IT Head Steals Coveted Email Address, Can't Handle Responsibility, Gets Canned

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Feb 2, 2022 10:00 AM EST

The Buddha says that most pain and suffering is caused by a tendency to crave and desire things. This IT tale uncovers another cause of pain, that is making a dumb mistake and losing one's job over it. This IT Head decided he just haaaaad to have someone else's email address, and instead of just letting it go, he went on a one-man power trip and had that email wrenched from its beloved user's hands. As it turns out, legacy emails can come with some responsibility, and the dude totally bungled a deal over it.

What is there to be learned from something like this? Sure we could wax philosophical and say that resisting temptation is a way to lead a healthier and more fulfilling life. But realistically all we can say is "don't bully people at your job unless you're fully aware of the implications and responsibilities tied to it."

Usually we just experience existential dread when opening emails, not engaging in work politics surrounding the addresses themselves. Here are some work email memes for those who are never found well.

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  • 01
    Font - r/talesfromtechsupport - Posted by u/Lorix_In_Oz 11 hours ago When a new IT department head steals the prestige e-mail address from long time employee and lives to regret it. Epic A number of years back I was working for a company that had been around for many years, I was only relatively new myself but there were still a couple of "old guard" senior engineers around who had been there from the start. The kind that knows where all the obscure, undocumented insider stuff is and can fix mos
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 02
    Font - One of the guys in particular, who I shall refer to as Joe, a bearded and jovial gent with a very Steve Wozniak persona was always happy for us to approach him with our questions and welcomed us to leverage his VAST knowledge of how the company's sprawling IT infrastructure worked to make our lives easier and cope with the constant unrealistic expectations of upper management. He was a real, old-school engineer - someone who loved their job and was well respected by everyone around the de
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 03
    Font - When the company first started out they weren't too concerned with formality when it came to e- mail address policy. In later years as the company had grown they tightened the bolts with an official policy of issuing staff with a more formal address of Firstname.Lastname@department.countrycode.cO mpany.com but those who were around from the early days retained their original name@company.com addresses as an alias. It was somewhat of a status symbol and sign of authority in the company to
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 04
    Font - from somebody with one of these addresses that they were someone important who had been around for a while. Most of the department heads were long term employees who used them and it wasn't long before the new IT head noticed this aspect of our corporate culture and clearly envied his peers. But as a new employee he was stuck with his formal e-mail address and they weren't issuing new legacy e-mail addresses of this kind unless they were for someone way up the food chain. Even as head of
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 05
    Font - So as the tale goes, he called Joe into his office and had an exchange that went something like this: IT Head: "Hey Joe, great work on the capacity report and getting it to me so quickly we should be able to get approval from finance to expand our storage way sooner than I thought" Joe: "Not a problem, is there anything else you needed from me for it?" IT Head: "Nope, everything is there thanks. But I happened to notice when you sent it through you were using a different e-mail address a
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 06
    Font - Joe: "Yes, that's the one I've always used from when I started and everyone here knows to reach me at. Also some of our older systems and scripts we still use from the early days were hard coded to use it as well so I'm still actively using it to get critical alerts and I've got rules set up to forward them on to the relevant team addresses we use these days since the only alternative is to budget a major project to go through all our legacy stuff to change it and we were never able to ge
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 07
    Font - Joe: "I'm sorry, I wish I could but it's HR that makes that decision and it's their policy is to only issue personal addresses at the top corporate domain level now for C level recruits and their immediate assistants." IT Head: "You've been here for a long time, surely there isn't a way or someone you know who can make this happen?" Joe: "I'm sorry, it's a decision way above my pay grade. I'd be happy to put a request in for you to the head of HR to see if they could do it as a favor but
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 08
    Font - Joe goes and logs the request but of course the head of HR knocks it back, citing policy and not wanting to set a precedent even as a favor to Joe. Joe goes back to give the IT Head the bad news: Joe: (Knocks) "Hey, you know that request I put through to try and get you a top level e-mail address? Unfortunately HR have knocked it back, I did my best to try and push it through but they were firm on our current corporate policy of not issuing any new ones except for those at the very top."
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 09
    Font - And Joe was right. There was no way the IT Head was going to be issued with a brand new personal address. However, his position did allow how to authorize the reassignment of existing e-mail addresses to staff which was normally used to forward mail and alerts still being sent internally to staff who had left the company. He soon realized this was possible and formed a plan, calling Joe back into his office for another conversation: IT Head: "Hey Joe, you know how we can't get new persona
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 10
    Font - IT Head: "What about e-mail addresses of existing staff?" Joe: (Frowning harder and seeing where this was going) "You do have the authority, but it would still confuse people and you would be getting all the legacy alerts and notifications which would make you responsible for ensuring they flow through to the right people when they arrive" IT Head: "I think I can handle forwarding a couple of lousy e-mails whenever I see them. I have a greater need for visibility here and there is no busi
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 11
    Font - So poor Joe was forced to dig his own grave and give up the e-mail address he had held since day one. He definitely wasn't happy about it but did as he was instructed. Falling back on his regular corporate address he sent an e-mail out to the immediate team and his contacts to let them know what was happening and to please use his full address moving forward to contact him. At the same time the IT Head proudly sent out a company- wide e-mail broadcast letting everyone know that his e-mail
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 12
    Font - Weeks went by and it was clear he was taking every opportunity to send out e-mails using his new address, new stationary was issued along with business cards clearly showing his position and contact address. He was clearly reveling in having a coveted address and the prestige and recognition it instantly gave him, especially when dealing with other offices and people who didn't know he was only a relative newcomer. Life was good, that is until one fateful morning when he wasn't in his off
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 13
    Font - Turned out he had forgotten about his responsibility to forward through important notifications when they can through to him. He had set up a rule to handle them, sure, but not to forward them as promised but instead deleting them directly from his inbox without notice. One particular alert dealt with backup failures for a particularly important and long-term defense contract. One of our key SLAS was to ensure daily incremental and weekly full backups being performed on one of these old l
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 14
    Font - The client was not amused. The CEO with whom they had a close relationship was even less so. The IT Head attempted to throw Joe under the bus when word came down that the company was going to incur a MASSIVE rebate for the SLA breach, but Joe in his wisdom had ensured he had done a complete CYA when handing over his e-mail address, including e-mail exchanges with the IT Head highlighting the importance of the alerts and to ensure they went to the right people, including detailed instructi
    via Lorix_In_Oz
  • 15
    Font - Everyone was wondering who we would be getting in the position next, HR and management were tight lipped on the topic and there was plenty of speculation within the department about what might happen next. But everyone was smiling when they walked in on the Monday to see Joe sitting in the IT Head office, in the wake of what happened management decided in their wisdom that the IT Department should have a Head who actually knew something about IT and tapped Joe to take the seat. He hung on
    via Lorix_In_Oz

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