Dealing with coworkers

kiki162

Ok so I need to vent a little. I'm the SA at my job, and deal with all the W2K8 and R2 servers, plus some other odds and ends. I have this co-worker that's the network/cisco guy, and mostly deals with the networking equipment, IP addresses and so on. I come in this morning to check on my soon to be new internet server and find that I can't make a connection to the Internet at all, plus I find that the secondary/backup IP connection to my primary DC has been changed to a different IP and has been switched over to a DHCP connection all together. I was like ok...WTH?! This guy has been known to "tinker" with things, and not say anything to anyone about it. He hasn't said a word to me about what he's done either.

Anyways this guy is literally twice my age, and snaps at you unless you talk to him in a parent/child type of way. I've tried dealing with this guy on my own, and he just goes ballistic, so I've given up on that front. I've even tried talking to my boss, who doesn't like stirring the pot, mainly because he's looking at retiring in the next few years and doesn't seem to care. I haven't bothered to take it above him yet anyways without additional backup. Plus this guy and my boss are around the same age and eat lunch together, so that really doesn't help.

I haven't bothered to talk to my boss about it, and frankly I don't wanna deal with this guy...because I like my job too. Anyone deal with irratating co-workers like this at all?

RobertKaucher

Company does not have a change management policy? Have you considered.... Muuuuuuhhhhhhrduuuuuhhhhr!?!?!? Always a good strategy if you can hide the bodies.

Turgon

kiki162 wrote: »

Ok so I need to vent a little. I'm the SA at my job, and deal with all the W2K8 and R2 servers, plus some other odds and ends. I have this co-worker that's the network/cisco guy, and mostly deals with the networking equipment, IP addresses and so on. I come in this morning to check on my soon to be new internet server and find that I can't make a connection to the Internet at all, plus I find that the secondary/backup IP connection to my primary DC has been changed to a different IP and has been switched over to a DHCP connection all together. I was like ok...WTH?! This guy has been known to "tinker" with things, and not say anything to anyone about it. He hasn't said a word to me about what he's done either.

Anyways this guy is literally twice my age, and snaps at you unless you talk to him in a parent/child type of way. I've tried dealing with this guy on my own, and he just goes ballistic, so I've given up on that front. I've even tried talking to my boss, who doesn't like stirring the pot, mainly because he's looking at retiring in the next few years and doesn't seem to care. I haven't bothered to take it above him yet anyways without additional backup. Plus this guy and my boss are around the same age and eat lunch together, so that really doesn't help.

I haven't bothered to talk to my boss about it, and frankly I don't wanna deal with this guy...because I like my job too. Anyone deal with irratating co-workers like this at all?

I think you are screwed. Just try and ignore this sort of thing but cover yourself by letting your line manager know you are not happy when these things happen. If a company policy is being violated because of this behavior you want to make sure you dont carry the can for not flagging it up. Something got broken so report that to your boss. Let your boss handle it.

dave330i

Why does a network guy have admin rights to a windows server?

Slowhand

Hmm, it's a tough call. It sounds like you can't just lock the networking guy out of your servers by demoting his account, and if talking to him or your boss is getting you nowhere it's going to be tricky. Is there any chance there's someone higher on the food-chain than your boss that you could talk to, or maybe you could go to HR and discuss with them how the networking guy snaps and throws a fit if you try to talk to him constructively?

kiki162

He doesn't have access to my servers at all. So I'm not sure how that all got changed over, but I guess there's something that you can do at the switch level. Yeah I mean I don't want to go up the chain and screw myself unless there's something specific that is happening that's not being taken care of properly. Turgon, I agree with you.

Yes there is a change management policy but I think it's more of a relaxed policy since it's government after all. It's just stupid stuff like that makes me wanna bash my head against the wall sometimes.

cyberguypr

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Company does not have a change management policy? Have you considered.... Muuuuuuhhhhhhrduuuuuhhhhr!?!?!? Always a good strategy if you can hide the bodies.

Change management was also my initial thought. If they don't have anything in palce this may be the time to make a push for it.

We don't pack up groceries at (insert you local supermarket here). We are professionals and should be treated accordingly. Do not accept this type of behavior. As Turgon mentioned, your responsibility is to bring this to your manager's attention. It will be his job to deal with it.

Don't forget they can always get an anonymous tip and find all sorts of contraband in the guys drawers. Works like a charm.

Tackle

cyberguypr wrote: »

Don't forget they can always get an anonymous tip and find all sorts of contraband in the guys drawers. Works like a charm.

Where would one acquire such contraband? There is this guy in sales that's a know it all...haha.

kiki162

Yeah tell me about it. One would expect some level of change management to be happening. Another thing he did today was to take it upon himself to take the backup tapes that another guy does (who first day out on leave was today and I'm his backup) normally switch out downstairs and then threw it back in my lap and said "oh these were sitting out so I took them downstairs, who job is it to take them downstairs?" I looked at him and said, “I was wondering where they went off too". Then I asked my boss about it and told him I don't appreciate that. Everything looked like it was switched out properly (which it was) then he throws it back in my lap. My boss shrugged it off. Then this guy had the audacity to go to my boss and said..."someone tattling on me?" My boss shrugged his shoulders again. Then I had the box of tapes that I had sitting on my desk, then the guy was like, oh I'll take those down on my way out. I said that's fine.

