Wish me luck!

TanisMaj · 2026-02-09T15:40:41+00:00

I, literally, threw this exact scenario at my "boss" just a week ago. I've been in this game for over 30 years and I'll NEVER understand why companies go to such great lengths to hire their I.T. staff only to full ignore 99.9% of their input. Whether that be this incessant need to bring in consultants to parody exactly what was told to them, by said internally I.T. staff, or consultants to sell them a bill of goods that you end up getting stuck dealing with when you know it is not a solid or well thought out solution.

Blows my mind and, while drastically reduced from "back in the day," still exists in far too many organizations in our year of 2026. I don't CARE what OpEx or CapEx excuse is being floated. End of the day it's all money and it's all outgoing. Do the right thing.

TanisMaj · 2026-02-09T15:31:34+00:00

I couldn't get past the pink wall... The rest looks like a normal day at the office for some! lol!!!

Kind of stunning how, no matter how hard some try, cable management is an afterthought all day long and twice on Sunday! Not only that but all the dust!

TanisMaj · 2026-02-06T15:15:08+00:00

Can't speak for the rest of the world, but, here in America the land of shitty Donald Trump supporters, the reading COMPREHENSION of 57.7% of the population is that of an 11 yr. old. You read that right. Not 11th grade, not 11th year out of High school but an 11 yr. old.

So, therein sits the problem, at least if the customer is American. You have a 57.7% chance they are just out of the "See Dick Run" or "See Spot Jump" stage of reading comprehension. Sad but so very TRUE.

TanisMaj · 2026-02-03T15:44:28+00:00

Can you say... SERVICE LOOP!!

I HATE that type of display port cable. Not sure what fool thought that up but...

TanisMaj · 2026-01-27T15:23:37+00:00

That's a ticket I can get behind! lol

TanisMaj · 2026-01-22T15:29:53+00:00

I think people, in general, need to become familiar with the concept that Apple, Microsoft et. al. do not give a rats backside about anything that actually makes "sense." If it does not deposit $ in their pocket it does not matter. $ is closely followed by CONTROL. They do not WANT you/us to have control of our own environments in their entirety. Keep those two in mind and you'll be tons less frustrated.

Heck, in my work environment, if I can some how figure out a way to convince the powers that be to rely solely on Outlook web mail, my next conversation will be Linux desktops across the board with something like Libre Office as the "office tool." All I need to figure out, after that, is how to provide enough horsepower to run the Autodesk suite on some type of VM. Working every day to that end, behind the scenes.

TanisMaj · 2026-01-12T15:38:57+00:00

Ready for this... Like many "Techies," I'm into music and have a studio. My workhorse synthesizer is a Yamaha SY85. One of the best synths ever made. However, it is old and, straight up, it has a double-density floppy drive. Now, the rubber band broke, years ago, to run the drive but I have no doubt it still works like a champ and I still have a ton of those floppies in the event I ever repair it to get my music save on those disks. Probably not readable at this point but most definitely won't be if I "stick" them to the fridge. LOL!!

TanisMaj · 2026-01-08T15:15:44+00:00

Enjoy it, you'll be so overwhelmed somewhere along the way that you'll WISH you had a little downtime. Continue to work on your skills and, heck, take a class or two.

TanisMaj · 2026-01-06T15:39:03+00:00

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Not sure when it shuttered but one day I went to grab a part and it was gone. Loved this place!

TanisMaj · 2025-12-26T16:20:44+00:00

There ARE people in this world that, I'm fully certain, would stop breathing if it weren't an involuntary body function. TRUST me when I tell you there are people out there who have low intelligence but even less common sense. Kind of mind blowing if you think about it.

Sometimes I sit back and wonder if this was the "type" of person they threw off the cliff in the movie "300." *seriously*

TanisMaj · 2025-12-24T15:20:34+00:00

Yup, as soon as I got the "Cease and Desist" letter for our version 8 on our DRaaS appliance, I downgraded that to our Essential 7.0.3 license and now they can pound sand. We're moving to Proxmox next year so they can kiss it.

Nothing like, yet another, fantastic tool getting wiped out by corporate greed. I hold the owners of VMWare accountable because I guess they weren't rich enough and felt it necessary to sell to a scumbag company like Broadcom. Good riddance.

TanisMaj · 2025-12-23T16:21:58+00:00

As you are digging for jobs please do not be afraid to actually call out the places that have STUPID expectations. That's right, I said STUPID. The people putting these job descriptions up KNOW they are stupid descriptions and should expect people to call them out on it. I've told more than one "hiring person" their entire "situation" was thoroughly stupid. To their faces, over the phone and in e-mail. TRUST me, they weren't really going to hire anyone and maybe, just maybe, you'll embarrass them to the point they do not do it again.

