Hostile work enviroment

Hi everyone,

I started a new job around a month ago through an agency. The job was initially listed as a " help desk". It was near my home and the pay was decent, so after the passing the interview they offered me the job. The environment is a medical supplier and fortune 500 company with around 150 users at this particular location. ( we have other offices also) My first day on the job I show up to the IT department which is in shambles.... No computers are connected, the room was completely redone. Everything was boxed up. Then they explain to me that they recently did a " reorganization" and terminated the whole department due to " insubordination", being lazy and not handling tickets in the que.

I had a senior systems administrator from another state train me for a week and then cut me loose. The expectation this would be a new department starting with me from the ground up. The previous employees took some " inside" knowledge with them that we're still trying to figure out. They asked me If I would be willing to accept the challenge and take it on. Reluctantly out of fear and shock I almost said no... I saw this an opportunity to build the department from the ground up in my favor. I was one person to handle the help desk, the sever room and daily back ups ( LTO tapes). Eventually, I got overwhelmed a bit from doing like 3 persons jobs. They hired a second guy with " 13 years experience" and finally thought to myself " what a relief, now I can get much needed help in this department".

He and I got along great at first. Now he seems to be overly negative about the job, telling me he is " looking for other jobs". I don't really blame him. Our IT department manager doesn't really have much knowledge of IT in general. Enough to run a department, yes. His idea is to radically transform our departments image, to be more proactive and personable. But his personality is very bipolar and draconian. For instance, he came into the IT department and place " post it" memos on surplus PC's asking " what is the status on this pc?" " why is this a mess" when we were gone for the day. So essentially this is what we saw one morning walking into work.

To make matters even worse, they assigned a IT supervisor from the satellite office out of state to micromanage our daily ticket que. Almost everyday, he'll call in and nitpick at our ticket que and ask why we haven't taken care of this user,etc. He's knowledgeable about IT being a Network admin. He comes off as arrogant and demeaning to both me and my partner. He'll say " C'mon guys this is basic networking 101, I can train an employee in the office to do this job". He reports to our IT department manager as his minion to ensure were in line..

My co-worker seems to be getting into it with both the manager and supervisor and he's getting emails claiming he's being insubordinate and disrespectful. They've been questioning him about his punches at the ADP machine. I mean hes' only clocked in a few minutes earlier and left a bit late. I can vouch for him. My co-worker is already cynical and claims he " cant take it anymore".

Myself, I try to keep a low profile and not talk back to much. I'm trying to build my experience in IT more, I've worked for a temp job at a school district before. ( completely different atmosphere and work culture). I'm just wondering If I should my co-workers advice and move on to a different job? I have a part-time interview for a city coming up soon. Or should I just stay in place and fight it out? I will say I am learning ALOT at this job. Since, everything is hands on in a big environment like this.

Cliff notes:

We don't have a system in place for imaging. Not even CloneZilla or PXE boot. (150 users in the office)
Everyday seems like a crisis and management makes exceptions for certain users bypassing our ticket system
Management treats us like children who need to be lectured or scolded.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

EANx

Hostile work environment has particular legal requirements in the US that this doesn't meet. You have a dysfunctional work environment, something very different.

EMT760

EANx wrote: »

Hostile work environment has particular legal requirements in the US that this doesn't meet. You have a dysfunctional work environment, something very different.

Understood. I'm looking for advice rather. Not for a lawyer. ( I already have one in the family)

TechGromit

Hmm tough situation, if you really need the experience, your just going have to suck it up. Me, I wouldn't tolerate this kind of environment, I would tell them right up front I demand the respect as an IT professional, I'll give the same level of respect you give me. You can't treat me poorly and expect respect in return. Also if you want a Yes, yes guy, that's not me, I'll voice my opinion, in a professional matter of course. On the other hand I have the benefit of 25 years IT experience, and feel pretty confident I can secure another job in a few weeks at the most.

EMT760 wrote: »

Everything was boxed up. Then they explain to me that they recently did a " reorganization" and terminated the whole department due to " insubordination", being lazy and not handling tickets in the que.

Make you wonder if your entire will get terminated again in the near future and how many times this reset happened before. What Bill and Frank not working out? Fire them, we'll hire replacements tomorrow.

EMT760 wrote: »

The previous employees took some " inside" knowledge with them that we're still trying to figure out.

I would think so, usually there's some level of turn over when your replacing someone. This is just help desk, what happens when a network switch goes kaput? It's helpful to know where the network closets are at the very least, a network map might be helpful too. There's a lot more to IT then just the help desk.

Neil86

If it is so bad that it is unhealthy for you and causing an unreasonable amount of stress, leave. You should also be treated as a professional, not a grunt. No job is worth that IMO.

But, gaining that kind of experience is priceless. I feel I am in a similar, but not exactly the same, situation. I've had my current position for about 9 months now. It's just me and a coworker in the IT dept. with no real IT supervisor (its the executive director of the entire org, but has little to no IT knowledge, just approves our paychecks). Almost 300 end users. I wish there was more structure/stability/standardization, and we are trying to get it to that point, but I learn so much every day I am there. Some days I am frustrated. I have learned a tremendous amount about not just the technical hardware/software/networking stuff, but inventory management, design and implementation, diagrams, policies, contracts, and many other aspects. I keep telling myself that this experience will pay off, it may do the same for you. Maybe this is your time to shine and start creating and implementing some structure to the place?

EMT760

TechGromit wrote: »

Hmm tough situation, if you really need the experience, your just going have to suck it up. Me, I wouldn't tolerate this kind of environment, I would tell them right up front I demand the respect as an IT professional, I'll give the same level of respect you give me. You can't treat me poorly and expect respect in return. Also if you want a Yes, yes guy, that's not me, I'll voice my opinion, in a professional matter of course. On the other hand I have the benefit of 25 years IT experience, and feel pretty confident I can secure another job in a few weeks at the most.

