Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I hate my IT department

emw

emw

macrumors G4
Original poster
Aug 2, 2004
11,172
0
When the MacBook Pros were announced in January, I thought to myself that now would be the perfect time to replace my aging (almost 4-year old) Ti PowerBook. Sure, it has done well by me, except for me having to replace the optical drive. Oh, and having the hard drive fail a couple of times. And the battery's been replaced twice since it wouldn't hold a charge. And it's barely fast enough to do my work.

So anyway, I decide to submit a request through my upper management team to get a new one. It's approved in roughly 30 minutes. Woohoo!

But wait, it also has to go through the IT juggernaut.

Step 1 - a techie comes to my desk to look at my laptop to see if he thinks it needs to be replaced. I explain the issues I've had, as well as the fact that I travel extensively and need a reliable device since I work on fairly sensitive materials that would be bad to lose while away from my backup drive. He agrees that it should be replaced and passes it up the chain. Woohoo!

Step 2 - wait. I mean, really, they weren't even really released until early last month.

Step 3 - follow-up on the request, which is still listed as "In Progress". At this point, Friday, I'm getting a little concerned that I haven't seen anything about my new MBP order, which in my estimation should already be on my desk. What do I find? It's not ordered yet! WTF? :mad:

It appears that the new IT "policy" is only to replace equipment that has broken. Which essentially means that I have to wait until my laptop fails and I potentially lose a week's worth of data, or I'm stuck on the road (potentially with customers) with a laptop that doesn't function.

My laptop is now sitting precariously on the edge of my desk with the power cable wrapped around the door handle. I can't wait for someone to stop by, now that I've backed everything up.

Anyone else stuck dealing with this sort of mentality? It's one thing if we couldn't afford it, but I know that's not the case.
 
Open it up, scratch a couple of joins on the logic board. Then it won't even boot. :p

But yes, seriously, that sucks. Maybe IT financing has been cut..
 
Ok, maybe I should admit something here - I don't really want to break it, since I'd prefer to keep it as a "spare" in case I have apps that don't run properly on the MBP. I run a lot of obscure ones.

Maybe if I loosened a RAM chip or something... :p
 
ok. I'll be the devils advocate

..................

Is it your powerbook? Did you buy it?

I would assume that "The company" is completely withen their rights to take the risk of letting a powerbook that THEY bought you survive for a while longer.

I know companies that still use old G3's and G4's.

Don't let a computer effect your work performance. Have some grace and class - it will help your career and take you further in teh long run. Bitching about a CPU cant help.
 
Welcome to the world, no one wants to spend money. You're lucky you even have the possibility of getting a top notch laptop and not just a Dell D600 like hundreds of our lucky users.

Sorry, but that's just the way it is.
 
emw said:
When the MacBook Pros were announced in January, I thought to myself that now would be the perfect time to replace my aging (almost 4-year old) Ti PowerBook. Sure, it has done well by me, except for me having to replace the optical drive. Oh, and having the hard drive fail a couple of times. And the battery's been replaced twice since it wouldn't hold a charge. And it's barely fast enough to do my work.

So anyway, I decide to submit a request through my upper management team to get a new one. It's approved in roughly 30 minutes. Woohoo!

But wait, it also has to go through the IT juggernaut.

Step 1 - a techie comes to my desk to look at my laptop to see if he thinks it needs to be replaced. I explain the issues I've had, as well as the fact that I travel extensively and need a reliable device since I work on fairly sensitive materials that would be bad to lose while away from my backup drive. He agrees that it should be replaced and passes it up the chain. Woohoo!

Step 2 - wait. I mean, really, they weren't even really released until early last month.

Step 3 - follow-up on the request, which is still listed as "In Progress". At this point, Friday, I'm getting a little concerned that I haven't seen anything about my new MBP order, which in my estimation should already be on my desk. What do I find? It's not ordered yet! WTF? :mad:

It appears that the new IT "policy" is only to replace equipment that has broken. Which essentially means that I have to wait until my laptop fails and I potentially lose a week's worth of data, or I'm stuck on the road (potentially with customers) with a laptop that doesn't function.

My laptop is now sitting precariously on the edge of my desk with the power cable wrapped around the door handle. I can't wait for someone to stop by, now that I've backed everything up.

Anyone else stuck dealing with this sort of mentality? It's one thing if we couldn't afford it, but I know that's not the case.
Click to expand...

Yup.

