Scapegoated IT admin gets blamed when client's employee retires and accidentally deletes their entire database: 'Welp, I'm retired now! Guess I'll delete everything'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jul 4, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

One bad decision, however small, can be multiplied exponentially by the falling sands of time. As the problem grows, out of sight and out of mind, it will be willfully ignored by those who are aware of it and unquestioned by those who are blissfully unaware.

I once worked in a job where they had tried to digitize all of the company's contracts with clients, but whoever had been charged with this task was laissez-faire about how what they scanned, with files missing pages and entire documents missing, or just being skipped over altogether. 

Luckily, a lot of these files still existed in a physical archive in the back room of the branch where I worked. Unluckily, these too had not been cared for properly, and there were still documents missing from here and entire files that hadn't been put back in the correct place by those before me. So, what should have been a simple job of looking over what work we were contracted to do for a client ended up being a wild goose chase or a complete guessing game.

Similarly, this IT guy was left a ticking time blast-device by the person he replaced, who was known for their lackadaisical approach to their work. The client similarly had a hands-off approach that pretty much boiled down to "if it's not broke, don't fix it." The thing is that things were silently broken already, and all that was left was the match to strike. Lo and behold, when the guy who worked for the client managing their database retired, he simply deleted the entire thing off the desktop of his computer where it was stored. Leaving the company with no backups and no way forward, thanks to the rampant incompetence of the client's now-former employee. This left the IT guy on the receiving end of pointed fingers for issues he had been raising from day one.

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  • 01

    "Welp, I'm retired now! Guess I'll delete everything"

    Hey all A while back I shared a story about a guy who wanted the admin password so he could install some malware on his work pc. Not too long ago I had to handle his "retirement", so yeah, you guys called that one. Problem is that I'm still handling a lot of tech debt from the previous guy who handled this client's infrastructure, this was a real piece of work. I'm talking 10yo server OS thats EoL 3 yrs prior to
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 02
    Cheezburger Image 10525539328
    via ThisisEngineering

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 03
    me starting there and nobody will fork out the cash to upgrade it, busted filesystem ACLs from a botched recovery of a ransomware attack several years prior, the client being firmly of the mindset of "it just works so dont touch it"... you know, just normal small msp sysadmin stuff. Anyway, Client reaches out to me in a panic one monday morning. Turns out our favorite idiot "retired" and nobody thought to tell me to lock down his pc or make sure he didnt do anything stupid... like delete the ent
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 04
    Now about this system - The backups... dont work. I've been sounding the alarm on this for months. and everyone just goes "yeah thats a problem, we need to bill the client for a new solution, ill get onto that hmmmmmmm never". Fortunately for this client, a few weeks back I had made a complete copy of his entire share folder to put onto a different drive, but never finished moving shares across nor had I deleted these files (he has 3 raid arrays, but someone in their infinite wisdom thought that
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 05
    Fortunately I was able to recover most of the files for the client but he tried to blame me for this, which I swiftly 180'd with a dozen emails of me hounding my boss and him about how these backups are busted and I need this and this and this to fix them because your server is woefully out of date and everyone expects the latest and greatest software to run on decade old equipment and cost literally nothing.
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 06
    Anyway, I'm looking for a new job, it's only a matter of time before this place gets hit by a ransomware attack and the client's stubbornness and my boss's eagerness to please is going to result in bus sized tire marks all over my torso. (Quick aside to anyone who's about to comment about how I need to get my manager or my HR involved - this MSP is tiny. I'm signed on to be I.T. Support but I do everything. I might as well be self-employed. Trust me when I say the answer is to wash my hands clea
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 07
    Capt Blackmoore Yeah you have it right, get the f out of dodge. I hope you have provided yourself with copies of all your communication as i would expect this employer to come after you with a lawsuit, when you have only done as allowed.
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 08
    _Terryist Strike out on your own. If they call, bill them at 10x your current hourly rate (or $120/hour, whichever is greater) with a 40 hour minimum, prepaid. If they bite, it's good money. If they don't, it's good for your soul.
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 09
    Cygnata They should be suing the guy who deleted the files.
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 10
    lamonly Remember, when you live under the bus long enough you learn to dodge the wheels. Time to roll out the way.
    via MrDeeJayy
  • 11
    PolloMagnifico Nah, if you're doing all the work, you need to sit the owner down and have a discussion about making at least half the money. He's basically running your business for you.
    via MrDeeJayy

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