Crazy bosses

I have just been ordered from above to take away everyone's right to delete files anywhere. She at first wanted me to just have every delete action send the file to her recycle bin. She is paranoid that files are being deleted and she does not know about it.

I love my job.

Yes, that is sarcasm. I am probably about to be lynched.

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Comments

Mishra

Get a quote for a 500K SAN and tell them you are going to need it to store never revolving data.

undomiel

This is the place that I had to put Linux on a server behind their backs because they wouldn't purchase the necessary licensing for another Windows Server 2003.

cbigbrick

Then back it up to tape and send it off site. Don't forget about Volume Shadow Copy. Or make sure that everyone's laptop and workstation profiles syncs to a server and random intervals.

Good stuff......

Lee H

How can you stop people deleting, if its there file that they created then surely they can remove it

I dont understand why you have been asked to do this please explain where she is coming from

undomiel

Oh trust me we have a good back-up rotation going on plus volume shadow copy. When files are accidentally deleted they can be restored swiftly with minimal to no data loss. There really is no reason to take away delete rights at all.

I'd love to explain where she's coming from but it is simply paranoia and micromanaging.

dynamik

I'd show her a file that had write but not delete permissions.

Then I'd open it up, delete everything in it and resave it

+1 for Shadow Copies for Shared Folders

edit: Whoops. I see you're already using that.

Mishra

Lee H wrote:

How can you stop people deleting, if its there file that they created then surely they can remove it

You can change the permissions to not allow this.

tiersten

Your boss is nuts. She'll want screen capture software next that will record what everybody is doing...

Is removing the ability to delete files from work folders even viable? Office likes to create temporary files whenever it opens anything.

BeaverC32

undomiel wrote:

I have just been ordered from above to take away everyone's right to delete files anywhere.

Is your boss technically oriented? Oftentimes users want a desired solution and just assumes there is only one way to go about doing it. I would clarify exactly what she is trying to accomplish, since there is likely to be a much better solution to achieve the same end result.

astorrs

I'm with beaver, maybe something as simple as auditing all deletions would satisfy what she's really after (combined with a weekly/monthly report of all deletions or similar). Like you said you already have a working backup rotation so maybe this would help calm her nerves about things happening she's not aware of (micromanagement sucks).

cbigbrick

What's the company policies on such things?

Is there user awareness and training?

Research and do a write up (proposal) for her. List your resources and references. Let her make the decisions.

Make sure your write up includes new toys and software.

Add experience to resume.....problem solved.

undomiel

It's something she's asked me to do several times before and I had talked her out of it several times before. Auditing is already in place in several folders where some mysterious deletions had occurred. This time it was an order with no disputing brooked. Implemented and done.

User awareness and training?

:D:D That would be awesome. I'm still trying to train them to actually tell me about errors and not go running to my boss when something breaks.

The boss thinks she is technically knowledgable but isn't. For instance she doesn't understand NTFS permissions. She also doesn't take well to finding out that she isn't technically knowledgable. What she wants is for files to not be accidentally deleted, ever. When she approached me about some files having been deleted yesterday she was screaming about it being the fault of the DFS. Telling her what the logs had to say didn't seem to reassure her either. Oh well. I'll just let her have her way and enjoy entertaining thoughts of her trying to figure out how to restore delete rights if I've moved on by then.

astorrs

Well in that case I would follow dynamik's advice and show her how she can't really achieve what she wants... http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=237278#237278

undomiel

Interesting bit of trivia. Did you know the Excel 2003 requires the delete right to be able to save a new excel document?

Today is turning into a very amusing day for me.

Mishra

undomiel wrote:

Interesting bit of trivia. Did you know the Excel 2003 requires the delete right to be able to save a new excel document?

Today is turning into a very amusing day for me.

Actually I think I've ran into that before. It creates a temp document and needs to remove it using the user's credentials or something.

undomiel

Yep that is what it looked like it was doing. I'm curious as to why it does it that way though because the temp documents created are without data.

HR and Accounting is off my backs now, I've been allowed to restore delete for them and their precious Excel programs.

BeaverC32

undomiel wrote:

What she wants is for files to not be accidentally deleted, ever.

I would request her to explain what she meant by "accidentally deleted". Does this mean it is still it okay for someone to intentionally delete a file because they think it is outdated, irrelevant, is their own personal file, etc? If it is OK, it might be worthwhile in letting her know that while her one main concern is addressed with this solution, there is likely to be a ripple effect on users outside the original scope of this solution.

snadam

undomiel wrote:

Interesting bit of trivia. Did you know the Excel 2003 requires the delete right to be able to save a new excel document?

