Flosse’s IT corner

When going on vacation in the IT and Security world you need to take great care to have people covering your tasks.

There used to be a time, especially during the .com boom when all you needed to know is how to turn on a PC and you were a Systems Expert, when it was fashionable and very common for IT people rather wanting to be called during their vacation then having someone else knowing what they knew.

That time is long over and because of the many mishaps that happened when that specialized and isolated knowledge left the company, it is required in most organizations to write and provide proper documentation to your peers.

Personally I like to have more then one person who can do my tasks and I make a point out of being almost not needed at all for routine and daily operations. This allows me to focus on bigger tasks and projects while making only big and crucial decisions on maintenance tasks.

Most IT workers that I know, who have lived through the .com boom and came out of it unscratched, do it this way and all of them have some kind of management position.

Even though the firing policies in the US are a bit different, IT senior staff still is , or is starting to, working like this. More and more people are making themselves dispensable. That actually has a psychological effect on the junior staff as well. They are given responsibility and some sort of freedom which allows them to bring in ideas that either have not been thought of before or has not been a viable option earlier but might be now.

Aside from the occasional “advance at all costs” person that will go over you and try to undermine you at all turns, this systems seems to be really working within IT departments. And those occasional idiots are found fairly quickly and if your boss trusts you you will know when such an idiot is making their moves.

There is always a decision maker needed and when you have the position to take some decisions and you stand by them, good or bad ones, you will be respected and in charge. If you are unsure, hesitate or just stand idly by thinking that you are a ” manager” but not doing anything, you will be run over.

There still is a trend in some large companies that hire Managers straight out of University because they have a degree. While i do not have a degree , but working on it, I am a strong believer that the best IT managers come from the bottom up. In my opinion you should not be allowed to run a department or project if you have not worked “in the trenches” and your people know that you cannot be bullshitted. This still happens to often.

Anyway, happy summer vacation season and may your IT departments continue to run smoothly.