The Problems of A Company of a Certain Size...

[deanwebb]

DISCLAIMER: Should you be an employer and discover your employees here discussing what things are like where they work, don't crack down on your employees. FIX THE PROBLEMS. Don't make excuses: fix them. Really. That's your job, right? Fixing things? I mean, do you *really* want to crack down on people who care? If so, well, we're not fired. We resign our position, effective retroactively to before you read anything offensive here.

A friend of mine just got canned over a FB post, so I'm a little paranoid... then again, I'm also a network security engineer. Good luck finding my replacement.  OK, end of disclaimer...

*****

Problem of a small company: no money for anything. Make a $500 piece of gear do the work of a $5000 piece of gear and then put out all the fires that result from using the wrong gear for the job. 

Problem of a medium company: the guys that run the place are trying to preserve the folksy, let's-trust-everyone-because-we're-all-a-family atmosphere of a small company, and that means loads of security holes, people working there that should be fired, and a $500 switch and $10000 of cascading unmanaged switches that really should be replaced by a decent $5000 switch. 

Problem of a large company: every department has its own global standards that supersede everyone else's global standards and there is no one global standard to determine which global standards should apply. The result? Project documentation is in a constant churn because of different departments dictating what standards should apply to the documentation. 

What problems have you noticed over the years?

[Reggle]

Medium growing: let's act like a big company. Only we don't have experience with it concerning designs/procedures/training... So basically you're expected to keep to (non-existing) procedures while still having the we're-family-business-close-to-the-customer view. Meaning we'll do anything custom the customer asks (do not argue), next we'll blame you because it's not within our templates.
Or vice versa, from now one we have generic-strict-procedure so you can't do many things anymore, but we're not telling the customer we're not doing that anymore. He'll come complain to you directly when you're in the field. Good luck.

Granted a temporary situation if the company adapts but a very irritating one to be in.

[deanwebb]

Any company that's plateaued out: panic mode sets in, and panic means meetings. Lots of meetings. Lots of meetings leads to lots of mission statements, initiatives, slogans that incorporate the company logo, and then, when nothing else works, headcount reduction so that a drop in expenses can be presented as an increase in profitability. Sure, it is an increase in profitability, but it's a damn sorry way to get it, and the start of a march downward.

So, if you see an uptick in meetings and mission statements, get out before you're cut out.

[config t]

I work for a global corp that manages a slew of different contracts. Each contract, while under the same company, is effectively it's own entity with a seperate management structure.

The program I'm with recruits net admins using the same canned questions they have been using for years and will hire someone as long as their resume says they have experience. Proof of baseline certification is required (CCNA, Sec+)

This obviously leads to problems, and all the way from tier 1 to 3 I have heard the same story of incompetence and people who are unable/unwilling to work. They are carried by those who possess the knowledge and abillity to perform.

It's obnoxious, especially when I have an outage and the wrong person answers the phone and tells me it's a tier 2 issue. One guy even gave me the number to my own helpdesk and told me to call tier 2 networks (me). I was dumbfounded.

The bright side of this is that you will shine if you are halfway intelligent and work hard.

[Nerm]

Small Company: I am too small to care about compliance and software licenses, etc. Nobody is going to come after me because I am not big enough for them to bother.

[deanwebb]

Medium company: HOLY CRAP THE BUSINESS SOFTWARE ALLIANCE PEOPLE ARE COMING IN FOR AN AUDIT GET THOSE LICENSES MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!!!!!!!

[hizzo3]

Mine is on a different end. Medium business. Upgrading/replacement of software without training or sometimes even an fyi. About 2 years ago I came in to work to find we had upgraded to office 2010, therefore breaking all my reports and scripts in MS Access and Excel. Several months later, they moved a network drive, breaking all my data links again and shortcuts not working. Now we are moving to outlook. I'm excited to see how long it takes to get accustomed to it since we never use something straight out the box without a plethora of enhancements.

