Re: Site services
Ah yes, I remember those days very well.
Being tasked with doing things like upgrading ram on Vaxen from time to time, I took a lesson I'd learned from an ex USAF Avionics fitter with me. In those days, there was a key switch on the front panel.
Once the correct system was located (with site staff confirming that it was indeed the right machine) we'd switch the system off. Then I'd attach an 'Engineer working on system' sign to the front and then I'd tie one end of my 'get the right cabinet device to the key. This was a 10ft long piece of string with one of those rubber quoits tied to the other end. This was tossed over the top of the cabinet so that you would know which was the correct one to work on at the back.
There was hell to pay one day as we went to lunch (and to warm up as those DC's were cold) and came back to find that the 'Engineer' sign had gone as well as my bit of string/quoit tool. My Field Service toolcase was also missing. The system we'd been working on was also powered on.
It turned out that a PHB was unable to play 'Adventure' in his lunchtime so came into the DC to investigate. He unilaterally decided that the job was done and tidied everything away.
He was still pissed off when we returned as he still could not get to the server. Well, as it had zero RAM it couldn't run very well now could it. That didn't cut the mustard with him one little bit.
I got a lot of verbal from him all the time I was trying to finish the job. I found my quoit tool in a skip outside the building.
I refused to go back to that site. The company was taken over a few months later and that PHB was almost the first to be given his pink slip. (this was NYC)
Such was the numbskulls we encounterd on an almost daily basis.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
