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Really minor annoyances


When I set up an incredibly simple process for something to get done, and some f***ing cock end decides to ignore that process and do his own thing, then sends me snotty demands to sort it out when it all goes completely tits up
Where I used to work, we had an IT change control board. Most of the changes were pretty standard, upgrade this, apply these updates, all put in by experienced professionals. I ended up in charge of the change control board, so would check and wave everything through. I only really flagged up the unusual or where people did not have sufficient details or comms. There were a couple of deputies on the technical side to cover if I were busy or away. It just worked and everyone logged changes. They could happen pretty quickly and it worked. The only real times we stepped in was if two upgrades clashed and one could disrupt the other.

Then someone new came in and they decided to move IT change control to him. We had a chat and I said "some places only approve changes on one day of the week and have to have a half day meeting about even the most trivial changes. That ends up being a nightmare, slow things down, ends up with people slipping changes through unlogged just to get things moving and discourages people from making changes, especially new members of staff. Whatever you do, don't do that.".

So that was exactly the system he put in place. He made a change committee of him as an applications manager, a librarian, a comms person and a user services manager. All technical infrastructure changes were decided by people with no knowledge of IT infrastructure and the organisation became change adverse. Within months, everyone hated the new process and systems became dangerously out of date because nobody could get any changes done that "might upset the users". Getting severely hacked was an upsetting experience not considered. Any change had to be explained 4 times slowly to people who didn't understand what they were making decisions on.

But I was working my notice period through all this. In my last week I had a chat with him and the new IT Director who said "we don't understand why people are not engaging with the new system and why it doesn't look like it is working".

I just smiled and left.
 
Every time I'm onsite, and hope to get away at 4:45 to get the earlier train, someone puts in a last minute meeting for 4:30-5pm.
 
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