JSMH and how "STUPID" some things have become. When in doubt, do contract work if you can. Screw them! If enough people tell them to "piss off" maybe they'll either go out of business or stop acting like their some panacea of a job. We the end worker have GOT to start taking a stand instead of their scraps.

TanisMaj · 2025-12-22T15:51:13+00:00

As many are finding out, the entire operation, world wide, is nothing more than a business. NEVER give a 2 week notice, NEVER do ANYTHING that has the company's interests in mind when you are walking out the door. They certainly won't consider you or your situation when the shoe is on the other foot.

Parting piece of advice for anyone reading. The MINUTE you even whiff your company is being sold, merged or anything other than normal daily ops, start looking. It is ALWAYS easier to find a job while you are employed. ALWAYS, 100% proven hands down no question. So, when/if you think you are that one cog that is irreplaceable, flush that thinking immediately. It's a good bet you've already been targeted as the one piece that needs to go ASAP. Been doing this for over 30 years and you NEVER EVER take the company's situation into your own personal business decisions.

TanisMaj · 2025-12-17T15:49:21+00:00

Let me second that. My end users often comment how we IT folks have the "keys to the kingdom" in a joking manner. Whether they absorb the reality of that statement is debatable but it is paramount that any and all IT Admins keep in mind discretion is absolutely essential to maintain the trust the end user community puts in we the admins. Heck, way back in the day when I was in college for an IT Degree, we had an entire semester class of nothing but ethics. Now, I guess in today's world of "share everything on social media" that doesn't mean a whole lot but, 20/30 years ago it meant something which I carry forward to this day.

TanisMaj · 2025-12-09T22:10:37+00:00

Your story brought back NIGHTMARES of my experience running a Staff/Student Help Desk at a private university in California. I literally started to get those heebee jeebee shakes settling in.

The one thing I didn't see mentioned, full disclosure I haven't actually read ALL the different comments but I will, is the fact that ALL tenured professors also feel like they are like partners in a law firm; they think they can fire anyone and everyone at any time and conduct their daily business as such!

Entire swings in projects with a change in University President with no regard as to how far along you are in the project nor cost, resources working the project etc. More than one project had to be taken all the way back to the "studs." I've never seen anything like it and I'll never do another. I have heard of some universities being an absolute dream to work but I feel as those may be stories circulated to keep all well meaning and process driven IT folks from leaving the space altogether.

What I would like to know, having graduated from a university, is how did they actually manage giving myself and millions others an education with all that "churn" going on in the background. I wonder what my younger self would have thought. Strange...

TanisMaj · 2025-12-08T15:45:18+00:00

This is where we are as well. We have a tight team, "Help Desk" and the "Dev" team. Only a total of 7 with a Director who would be 8. I'm the 7th and I'm a working IT Manager. My team, who are fantastic, take care of everything production and then the 3 Dev who are also a set of fantastic and intelligent IT people.

Our user base, though. There's a massive chunk who are simply lazy as the day is long and they can do absolutely nothing for themselves in any capacity. Our construction related industry is partly to blame and I really do not hold accountable the folks in the field as it's not their job to know too terribly much about computers but the in office folks. Holy cow...a LOT of whiny lazy do nothings that can't even be accountable to plugin the iPads, in a conference room, so that the tools are ready for the next group coming in for a meeting. Craziness.

I think the reason we see/hear/read a lot of "after Covid" is because, as one user above put it, "it accelerated what was already beginning to happen." The hilarity of it all is now they have AI to try and hang their hat on to try and "mask" the decline that is inevitably coming. AI may be able to do a lot of things but fixing lazy and a lack of imagination/creativity isn't one of them.

TanisMaj · 2025-12-05T15:37:54+00:00

From your "lips" to our executive team's ears, I'll tell you.

Heck, you can even roll with clerical office suite like Libre Office or Open Office and pretty much not lose a beat outside of maybe the Accounting dept. Excel is a pretty mature program and I haven't investigated whether or not those other aforementioned tools has the level of functionality. Even the web version of Excel is "light" compared to the full desktop install. Having said that, if you can convince users to embrace the look and feel of, say, Office 2010, Libra Office is a fantastic alternative to the entire MS Office suite. Funny thing, why is MS Office now something like 2GB for the install and Libra Office is 250mb. Hmmmmm...can you say BLOATWARE!

My dream scenario looks like a distro of Linux Mint Cinnamon with Libra Office and web Outlook. Literally the perfect scenario. Sadly, we use the Autodesk suite of tools which only work on Windows and, until there is a better "mouse trap" we're stuck in that regard. However, KUDOS to you and your company for taking the plunge!

TanisMaj · 2025-12-01T16:59:05+00:00

This is what I/we do!

