This makes me want to run screaming from the country

I can't stand it any more. Really. Right now I just want stand on the balcony and yell WTF until I can't breathe anymore. We've all seen how croniism has ruined govt. and led to some incredible morons getting into positions they can't even begin to handle but today I got to see it first hand in IT. Remember Katrina, that nice little Hurricane that tore New Orleans apart (physically, economically and socially) and how having "Browny" in place led to a humanitarian disaster that the country should never stop being ashamed of...sure you have because FEMA have been quick every time it has come up again to say they learned their mistakes and it will never happen again etc. They have the right people in place now.....
Well I just found out that the guy I replaced 2 years ago is now the head of IT for FEMA's post Hurricane cleanup project in a certain city. They guy ran a our medium sized business network into the ground. Seriously, not just the odd mistake but it was so bad you would have had to try to destroy it to leave it in the shape he did - a core NT domain with no BDC, the PDC hadn't been backed up in over a year because he couldn't work out how to get the backup running again (it was because of the next super complicated problem...there was 50MB free on the hard drive), The company intranet server likewise wasn't backing up because of no free space and no one used the network for file storage since they new he wasn't looking after it. A 'new' AD setup that was put in place (badly since the Forest root server, the only forest DC, was broken and didn't believe it was a DC) 2 years previous but had never been touched, 5 redundant domains in the forest that essentially showed he made 'em, screwed them up and and then left them there to rot while trying again on a new one. 10MBps Hubs (yes Hubs) supporting up to 48 users per node at key points in the network (and we wouldn't evenb have had those since I found out from the cable guys that he would order cable drops and have nothing to plug them into, they would grab whatever piece of crap they had removed from another customers site and put it in for him) - oh and he had left proud plans on how he was going to get management to approve running fiber to the slow points to improve performance....ITS A HUB YOU MUPPET a 10MBPS SHARED LINK FIBER WON'T HELP....ahem.... No network map. No cable numbering on a plant of over 200 PCs. Most network devices running with the default passwords. VPNs running with OOB encryption (Hmmm. DES, that gives you a nice warm secure feeling...)
Lots more.....and now he's 'Fixing the mistakes of the past' for a devastated area.

And yes I know this is one big rant but it can be summed up with :
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Okay. that made me feel a bit better, but we should all be worried about how far govt. standards have fallen, and continue to fall.

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Comments

sliptmickey

Wow. You have my sympathies.

I would have loved to have come into your position right after this guy. I love a good challenge. How has everything fared with your network since then?

Ahriakin

It motivated me to learn. I had the Network+,Security+,CCNA and one MCP when I started. I'm not complaining about what was left from a personal standpoint, it did leave me a great environment to improve myself and the network at the sametime. I just can't believe people like that can get into critical positions, or I can believe it but don't want to.

jbaello

I protest that he gets recalled :P

dynamik

Is it bad that none of that surprised me?

I still got a few laughs out of the way you told it though.

snadam

Ahriakin wrote:

It motivated me to learn. I had the Network+,Security+,CCNA and one MCP when I started. I'm not complaining about what was left from a personal standpoint, it did leave me a great environment to improve myself and the network at the sametime. I just can't believe people like that can get into critical positions, or I can believe it but don't want to.

It happens everywhere in all fields in all sectors (private, government). Actually, it happens in life in general. It sure as hell motivates me to learn more and NOT be like 'that guy'

tiersten

Hey. At least it wasn't one huuuuuge workgroup

jryantech

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

nice343

no disrespect to any Gov IT worker here but through out my experience the worst IT personnel can be found in government jobs

sliptmickey

nice343 wrote:

no disrespect to any Gov IT worker here but through out my experience. The worst IT personnels can be found in government jobs

Especially civilian federal employees. It's hard to fire them even if they suck. With contractors they just say, "You suck. You're fired."

Megadeth4168

nice343 wrote:

no disrespect to any Gov IT worker here but through out my experience. The worst IT personnels can be found in government jobs

None taken, but with all due respect, I have worked closely with many IT contractors that didn't have a clue what they were doing. So, I think it really just comes down to the person.

LarryDaMan

nice343 wrote:

no disrespect to any Gov IT worker here but through out my experience. The worst IT personnels can be found in government jobs

True to an extend, but it is because people become complacent.

No matter how unmotivated you are in the government, you will have a job when you wake up. You have to really screw up bad to be kicked out of a federal or military job.

In the civilian sector it is much different, you are judged in large part on your motivation and assertiveness and a lack of it could get you canned!

There are some GREAT techs in the government, but the environment allows for a lot of bad ones too.

Paul Boz

The ineptitude of FEMA extends vastly beyond the guy you're describing. It doesn't surprise me.