Sack the wrong person
My former employer decided they wanted rid of me, however as it was government that was a little harder for them - cue many meetings. I had established an in-house helpdesk some 10years earlier so we could respond to the 500 local users without begging the contractors for help. I also supported the Siemens DX phone system.
Over time my team grew and we provided 7 day 12 hour coverage across multiple sites (and three countries). I operated as a L1/L2 desk with L3 at the contractor's helpdesk manager's mobile number. The system worked, users had personal service and the number of crap calls to the contractors went through the floor from my corner of Blighty.
Management however started questioning my worth. When they saw inaction, I was either tasking my team to a problem (throwing a pencil) or working on a longterm project (chewing same pencil). My liaison with the installation guys was excellent, I acted as site manager and we completed new installs in half the allocated time. Everyone bar my managers were happy. I supervised the overseas jobs and acted as interpreter as well as booking hotel rooms and smoothing the way with the local militia. Everybody was happy, except my management.
So eventually management build a petty case and decide to lose me. The first step is gardening leave - just before the HQ is moved between sites.
What management had failed to understand is that site helpdesk is more than answering phones and changing toner carts. The phone engineer asked for a floor plan - all he got was a phone directory. Two weeks after the building went live he was still trying to find the last few users to install phones. His allocated job time was 2 days - as I would have usually done the prep work and follow-up.
The PC install guys turned up with 150 new desktops and printers. Someone had decided that the power would be on the walls but desks would be in lines, perpendicular from the wall. None of the 5m network leads would reach the printer or furthest desktops. There wasn't any power either.
The guys asked where the long leads and power bars were , management told them "your job", response was "no, your job." They then told my former management that they would cancel the job and someone would have to rebook it - with a snide remark that I would have sorted it, if they hadn't got rid of me.
Anon obviously.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
