the burden that she/he faces and are actually handing more to her/him. My colleague has pointed out on countless occasions, that although the two above us keep repeating that "we are a team, we work well as a team, etc etc", they are incorrect or blind, we are not a team we are in fact two teams - myself & my colleague and the other two. 

There's more to go, and I apologize in advance, I'm hoping you'll reader further down and give advice or cruel punishment that this is a fact and it's the reality. I have no where else, I'll explain this (eventually).

So, the inf Eng, from time to time gives a hand in issues that are piling up. However, he does issues, that can be done in seconds. Of the issues that are a little more technical than the 5 second jobs, he "fixes" them without the user knowing, and closes the ticket.

Case point 1):
2 users with connection issues to a popular trading platform, both users are what I would call High priority as they're role is Business critical, so both users with the same issue, inf eng does his "fix" and closes the ticket, both users with the aforementioned issue reply to the ticket with "this is not fixed / why did you close this, its still not working". Inf Eng would see these replies in the same manner, as all of us do! Inf Eng ignores it / doesn't reopen the ticket, My colleague gets cornered by one of the users on this issue and gets ripped a new one, IT manager & Inf Eng doesn't step in, and agrees with the user and forces colleague to solve the issue regardless to who was the initial.

Case Point 2):
A major security update was released for a file sharing application, notes within the bugs fixed section stated that older versions needed to be upgraded otherwise users would not be able to gain access to resources via the Desktop app. I was tasked with rolling out the upgrade, as an experienced engineer I knew it could be done a number of ways automatically and without bothering the users, approached the IT manager (at this point, there was no eng above me). Asked him if we had the means that I knew of, or if he could give me a crash course on how to do it via GPO (hadn't worked with them in awhile so was rusty). Was told to research how to do it and test it, however, tickets were flooding in from every corner of the office that no one could access the resources. Each install took 10 mins, with no restart to the system (thankfully), with no other option tickets still flooding in, most being doubles some users became unbelievably rude, with threats of complaints to HR over not doing my job. I had to install it manually to every system affected. One system was left to do, the user was on holidays for just over a week and left his laptop logged in (confirmed with his analyst), went ahead changed the users password, saved any documents that were unsaved to the desktop, and updated the application. A day or so passed, and the user returned to find the laptop in a different state (ie no apps running). The user went straight to my manager, spoke of unprofessional acts etc. Get ripped a new one from my manager that the update wasn't needed and should not have been done without expression permission from the user, put on report!

kellyjd83

Case point 3):
Near breach of credentials via Phishing email, all users now needed to have 2FA enabled & setup without delay. IT managers gives this job to INF eng, as myself and colleague are inundated with projects (new joiners, event setup, IT audit). A day passes, inf eng has setup 2fa for 5 users, tried to pass it to myself and colleague, which we declined politely as we were already busy to the point of skipping our lunch break to get our projects completed. A week passes, 80% of the firm is still not enabled for 2fa, Inf eng, now hammering us to help him (even with specific orders from IT Manager, that Inf eng is solely responsible to complete). One month passes, all users have 2fa enabled, however, users complaining that they cant access resources tied to the enabling of 2fa on phone / laptop devices. Users create tickets, nearly half the company can't access resources outside of site. Inf eng, denies it has anything to do with his work, research disproves this. Myself and Colleague forced to fix, and write documentation on how to resolve.

Case point 4+9):
- Support engineers tasked with moving all IT equipment to new site, including 2 safes (none of which are property of IT Department). No help from IT manager or INF engineer.
- Support engineer approached by CEO to fix site Air Conditioning unit
- Support engineers tasked initially to design Asset Management database, with all input being done by Financial Department. Support engineers forced to take full administration and control of asset management system, forced by IT manager, Inf Eng, Financial System Analyst, and DB Engineer.
- Support engineers tasked with full site re-cabling and de-cabling of comms room - no prior knowledge of Networking beyond that of basic troubleshooting
- Support engineer tasked with performing passive Vulnerability test - no prior knowledge outside of Home testing labs

Case Point 10):
- Support engineers asking for possibility to get training to improve workflow and career. Denied, IT manager & Inf Eng proclaim that experience is all they care about, certification means nothing.
- Support engineers ask for salary increase, deemed unsuitable due to unprofessional attitude - Evidence of market value on what others are paying for less responsibilities. Told by inf eng, that it wont lessen the amount of work and on principle will never happen.


Head of HR, brought into meeting with both myself and colleague with a tends to bring unsatisfactory work conditions to light, told to speak to Inf eng and IT manager.

Am I mad in thinking, this is toxic or is this the fact that IT support engineers are nothing more than slaves

PCTechLinc

Putting it succinctly, I would jump ship at the first opportunity.  "Leadership" is managing purely based on users' opinions, and blind to reality.  Unrealistic expectations, undue stress, lack of teamwork (management), etc etc etc.

Russ5813

kellyjd83 said:

While I'm away for medical reasons, I keep tabs on whats actually going on in the company. And have found that although the team is down an engineer for over 2 weeks now, things are sliding. To the point where my colleague is becoming sick due to stress. From what I gather, neither IT manager nor inf engineer are stepping into lessen the burden that she/he faces and are actually handing more to her/him. My colleague has pointed out on countless occasions, that although the two above us keep repeating that "we are a team, we work well as a team, etc etc", they are incorrect or blind, we are not a team we are in fact two teams - myself & my colleague and the other two. 

Am I mad in thinking, this is toxic or is this the fact that IT support engineers are nothing more than slaves

So, this is the meat and potatoes of your post(s). No, you are not crazy. This is not teamwork. Bring the problem to your manager's attention. Ask for help. Your manager will either pull the team together and work to remediate the problem, or he will dismiss it and maintain the status quo until the two of you get fed up and start looking for new jobs.

What's that saying? Employees don't leave jobs, they leave managers.

iBrokeIT

If you both are clearing everything that is put on your plate without communicating there is a problem then there is nothing for your manager to fix.  Why did you take responsibility for the 2FA tickets when that was the Infrastructure Engineer's project?  Why are you apologizing for the poor ticket resolution that the Infrastructure Engineer handled?  Why aren't you distributing tickets to the Infrastructure Engineer when you get overwhelmed or meet SLA? 

I think your situation is created by weak leadership from you manager but some of that responsibility lies with you too.

kellyjd83

Thank you for the replies / comments.

@Skyliinez92 & @Russ5813 I will give this a try once back

@iBrokeIT - I argued that the inf eng should fix it, in which case I was met with "Your being unprofessional", and "I'm your manager, not resolving this issue will look poorly for your end of year appraisal" (that last one, was a kick in the teeth)

From time to time, when issues are created that are within the scope of the inf eng, I religiously assign them to him. when questioned, I simply answer with "I don't know how to resolve this".

90% of the time the tickets, I assigned him are sitting in his job list for 2 weeks (on average), and are reassigned by the IT manager to me.