I need all sorts of nautical charts to do my job, and they are muy expensive, so my clients idea is to have me use the free ones online from NOAA that take 5 minutes each to load, and then they complain it takes me too long to do things. Mind you this is a Fortune 500 company.

Then they take away the Dell I was using for mapping work and won't pay for VPC to run it on my PowerMac. This is why I am sticking my neck out way further than I should when the 60 days are up and going totally on my own.

I simply can't take idiots anymore.

And yeah, go to the hardware store and get an industrial sized recovery magnet and slap it on the bottom of the notebook. That's what we did to get Rob's POS ThinkPad replaced.

They used to pull that crap on me at my last publishing job, so i went out and bought my own G5 and they ended up buying it from me and filling the office with them when I quit. :rolleyes:
 
D0ct0rteeth said:
ok. I'll be the devils advocate
Click to expand...
I figured somebody would... ;)

D0ct0rteeth said:
Is it your powerbook? Did you buy it?
Click to expand...
Of course not. If that were the case, I would likely be a contractor and I wouldn't be concerned with my IT department purchasing a new one. I'd simply do it myself and bill them.

D0ct0rteeth said:
I would assume that "The company" is completely withen their rights to take the risk of letting a powerbook that THEY bought you survive for a while longer.
Click to expand...
Sure they are - but that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea, especially given things that they do purchase. I'm in a position where my job is to limit risk and develop strategies for improving processes and increase profitability. Having me work on a device that limits my productivity and increases the odds that sensitive information is lost, or that I cannot meet a customer's needs, is ridiculous. It would be different if I hadn't already suffered multiple drive failures. I had to pull strings just to get a backup drive.

D0ct0rteeth said:
I know companies that still use old G3's and G4's.
Click to expand...
Yes, but not mine, and not for people in my position, so that's a little irrelevant here.

D0ct0rteeth said:
Don't let a computer effect your work performance. Have some grace and class - it will help your career and take you further in teh long run. Bitching about a CPU cant help.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. :rolleyes:

Don't ever make the assumption that rants posted here are synonymous with discussions I'd have with my IT department or upper management team. I haven't reached the level I'm at in my company without learning the game.

But maybe you're right - I'd be a much better soldier if I simply say "I don't give a **** if my computer craps out and I'm unable to perform my job for a couple of weeks while they order me a new one." Hmm. Two weeks pay essentially wasted as I have no secondary device on which to work, and we don't have spare laptops sitting around. Two weeks of pay would easily buy me a MBP, and greatly reduce their exposure to risk.

I'm not just trying to get the latest and greatest device - I am actually trying to do what I feel is in my organization's best interests.
 
Being on the other side (The Evil IT Department), we were recently told that our continued employment was weighted heavily upon pushing a certain vendor's product. We are no longer able to replace aging PCs will a certain reliable vendor, no, we have to go with the cheaper vendor that has made a major deal withy the powers that be. And do it with a smile on your face. Or it's your job.

:mad:
 
emw said:
I figured somebody would... ;)

Of course not. If that were the case, I would likely be a contractor and I wouldn't be concerned with my IT department purchasing a new one. I'd simply do it myself and bill them.

Sure they are - but that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea, especially given things that they do purchase. I'm in a position where my job is to limit risk and develop strategies for improving processes and increase profitability. Having me work on a device that limits my productivity and increases the odds that sensitive information is lost, or that I cannot meet a customer's needs, is ridiculous. It would be different if I hadn't already suffered multiple drive failures. I had to pull strings just to get a backup drive.

Yes, but not mine, and not for people in my position, so that's a little irrelevant here.

Thanks for the tip. :rolleyes:

Don't ever make the assumption that rants posted here are synonymous with discussions I'd have with my IT department or upper management team. I haven't reached the level I'm at in my company without learning the game.

But maybe you're right - I'd be a much better soldier if I simply say "I don't give a **** if my computer craps out and I'm unable to perform my job for a couple of weeks while they order me a new one." Hmm. Two weeks pay essentially wasted as I have no secondary device on which to work, and we don't have spare laptops sitting around. Two weeks of pay would easily buy me a MBP, and greatly reduce their exposure to risk.

I'm not just trying to get the latest and greatest device - I am actually trying to do what I feel is in my organization's best interests.
Click to expand...

We all know you are a technology whore. :rolleyes: :p
 
emw said:
You're confusing me with another w. :p :D
Click to expand...

LOL, yeah, anyway I feel your pain.

