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I worked at a very bad company, where IT was aggressively incompetent, and mean about it. At best they were negligent, at worst they actively interfered with an

I worked at a very bad company, where IT was aggressively incompetent, and mean about it. At best they were negligent, at worst they actively interfered with anyone who they thought was a threat, which included anyone who was more intelligent than them, which was virtually everyone since the company was full of senior EE/ME/RF/CS folks. And I mean incompetent-- our network would go do down for hours, every day, and the problem lasted almost a year. It got so bad our "source control" became yelling "Whose got the latest main.cs?!" and walking it over with a USB key. I realized we needed to disintermediate the IT group, and my boss was supportive. I ended up establishing our own, parallel IT department with a business cable line, some routers, and NAS devices. I outsourced any task to any cloud service (this was over a decade or so ago when that was somewhat unusual) — eventually hiring our own IT person even. People would ask for access to our network because it was more reliable :-) Then things got vicious. They actively interfered with our group, trying to get us fired (they had some success with this previously). They were able to get our IT guy fired. Things just went on that way for years. They'd find some way to make trouble, and then we'd route around it. Once they even took my computer for two days, denied they had it, then returned it but locked me out of it. I was certain this was part of some scheme to get me fired, so I turned the computer off, zeroed the hard drive, and req'd a MacBook to work on. They all eventually got fired when someone took note of their gross incompetence. One of their replacements was eventually fired for embezzling, proving that despite thinking we had the worst IT department anyone could imagine-- we really didn't.

user5994461 7y ago
Why would you stay for years in a company like that? It's so dysfunctional and toxic.
- mywittyname 7y ago
  Judging by the statement that he worked with some high-level EE/CS/ME people, I assume the actual job was pretty interesting or cutting edge.
  - noobiemcfoob 7y ago
    No job is interesting enough that I would tolerate targeting and succeeding in firing a productive employee for internal politics. Doubly so if that behavior is coming from a department nominally in a support role. That's a dog to be put down.
    - brokenmachine 7y ago
      There was probably other factors. Good pay/conditions/close to home/etc. Also it's not always so easy to up and quit every time someone looks at you the wrong way.
      - noobiemcfoob 7y ago
        Maybe, but it's that type thinking that permits the behavior in the first place. People built the workplace and people decide what is acceptable. Deciding to leave doesn't mean put in your notice. It means look elsewhere. Leaving a job without another secured is always precarious absent a nest egg.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- oceanghost 7y ago
  Firstly, we had an exciting product to work on. Also, for selfish and foolish and stupid reasons? First of all, I was young. This was my first big gig. Most of all, it was fun. It was fun to keep winning against a determined enemy. At the time in the area I was in, we were considered to be one of the best software groups in our geographical locality. There wasn't really anywhere to go. The employer always ranked as one of the best in the county. Lacking humility, I thought it was simply my intelligence that brought the wins, not a mixture of my intelligence and mostly good luck. I can't imagine how many times I almost got fired but didn't for some reason. To look on the bright side, my boss was amazing, a truly unique individual whom I thought so much of, I asked to be the godfather of my child. Despite the chaos of the IT team, almost everyone I worked with was great. Everyone I met was really good at something, but I learned a lot from the people around me and had the opportunity to mentor a young engineer who ended up far exceeded me, which was rewarding in itself. I have several life-long friends from that company. People who have been with me through a messy divorce. A particular friend, when my wife left, called or texted every single day for six months-- just out of the goodness of her heart. The text was always the same, "Hey, wanna get some coffee? How are you doing today?" There are beautiful people working in even the most toxic places. When I wasn't learning about engineering, I was learning about optics, about politics, and about the real world, and once again, I was winning, which was intoxicating. So why ultimately did I stay? Because it was comfortable being the smartest person in the room. Because it was fun having latitude enough to start my own department? Because it was fun being engaged in this real-life game and winning? Because I'm crazy? Things got far nastier than I went into. Once the IT department was openly trying to get me fired, things got personal. Really personal. It would have been easier to move on, but, I hate being bullied. Allow me to repeat myself, I HATE being bullied, and that's what this was in the end, organized harassment. Through a set of unusual circumstances, I ended up befriending the main IT guys wife-- the man who decided he could play with my life for no reason at all, and his wife had a crush on me. So I and slept with her, and I am still sleeping with her four years later. To quote that great boss of mine, "Revenge is a dish best served every day."

user5994461 7y ago

Why would you stay for years in a company like that? It's so dysfunctional and toxic.

mywittyname 7y ago
Judging by the statement that he worked with some high-level EE/CS/ME people, I assume the actual job was pretty interesting or cutting edge.
- noobiemcfoob 7y ago
  No job is interesting enough that I would tolerate targeting and succeeding in firing a productive employee for internal politics. Doubly so if that behavior is coming from a department nominally in a support role. That's a dog to be put down.
  - brokenmachine 7y ago
    There was probably other factors. Good pay/conditions/close to home/etc. Also it's not always so easy to up and quit every time someone looks at you the wrong way.
    - noobiemcfoob 7y ago
      Maybe, but it's that type thinking that permits the behavior in the first place. People built the workplace and people decide what is acceptable. Deciding to leave doesn't mean put in your notice. It means look elsewhere. Leaving a job without another secured is always precarious absent a nest egg.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
oceanghost 7y ago
Firstly, we had an exciting product to work on. Also, for selfish and foolish and stupid reasons? First of all, I was young. This was my first big gig. Most of all, it was fun. It was fun to keep winning against a determined enemy. At the time in the area I was in, we were considered to be one of the best software groups in our geographical locality. There wasn't really anywhere to go. The employer always ranked as one of the best in the county. Lacking humility, I thought it was simply my intelligence that brought the wins, not a mixture of my intelligence and mostly good luck. I can't imagine how many times I almost got fired but didn't for some reason. To look on the bright side, my boss was amazing, a truly unique individual whom I thought so much of, I asked to be the godfather of my child. Despite the chaos of the IT team, almost everyone I worked with was great. Everyone I met was really good at something, but I learned a lot from the people around me and had the opportunity to mentor a young engineer who ended up far exceeded me, which was rewarding in itself. I have several life-long friends from that company. People who have been with me through a messy divorce. A particular friend, when my wife left, called or texted every single day for six months-- just out of the goodness of her heart. The text was always the same, "Hey, wanna get some coffee? How are you doing today?" There are beautiful people working in even the most toxic places. When I wasn't learning about engineering, I was learning about optics, about politics, and about the real world, and once again, I was winning, which was intoxicating. So why ultimately did I stay? Because it was comfortable being the smartest person in the room. Because it was fun having latitude enough to start my own department? Because it was fun being engaged in this real-life game and winning? Because I'm crazy? Things got far nastier than I went into. Once the IT department was openly trying to get me fired, things got personal. Really personal. It would have been easier to move on, but, I hate being bullied. Allow me to repeat myself, I HATE being bullied, and that's what this was in the end, organized harassment. Through a set of unusual circumstances, I ended up befriending the main IT guys wife-- the man who decided he could play with my life for no reason at all, and his wife had a crush on me. So I and slept with her, and I am still sleeping with her four years later. To quote that great boss of mine, "Revenge is a dish best served every day."