techrepublic.com.com — Over the past 16 years of being paid to make computers and people work together in perfect harmony, I have collected a number of incidents that make me wince and blush in embarrassment when I think of them. The mistakes I've made fall roughly into three categories: technical, political, and career management.
Jul 13, 2006 View in Crawl 4
ekstasis16Jul 13, 2006
wow, someone thinks their s**t don't stink. i got a news flash for ya buddy...
slimasianJul 13, 2006
and b) Workgroup logistics and dynamics, the whole thing of lying in the extreme lands of 1) Underworked and overmanned (no time to check details, because of the million other things left to do) or 2) Overworked and undermanned (complacency)
zabouthJul 13, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://techrepublic.com.com/5171-22-1043705.html">http://techrepublic.com.com/5171-22-1043705.html</a> more articles by Becky Roberts and s bio
lame_duckJul 13, 2006
I got a blunder everyone should know about: Taking the place of you bosses brother.I started working for a guy that had employed his brother before. This brother told him he could get a online store, complete with 3000 produces, up and running within a month. After waiting months, he fired him and excepted me to meet what his brother had set. I told him that with no previous files, I couldn't do it in that time. I told him no one could do it and have it look professional. He tells me to just put pictures and item numbers. One month and 1000 produces into it, his brother decides he wants to work on it again. I get downgraded and a new boss. He bust my chops saying it isn't done right and asked why I didn't use his files he left. I told him that there were no files and I was doing what his brother had told me to.Long story short, I got fired for "not doing my job" and he put up the store with full descriptions and prices, like I wanted to do in the first place. Funny thing is this guys site had a accident, someone didn't back it up and the server crashed hard. He comes begging to me and I just laughed. I laughed and told him I wouldn't work for him if he payed me 30 bucks and hour. It took him another 3 months to get the site back up.Moral: Never take the place of family if your boss is an idiot.
buck09Jul 13, 2006
After reading your comment, I am convinced that you are in desperate need of a c**kpunch.
kielrandorJul 13, 2006
I swore under my breath at a printer I was working on one time and wa overheard by a user. She took it into her heard to mean I was swearing at her and got extremely offended and went to HR and reported me. I was hauled into my managers office reprimanded, written up for harrassment, forced to apologize to the user and told that if I ever swore around anyone ever again I'd be forced to go for sensativity training. When the user left the office, my manager turns to me and says, "Now THAT was some serious BULLs**t!" and apologized to me for having to put me through it.
creepymanJul 13, 2006
TylerDurden0:the article is called "confessions of an it pro: my nine biggest professional blunders".This implies it is a real person and lists real events. The way it was written, the article should have been called "confessions of an ideal it pro: normal blunders and how they should be handled"Regardless of whether this person is real, the way it was written doesn't sync with the title. I also don't especially care for the preachy style of writing. I expected to read about HER blunders, not to be preached at on how to handle MY blunders. Nor to be told to not miss my opportunities to learn.If the title had matched the article, I wouldn't really mind. None of the errors described in the article are really unusual. The best IT person in the world will make those types of errors once.Frankly, I seem to be one of few people in the comments that aren't either merely praising her or bashing her for her mistakes. If you don't like it, tough.
511pfJul 13, 2006
Always rename, never delete.
canadienseJul 14, 2006
He didn't give any dates, and way back when the utilities available for data recover AFTER you had started formatting weren't available.