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I was speaking with another IT Pro this weekend. This person mentioned moving into a new company recently and having to fix so many issues that were from the previous IT staff. I hear this quite often (especially on Spiceworks). This made me think if, “I had ever been the cause of someone else’s IT nightmare?” I definitely make my share of mistakes that other co-workers and spice heads graciously help with. That is expected being and working with human beings. I feel I try to gather best practices when possible as well as minimizing shortcuts and workarounds. This made me think about not rushing to judge others to quick and checking my ego when I can. There is a difference between not caring and mistakes.

I am interested to know your thoughts?

64 Spice ups
2

Even not caring can be a result of a time shortage, or your manager finding other things more important all the time. By no means is it always due to the IT team, but external factors can play a role here.

That said… It’s against my own code of professionalism to just drop stuff like that if I can help it.

7 Spice ups
3

My goal with all jobs I work is to leave it in better shape then when I started. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect (no one has an unlimited budget), but it’s stable. We accepting a job, we also accept the hand we’re dealt. If someone spends more time complaining about “the last guy”, there is a problem.

23 Spice ups
4

I’ve always felt that it was rather unprofessional to complain about the previous IT guys work. In my case, I learned so much - both examples of how to do something right AND how to do something wrong, from the previous IT guy. No doubt he was / is more advanced than me, but I feel like I am as competent in most areas, if not more competent in some areas, than he was when he was here.

I’ve always said “well, he did the best that he could with what he had to work with”. And then I make suggestions for improvement. Then again, I was lucky enough that my predecessor actually did a pretty good job. I know that’s not always the case.

20 Spice ups
5

I moved on or got moved on, so I don’t really care what I leave behind.
Having that said, I am a worker bee so I am trying my best to be as thorough as possible in all ways.

6 Spice ups
6

I still have pangs like that after leaving my last network. Then I remember that when I arrived I was handed a password list and given a brief rundown of how things worked and that was it. I replaced the rack mounted hubs, yes hubs, with managed switches, removed the old phone system and installed a VoIP system, replaced all the XP computers with new win 7 computers, replaced all the 2003 servers with 08 and 12 systems, implemented a tested and functioning backup appliance, created policies and procedures that were both digital and in a book in case stuff really hit the fan, and I cleaned up the wiring in the server room. I feel that I left it in much better shape than it was given to me, and if the new admin doesn’t like it than that is not my problem.

13 Spice ups
7

I have been updating a MediaWiki my instructor keeps with all the stuff I’ve been doing, password changes, the NetLab network, possible faq’s, stuff like that. I might be forgetting some stuff but the most part I’ve been keeping it up to date.

1 Spice up
8

I always try and not make any judgements about an environment until I really understand the role and how the company works. Who knows, maybe they went through a rough patch and the IT budget was cut for a few years.

3 Spice ups
9

There is always a reason why you find things the way they are when you take up a new position. I don’t judge a predecessor on what I find.

I leave things the best that I can when I move on, but I know a successor will always change things as we are all different and approach things in different ways. There are always things that I may have considered good enough and low priority that someone else may be horrified with and consider top priority for fixing.

5 Spice ups
10

The previous party is ALWAYS the cause of all inherited perceived “problems”.

4 Spice ups
11

In my contracting days, I was the firefighter. Cleaning up messes on a daily basis.

Would I ever speak bad of someone? Ehhh. I think the closest I got is a phrase I still use, “In IT there are one, maybe two ways to do things right rand lots of ways to do them wrong, and now they are correct”

There were more than a couple times that it was clear that the mess was a management and / or money issue, until it went out of control and in the company I was with company came. To be fair though, if the previous tech or company had some business sense or more than just doing it as a hobby or “the value proposition” company (aka “cheap”), the Management should have been informed and it wouldn’t or shouldn’t have been an issue.

3 Spice ups
12

Some of the issues are genuine cases of “bad” work, but most are the result of “different” work. Different priorities, different standards, different methods, etc. I mean I may value an orderly server room with cable management. That said when I get a “We need a station at desk X for the exec that is visiting tomorrow…” I get it done without regard for neatness. Sure I clean it up when the visit is over, or when I can without downtime, etc. but you get my drift.
None of us are perfect and we could all use a bigger budget, and all that. I accept what I get and sure I might ask “what was he/she thinking” but I don’t blame them unless I see a pattern of neglect or misuse/abuse of the systems.

1 Spice up
13

“Best practices” are not objective.

There are people on my team who do not do things the way I would do them. As long as the end result is the same (functionality, security, documentation, etc) what’s the problem?

I’ve seen the same thing with carpenters, mechanics, machinists, and chefs. I think it comes down to “this wasn’t done the way I would’ve done it” vs “this wasn’t done correctly.”

4 Spice ups
14

This is an important distinction. Is it a (real) nightmare because the last guy did things incorrectly or poorly or is it a (perceived) nightmare because it isn’t as neat and tidy or done they way you would’ve done it?

I think I can accurately say that nobody has had to redo my work because it was non-functioning or at risk in some way. I can say that some of my work has been redone because it wasn’t perfectly pristine in the way it was put together or presented. The immediately thing that springs to mind is wire management. I don’t leave wires tangled together, everything is tied up and out of the way, but it isn’t a work of art. I also don’t spend nearly an hour per workstation getting it done. But there are people out there who freak out at the site of wires being anything other than perfectly placed lines, meticulously separated from each other, but bundled together and repeated identically under each desk.

To the person that redid my work, I left a ‘nightmare’ of cable mismanagement. In reality, I have more pressing matters that need my attention and I did solid, functional work.

7 Spice ups
15

Technology changes, best practices change, etc.

No matter what you do and how correct it is someone later will likely be bitching about it.

I configure things the way they are needed for each project and try to adhere to best practices as much as possible. If the next person that comes in can’t figure it out or understand it from the documentation that’s their problem. They should be skilled enough to understand non boiler plate configurations. Anyone can read a manual, real IT people have skills.

Sorta like code, I don’t document every single line. I document blocks. If you can’t figure out what it does it’s because you can’t code very well. :slight_smile:

5 Spice ups
16

The person before me was sacked for running Limewire on one of the servers. I have no problem complaining about any of the other stuff he did.

11 Spice ups
17

I’m sure like many others around here we do what we can with what we got.

Is what we do always perfect or the best way to do it? Probably not. But we all do what we need to do to get things to work, sometimes its a little corner cutting to meet budget/time requirements, sometimes its using hardware that REALLY should be taken out back Office Space style…

Many other times its the non-IT folks buying stuff without consulting IT and IT scrambling / jury rigging it to work with what we already got.

When I leave my position would I like to hand over a Master book with absolutely everything documented and up to date, with everything up and running and perfect? Absolutely!! (Would also like to receive said book / network at the new position)

Is that achievable… Highly unlikely

Do I loose sleep over it? Not at all.

3 Spice ups
18

As long as you carry out tasks as per instructions to the best of your ability as conscientiously as possible then worrying shouldn’t even come into it.

I had a contract role last year putting right carnage that a contractor left behind (he was only there 4 days then fired!! ) turned out he was screwing with DNS scavenging and reduced the scavenging period down to 1 hour on all zones, you can imagine the chaos. But I doubt from his inabilities he would have worried as he was a 100% tool

1 Spice up
19

Wow.

2 Spice ups
20

Been working at the same place for long while now. Every now and then I’ve thought about how whoever comes after me will handle it. Some things still aren’t where I would want them to be, but I can say its much better than what I found when I got here. That and documenting everything so they know what they are dealing with helps me put the thoughts to rest.

edit: Just guilted myself into finishing some documentation I’d been putting off

2 Spice ups