Sucky feeling knowing a good friend is getting let go.

Got a request from my boss today to remove access to everything for a user in another department. He and I would go to lunch all the time and were pretty good friends. Hurts to know that I need to do this myself and lock him out of everything without giving him a heads up.

Just wanted to see if anyone else goes through this normally. Really sucks but just wanted to share the small things that goes with the responsibility of being a sysadmin. Knowing whos getting let go, sometimes a week or 2 in advanced, without being able to tell anyone.

Sucks..

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koz24

You know 2 weeks in advance he's being fired and he doesn't know and still works there? Ouch. That sucks.

PCTechLinc

I had to disable my roommate's account, and that really sucked. Especially since I had to continue getting rent from him. Thankfully he is REALLY good at saving money, so it wasn't an issue financially. You just have to sit back and let management make their decisions. I'm just the IT guy... but yeah, it REALLY sucks when you form professional friendships at work and have to see them go.

xocity

Yea, just saw him get walked out. Hurt because we looked at each other and I can tell that he knew that I knew what was going on. We both knotted and they escorted him out. Not sure of the circumstances of why but its just sad to see.

sucks, but, its part of life. He's a smart guy and will make it anywhere he ends up.

greg9891

That's got to feel weird. but being in I.T. that's part of the process. But can't help but feel bad especially if its someone you knew very well.

VinnyCisco

xocity wrote: »

He and I would go to lunch all the time and were pretty good friends. Hurts to know that I need to do this myself and lock him out of everything without giving him a heads up.

For this reason, I try not to form relationships at work. I do have a few friends at work (as in less than 5), but this happens often. As a matter of fact, I had to lock out an account today for a fellow IT contractor that was not holding his weight. Part of the job.

xocity

I dont usually form relationships but its a great environment where everyone gets a long and talk to each other all day. Sometimes I hide in the office just to focus or get away but for the most part everyone is a "friend". But business is business.

E Double U

Just had this happen last week. My teammate came over to our area crying and before I could ask what was wrong our boss came into the cube. He stood there silently with his arms folded as she gathered her things. He gave me her badge and said you know what do with this.

I've also been on the receiving end when my previous employer laid off half of the SOC which included me. The team lead was chosen to come to each of us to lead us to the room to get the news. Tears were in her eyes the entire time.

scaredoftests

Ouch, that sucks.

Queue

What are these people doing to be terminated?

scaredoftests

Queue wrote: »

What are these people doing to be terminated?

Sometimes, it is not them(the people)..contract up or budget cuts..

Queue

scaredoftests wrote: »

Sometimes, it is not them(the people)..contract up or budget cuts..

Yeah that being the case there is a lot of contractors that come through. We exchange contact information and promise to get in touch. However, just like non work relationships it takes effort to keep in touch. Most of the time in about a few months the different paths halt communication.

Fulcrum45

Yeah, it's an awkward feeling. At my old job I got to work very closely with my users but as a sysadmin I was given a headsup weeks in advance that someone was being let go. You felt kinda odd when they would submit a trouble-ticket the day before you were disabling their account

fmitawaps

On my last day of my most recent contract assignment, I saw the department manager 3 times that day and he never said a word about me being laid off. But a half hour after I left that day, here comes the phone call from the temp agency.

I hate cowards like that, that cannot be a man and tell me to my face, they have to go running behind my back to the temp agency like a little B****.

If I were in a place as a network admin, I'd be tempted to pull a Terry Childs and change a few passwords. I'd give them up, of course, but after I got laid off, then they realized the passwords were changed, I would want to make them have to call me and answer questions before I gave the passwords. Just to get some personal satisfaction out of them.

dave330i

fmitawaps wrote: »

On my last day of my most recent contract assignment, I saw the department manager 3 times that day and he never said a word about me being laid off. But a half hour after I left that day, here comes the phone call from the temp agency.

I hate cowards like that, that cannot be a man and tell me to my face, they have to go running behind my back to the temp agency like a little B****.

If I were in a place as a network admin, I'd be tempted to pull a Terry Childs and change a few passwords. I'd give them up, of course, but after I got laid off, then they realized the passwords were changed, I would want to make them have to call me and answer questions before I gave the passwords. Just to get some personal satisfaction out of them.

