1

Hi All,

I’ve been lurking here for a while read many helpful posts but never posted here. Today I am the one in need and would like to get help.

A year ago I started a new job as infrastructure engineer/sysadmin. At that time I had around 3 years of experience.
I work for a relatively small software house and am based in Germany, my manager is based in Chicago where we have HQ. I was told that the position I will take will be on the junior end however there was a lot of stuff such as virtualization, AD, networks(Cisco stuff), Exchange plus the fact that it will be only me and my IT manager made me think that there will be a lot of exposure.
But the time has passed and until this day I don’t have access to AD - when for example someone locks his/her account in our office in DE I just have to send the message to my manager. He will wake up in the middle of the night in US and unlock it. And people are astonished, after all this is not why I was hired to support DE office.
Same with other stuff such, for example I get assigned project to roll something, for example SCCM. And then I have to wait 4 days for VM because he’s busy. When I suggested I could take this off his shoulders and do this myself especially that I have experience he said that I shouldn’t be telling him what to do. And that was on a few occasions. And I can honestly say I have experience with all these technologies.
I am not really used to it - in my first job after I graduated I had full access to AD, virtualisation or if I was assigned SCCM project I would build it a few times in a test environment, break it many times until I was confident it was functional. In my current place I feel not only I don’t learn but I lose my skillset I had when I first joined here. There are days where I do nothing, because office I am in has only 25 people and there is nothing going on, and if you need to create a new mailbox you don’t have access.
This is probably because the guy is a manger for the first time in his life and I am the very first person he manages. I understand that, everyone has to start somewhere, but the fact that I suggested some change and help and he doesn’t listen makes me think that there is no chance it will change.
What would you do? Any response would appreciated.

138 Spice ups
2

Sounds like your mind is already made up. My thinking is that if I start thinking if I should move on, then it’s time to move on. There generally is a list of things that build up to the point where it doesn’t feel like it’s worth then, I start thinking if I should go, then it is. If the job was enjoyable, then leaving shouldn’t be a thought. If this has been going on for a year, it sounds like your manager needs to take some management classes. That’s some bad delegation, in that it sounds like there is little.

Other than leave, have you talked to your boss about this and how his lack of delegation/trust/whatever is hampering support? It could be worth saying something to his boss, but that could then make your boss upset at you for going above his head. Easiest thing would be to look for something new, and if asked, just let them know that it wasn’t a good fit to explain your short time there.

51 Spice ups
3

If your boss is using the exact phrasing, “you shouldn’t be telling me what to do.” Then, the odds are that someone in higher authority should be telling them what to do. That’s a very immature way to talk to a subordinate in the workplace. I would take it as a sign that the manager isn’t ready to be a leader, and you should move on.

People like that can stall your career, because they are afraid of losing what they have. If he’s just using you as a messaging service, then forward your emails and phone calls while you look for your new job.

41 Spice ups
4

I agree with the others, you are in the right frame of mind for leaving. Just the fact that you’re considering it is a good indication that you should. That kind of “management” isn’t managing anything. Having a title doesn’t make someone a manager. He’s still operating under the thought that he’s the only IT guy and the only one that can do any of it.

No wonder you don’t do anything, you’re effectively just a break-fix body in a remote office to this guy; and even then you can’t fix pretty much anything.

I say polish up your resume/CV and get it out there.

Best of luck!

20 Spice ups
5

I was in the same situation 5 years ago. I kept my job for financial reasons while I looked for a better one. After a few months, I found a new job where I was the only administrator, and I got to manage all of the systems and learn many new technologies.

If you aren’t learning and don’t feel fulfilled, you should try to go somewhere else.

25 Spice ups
6

I would stick it out a smidge longer personally.

7 Spice ups
7

Thanks Guys, I’ve been in this situation a while and I thought I started losing contact with reality and being irrational but your replies confirm it’s right to think this is a bad situation and I should leave.

I could speak to him or people higher than him, but I believe if I do this it will be that I will have to leave anyway even if something changes because our relationship will suffer.

14 Spice ups
8

That sucks, sounds like he is very in-experience with managing people, or someone abroad and isn’t good with delegation or trusting in his staff members or may have had a bad experience previously with staff and never could get over it (had a boss like that years ago, and he would stress himself out working much more than needed)

Move on my friend!

3 Spice ups
9

It’s crazy that you can’t even unlock AD accounts. Sounds like your manager has some trust issues. You’re there to use you vast skill set & knowledge to do actual work, not forward requests to your manager. It’s definitely time to look for some place that will value your skills and suggestions.