Today is turning into a very amusing day for me.

crazy bosses=no fun at work

sorry dude. We had the same issue a while back. Fortunately we convinced management that removing that ability creates more problems than not; and as long as we implement a solid backup solution (tape every night, Shadow copies morning and midday during business week), good NTFS permissions, file recovery will be easy and issues will be minimal.

now the only problem after that is the enforcement on the user end...if you don't have management backing you up, then you're screwed...

undomiel

And all delete permissions are back now! It was fun while it lasted.

She's convinced files are randomly disappearing from the drives. So now she is convinced there is a virus running rampant on our networks. I'm convinced that she is forgetting to save her files. The replication logs are on my side.

snadam

undomiel wrote:

And all delete permissions are back now! It was fun while it lasted.

She's convinced files are randomly disappearing from the drives. So now she is convinced there is a virus running rampant on our networks. I'm convinced that she is forgetting to save her files. The replication logs are on my side.

is she bi-polar?

glad everything is restored to normal for now...

Files are starting to mysteriously move around again around here. I cant convince management that some users (err..management) have TOO MUCH ACCESS. Weather they know it or not, they are usually the culprits that cause my network wide search for a folder that hasnt been used in a year. Time to enable auditing for a while!

astorrs

snadam wrote:

Files are starting to mysteriously move around again around here.

I love that when working with new clients, sometimes they have provisioned access as "Full Control" for the authorized groups, then you get the inevitable critical incident because the folder with all of last months Excel spreadsheets just disappeared from the Finance share. Of course Mr. Happy-Hands Accountant just dragged the folder into another one by accident.

This is so common in companies it would make you sick. Personally when I implement NTFS permissions, only Administrators and SYSTEM get Full Control, everyone else gets Modify or less (this includes users home directories).

snadam

astorrs wrote:

snadam wrote:

Files are starting to mysteriously move around again around here.

I love that when working with new clients, sometimes they have provisioned access as "Full Control" for the authorized groups, then you get the inevitable critical incident because the folder with all of last months Excel spreadsheets just disappeared from the Finance share. Of course Mr. Happy-Hands Accountant just dragged the folder into another one by accident.

This is so common in companies it would make you sick. Personally when I implement NTFS permissions, only Administrators and SYSTEM get Full Control, everyone else gets Modify or less (this includes users home directories).

While your implementation of SYSTEM and admins is what we practice here, unfortunately they like to freely use the modify feature because apparently 'commonly used files' are not centrally located, and it makes it harder for them to jump through all the security hoops

. I want to change that and the permission levels, but management says otherwise. It will get there in time...

at least its good to know that im not the only seeing this in the workplace.

cbigbrick

I say slip something into her drink......just kidding!!!

undomiel

On a completely unrelated search I ran across this KB article on how Excel saves files:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814068

Lee H

Sounds like you got it bad mate, women in IT, pff, and shes your boss, oh dear

Ive had a woman boss before and we hated each other, I could see her blood pumping round the veins in her neck when we would disagree about something, she knew very little about support so I had the upper hand

Take it on your chin, and always evaluate your position in the company, soon as you stop learning its time to move on, number 1 rule in IT. Ive had 6 contracts in the last 12 months, currently working for Sony supporting users who are making Motor Storm 2, but once my 3 months are up am sure I will have seen all I need to see, even though its Sony it doesnt mean I want to stay on permanent, I know already it will not offer me anything more than desktop support skills which I already have

The more companies youve worked for the more experiance you will have about how different 1 network can be to the other

Just my 2 pence worth again, I may be wrong but it sounds like you need a change, like a man boss who knows what hes talking about

Lee H

blargoe

Geez man... sounds like great fun

Lee H

Its just like any other support role, they have a guy who looks after all the infastructure and hes got it covered, so there is only desktop support that i will be doing

Some top secret stuff going on too, wish i could tel yas all but i had to sign a form to say i woudnt, its a 3 month contract so i can tell you all in 10 weeks,

Lee H

vCole

Lee H wrote:

Sounds like you got it bad mate, women in IT, pff, and shes your boss, oh dear

There's nothing wrong with women in IT. That's quite the ignorant statement.

Lee H

There's nothing wrong with women in IT. That's quite the ignorant statement.

I do apologise if i have insulted you or someone you know

It is a general statement based on my experiance with every woman i have ever know in IT or using IT, the majority i have known are not good, my boss at Sony is a woman and she is very very good

Lee H

vCole

Lee H wrote:

There's nothing wrong with women in IT. That's quite the ignorant statement.

I do apologise if i have insulted you or someone you know

It is a general statement based on my experiance with every woman i have ever know in IT or using IT, the majority i have known are not good, my boss at Sony is a woman and she is very very good

Lee H

I'm a woman in IT. It was just a very generalized statement.