mistakes at work
Moderator: Dictators in Training
mistakes at work
I was traveling this weekend on business/pleasure and I got a call Saturday morning around 5 am from the Coast Guard. One of our ships was denied entry into port as a result of not submitting a notice of arrival. The captains are doing this except for this vessel which I am doing from our office as I haven't had time to walk him (the Captain) throught the process. Anyway, the ship has to wait 96 hours to enter which will cost my company at least $200k and it's mostly my fault. If not directly, then indirectly as I am in charge (somewhat unofficially) of the department that handles this. Got a nasty gram from el Presidente basically saying... "This is the 3 incident like this in the past year and will cost 200k+... come up with a solution by Monday" Anyway I think I have enough positive points to survive this incident but it makes me wonder. What's the worse mistake you've made at a job and what was the result? I think this tops the list of bonehead moves that I've made recently :(
A few months ago Id been working on a deal to sell a few alignment free belt heads to a major coal company and I got side tracked and got the due date wrong and I forgot to fax them the quotes. They were going to buy from me but when I missed the deadline they went to another company. Cost my company about 1.3 mil. Fun.
A lesson in learning the environment before jumping in....
I was contracting at a company in Dallas in 96, and they were wanting to hire me as their IT Director. I was told from the get go to keep a low profile and change things slowly
After auditing their contracts and systems, I discovered the DBA Manager had multiple deals with vendors that were grossly overpriced and she had completely screwed up some of their database builds.
I went to the CIO with a report of this, and a plan to save their company millions by reducing their contract costs. I thought I was a hero.
The next day as my contract was immediately terminated and I was released one of the tech's was kind enough to explain to me the CIO was screwing the DBA Manager.
That was the week before Christmas too, and not a fun time to be looking for work.
I was contracting at a company in Dallas in 96, and they were wanting to hire me as their IT Director. I was told from the get go to keep a low profile and change things slowly
After auditing their contracts and systems, I discovered the DBA Manager had multiple deals with vendors that were grossly overpriced and she had completely screwed up some of their database builds.
I went to the CIO with a report of this, and a plan to save their company millions by reducing their contract costs. I thought I was a hero.
The next day as my contract was immediately terminated and I was released one of the tech's was kind enough to explain to me the CIO was screwing the DBA Manager.
That was the week before Christmas too, and not a fun time to be looking for work.
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
– C. S. Lewis
– C. S. Lewis
This one wasn't me, but someone I worked with when I was at Mindspring several years ago. The guy was a junior tech, and was supposed to let one of the 2 senior techs (me and one other guy) do the actual programming changes to routers. Well, us 2 senior techs had gone to lunch, and he got it into his head to actually take one of our porjects and handle it himself. Anyway, we worked hand in hand with another ISP that actually owned the routers, and had to call them when we needed to make changes to get the root-equivalent-level password for the router we were going to. They were only supposed to give that out to me or the other senior tech, but the junior tech somehow got them to give it to them.
So, he goes in to the main router that connected all of Mindspring's customers in Atlanta to the rest of the world, makes a couple changes, gets disconnected, thinks nothing of it, considers it a job well done, and plans on being all self-important and flashign the ego when us senior techs got back from lunch. Suddenly, however, the tech support lines for Atlanta customers light up like a berserk christmas tree. People are connected, but can't see the world.
What the guy had done is change the IP information on the main backbone interface for the router, so that it was now unable to talk to anything else in the world. Period. He had also turned on its debugging levels to such a degree that it was overloading the router's memory and CPU. We couldn't even connet into it remotely to fix it, someone with a laptop had to race to the site and console in and fix it. Of course, with the debugging levels that high, it wouldn't even respond to console commands, because there was no memory left to process them. They had to compeltely disonnect every bit of cabling to this thing, so that there was no longer any input happening, before they were able to get in and shut down the debugging and then fix the addressing problem. Ultimately, every single Mindspring customer in the Atlanta area was down for several hours. Businesses, users, everything. Somehow the guy managed to avoid getting fired, HOW I don't know. He was never allowed to do ANYTHING with the routers ever again, of course, though.