Just to get me more riled I looked at what the company I work for is worth...

Eight fracking billion dollars. :rolleyes:

No, sorry, you can't have any charts.
 
iGary said:
Eight fracking billion dollars. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
We must work for the same company.

Oh, wait, stocks down a bit today, so $7.5B...
 
iGary said:
Eight fracking billion dollars. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
hahaha, reminds me of a few years back when the investment bank I worked at at the time had *only* made $1.5bn in the last quarter, down from an exceptional quarter the year previous. Sorry boys and girls, you all suck, no xmas party. Bastards!!!
 
edesignuk said:
hahaha, reminds me of a few years back when the investment bank I worked at at the time had *only* made $1.5bn in the last quarter, down from an exceptional quarter the year previous. Sorry boys and girls, you all suck, no xmas party. Bastards!!!
Click to expand...

Hmm... makes me think that the scam in "Office Space" isn't such a bad idea... assuming the decimal place is in the right position. Put a little o' that into my bank account.... ;)
 
edesignuk said:
hahaha, reminds me of a few years back when the investment bank I worked at at the time had *only* made $1.5bn in the last quarter, down from an exceptional quarter the year previous. Sorry boys and girls, you all suck, no xmas party. Bastards!!!
Click to expand...

Oh vey...It was like the time we were having our company Christmas Party at the annual guide I used to work at. The publisher comes in, asks me to video tape him giving his trophy wife a ne Mini Cooper S, and then hand out our bonuses, which were half what they were last year, when we made more profit. :rolleyes:

I know I should have been grateful, but you don't give your wife a car and then cut someones bonus in half. Give the bitch the car at home and then come to the party...film it...jeebus.
 
quigleybc said:
an office with no windows
Click to expand...

quigleybc said:
Dell PC that is slower than slow, and freezes all the time.
Click to expand...

Dunno - sounds like you have Windows to me :confused: :p

My sympathies - I can't complain about having a Mac, to be sure. But to hear things like "it needs to break down before we fix it" just doesn't go well with me.
 
We have a similar policy at work.

I suggest the following (it worked for me although I just got a faster PC rather than a MBP)

Create a very large spreadsheet that has something to do with work - 20,000 rows and 70 columns or so ought to do it. Make sure than 30 to 40 of those columns have formulae in them (going down all 20,000 rows). Sit and twiddle your thumbs (in sight of your boss) while it calculates.

When boss asks why you're not doing anything, explain IT's policy. New computer... whoosh!
 
Applespider said:
Create a very large spreadsheet that has something to do with work - 20,000 rows and 70 columns or so ought to do it. Make sure than 30 to 40 of those columns have formulae in them (going down all 20,000 rows). Sit and twiddle your thumbs (in sight of your boss) while it calculates.
Click to expand...
That's partly what started this. I had a very large spreadsheet that would take about 5 or 10 minutes just to open and run the calculations (looking for duplicate entries, etc.). And, of course, every time anything changed, it had to also recalculate, resulting in another delay.

I converted it to FM Pro, but it's still slow. Granted that I'll be running many apps in Rosetta, but I have to believe the MBP will be substantially faster even given that. And hopefully less prone to breaking down.

Then again, all these delays give me time to spend here on MacRumors... :D

Edit: And just to clarify, my management team approved this. They obviously feel that it's warranted and that I am correct in my assessment - it's the IT department unilaterally saying that regardless of what their internal customers say, they're going to make the final decision. Which pisses me off even more, because this all comes out of our budget, not IT's.
 
If you have the funds to purchase your own MacBook Pro, it seems like a good solution to your problems. Yes you would be using it for work, so it seems wrong that you would be buying it yourself; however, it would give you that machine to keep and do what you please with it.

I am pretty certain that my career will have me sitting in front of Linux and Windows machines (I am going to start college in the Fall for Networking Security/Administration) I suspect I will use my own MacBook Pro (that I would hope to have) for as much work as I could possible do on it, and use SSH and VNC to do work on the machines, etc. My computer teacher bought him a 17Inch PowerBook earlier this year and uses that for his grades (which are online) and making tests and doing whatever he needs done.
 
maestro55 said:
If you have the funds to purchase your own MacBook Pro, it seems like a good solution to your problems.
Click to expand...
I've considered it, believe me. But in the end, my management team has supported the upgrade, so perhaps we'll bypass IT and just buy it through other discretionary accounts.

Hell, we spend more that the cost of a MBP on travel expenses in a week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back