16 Spice ups
10

If your manager wants to wake up in the middle of the night to reset a password or unlock an account - let him, he’ll have his hands full when you leave. What’s the sense of even being there in the first place? Break-fix? For 25 people? That’s what a service contract is for, not a full-time employee who is basically hamstrung to sit there twiddling his (or her) thumbs.

16 Spice ups
11

I want to be frank…so no punt or offense intended…

Either your boss is an incompetent manager or you are an incompetent support staff.

People (manager) need to trust someone enough to give them responsibilities but the staff also needs to earn that trust…

Instead of asking for DC access and VMware access …

  • ask for DC delegated access just for your departments

  • ask for delegated access with few options like only create VMs or reboot those VMs (to delete, you need the manager permission) etc…

Then for things like SCCM, inventory systems etc, it maybe that you may not have visibility of the entire organisation…

…

But if you feel the need, its not called quitting…its called looking for a more suitable working environment or looking for an environment with better learning opportunities.

Do not look at things as failure or quits … take it as looking for better pastures

17 Spice ups
12

I am not sure what you mean by earning trust.

In my previous jobs I had access to all environments including production, and in one place I was looking after live trading platform - one wrong click could be costly and in worst case scenario you would be fired.

You cannot compare this to corporate AD, you would have to have literally no knowledge or be completely reckless to break something here.

According to you an experienced employee is hired, goes through a few stages of interviews where his suitability for role is assessed and then still a few months need to pass before he can earn trust and actually start doing real job. Ohh, in the meantime company will spend a lot of money.

In my previous jobs it was more like this:

You pass probation and you gain full access. You break something it’s your responsibility to fix it. You don’t know how something works, you’re unsure you don’t touch it. Testing environments are for that. If you break something badly you could find yourself fired.

Ahh, I must add, those companies had leadership with ±20 years of experience

8 Spice ups
13

I asked for delegated access, after literally 6 months I got RO access to AD. My manager was 2 weeks away, a few development servers went down and I couldn’t even investigate. He had to log in to restart the servers in Hyper-V.

2 Spice ups
14

Sometimes when someone is that controlling (IE not allowing access to even lock/ unlock accounts) the employee in question (e.g: your manager) could be committing fraud and are covering their backs to make sure no-one find out. I’m not saying that’s what’s happening, but this is a huge red flag.

16 Spice ups
15

Life’s too short for this. Start looking for another job and when you hand in your notice make sure you tell HR why you’re going.

14 Spice ups
16

Yes, you should leave.
Oh, you might be able to explain to management how obstructive he’s being, and they might even force him to change his ways. All that will follow is he’ll start blaming you for everything that might be less than 100% perfect, claiming it was perfect until you had access.
That’s a toxic work environment, and you deserve better.

Good luck, mate!

10 Spice ups
17

Have you had a heart to heart with him? If not, focus on the positive and how much you can help take the burden off him. With the account lockout as an example, tell him he can give you access on AD to complete that task in a granular way.

If you have had this talk, then it’s time to go over his head, and look for a new job.

2 Spice ups
18

While trust is earned it is stupid for an employer to hire someone they have no level of trust in to begin with. Even entry level positions there has to be a trust that this person can handle what you are going to throw at them and that they will do their job. In terms of hiring a more experienced person, why hire them unless you, based on their experience, trust them to be able to handle the tasks that are suited to their experience. In this case, I suppose the OP could have lost trust by screwing up, but I doubt it, it sounds like he was trusted to be hired, then put into a position, under a manager who either does not know how to delegate, or that is afraid of giving up ground. Or I suppose it could also be a case of they hired for a very specific position that did not actually need the OPs skill set.As far as the OP goes, I would say look for another job and quit when you have another one. It does not appear as though your manger is willing to increase your responsibilities any time soon. The longer you go doing break/fix and very basic level 1 issue handling, the staler skills will get and the harder to get a more advanced position will be.

10 Spice ups
19

Document everything with emails if possible so that if you are asked by upper management why you can’t do something, you can show your reasons. Aside from that, it really sounds like you need a change. You would clearly like a little more responsibility and experience but you won’t likely get it at your current job. It never hurts to send out your resume. You worked hard for your education and now it’s time to reap the rewards.

10 Spice ups
20

I know this is is common thought for people who are not kept busy but I would take advantage of the free time to develop other skills. There are plenty of online resources and courses that can you can learn from. IF it gets particularly bad you could always speak to their boss. I’m not a fan of going over a manger’s head but sometimes it is required.

4 Spice ups