No idea how much that debacle cost Mindspring, but it had to be significant.
-Arlos
So, he goes in to the main router that connected all of Mindspring's customers in Atlanta to the rest of the world, makes a couple changes, gets disconnected, thinks nothing of it, considers it a job well done, and plans on being all self-important and flashign the ego when us senior techs got back from lunch. Suddenly, however, the tech support lines for Atlanta customers light up like a berserk christmas tree. People are connected, but can't see the world.
What the guy had done is change the IP information on the main backbone interface for the router, so that it was now unable to talk to anything else in the world. Period. He had also turned on its debugging levels to such a degree that it was overloading the router's memory and CPU. We couldn't even connet into it remotely to fix it, someone with a laptop had to race to the site and console in and fix it. Of course, with the debugging levels that high, it wouldn't even respond to console commands, because there was no memory left to process them. They had to compeltely disonnect every bit of cabling to this thing, so that there was no longer any input happening, before they were able to get in and shut down the debugging and then fix the addressing problem. Ultimately, every single Mindspring customer in the Atlanta area was down for several hours. Businesses, users, everything. Somehow the guy managed to avoid getting fired, HOW I don't know. He was never allowed to do ANYTHING with the routers ever again, of course, though.
No idea how much that debacle cost Mindspring, but it had to be significant.
-Arlos
I was a Mindspring customer then!!
I loved Mindspring, they were the best. It was a sad day when Earthstink bought them out.
I don't have a story to add.
I loved Mindspring, they were the best. It was a sad day when Earthstink bought them out.
I don't have a story to add.
Inside each person lives two wolves. One is loyal, kind, respectful, humble and open to the mystery of life. The other is greedy, jealous, hateful, afraid and blind to the wonders of life. They are in battle for your spirit. The one who wins is the one you feed.
I used to work....I just didn't screw up on a global scale.
Keep thinking you know all about me, though. It's flattering.
Keep thinking you know all about me, though. It's flattering.
Inside each person lives two wolves. One is loyal, kind, respectful, humble and open to the mystery of life. The other is greedy, jealous, hateful, afraid and blind to the wonders of life. They are in battle for your spirit. The one who wins is the one you feed.
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kinghooter00
- Captain Google
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Jay
I was at a cocktail party with people from work and with people from other companies in the same field. I got kinda drunk and was talkin to this dude a while about my next presentation and project etc etc. When project day finally came I saw that guy basically deliver my presentation (that cost the company 10g's to fund) being delivered right before my eyes. When it was my turn to present, I basically took the presentation, changed the order and started winging it. I did good, but I didn't close the deal. He did. 10g's down the tubes which was otherwise in the bag.
Tacks wrote:I'm sure it is considering your situation.
Thank you for proving me right.
Inside each person lives two wolves. One is loyal, kind, respectful, humble and open to the mystery of life. The other is greedy, jealous, hateful, afraid and blind to the wonders of life. They are in battle for your spirit. The one who wins is the one you feed.
Tacks wrote:Martrae wrote:Tacks wrote:I'm sure it is considering your situation.
Thank you for proving me right.
ok? you're dilusional
Maybe it's my GED, or maybe it's that I am far more intelligent than you, but I believe that dilusional isn't a word in the English language.
How do you like this spoiler, motherfucker? -Lyion
me typing something wrong and you completely not understanding WTF a word means in the context of a post is a big difference
but go ahead with your typical LOLZ GRAMMURZ post since that's the only "flame" you're capable of
it's funny that you completely ignored what I posted earlier and had to wait till i typed something wrong so you don't look like the complete inbred moronic uneducated douchebag that you are
but go ahead with your typical LOLZ GRAMMURZ post since that's the only "flame" you're capable of
it's funny that you completely ignored what I posted earlier and had to wait till i typed something wrong so you don't look like the complete inbred moronic uneducated douchebag that you are