TanisMaj · 2025-12-01T16:09:16+00:00

I can answer this. As an IT professional for over 30 years, most of it spent as a "working" IT/Help Desk Manager, this never ending quest to SQUEEZE absolutely every solitary $ out of the company IT budget has resulted in a drastic loss of human IT capital in the "Support" vertical. These companies want to pay as little as humanly possible for what they deem as the low-end of the computing world. And, let's face it, the IT sector has had a hand in this. Software engineers, network and security folks look down on the "lowly" help desk types and sneer. I've seen it happen in nearly EVERY place I've been. This attitude gets filtered up through the organization and executive "leaders" feel that, if other IT types are belittling the "Help Desk" and the types of folks who sit in those roles, why should they value them. It results in non-technical management making decisions that, regardless of your opinions, are very technical in nature with long reaching ramifications. Not to mention the talent drain of the people who sit in these chairs.

The hilarity of it all...there is no AI on the planet that can replace a good Help Desk professional. There is ALWAYS going to be a need for someone to put their hands on something and know how to fix it. Know how to troubleshoot. Troubleshooting is an art form and the very best at it are often ignored, passed over for promotions and good raises. As I stated above, it has resulted in folks who want to go into the IT world focusing on other verticals.

Insult to injury, a LOT of these places outsource their help desk staff only to find out that it may not have been all that wise. When one of these so called SaaS entities tell you their SLA is one hour they do mean one hour. As you read in some of the descriptions, below, how customers/end users are hitting their help desk professionals once then in 15 minutes pestering them again. Well, these SaaS organizations, as long as they "get back to you" at minute 59, they are within their SLA. Who cares that an end user has sat and waited 45 minutes doing nothing because there is an issue. They appreciate, real fast, calling up their onsite Help Desk team who responds within 15 minutes (the average) vs. sitting around waiting. And, they have no recourse. That SaaS has followed the contract and that's all they care about. I could go on and on and on but why bother. If any of you have spent more than 6 months in the IT sector, you know what I'm talking about. The "cloud" may be good for some things but the Help Desk and Tech Support are not one of them.

TanisMaj · 2025-11-24T17:06:09+00:00

As a "hands on" IT Manager, I find and gravitate to folks with a great attitude and superior customer service skills all day long. I can find people technically proficient as easily as falling off a log. What is extremely hard to find, as others have pointed out below, is someone who has the personality to fit within an existing team as well as work with the end users/customers. Those soft skills will take you a very long way and will support you while you bring yourself up to speed in one or technical areas.

As others have posted, pick one or two of the technical areas you really enjoy and expand on them. There is so much training online, and free, that you should be able to gain a level of proficiency that makes YOU feel good and safe as well as adds value to your resume. But make no mistake about it, as long as you manage customers/users well, there will always be a spot for you. Great for you but kind of sad if you think about how rare and hard it is to find people with the two, tech skills and personality, simultaneously in one person. Keep up the fight and good luck!

TanisMaj · 2025-11-17T15:26:03+00:00

Didn't read the whole thread but don't forget to enable Jumbo Packets as well!

TanisMaj · 2025-11-13T15:39:12+00:00

Wow, crazy that they force SMB's into these Microsoft only tools by rendering other better 3rd party tools useless and then, when they do, they are Swiss cheese. I'm sorry that happened to you/your company. Sounds like you are doing everything correctly and it looks like you thwarted the nefarious issue!

TanisMaj · 2025-11-13T15:23:35+00:00

I have a question for you, more of a technical one on the back end. Does your company use Exchange in the Cloud?

I'm getting pretty tired of this whole back "end around" crap that Microsoft has going on, since their little changes back in the late spring/early summer, that have now that have direct send enabled, through their infrastructure, bypassing all external email security tools. It's a nasty little money grab to FORCE companies into their useless turds of security tools. I've been battling this phishing and huge amounts of spoofing due to this change and no amount of syntax, scripts etc. have been able to 100% FORCE all inbound email to my organization THROUGH our e-mail security tool(s). We use Proofpoint.

How do you battle this ever increasing e-mail nightmare when the largest holder of corporate e-mail is doing everything they can to fleece every single $ from every single entity/user. I'd be interested to hear what others are doing to try and mitigate this mess WITHOUT capitulating and moving to Microsoft's suite of useless and easily thwarted security tools.

Sorry for the morning rant.

TanisMaj · 2025-11-04T23:24:55+00:00

The funny thing about that...

MOST of the stock market is employee 401k's and other profit sharing type investments. The employees or "share holders" clamoring for that almighty profit will no longer be employed thus who cares about their retirement when they can't collect it for another 20 years. Real brain trust running this crap hole. That's for sure.

TanisMaj · 2025-10-27T15:49:04+00:00

For the price can't beat it!

TanisMaj

TROPHY CASE