Anyways, I brought up to my boss and he said he'll take it up on Monday and find out. I'm just waiting to ride this train out till this guy and my boss retire within the next 5 years (hopefully).

Everyone

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Company does not have a change management policy? Have you considered.... Muuuuuuhhhhhhrduuuuuhhhhr!?!?!? Always a good strategy if you can hide the bodies.

If your datacenter has a raised floor... there's often some room if you lift up the right tile, I'm sure you could hide a few in there.

veritas_libertas

Yikes! Between a rock and a boss that doesn't really care. Time to brush up the resume and looking else where. Those kind of situations do not usually have happy endings if you stick around.

demonfurbie

im guessing a tazer wouldnt help

Slowhand

Sounds like you might need to make sure that the local admin accounts on those servers are changed ASAP, as well as change out the AD passwords for anyone that has Enterprise/Domain Admin access, just in case the network admin has somehow "acquired" one of those passwords. Checking the logs on the machines to see who's been logging in might not be a bad idea either, (you could turn on some auditing to see you can't catch the culprit.)

Other than that, perhaps it's time to update your resume and see what else is out there? You mentioned that you like your job, but you shouldn't lock yourself in someplace if that place has managers and coworkers that are either actively working against you or completely checked out. Weigh your options, and maybe float that resume out on some job-boards just for the heck of it and see if you get any interesting bites.

kiki162

I'll certainly check on that to see if anything has been changed or accessed. It's certainly possible that he knows one of the other domain admin passwords and got thru on that.

I've thought about floating my resume out there to other companies in the area for a little while now. On the same note I have about 2 years invested into this job, and the more time you have at a job the better it looks on a resume as most of you all know. So I don't want to screw myself on that. But I'll certainly keep my resume updated just in case things get a lot worse.

ccnxjr

More than a tech thing, sounds like a teamwork issue.
If the Sys Admin can't trust his Network Engineer then I think their are bigger issues at hand.
Conversely, if the Network Engineer does not communicate well with the Sys Admin then your working on shifting ground.
Especially if his changes directly impacts your services.
How exactly did he get approval to move forward with changing the IP address schema without your knowledge?
(rhetorical question really, i can guess the answer)
Might be time to set some boundaries and get a new roll of tape for your label maker!
He might feel a little put-off if your younger than him, so maybe randomly ask his opinion on something.
Just to smooth things over.
You're the "new kid" on the block, and apparently the adult in this situation since he clearly doesn't think he did anything wrong at all!
After the "dealings" on monday, maybe on tuesday bring him a peace offering.
Try to explain to him , in simple language yet without being condescending that it's a bit challenging to get your work done if things change in his department without your knowledge. (or if he just goes ahead and makes changes without your knowledge).

Might it be possible that before you were there he held some of your responsibilities and he's just in the habit of doing things on his own?

kiki162

ccnxjr wrote: »

How exactly did he get approval to move forward with changing the IP address schema without your knowledge?
Might it be possible that before you were there he held some of your responsibilities and he's just in the habit of doing things on his own?

He didn't and that's the problem, he was playing around and didn't realize what he was effecting. I discovered all of this stuff this morning, so there's some more stuff that makes sense here.

He's got a bad habit of doing things on his own. What I found out was he was tinkering with a wireless router, and set the DHCP option up, then did some stuff on the switch side of the house, then created a scope which in turn changed my secondary IP address on my domain controller. It didn't effect anything, but still the point is to pay attention, put things back the way you had it, OR better yet ask someone instead of assuming. But hey that's just me thinking here. Once I explained what I found to my boss, I stressed the importance of him communicating as to what he's doing or changing, and he agreed.

To answer your last questions, he did not hold any of these responsiblities before me, the last guy that worked here did.

NOC-Ninja

I feel your pain but in a different way. We have a Sr Network Engineer here. He has been in the company for 10 yrs. All he does is talk about WoW and Star Wars. He also talks to us like a parent/child.

Most or 95% of his projects goes to me and my coworker. Anyhow, we're both frustrated about the situation. The worst part is he passes it to us when there's a day or 2 left before its due date even though it was assigned to him 4 months ago. Actually, there was this one project that I did in an hour after he told me that it’s needed. I asked him when he knew about this project. He couldn’t answer me and kept changing the subject. I then asked the POC of the project he told me that it was brought up 2 weeks ago. Crazy huh? What else can we do? He's friends with the management. Also, there were a lot of complaints about him but nothing change. It’s a tough situation. He’s one of the reasons why I study every day. I want to excel guys like these.

Slowhand

kiki162 wrote: »

I've thought about floating my resume out there to other companies in the area for a little while now. On the same note I have about 2 years invested into this job, and the more time you have at a job the better it looks on a resume as most of you all know. So I don't want to screw myself on that. But I'll certainly keep my resume updated just in case things get a lot worse.

Two years is definitely a respectable time to have spent working for a single company, especially in this industry, and I don't think it's fair to you or your career to have to wait another five years for your boss to retire so that maybe the guy who replaces him will do something to correct what's going on. Work with the management you have right now, but don't be afraid to see what's out there, I'm sure you can find plenty of companies hiring that have better policies and more professional management practices.

rsutton

If you don't have change management in place, I would use this as a means to implement it. If no one is interested in implementing it then they don't care enough about their infrastructure, in which case I personally would consider looking for a new job.

ChooseLife

I'd say time to find a healthier working environment