They don't tell you so that you can't pull such BS, not because they're being cowards.

alias454

fmitawaps wrote: »

If I were in a place as a network admin, I'd be tempted to pull a Terry Childs and change a few passwords. I'd give them up, of course, but after I got laid off, then they realized the passwords were changed, I would want to make them have to call me and answer questions before I gave the passwords. Just to get some personal satisfaction out of them.

The other side of that coin is to disable your access first and then escort you out of the building.

UnixGuy

fmitawaps wrote: »

..

I hate cowards like that, that cannot be a man and tell me to my face, they have to go running behind my back to the temp agency like a little B****.
...

That's the kind of characters we deal with in corporates

bobs.jpg

Mooseboost

Thankfully, I have only ever been in the position of having to fire someone once. When I worked in purchasing, we had a material handler that we hired through a temp agency. I made it absolutely clear in the interview that he would be on second shift and would work at a minimum every other weekend. I stressed that right now we were very busy and overtime was a normal thing. He said that he would work perfectly for him as he was newly married and had just bought a house - so he wanted all the overtime he could get. Typically, in the area - not a lot of temp jobs offer overtime. The position paid decently too, $12/hr - not bad for someone who is just essentially a crib attendant (hands stuff out to the floor workers), time and a half for anything over 40 hours.

He started and everything went fine for awhile. He had been there about two months when he started complaining to me about working weekends. To quote him "I didn't sign up for this ****." I sympathized with him, at the time I was working 60-70 hours a week regularly. Remember though, I made the work schedule as clear as I could in the interview and he eagerly agreed to it. I understand you will say anything to get the job, but when the situation is laid out clearly - you should know what you are getting into. Finally he started complaining to the Operations Manager (my boss) about the shift and the weekends. The guys solution to getting out of working weekends was simply to not show up to work. The first time, I made an exception and told it was okay - life happens. Mind you, when someone calls out or doesn't show up - I have to cover their duties on top of mine. In this event, I had to work double shifts that day because no one else was available to cover for him. He proceeds to do this two more times... Ops Manager calls the temp agency and says it is not working out and that we are terminating him. Walked in the next Monday at the end of his shift and was as straight with him as I could be. Escorted him out of the facility and watched him peel out in his truck and flip us the bird.

I felt horrible letting him go, knowing he had a house payment. He brought it on himself though. I couldn't imagine the feeling of letting someone go not because they failed to fulfill the responsibilities of their position, but because of something like budget cuts. I have never been fired or laid off - so I can;t imagine what it feels like. I have left every position I have had on my own terms. That being said - if you have never been on the end of letting someone go, don't assume it is an easy task. As far as not letting someone know ahead of time - my company at the time had a strict policy. Being a material handler, he had access to very valuable items and could really cause some damage. You may feel like it is the buddy or manly thing to do to give someone a heads up - but have you ever been fired? Have you ever made a rash decision based on an emotionally state that you seriously regret? Someone who is being let go may make a decision they regret - especially if it has legal consequences. Just my two cents in the matter.

E Double U

Mooseboost wrote: »

Have you ever made a rash decision based on an emotionally state that you seriously regret? Someone who is being let go may make a decision they regret - especially if it has legal consequences. Just my two cents in the matter.

This is why we didn't receive notice of layoffs in the SOC. In the NOC we could only do limited commands so no serious damage could be done so we had plenty of notice for layoffs. But when you're managing perimeter firewalls, management just didn't want to take that chance of ******* off people with access to critical systems.

No_Nerd

I had to fire my wife's GM once . My wife was to chicken to write the email and request a meeting . At the last moment she and not i held the final termination meeting. Just super award sitting in on the entire thing because we were scared the guy would lose his **** and start to become violent. Worst part was he filed for WC and sadly it was cheaper to pay him than bring the issue to court.

Worse than that, I got a phone call last year from a buddy in Japan who was head of HR for a multinational Japanese company ( sorry no names ). Well he over the course of a bottle of wine ( we were both drinking at the same time ) ... kinda something we do when there is something important to talk about ..... well he described a situation where he had to fire he best friend who had been employed with the company for 20 years. The guy was stealing from the company and had to be let go. Sadly the guy made like 200K a year and still felt he needed more.

So I feel your pain...

kohr-ah

Just remember something. It sucks. Bad but they are still friends and all you can do is be there for them.

I been on the side that knows and I been in the side that doesn't know. Either way being/having a friend helps more than anything.