first day at job and it sucks...

ladiesman217

Sorry guys, I just need to vent.

It's my first day on my new job today and it really sucks. The HR lead me to the Server Room and introduce me with my suppose to be buddy who is a junior tech there for around 7 mos. I shaked with him and after the HR leaves he asked me if I know how to repair UPS and Printers and monitors, I said, no...then he replied to me "so maybe I should be resigning soon. When I told him that The HR informed me that another 2 junior tech and 1 system admin will soon report for duty, He even repeat that the he'll just resign. I know what he means and it seems he dont want me there.

I think this is not the type of work environment I was looking for so I'm quiting. Maybe someday I could also find a more friendly environment whos employees want to work as a team. I asked him about the duties and if he can guide to the work around and he told me no one would tell what to do and it's like he doesn't want to cooperate with me.

He's actually a big head when it comes to talking about his skills, he even reffered to samba as an operating system.

I was shocked when I saw their system, they got 1 DC (windows 2000 server) and 1 exchange and wow! it's full of malware! They got no RIS, they use static addressing with 50+ computers, clients are old windows 98 on pentium II and some are XP's in PIII.

I think I can't be productive working with him so bye new job, start of a new job hunt again.

gojericho0

you really didn't quit did you? this guy probably just feels that you are a threat. There also seems to be a lot or room for improvement in the environment that you could contribute to. Dealing with personality conflicts on the job will follow you where ever you go. The real challenge is handling them in an effective manner without disrupting work flow and being productive. This guy might just see what you can do before opening up, or he could be just plain miserable. Don't let it bring you down though

shednik

I'd stick it out for a bit and try and see if you can suggest some big improvements. This may be a great chance for you to get your hands dirty and learn how to a lot more. Maybe him leaving will be the best thing for you and the company. I'd atleast stay there until you found another gig that was worth leaving there for if you are set on leaving.

empc4000xl

If you quit, then he won. I honestly wouldn't want you there either if this is your attitude. I'm not defending his actions, but I'll be dammed if someone else forces me to quit anything. If I leave it will be on my own terms.

networker050184

If they were impressed with his performance you probably wouldn't be there, so just go with the flow for a while and see what happens.

Vassago68

Working in an environ that is in piss poor shape when you get there will teach you more then one that is running smooth.

This also gives you a chance to shine and do good things. Fix the problems that you encounter, and if your bosses see this, and are impressed, I would venture to say it will be good for growth later. Although I do not know exactly how big your company is, sounds small with only 1DC and Exchange, but you get my drift.

Mishra

Definitely don't leave. It sounds like you may have an environment where you can really show your skills and improve the place. It will make you feel good and will be great for your skills.

As gojericho says, there are always personality problems at work. Ignoring those problems is a skill that needs to be developed on its own.

dynamik

Vassago68 wrote:

Working in an environ that is in piss poor shape when you get there will teach you more then one that is running smooth.

Exactly. You're going to be passing up a great opportunity to learn/gain experience.

Bring the other guy on board and improve things as a team. You'll never get anything done if you're constantly going against each other.

slideoff

In my experience with the IT world is that you come across a lot of "geeks" who need to work on their social skills. I wouldn't sweat his comments. Give it a month or so, and things might be a lot different.

sthomas

ladiesman217 wrote:

Sorry guys, I just need to vent.

It's my first day on my new job today and it really sucks. The HR lead me to the Server Room and introduce me with my suppose to be buddy who is a junior tech there for around 7 mos. I shaked with him and after the HR leaves he asked me if I know how to repair UPS and Printers and monitors, I said, no...then he replied to me "so maybe I should be resigning soon. When I told him that The HR informed me that another 2 junior tech and 1 system admin will soon report for duty, He even repeat that the he'll just resign. I know what he means and it seems he dont want me there.

I think this is not the type of work environment I was looking for so I'm quiting. Maybe someday I could also find a more friendly environment whos employees want to work as a team. I asked him about the duties and if he can guide to the work around and he told me no one would tell what to do and it's like he doesn't want to cooperate with me.

He's actually a big head when it comes to talking about his skills, he even reffered to samba as an operating system.

I was shocked when I saw their system, they got 1 DC (windows 2000 server) and 1 exchange and wow! it's full of malware! They got no RIS, they use static addressing with 50+ computers, clients are old windows 98 on pentium II and some are XP's in PIII.

I think I can't be productive working with him so bye new job, start of a new job hunt again.

