u/ITRabbit

So my senior lead dev put in his two weeks notice about a month ago and now I am basically the only person left who understands how the logic flow actually works in our main legacy system. We are talking about a massive spaghetti monster that has been built over eight years with zero documentation and a lot of hacky fixes that somehow kept us afloat during the last high traffic season. When he left everyone just shrugged it off like it was no big deal but now every single bug or minor update falls on my desk and my slack notifications are basically a war zone from 8am to 10pm. The mangement team seems to think that becuse the site is still running everything is fine and I can just absorb his entire workload without any compensation change because we are a family or whatever corporate nonsense they are pushing this week.

The reality is that if I decided to walk out tomorrow or even just took a sick week the entire production enviornment would probably catch fire within forty eight hours because no one else even knows where the config files are stored or how the CI pipelines are actually triggered manually when the auto scripts fail. I am currently doing the job of two and a half people while still getting paid my original mid level salary and it is starting to get old really fast. I know I have a lot of leverage right now but I do not want to come across as a total jerk who is shaking the company down the second things get difficult even though that is exactly what they deserve for not having a backup plan. I need to figure out how to frame this as a market adjustment or a lead role promotion instead of just saying pay me more or watch the servers melt.

I have been trying to document things but honestly there is so much technical debt that it would take me six months of doing nothing else just to get a decent wiki started and they keep piling on new feature requests like we have a full team. I am reaching my breaking point because I am tired of being the only person who gets paged at 3am for things that I did not even write in the first place. It feels like I am being punished for being competent enough to figure out Mike's mess while everyone else just stays in their little silos and ignores the fire. If I go to my manager and ask for a thirty percent bump he is going to say it is not in the budget but we both know that hiring a contractor to replace me would cost them triple that and it would take months for a new guy to even find the login credentials for the db.

There has to be a way to navigate this without burning bridges because I actually like the product but I hate the way the workload has shifted. Maybe I should just stop fixing the minor stuff and let a few non critical systems fail so they see what happens when I am spread too thin. It is just annoying that I have to play these games just to get paid fairly for the actual value I am providing to the stack. I am just tired of the constant fire drills and the lack of recognition for being the literal glue holding the infra together right now. My coffee is cold and I have three more tickets to close before I can even think about lunch.

Hi there :) ,

Need some advice from people who have dealt with similar situations.

Our Operations Dept decided to install IoT system/digital energy meters across a fairly large factory site.

They found the vendor, agreed on the solution, signed the contract and started the project.

IT was not involved at all.

Apparently nobody discussed things like:

• How these devices spread across a large factory are actually going to communicate
• Network infrastructure, switches, fiber/cabling, VLANs, etc.
• Network/security segmentation
• Server/VM requirements
• Database requirements
• Backup and monitoring
• Internet connectivity
• Vendor remote access
• Firewall rules
• Cybersecurity

Now that the project is already moving forward, IT gets an email saying they need “access to the router” so they can put the system online.

That's it. Access to the router. :)

And somehow, when IT starts asking questions about architecture, security, server requirements, ports, protocols and who is responsible for what, the perception becomes that IT is delaying the project.

I don't want to become the guy who simply says “No”, but I'm also not going to give a third-party vendor access to our corporate router/firewall and connect a bunch of unknown industrial/IoT devices to the production network just because someone already signed a contract , the IT network must be always separate from OT network.

How do you handle situations like this?

Interested in both the technical approach and the organizational/process side of this.

Dial in and you get a full Windows 95 desktop. Minefield, Painter, ScanDisk, a screensaver, mail from your dad, a chat room, an encyclopedia.

The Dial-Up Networking dialog has the "ask others not to use the telephone" checkbox. It nagged you and did nothing, same as it did then.

https://56k.rip/

It's a sunny day. You just had your coffee, sit down, turn on your PC. and then you see it. Files are getting encrypted right in front of you.

If you were the IT Manager or Network Admin, what would be your first moves?

A few years ago I was working remotely as a fancy IT guy and developer at a tech company. Within the first couple of months I'd automated so much of my workload that I legit had almost nothing left to do most days. Everything that could be scripted, monitored, or scheduled... was.

One morning my manager messaged me:

>"We've noticed your Microsoft Teams keeps going to Away every 20 minutes. This shouldn't be happening if you are at your desk working."

Fair enough.

I replied:

>"Understood. My Teams will never go Away again."

...and I meant it.

Instead of arguing, I spent about 40 minutes writing a PowerShell script that launched a harmless train of processes every few minutes, like mouse clicking, alt+tabbing, and it simulated just enough activity to keep my status green. I set this to repeat every 10 minutes.

I tested it.

Available.

Five minutes later...

Still Available.

An hour later...

Still Available.

I grabbed my backpack, walked out of Starbucks, and spent the rest of the afternoon, and every afternoon thereafter hiking.

My Teams status never went Away again.

The next time I heard from my boss he was once again reviewing status times and thanked me for my dedication.

Edit: People keep asking for a copy of the script. It's on one of my githubs, the link is in the comments.

Recently a coworker granted Claude elevated access via SSH to a virtualization host (not a VM, an actual host). To perform a routine task he very well could have done himself.

He doesn’t see an issue with this. I on the other hand (with 23yrs experience) see this as a huge security breach, and don’t trust AI todo my job, (or even that it’s doing what it says it’s doing) for me. I’m my opinion it’s a tool, not a human replacement.

What’s your reaction, how would you react to this situation, or thoughts on the topic?

Sure, ask AI how to perform a task, validate that it’s performing the task you asked, and nothing else- copy/paste the commands. Great. But removing the human verification & validation element- hell no.

We were having issues with Pre-Windows Sign on with SAML - Stuck on connecting....

After investigation of logs it stops at:

(P5776-T8284)Info ( 622): Waiting for PanGPA to connect via named pipe...

This was auto deployed by our update software....make sure you guys have declined the patch!

Affected Features/Functions:

• Corrupted HIP Reports sent to gateway leading to incorrect policy match
• Reading HIP Policy and cached HIP data files
• Windows SSO credential usage failure
• Corrupted Portal Pre-logon and/or User Authentication Override Cookie (PPAC/PUAC) can lead to failure in GP Portal/Gateway authentication
• Using the cached portal configuration
• Failure in reading the Portal Config Selection Criteria (CSC)
• Ability to disable GP agent might be allowed even if disabled by admin

Link to bulletin:

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA1Ki000000wlkCKAQ

Yo this is one of my biggest hear me outs 😭😭

I’m a 19yo female but this man has me in a chokehold. Ive never seen his face but his voice is so hot. I’m a college student who has issues with my computer like every 2 weeks and it’s always the same IT guy helping me remotely.

The last time it broke, (last week) he said “we have to stop meeting like this” and I actually felt butterflies and got a second heartbeat. The way he takes control of my computer screen is so attractive

I love u to all the IT guys out there

Edit: HE ALSO COMMUNICATES WITH MY VIA SCREEN AND HE WILL TYPE “I’m all done now :)” WITH A SMILEY FACE AWHHWHSNZIS

Also guys I’m not an old man pls stop saying that🫩🫩🫩 god forbid I yearn