Idiot Instructors......

[patgund.livejournal.com]

At various points duirng the medical school year, we have so-called "triple jump" exams. Due to security, IT gets involved because we have to prepare an exam image, (stripped down version of OS X that only has MS Office and printing, no save or web functions, and has preloaded the files needed for the exam.)

It takes us usually 1-2 days to prepare the exam, and each image is taylored for the printer in each room. Each room has six G5's. Radmind is used to insure that only the machines in that room get that image. One hour before the exam, all the machines are imaged with the test image, and printing is checked. Machines that fail are pulled and a new one put in it's place. If everything works out right, it can be done in 15 minutes. If not, we need every second of that hour.

So, bright and early today, exam instructors come into IT. And tell us that the exam has been moved to 8:30am, and and oh, we're using three rooms instead of one, because they didn't realize that 18 students can't use six machines

They tell us that at 8:05am.

Quickly build an image for the other two rooms, and pull a all hands on deck to image the machines. Thank all the Gods at once we didn't have a hardware failure. Get the whole thing done at 8:27am, with an IT staff member (myself) on babysitting duty in case of a failure mid-exam.

Just in time to catch merry hell from the exam coordinator for IT "not being prepared" for this exam.

EXCUSE ME???? You gave us an incorrect number of rooms and students needed, (and they're damn lucky the other two rooms didn't have classes scheduled for them), changed the time with NO notice to IT until 25 minutes before the exam. They know damn well it takes an hour to set up those rooms, and that we're supposed to be notified 24 hours ahread of the exam in case of changes. Where the hell do they get off blaming IT for their screwups???

Oh, that's right, they're doctors and medical school instructors. They're infalible on everything, aren't they???

*Facedesk*

(On Edit - the interm CIO just caught hell about it too, and his response? To chew us out for "not being prepared", and had no interest in hearing any "excuses" from his IT staff. Typical reaction from him, he bends over backwards for faculty and staff, and will not back his own staff up or give us the tools needed to properly do our jobs. Grumble)

Comments

[artela.livejournal.com]

I suggest that once the dust is settled you (as a dept) send out an IT memo reminding people of the deadlines for work to be done in such circumstances.

Oh, and your boss sucks. They should have at least listened to you objectively and then chewed out the people really at fault :-)

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Memo has been already sent, which further pissed off the interm CIO. His problem. All we did was remind the faculty what the established procedures are.

(Shakes head) I will be so glad when my contract is over. I'm already looking for new jobs back in the US, (though I'll consider expating in Canada or the UK if the contract looks good.)

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Glad you're getting out. If your boss won't back you up, when you have a clearly-defined policy and you're totally in the right, time to say buh-bye.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's at least five places that my contract with them has been broken, which is why I'm not reupping for another year there.

We'll start with my educational allowance, and then having the interm CIO reclassify my recertification, (and studies for additional certification) as a training expense rather than an educational expense. *AFTER* he promised to reimburse me, I paid out of pocket, and passed the exams.

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, whatever. Listen. You have the greatest collection of icons I've ever seen.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Thanks!

[psychotwinkie.livejournal.com]

*comes out of lurking again*
I have to agree. I wanted to yoink about 1/2 of your icons ;D, they are just that good!

[patgund.livejournal.com]

(laugh) Help yourself!

[psychotwinkie.livejournal.com]

Thank you :3

[shirenomad]

Agreed, but just for the record, I created the "Swearing in Mandarin" icon... I'd appreciate a mention of that in your icon list, patgund.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. It was sent to me by a friend who didn't tell me who created it. I've added your name to the comments for that icon

[shirenomad]

Thanks muchly.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Damn. I would have been tempted to tell the exam co-ordinator "You requested six PCs. You got six PCs. If you would like to request more, please fill in the form and we will respond in three to six working days. Or, if you would like to jump ahead in the queue, you can apologise to both me and to the students for your screwup. But make it fast, I have outstanding requests from people who actually realise that equipment doesn't magically pull itself out of my ass."

[canray.livejournal.com]

I'd have been more than tempted.

When all else fails, make like a Beuracrat.

'Course, I've played Paranoia and GMed Paranoia XP, so I'm *VERY* good at it. *Evil Grin*

[patgund.livejournal.com]

(evil grin) Considering I've wanted to TELL some of these instructors "I'm sorry, those resources are not available at your employment level" in my best "Trust The Computer, The Computer is Your Friend" voice.....

Actually I found the interm CIO's behaviour laughable, because he's guaranteed that his senior support staff won't lift a finger to solve a problem again. It's going to be "oh, I'm sorry, you only requested x, not y and z, you'll have to submit a request for those additional items" from now on......... :-D

[canray.livejournal.com]

Find some of the Paranoia Form-Request-Forms on PDF for the people to fill out, too!

Those are great!

[klytus.livejournal.com]

Saddly, even this isn't always good enough, as people like this think you just make exceptions to proceedure for them because of "who I am." It also sounds like you cork-suckling boss would buy into it and get on your case for not breaking proceedure. Hmm... maybe you could use that to your advantage? Go to *his* boss and say how his pathetic minion is telling you to ignore proceedure?

::sighs:: Only in a more perfect world...

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

The good thing is, it's a medical school. If people there were to suffer...knee injuries, they'd give the students some hands on training.

[canray.livejournal.com]

"Today we shall demonstate the proper useage of a Clue-By-Four to beat the stupid out of this person. Ummmmm, I'm going to need a COUPLE of volunteers to do this, as this is a very stupid person."

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I don't WANT some of these students working on anyone!

I swear, after 2008, if I find myself at the hands of a doctor that's treating me, and they have a diploma from this school, I'm going elsewhere if I possibly can.

[network-nerd.livejournal.com]

I got a call the other day from a senior exec, reporting wireless not working in location XXXX -- emergency, event is going on there.

So I throw together my kit and verify that wireless *is* working there just fine....

Then I take a look at the AP logs, and see that there's this one client trying to associate every five seconds ... and it's one of the clients from location YYYY.

XXXX is one of our (current) standard locations; there's a pool of laptops that live there, and that are specified to be the machines that are allowed to use the wireless there.

YYYY is a legacy/rogue location that we don't have management access to; it's only allowed on the network because the user who installed it has tenure.

So I write up the ticket: "Wireless in XXXX is working as specified. No access was ever requested for the client that is trying to access it and failing." And route it up the chain of command for policy guidance, where it still sits a week later.