5 ms·

The only part that bothered me here was: "I had great delight in telling them I knew exactly why the bill was so large and had they not made me redundant they

The only part that bothered me here was: "I had great delight in telling them I knew exactly why the bill was so large and had they not made me redundant they would have not blown the whole year's IT investment budget in a single month,” James recalls. “Even better, they had gone over the cancellation period, locking them into a year's contract.” I'd have preferred him to complain about how he was prevented from doing any knowledge transfer/communication. The above implies he'd not have told them regardless, just because they were firing him.

youngtaff 11y ago
Yeh, I'd take your approach too
megablast 11y ago
Yes, it makes him sound petty, as if it was a form of revenge by not firing off a few emails.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  It doesn't sound like he had much of a chance there, being frog marched out of the building without any preparation. Inactivity is not revenge in a situation like that.
drivingmenuts 11y ago
Given that he was terminated and marched out immediately, I feel that he owed them nothing, not even the courtesy of answering the call from the IT Director. He gave the company an interim solution because they demanded it, before the actual solution was available. It sounds like he had every intent to switch them over once it was available.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- dogma1138 11y ago
  Like some people have pointed out it's not uncommon to do so when privileged employees are fired, a rogue sysadmin can bring the organization down to it's knees out of spite and if they even remotely capable do so with sufficient plausible deniability to avoid prosecution. The lack of an exit interview is odd, but not uncommon in many cases especially in smaller companies where your direct supervisor or line manager is not your "technical" supervisor so the exit interview is pretty much pointless. Small organizations also tend to be less compartmentalized and they assume that knowledge transfer is unnecessary which might be the case in some cases and really not the case in others. If he wasn't fired for gross misconduct and actually made redundant even in the UK severance is often paid, heck severance is paid even in cases where it's not warranted because employers rather to settle right away than face a unwarranted termination law suit (if you are officially made redundant there is statutory redundancy pay which employers very often increase considerably ex-gratia which is also tax exempt in the UK), the lack of notice can also point to the fact that this might not have been such a clear cut case of redundancy because although in some cases employers will just give payment in lieu of notice. Now regarding the case he could've warned them and while he "owed them nothing" anyone with any respect for his work would've done so in such case, a better question would be why would a system which could incur such a hefty payment was setup in the first place and how it was authorized and by whom because. No one in their right mind would go into an agreement that could lead to such fees unless they are utterly incompetent as if the system misbehaved and transferred data excessively or that sysadmin would've gotten sick or otherwise incapacitated the same end result would've occurred. If the sysadmin was in charge of the setup for this system then he was utterly incompetent for not being able to see a clear business risk regardless if this was just a quick hack that he intended to cancel a week later. That said the whole ordeal smells funny a 100,000 connection fee for a single monthly usage even at the "dawn of the broadband age" in the UK seems utterly impossible a E1 line would not cost you that a year, so not sure how they could rack that bill over an ISDN30 line (BT Megastream probably).
  - Fjolsvith 11y ago
    I once researched trying to set up an ISP in Juneau, Alaska, and an ISDN line from Seattle, Washington was going to cost me over $2500 a week. This was around the "Dawn of the Broadband Age", too. While that only comes to 10k a month, the connection would have gone over existing fiber cables. I can see where a custom installed point-to-point might run that high.
- joezydeco 11y ago
  Personally, I wouldn't have given them the answer for free. They could hire me for a day at some exorbitant consulting rate if they really wanted a brain dump.

youngtaff 11y ago

Yeh, I'd take your approach too

megablast 11y ago

Yes, it makes him sound petty, as if it was a form of revenge by not firing off a few emails.

jacquesm 11y ago
It doesn't sound like he had much of a chance there, being frog marched out of the building without any preparation. Inactivity is not revenge in a situation like that.

drivingmenuts 11y ago

Given that he was terminated and marched out immediately, I feel that he owed them nothing, not even the courtesy of answering the call from the IT Director. He gave the company an interim solution because they demanded it, before the actual solution was available. It sounds like he had every intent to switch them over once it was available.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
dogma1138 11y ago
Like some people have pointed out it's not uncommon to do so when privileged employees are fired, a rogue sysadmin can bring the organization down to it's knees out of spite and if they even remotely capable do so with sufficient plausible deniability to avoid prosecution. The lack of an exit interview is odd, but not uncommon in many cases especially in smaller companies where your direct supervisor or line manager is not your "technical" supervisor so the exit interview is pretty much pointless. Small organizations also tend to be less compartmentalized and they assume that knowledge transfer is unnecessary which might be the case in some cases and really not the case in others. If he wasn't fired for gross misconduct and actually made redundant even in the UK severance is often paid, heck severance is paid even in cases where it's not warranted because employers rather to settle right away than face a unwarranted termination law suit (if you are officially made redundant there is statutory redundancy pay which employers very often increase considerably ex-gratia which is also tax exempt in the UK), the lack of notice can also point to the fact that this might not have been such a clear cut case of redundancy because although in some cases employers will just give payment in lieu of notice. Now regarding the case he could've warned them and while he "owed them nothing" anyone with any respect for his work would've done so in such case, a better question would be why would a system which could incur such a hefty payment was setup in the first place and how it was authorized and by whom because. No one in their right mind would go into an agreement that could lead to such fees unless they are utterly incompetent as if the system misbehaved and transferred data excessively or that sysadmin would've gotten sick or otherwise incapacitated the same end result would've occurred. If the sysadmin was in charge of the setup for this system then he was utterly incompetent for not being able to see a clear business risk regardless if this was just a quick hack that he intended to cancel a week later. That said the whole ordeal smells funny a 100,000 connection fee for a single monthly usage even at the "dawn of the broadband age" in the UK seems utterly impossible a E1 line would not cost you that a year, so not sure how they could rack that bill over an ISDN30 line (BT Megastream probably).
- Fjolsvith 11y ago
  I once researched trying to set up an ISP in Juneau, Alaska, and an ISDN line from Seattle, Washington was going to cost me over $2500 a week. This was around the "Dawn of the Broadband Age", too. While that only comes to 10k a month, the connection would have gone over existing fiber cables. I can see where a custom installed point-to-point might run that high.
joezydeco 11y ago
Personally, I wouldn't have given them the answer for free. They could hire me for a day at some exorbitant consulting rate if they really wanted a brain dump.