DO NOT QUIT just yet! This sounds like a good oppurtunity, this guy that is giving you crap sounds like he is threatend by you. Get to know the other new people that are coming in they may be ok to work with. If this guy is how you describe him he probably won't last much longer anyway. Start fixing their problems as soon as possible. Make sure your boss and his boss know what you are doing, toot your own horn a little and make sure the other tech that is giving you crap gets no credit for the work unless he actually does some of it. I would start with the Exchange server having malware. That cannot be good for security. Then take care of the other things. As far as the comment about fixing the UPS, Monitor, and printers go....The only way to fix monitors is to replace, the only thing to do to fix a UPS usually is to replace the battery or UPS itself which is easy, and most small printers do not have consumer replacable parts so you will have to take it in to a repair shop to fix most hardware problems. Basic common printer problems you should be able to fix like updating drivers removing paper jams etc......I would recommend standardizing any new computer/printer purchases with the same brand if possible like for example for printers go with all HP, and for computers go with all Dell. That will make things easier in the long run and make you look good. Good Luck!

undomiel

Sink or swim. Best environment to be in to grow. Much better than an already smoothly working environment.

As everyone before has said this is a great opportunity for experience. Get things fixed up and ignore the sourpuss. You'll have his job soon.

janmike

Hey ladiesman217!

All of these posts give you good advice. That is why we gather here, after all!
It sounds to me like you have wide-open opportunities at this place.

It doesn't sound like this guy is your boss, or even capable of being a supervisor of any kind.
So, jump in and start cleaning up and making some improvements.

Stay with it! Best of luck.

ladiesman217

thanks for advice guys. It makes me feel good. Im glad i found new friends here.

Ok I'll give it a try but I have to tell you guys I'll be asking a more technical info here for continuing this job.

Good day everyone! may God Bless us all.

KGhaleon

Yeah, don't quit. I've worked in a lot of nasty environments...even my current one has a similar guy. He does nothing but berate me everyday, and just looks for excuses to complain while piling as much work on me as possible. In the beginning it was a nightmare training under this guy..but now I've improved drastically and he relies on me to get the nastier tickets closed. I've learned to look past him.

If he gives you a hard time, don't respond in a way that will make him anger. Just do your job properly and things will fall into place. Go out of your way to improve your environment. Try and get on his good side. You don't bite the hand that may help you.

astorrs

ladiesman217 wrote:

Ok I'll give it a try...

Thank god you hadn't quit already. +1 to everything everyone else said.

cdad2000

Samba an OS....LOL

JDMurray

The first ting to do is check what kind of budget the IT department has. If there's currently no money to buy new servers, OSes, software, support contracts, etc., you'll need to wait until the next budget cycle (or reorg) before money might become available. In the mean time, plan how you would change the data center and put it into writing and diagrams for the day when you need to present it to the CxO that signs the checks. Cost estimates from reputable vendors (Microsoft, Dell, VMWare, etc.) are a good thing to gather too.

macdude

Don't worry about that guy. Most people like that are insecure with there skills. If this guy was really good, there would not be alot to clean up.

I remember when I started a job once, on the very first day, this old tech he was in his late 40s, I was in my early 20s. We were both computer techs he was not a sr tech or anything. He took me out to site and had me look at a couple of comptuers, these work orders he had for about 3 months. The other two techs had stopped helping me a long time ago. I fixed to of his problems on the very first day. He would rag about skills and stuff, I just learned to ignore it. In the end he saw that I didn't care what he said. I just did my job and all of the clients would call our boss tell them how good I was doing. After a while he stopped ragging on me and we ended up becoming friends. When I got promoted to Network Admin, he asked our boss if he could ride with me some days and I didn't care if he did. He would go out with me and I would explain why the network was setup a certain way and show him how to do it. He ended up becoming a better tech.

So ladiesman, just remember don't let him get to you and do your job the best to abitliy and it will pay off in the long run.

paintb4707

Repair monitors? Does he even realize what a stupid question that is? I would have laughed if someone asked me that... and then I'd ask if HE repairs monitors.

Just hang in there. He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about and he's threatened that someone more knowledgeable is stepping on his territory.

HeroPsycho

Plus, you got some new people coming in, so this guy will be outnumbered if he keeps acting like a jerk to new people.

Take the lead and start trying to clean up the place. Don't make drastic changes at first. Take on some small low risk changes to improve the environment, gain trust, then start proposing the bigger changes. Also, don't do work that exposes the piss poor job he's done, but instead try to improve the environment.

For example, a bad thing to do at this point would be running security scans on the network and showing how screwed the servers are even if they're that bad. He's gonna see that as a personal attack. Instead, if you can, try to remove the malware from one server. Once that's completed, move on to another. That avoids as much as possible resentment from him while improving the environment.

snadam

Sounds to me you are in a perfect position to shape up the place (including personnel)! I agree with everyones advice so far. Sounds like he is the company jackass. You learn to live with guys like this. I think it builds character. They THRIVE on weak mentality. Show them no remorse and you'll be fine. Besides, like HP said, he will soon be outnumbered. He will either fix his 'tude, or leave.

as for the 'repairing monitors' thing, you should just tell them that its logically wiser to REPLACE monitors than REPAIR them. It almost seems like he was too busy trying to fix something stupid and let the network go wild with malware, etc. I could go on but its really beating a dead horse at this point...

OK, OK one more thing...
actually if you want to bust his chops, tell him there is a dead pixel on your monitor and ask him to show you how to fix it.