[Nerm]

Small Company: Yes, we have our own IT guy. This is Bob and he is our accountant by day and our IT guy by night.

Medium Compnay: Yes, we have dedicated IT staff. One has lots of experience with Windows 95, another has lots of experience with Novell, and the rest are all high school grads with no idea what the hell they are doing.

Note: This is becoming a good rant/stress reliever thread lol.

[deanwebb]

Small: the owner pops around and offers to help because he's done some stuff with computers before.

Medium: the owner walks past your area and asks how everything's going and reminisces about how he used to do a little work on the network because he's done some stuff with computers before.

Large: the owners are a faceless mob of shareholders who employ several layers of managers, all of whom have done some stuff with computers before.

[Mowery]

Medium sized service/consultancy, unwilling or afraid to provide proper training, so they don't lose their people. Irony: The people who want to learn do so anyway, and leave due to lack of growth opportunities.

[deanwebb]

^ It could be argued that they're happiest with people that don't want training, but who are content with the same job, over and over and over again, day in, day out.

Small company: You want training? BRB, gotta put out the ad we used to hire you a month ago, because you'll be gone within a month.

Large company: You want training? Sure, just sign here where it says you'll pay us for the training if you take off before we get our ROI from your training.

[hizzo3]

^ Medium company: training? Sure, but we don't have a budget for that. But if you want, we are more than willing to approve your vacation time and for you to pay the course out of pocket. Just let us know when

Oh you're out of vacation? What about next year?

[deanwebb]

Small company: Vacation? You want a vacation? Oh geez, I guess we need to start looking for a new guy. Network guys only take vacation when they have a job interview at a better place.

Medium company: Vacation? Sure, go ahead and go on vacation. Just make sure to check your email every day, in case there's an emergency. (Emergencies then happen on every day of vacation, so it becomes your pilot of a "remote option" that they've been considering for some time now...)

Large company: Vacation? Sure, no problem at all. Just make sure you trained your backfill before you go. He'll be hired in a few weeks, I'm sure, but until then, we need you to keep holding the fort.

EUROPEAN VACATION ALTERNATIVE: If you don't take vacation for all of July and August, we will have you deported to the USA, where scofflaws like you can work all year!

[deanwebb]

Small company: you have meetings with yourself or deal with a bunch of walk-ups.

Medium company: meetings are mostly with your managers or with vendors doing a presentation. Everyone in IT is within earshot, so if you have a problem and they can help, they'll walk up to help. Or to point and laugh, depending on the environment.

Large company: Meetings, meetings, everywhere. You have meetings where you plan on who should be invited to the next set of meetings. Meetings with people two levels above you take precedence over ALL other activities, even ones that are supposed to take 100% of your time because it's a critical failure, etc. If the guy two levels above wants to talk to you about your timecards, let the switches burn for half an hour and go to that meeting.

[Otanx]

Don't get me started with meetings (too late). I work 10 hour days, and looking at my schedule for the other day I spent 6 hours in scheduled meetings. Then add in the hallway meetings between meetings I probably spent 8 hours in meetings in one day. Which sounds like I got two hours to do work, but those two hours were broken up in 30 minute windows between meetings. So by the time I get back to my desk, login, and remember what I was doing it is time to go to the next meeting. I am not the only engineer here with this problem, and we actually (no joke) have a meeting next week to find a solution to having too many meetings.

To keep on topic.

Small Company - If they decide to spend money you being the only IT guy pretty much get whatever you want within budget. You don't have to do months of analysis on what product is better.
Medium Company - Typically larger budget so you get bigger toys, but you have to share that budget with other groups in IT so you have to better justify why you need the toys.
Large Company - Of course a larger budget so even bigger toys, however, after doing six months of analysis on which option is best, and meeting after meeting with vendors, and management by the time the gear shows up you are so sick of the project you don't actually want to deploy the gear.

-Otanx