Been through this so many times, both as a contractor and from the support side too. Usually after a file server migration when loads of people insist they had access to various shares that the permissions on the old one don't confirm and they have to ask for management approval, which is never ever denied cos their managers have no idea who does what.
Obviously you are CEO of Autosave. I've learned to inflate my power whenever possible. Start at the top and let them whittle me down (as is the world's wont).
I share your inability to remember names. I long for a less clunky version of Google Glasses (privacy, what a concept).
My current employer has this byzantine method where users of new applications only can have their permissions granted after they are live. That means that applications go into production and their users have to wait for access, sometimes for a few days because the team that grants those accesses probably consist of a single bloke on a shed somewhere and replies to requests when he's not fishing or hunting or something. No biggie, except when the new application is meant to replace another one that is discontinued on the the same day (whenever they can not be used simultaneously, like when there's a data migration needed from one to the other, for example). In those cases, users will be twiddling thumbs for some time, but processes are respected, as they should (!), and all is well. <sigh>
Jan 27, 2023·edited Jan 27, 2023Liked by Alistair Dabbs
Yep last three contracts the first week was spent waiting for people to give me access to the firewalls I was to be working on.
Which is fine if it is a long term contract not so good if it is short term.
You would have thought it just needs to be a simple task but it is far more complex than that (according to the high priests of access control).
Mind you after you get access ask for the configuration guides / standards for doing stuff most companies sort of mutter and in case of one place I was told “you are the first contractor who has asked for that” apparently everyone previous had just done things the way they thought - no wonder the configuration was spaghetti…..
Understanding rights seems to be a skill that passes the majority by.
The "official" group responsible for setting these things up for a multinational I worked at just could not grasp things. They would stop non-members of the relevant group from opening files, but they could sill see the directory contents. Any Fule Kno that people can infer future policy from the mere existence of a file called "Redundancies 2023.xls"
Eventually they handed me full rights over that part of the file system and active directory. I talked with the relevant users to check requirements, then set up proper groups and checked that they worked correctly. The users happily emailed me with their needs - CYA !
Why is it when a department is renamed, it does the opposite of what it says. Service desk to Customer Delight, desktop support to Site Services and finally HR to Px (People Experience). Wait…that is actually a descriptive name, it is an experience…
Perfect timing, I'm currently in a loop trying to get various user roles reset (just a minor data protection issue). Having had several just ignored, at last one was closed as #WORKALREADYCOMPLETED (no it wasn't).
Clearly our organisation has also outsourced Customer Delight Services, as at that point I was sent a Satisfaction Survey, the only response I can give is
"'cause I try and I try and I try, but I can't get no ..."
Any Wordpress admin will sympathise. Even trying to select between a small number of roles and trying to grant least privilege, I almost always end up having to grant full access because the roles don’t correspond with real life use. And then you just have to hope that someone with virtually no IT skills will screw the entire web site up!
HAH. I found out the network share hosting the unencrypted & unprotected contents of the “document management system,” I was able to copy, modify, and delete anything/everything I wanted without asking anybody’s permission, without submitting a single engineering change order, without leaving a single entry in the revision control registry. One day I demonstrated my omnipotent power obliquely in front of the document control lady, she hated my guts from that moment on. It was a case of me making some trifling error on a title block or something, but the document had already been checked in & released, and she snarled/cackled, “you’ll have to go through the whole review and permission process all over again, you won’t make your correction for at least a week!” So I was like, hold on a second I think I did this wrong… go back to my desk for 60 seconds… come back, “yeah maybe it’s ok now.” The icy, dagger stare! I’ll never forget it.
Well, how’s it my problem they got the least secure document control system ever written?
Yeah she went to great lengths to trash my reputation ever since that time, real display of malevolent hatred too. Oh well, water under the bridge!
10/10 (perhaps mainly for the videos)
Been through this so many times, both as a contractor and from the support side too. Usually after a file server migration when loads of people insist they had access to various shares that the permissions on the old one don't confirm and they have to ask for management approval, which is never ever denied cos their managers have no idea who does what.
Obviously you are CEO of Autosave. I've learned to inflate my power whenever possible. Start at the top and let them whittle me down (as is the world's wont).
I share your inability to remember names. I long for a less clunky version of Google Glasses (privacy, what a concept).
My current employer has this byzantine method where users of new applications only can have their permissions granted after they are live. That means that applications go into production and their users have to wait for access, sometimes for a few days because the team that grants those accesses probably consist of a single bloke on a shed somewhere and replies to requests when he's not fishing or hunting or something. No biggie, except when the new application is meant to replace another one that is discontinued on the the same day (whenever they can not be used simultaneously, like when there's a data migration needed from one to the other, for example). In those cases, users will be twiddling thumbs for some time, but processes are respected, as they should (!), and all is well. <sigh>
>>I am a freelance contractor, which makes me nobody’s boss and nobody’s servant
No gods, no kings, only... Dabssy?
yikes.
Yep last three contracts the first week was spent waiting for people to give me access to the firewalls I was to be working on.
Which is fine if it is a long term contract not so good if it is short term.
You would have thought it just needs to be a simple task but it is far more complex than that (according to the high priests of access control).
Mind you after you get access ask for the configuration guides / standards for doing stuff most companies sort of mutter and in case of one place I was told “you are the first contractor who has asked for that” apparently everyone previous had just done things the way they thought - no wonder the configuration was spaghetti…..
Understanding rights seems to be a skill that passes the majority by.
The "official" group responsible for setting these things up for a multinational I worked at just could not grasp things. They would stop non-members of the relevant group from opening files, but they could sill see the directory contents. Any Fule Kno that people can infer future policy from the mere existence of a file called "Redundancies 2023.xls"
Eventually they handed me full rights over that part of the file system and active directory. I talked with the relevant users to check requirements, then set up proper groups and checked that they worked correctly. The users happily emailed me with their needs - CYA !
Why is it when a department is renamed, it does the opposite of what it says. Service desk to Customer Delight, desktop support to Site Services and finally HR to Px (People Experience). Wait…that is actually a descriptive name, it is an experience…
Perfect timing, I'm currently in a loop trying to get various user roles reset (just a minor data protection issue). Having had several just ignored, at last one was closed as #WORKALREADYCOMPLETED (no it wasn't).
Clearly our organisation has also outsourced Customer Delight Services, as at that point I was sent a Satisfaction Survey, the only response I can give is
"'cause I try and I try and I try, but I can't get no ..."
Any Wordpress admin will sympathise. Even trying to select between a small number of roles and trying to grant least privilege, I almost always end up having to grant full access because the roles don’t correspond with real life use. And then you just have to hope that someone with virtually no IT skills will screw the entire web site up!
HAH. I found out the network share hosting the unencrypted & unprotected contents of the “document management system,” I was able to copy, modify, and delete anything/everything I wanted without asking anybody’s permission, without submitting a single engineering change order, without leaving a single entry in the revision control registry. One day I demonstrated my omnipotent power obliquely in front of the document control lady, she hated my guts from that moment on. It was a case of me making some trifling error on a title block or something, but the document had already been checked in & released, and she snarled/cackled, “you’ll have to go through the whole review and permission process all over again, you won’t make your correction for at least a week!” So I was like, hold on a second I think I did this wrong… go back to my desk for 60 seconds… come back, “yeah maybe it’s ok now.” The icy, dagger stare! I’ll never forget it.
Well, how’s it my problem they got the least secure document control system ever written?
Yeah she went to great lengths to trash my reputation ever since that time, real display of malevolent hatred too. Oh well, water under the bridge!