(Sorry Harry) Monday Night Funny

From a joke listing I sub to-

As Long as the Boss is Happy

Big defense contractor buys a small company, and the small company gets a
new IT boss just as work starts to integrate systems with the big outfit's
infrastructure, reports a technician on the scene.

And though the new boss has no computer skills or knowledge, she's still
the source of a steady stream of instructions for renovating the data center.

"This initially included installing a window into the data center," says
the technician. "She wanted to be able to see into it as she walked in
every morning and at every smoke break."

"It seemed strange, but I was happy if that meant I could keep her from
actually coming into the data center and possibly destroying something."

A week or two later, the boss tells the technician to install track
lighting over each row of servers lining the room. Then she requests dimmer
switches to control the track lighting.

"Weird assignments kept rolling in -- knock out a wall here, paint a wall
there, change the colors of the electrical outlet covers -- while I labored
with co-workers to get the real work done," he says. "Meanwhile, I endured
daily meetings with corporate managers to describe and explain any and all
progress made from the previous day's labors."

Then comes a major project: replacing the aging network switches. "The
Friday before we began, I let the boss know what we had assigned to us,"
says the technician. "She nearly had a cow. She immediately started calling
everyone she knew at company headquarters, ranting and raving that this
would be way too disruptive to the users and cause general havoc."

The project is pushed back two weeks, but then rescheduled. That Friday,
the boss tells the technical staff not to make any changes, no matter what.

"It was then that I finally got the real reason for why she wanted the
blinking switches to stay. She loved walking by several times a day and
looking through the window in the data center to see the pretty green
blinking lights. "That made her feel everything inside the data center was
working well. The green activity lights let her know there were no
problems, or they would have started blinking amber or red."

After our little talk, I spoke with the corporate folks and was told in no
uncertain terms that if this project wasn't done that weekend, I would face
serious consequences. I told them not to worry. It would be done by Monday
morning.

Over the weekend, the tech and a co-worker make the changes and remove the
switches. But they leave the old switch racks in place. "We installed
random-blinking green Christmas lights where the switches used to sit
behind the smoked glass doors," he says.

"To this day, my boss still thinks she won the battle to keep the blinking
switches in place."

 

Those dialy shark stories are funny. I left my last job because I got a new boss just like this. The theory is with a good set of management skills, you can work anywhere, but in practice you also need some experience in the field you are working.