And so another day has begun. And it begins with me coming in to work to 
discover that a fairly major change has been made to my network over 
night that isn't logged anywhere, without anybody bothering to consult 
me first. Yay, me. :-/

I am rapidly losing the will to live here... So many unrecorded changes 
happening without me knowing about it... How am I supposed to keep this 
stuff straight?

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Invisible wrote:
> And so another day has begun. And it begins with me coming in to work to 
> discover that a fairly major change has been made to my network over 
> night that isn't logged anywhere, without anybody bothering to consult 
> me first. Yay, me. :-/

If you are the person held responsible for the condition of the network, 
request the authority to undo any such operation conducted without your 
knowledge, and also to bill the offender.

If you are denied this authority, then preface all future estimates of 
time and cost for repairs and upgrades with the phrase, "Because this 
office has not been granted sufficient control over the network, 
estimates of time and cost which follow are theoretical only and cannot 
be guaranteed."

Regards,
John

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John VanSickle wrote:

> If you are the person held responsible for the condition of the network, 
> request the authority to undo any such operation conducted without your 
> knowledge, and also to bill the offender.

Does that work when the offender is your boss?

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Invisible wrote:
> John VanSickle wrote:
> 
>> If you are the person held responsible for the condition of the 
>> network, request the authority to undo any such operation conducted 
>> without your knowledge, and also to bill the offender.
> 
> Does that work when the offender is your boss?

It does if you copy in his/her boss :-)

John

-- 
"Eppur si muove" - Galileo Galilei

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>> Does that work when the offender is your boss?
> 
> It does if you copy in his/her boss :-)

Yes, because upper management are more likely to believe me than believe 
the Senior Director of IT. Oh, wait...

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Invisible wrote:
>>> Does that work when the offender is your boss?
>>
>> It does if you copy in his/her boss :-)
> 
> Yes, because upper management are more likely to believe me than believe 
> the Senior Director of IT. Oh, wait...

Why don't you try? Don't point the finger at your boss; just couch the 
complaint in broad terms and point out that the changes are undocumented 
- that in itself is probably a serious breach of whatever protocols the 
company has in place to maintain network integrity.
Incidentally, I had a problem many years ago (1986 iirc) with a boss who 
consistently opposed everything I tried to do. I did exactly what I 
advised you to do. Result - she walked, I got promotion

John

-- 
"Eppur si muove" - Galileo Galilei

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>> Yes, because upper management are more likely to believe me than 
>> believe the Senior Director of IT. Oh, wait...
> 
> Why don't you try? Don't point the finger at your boss; just couch the 
> complaint in broad terms and point out that the changes are undocumented 
> - that in itself is probably a serious breach of whatever protocols the 
> company has in place to maintain network integrity.

Well, it's in breach of the UK's procedures. Apparently the procedures 
they have in the US mean it's perfectly permissible to do this - which 
is why (I suspect) nobody thought to ask first. The guy is talking about 
"harmonising" the procedures at all sites - which I suspect means doing 
away with pesky inconviniences like recording what you did.

Never the less, until such time as the procedures are changed, *I* am 
held responsible for following the procedures as currently written. When 
all this is over, it won't be my boss's head on a platter, it will be 
mine. He'll be many thousand miles away by then.

> Incidentally, I had a problem many years ago (1986 iirc) with a boss who 
> consistently opposed everything I tried to do. I did exactly what I 
> advised you to do. Result - she walked, I got promotion

Heh. I think *I* should walk! But we already know that one... ;-)

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On Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:42:18 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> I am rapidly losing the will to live here... So many unrecorded
> changes happening without me knowing about it... How am I supposed
> to keep this stuff straight?

Have you considered doing something besides geek stuff for a living? I'm 
sure you're good at it, but it seems to cause you a lot of stress. There 
are a lot of things I am good at and/or love doing which would make me 
miserable were I to try and do them for a living.

Think about it this way. A person is considered hyper-religious if he 
spends three hours a week in church. A few hours a week in the garage 
make you a hot-rodder. Ten hours a week watching porn or playing video 
games could get you an intervention from your friends. A Nascar fanatic 
might go to three races in an entire year. YOU ARE AT WORK AT LEAST 40 
HOURS A WEEK! Your job, as much as many hate to admit it, is a very big 
part of who you are. Programming, network-administrating, etc. might not 
be enough to sustain you for 40 hours a week.

I'm not sure, but I think I remember reading that you are learning c++ 
because your preferred language won't advance your tech career. There are 
other avenues.

 -Shay

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Shay wrote:

> Have you considered doing something besides geek stuff for a living? I'm 
> sure you're good at it, but it seems to cause you a lot of stress.

Computers don't stress me out. Management politics stress me out. :-/ 
And being considered to be some kind of nobody idiot who doesn't know 
what they're talking about and can't be trusted with anything stresses 
me out. The actual computer-related parts don't really stress me.

> I'm not sure, but I think I remember reading that you are learning c++ 
> because your preferred language won't advance your tech career. There are 
> other avenues.

Yeah. But not when computing is your only commercially important skill.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 07-Oct-08 20:21, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Shay wrote:
> 
>> Have you considered doing something besides geek stuff for a living? 
>> I'm sure you're good at it, but it seems to cause you a lot of stress.
> 
> Computers don't stress me out. Management politics stress me out. :-/ 
> And being considered to be some kind of nobody idiot who doesn't know 
> what they're talking about and can't be trusted with anything stresses 
> me out. The actual computer-related parts don't really stress me.
> 
>> I'm not sure, but I think I remember reading that you are learning c++ 
>> because your preferred language won't advance your tech career. There 
>> are other avenues.
> 
> Yeah. But not when computing is your only commercially important skill.
> 
1) I don't think that is true. If it were you would not have started 
this thread.
2) There is more than commercial work
3) even that sort of work comes in many flavors

And to come back to your original question: I am afraid that you have to 
write that letter. Your boss has probably broken the law and you are 
responsible for it. If you can 'proof' that it was done without your 
knowledge and that you immediately reacted you may be able to defend 
yourself when your company faces a big fine when the authorities notice.

As doctor john said you don't have to point to your boss. Simply write a 
letter that you noticed something changed, that is was not documented, 
that you therefore can not know if more things have changed than you 
know now and point to the laws that mandate that such things are 
documented. mail to boss, cc his boss and the head IT in the US

If in doubt about the tone of the letter contact e.g. one of the guys 
you met personally and whose opinion you trust by regular mail and from 
home.

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