BTW, whats your position there?

paintb4707

snadam wrote:

actually if you want to bust his chops, tell him there is a dead pixel on your monitor and ask him to show you how to fix it.

LOL priceless

whistler

ladiesman217 wrote:

I was shocked when I saw their system, they got 1 DC (windows 2000 server) and 1 exchange and wow! it's full of malware! They got no RIS, they use static addressing with 50+ computers, clients are old windows 98 on pentium II and some are XP's in PIII.

I think I can't be productive working with him so bye new job, start of a new job hunt again.

Earlier you said they where bringing in 3 more team members, so either they are expanding ie. more money for equipment or they budgeted on the wrong side of the equation.

Sneaker net updating isn't hard if done right. I do it for about 75 users and 90 or so PC's/Servers, most of them are XP. If you don't have the budget back to the basics is sometimes the best.

The 7 month'r may just be frustrated and dragged down. Who knows how many other "techs" have rotated through the shop in 7 months. Glad you are giving it a chance.

Set priorities, ie. getting rid of the Malware first, document the network next etc. etc..

A potentially good experience and resume builder.

blargoe

Don't worry about that guy. You don't take orders from him.

All the stuff you find wrong with the network, please document everything (the malware on the exchange server, the use of Windows 98, no longer supported by Microsoft, not a business class operating system and one that is very insecure and hard to find supported security software for these days, anything else that you can find that is not best practice). Then call a meeting with your boss, lay it all out on the table and tell him you want to be part of the solution to the problem.

LBC90805

You can tell from the equipment and Operating Systems running that this business does not invest money into IT. And to make another judgement it soudns like management invest little money else where into employees, fixtures/furniture and upgrading assets that are crucial for operation. To me it seems that there is no budget for IT at this company beyond hiring a couple of people to patch things up and limping along.

With that said, it will not matter, and probably is a waste of time, to go to management with a list of what is wrong and what needs to be improved because they will not spend the time or money upgrading anything. They are making the business operate with what they have. It is very sad to see this but a whole bunch of businesses function like this. I've seen businesses like this all over the place and it won't matter what you can do and what arguments you bring to the table. The people in charge are effective Scrooges and everything will remain status quo.

astorrs

LBC90805 wrote:

You can tell from the equipment and Operating Systems running that this business does not invest money into IT. And to make another judgement it soudns like management invest little money else where into employees, fixtures/furniture and upgrading assets that are crucial for operation. To me it seems that there is no budget for IT at this company beyond hiring a couple of people to patch things up and limping along.

With that said, it will not matter, and probably is a waste of time, to go to management with a list of what is wrong and what needs to be improved because they will not spend the time or money upgrading anything. They are making the business operate with what they have. It is very sad to see this but a whole bunch of businesses function like this. I've seen businesses like this all over the place and it won't matter what you can do and what arguments you bring to the table. The people in charge are effective Scrooges and everything will remain status quo.

Maybe, or maybe no one has ever brought forth anything different. You won't know until you try. The experience you gain working in that kind of environment for a little while (cleaning things up) is valuable and you can always start looking for another job - while still getting a paycheck.

mgeorge

I can understand repairing laser printers and such, but if someone is stupid enough to open up
a UPS (other then replacing the battery and changing smart modules) then they deserve to
be electricuted for their stupidity. The capacitors in conjunction with the transformers in the
UPS can easily stop your heart in a single discharge.

Not to mention the same thing can occur with monitors.

astorrs

mgeorge wrote:

I can understand repairing laser printers and such, but if someone is stupid enough to open up
a UPS (other then replacing the battery and changing smart modules) then they deserve to
be electricuted for their stupidity. The capacitors in conjunction with the transformers in the
UPS can easily stop your heart in a single discharge.

I'm sure that was his attempt at eliminating the competition.

mgeorge

astorrs wrote:

mgeorge wrote:

I can understand repairing laser printers and such, but if someone is stupid enough to open
up a UPS (other then replacing the battery and changing smart modules) then they deserve to
be electricuted for their stupidity. The capacitors in conjunction with the transformers in the
UPS can easily stop your heart in a single discharge.

I'm sure that was his attempt at eliminating the competition.

haha, yeah that's one way of doing it alright lol!!!

dynamik

mgeorge wrote:

I can understand repairing laser printers and such, but if someone is stupid enough to open up
a UPS (other then replacing the battery and changing smart modules) then they deserve to
be electricuted for their stupidity. The capacitors in conjunction with the transformers in the
UPS can easily stop your heart in a single discharge.

Not to mention the same thing can occur with monitors.

You really think someone who is curious and tries to tinker around with an electronic device deserves to have his or her life put at risk?

mgeorge

If they do see "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE" warnings and choose to disregard them then yeah they obviously need a dose of realitiy. I dont think they deserve to be hospitalized but they do need a little shock to warn them that such "curiosity" can kill the cat.