'The IT system had failed and no backups were done': IT guy banned from helping with unmanaged tasks at previous job, entire system goes down and boss gets fired

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Aug 12, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

Visiting an old workplace is a weird experience. Seeing old friends and coworkers still bound by the same toxic policies and stresses that once held you stirs rippling memories like a stone skipping across a pond's still surface before coming to rest in waters that were better left undisturbed.

While you attempt to make small talk and reconnect, you can't help but detect feelings of resentment from the old comrades you left behind; while once you suffered together, now you're free from this particular brand of torment. Their body language is rigid—as if on high alert—like a wildebeest at a watering hole, both trying to give time to you and drinking in the conversation while simultaneously on a constant lookout for predators: some manager or owner who is sure to materialize and reprimand them for wasting valuable shift time speaking with an outsider.

If the relationship is left on good terms, there are certain experiences and institutional knowledge that a departing worker might be more than willing to share with their old friends, probably more in an effort to make their lives easier than to help the organization, though the organization undoubtedly benefits from the relationship.

This is how it was when this front desk worker (turned coincidental IT guy) when he visited his old job and lent a helping hand with the workplace's cobbled-together IT system, which he had created and managed during his tenure. The system hadn't been updated or backed up since his departure, and he was concerned that it might fail and leave his old workplace stranded. 

After spying him on the cameras, his old boss called to tell him that he was banned and not to return again—which would set up a chain of events that would see his old boss out of a job.

See the worker's account of events below and reactions from the original thread where it was shared on Reddit.

 

Advertisement
  • 01

    "The IT system had failed and no backups were done."

    Wood
    via Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka
  • 02
    Font - Stay out? Fine, I will! SOC I started working at a hotel in the engineering department in the early 2000s. Because I had some computer experience, I naturally became the onsite tech guy. Four years go by and I have given two months' notice, tired of 12-hour days doing my job plus cobbling together outdated IT for a manager who disliked me. Two months nearly went by with me repeatedly asking my manager (AGM) who was going to be taking my place so that I could train them. With two days left
    via u/wackoworks
  • 03
    Font - I lived three blocks from the hotel and after I left I would stop by on occasion for a drink or just to say "Hi."On one of my stops, the Front Desk manager commented that he had not done a system backup since I left because he couldn't remember the steps. I went behind the front desk so I could show him, again. A couple of days later my old manager called, while reviewing tapes he'd seen me behind the desk. He informed me that under no circumstance was I to be in hotel work areas, yelling
    via u/wackoworks
  • 04
    Font - One year after I left the hotel I received another call from my old manager, I ignored it. I'm busy doing a full renovation at my new hotel. The next day I received additional calls from my old General manager who I actually liked. When I return the calls I find out the Front Desk manager who I'd trained was fired weeks after my last encounter. The IT system had failed and no backups were done since the one I did. They needed help... I declined. Gossip has it the AGM was fired with this s
    via u/wackoworks
  • 05
    Font - Effective-Several Pity you didn't offer to come in as a consultant for $$$$ per hour with 8 hour minimum 740 formerPhillyguy Years ago, back in the 90's I think, my sister did this and got $80/hour as a consultant doing the job she used to do before being laid off. Reply Share 280 thetoffees Reply Share 103 ... And she got ripped off at $80/hour. I'd (or my company) would have charge $120+. Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 06
    Font - scaredsounds Some people just don't deserve to be managers 87 Reply Share Atherly-7218 Some people believe being a good manager means being an AH to their employees. 33 Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 07
    Font - ●% Coolbeanschilly Good managers remember that their employees are also their customers (buying the job with their labour), and very important ones, who deserve the same level of respect as the people coming to buy the services they are selling. Managers like this one don't remember this. 136 Reply Share ... daryldye There are two types of customers as a manager, there is your "internal" customers(I.e. staff that works for you) and "external" customers(those are your traditional customers
    via u/wackoworks
  • 08
    Font - marvinsands I repeatedly told my client that if he failed to make backups I was NOT EVER going to recreate the programming changes I had made for him. He was good at doing backups, but I made sure he was 'schooled' on doing them regularly. 14 Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 09
    Font - Unlikely-Weather-822. seems like you missed a chance to be an IT consultant @ $300/hr, 4 hr minimum, check up front 7 B Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 10
    Font - Successful_Emu_1916 Great story that will serve you well the rest of your life. Whenever you may feel down or blue, you can remember this, and a nice little smile will come across your face. ↑ 10 Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 11
    Font - thetoffees No good deed goes unpunished. 8 Reply Share Hefty Blood773 r/TalesFromTheFront Desk would LOVE to hear this story!!! 6 Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 12
    Font - The Cookie Monstera Wait how what price did you name if they ever needed you again? $500 an hour? $1000 a day? ↑ 1 Reply Share wackoworks OP To all the comments of charging them $$$$ to help... I was in the middle of a brand change & full renovation of another hotel. I had neither time nor patience. 5↓ Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks
  • 13
    Font - cathleen0205 Loving this thread. Absolutely awesome consulting advice, as I am thinking of moving on. The location where I work has some staffing issues, and if I leave, even with a notice they'd be struggling. Not sure if they'd bring me on as a contractor, but I feel prepared to get what I'm worth. 1 Reply Share
    via u/wackoworks

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

customer service tales-from-the-front-desk tech support fired talesfromthefrontdesk it toxic-boss IT guy workplace Tech employment
Scroll Down For The Next Article