Make you wonder if your entire will get terminated again in the near future and how many times this reset happened before. What Bill and Frank not working out? Fire them, we'll hire replacements tomorrow.

I would think so, usually there's some level of turn over when your replacing someone. This is just help desk, what happens when a network switch goes kaput? It's helpful to know where the network closets are at the very least, a network map might be helpful too. There's a lot more to IT then just the help desk.

That thought is in the back of my mind. I fear my co-worker may the next victim for that. Were both temps, so that would be easy to do. Initially, It was a help desk. I was to be trained by one of jr system admins on site. But he resigned when his co-worker and the department were fired by IT manager.

Right now, I'm afforded a great deal of flexibility. I can answer the phone when I want, respond to the ticket que. I'm responsible for the servers involving backups. I know where most of the switching and phone systems are, I do the daily LTO back ups. Something I was never given keys to in the past... So it is a unusually hands on position for a guy with just a A+ at the moment.

I do have a interview with a city in my area for their IT department. It's only part-time and the pay is a lot less. I could go back to school. I like making the money i'm making now, i'm also getting full time hands on experience.

Neil86 wrote: »

If it is so bad that it is unhealthy for you and causing an unreasonable amount of stress, leave. You should also be treated as a professional, not a grunt. No job is worth that IMO.

But, gaining that kind of experience is priceless. I feel I am in a similar, but not exactly the same, situation. I've had my current position for about 9 months now. It's just me and a coworker in the IT dept. with no real IT supervisor (its the executive director of the entire org, but has little to no IT knowledge, just approves our paychecks). Almost 300 end users. I wish there was more structure/stability/standardization, and we are trying to get it to that point, but I learn so much every day I am there. Some days I am frustrated. I have learned a tremendous amount about not just the technical hardware/software/networking stuff, but inventory management, design and implementation, diagrams, policies, contracts, and many other aspects. I keep telling myself that this experience will pay off, it may do the same for you. Maybe this is your time to shine and start creating and implementing some structure to the place?

I was kidding with my co-worker that the janitor has more respect than our department. I mean somedays its not that bad, long as IT supervisor doesn't call in and doesn't start blasting/'nitpicking our methods and ticket que. I've tried to suggest improvements, seems like there's always an excuse as to why something can't be done vs how. For instance, I suggested a standard image, PXE boot sever and WDS for us deploying computers. They looked at a few things like "Acornis Snap deploy", instead they have us doing manual installs from a network drive for EVERY application ha. " we will roll it out soon, meanwhile we need you guys to do this project instead".

I don't know. I'd like to think it'll get better. I guess the silverlining would be that I would get a TON of experience and look good on a resume.

MIME

If you can stick it out even for six months sounds like the experience you're getting might pay off in the long run for future career opportunities. I'd be inclined to try hanging in there for a few more months and then jump ship after you've added new skills you can leverage in future jobs.

mmcabe

Sounds like about two-thirds of the jobs I've had. Even in the "nice" workplaces, we were constantly putting out fires.

Like others have said, the experience is invaluable. My worst job was at a very smooth-running operation where they assigned me to do x, y, and z and nothing else. I gave it about six months and moved on both because I was bored and because I wasn't gaining any new skills.

Just make sure you're not working with legacy junk, which also will not help you in your next job. Otherwise, I'd hang in there and do your best to build "your" department. It will be a great talking point during your next interview.

scaredoftests

Wow. I like challenges, but that sounds like a cluster---k.

markulous

If you're super stressed and it's unhealthy, find something else.

I've been there before, although my place was slightly worse since I was getting yelled at constantly. Here was the thread on it and how it devolved: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/120956-one-man-show.html

NetworkNewb

EMT760 wrote: »

For instance, he came into the IT department and place " post it" memos on surplus PC's asking " what is the status on this pc?" " why is this a mess" when we were gone for the day. So essentially this is what we saw one morning walking into work.

To make matters even worse, they assigned a IT supervisor from the satellite office out of state to micromanage our daily ticket que. Almost everyday, he'll call in and nitpick at our ticket que and ask why we haven't taken care of this user,etc.

Sounds like with re-doing their whole IT department and they don't want to start bad habits where the last one left off. Seems like these should be easy questions to answer if questioned.

EMT760 wrote: »

My co-worker seems to be getting into it with both the manager and supervisor and he's getting emails claiming he's being insubordinate and disrespectful. They've been questioning him about his punches at the ADP machine. I mean hes' only clocked in a few minutes earlier and left a bit late. I can vouch for him. My co-worker is already cynical and claims he " cant take it anymore".

I worked a large fortune 500 company and they were super strict about time. Having to punch out to go the bathroom and only would have a certain amount of minutes to be gone. I thought it was insane. But if there is a set time follow it… I didn’t understand why people couldn’t follow it myself.

Sounds like a help desk job at a large company to me. They usually aren’t that fun. With them redoing everything it sounds pretty hectic but nothing too crazy from my past help desk experiences. (Some people literally couldn't handle it and could usually pick the ones out who weren't going to last long right away)

Work on your skills/certs, get some experience, and move on. Having a large well known company on the resume looks positive from my experience. I have a couple of them and people usually ask me more about them when I mention I've worked at them.

UnixGuy

keyword: insubordinate. I haven't heard this word in the work place yet...

Sounds awful, and you have very few options. Keep your head down and do what you're asked, while planning an exit strategy. Look for another job now and leave ASAP. Play the politics game and try to get on their good side.

I don't know what to do to be honest, it's a tricky situation. Good luck!