Imagine working for a company where you have to have a supervisor sign you in if you need to access a certain department to do your job. If you knew this was going to backfire, would you explain the potential consequences, or would you comply and let the higher ups learn the hard way?

In this story, one employee is in this exact situation, and he chooses the second option.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Data-Center manager forbids Systems Programming(Mainframe SysAdmins) from entering data-center without getting supervisor to sign them in first. Even during an outage!!

This is an old story that happened to me. It’s at an insurance company that had given me a few opportunities for MC. Other than medical folks and IT their employees wee either clerks or management so they really liked rules(not always well thought out ones)

This was back in the dark ages of mainframe computers that were located in a central data-center, so remember no desktops, or smart(or even dumb) cell phones to make contact easier.

One manager was pretty annoying.

I had been a Systems programmer ( kind of like a mainframe SysAdmin) who had moved up from operations (physically run the datacenter) so was very comfortable there and got along great with the staff and supervisors.

But the manager (one more level up. Lets cal them Manager X ) was a straight management paper pusher and didn’t really understand the work flow of the room and for some reason didn’t like seeing me in his computer room. (My job did officially take me in there sometimes, and so we did have access).

While there I’d do my official tasks and talk to the staff to try and identify any upcoming issues as they came up but before they became serious and impacted the production work flow.

Between us we would improve their work flow and make life simpler for us all.

There was a big change that sounds like it could be problematic.

Now if there was a big issue that stopped the running of the production jobs or impacted the online terminals, Systems Programming would be contacted and someone (Usually me) would come down to resolve the problem so they could get things running again and the 20K clerks could get back to processing people’s medical insurance claims.

So obviously time was of the essence.

One day at an inter-departmental meeting with all department heads (and the head of IT) present, the data-center manager handed out a memo stating that from this point forward NO ONE (including Systems Programming, looking straight at me) could enter his data-center without being signed in by the shift supervisor.

Each new entry required a new sign-in signature.

No exceptions!

That was going to a bit inconvenient on a normal day, but oh well, it is his datacenter. So I’ll live with it.

Of course knowing that not all days are normal, I asked if there was going to be any exceptions for when there is an outage and we need to get in quickly and fix things so the rest of the company can get back to processing their medical insurance claims.

His response was that rule was in place at ALL times and there will be NO EXCEPTIONS and that includes YOU (again making a point of looking straight at me).

A supervisor will will come out to the security desk and sign you in. No sign-in, no entrance !! (NOT a bright move since this will be the time the supervisor is running around like crazy and not want to deal with signing someone in)

There was an outage.

Everthing is fine for a while. A little slower getting some projects done, but workable.

Then the not unexpected data-center outage happens. (You don’t know when, but you know it will happen at some point). Cue Malicious Compliance

I go to the data-center’s security desk to get signed in. (They are the entire floor and you can’t get in without going thru a revolving metal turnstile).

The security officer make the announcement that someone from Systems Programming needs to be signed in over the PA(Public Address system, remember no cell phones yet).

Is the supervisor ever going to respond?

We wait a few minutes but no one shows up.

I ask hime to repeat the announcement in case the supervisor didn’t hear or got distracted. I also suggest that he put entries for each of attempts to reach the supervisor in his log book since I don’t want them being used as a convenient scape goat.

Wait a few more minutes and ask the security officer to try again. No response.

Wait a few more minutes and ask the security officer to try again. No response.

Wait a few more minutes and ask the security officer to try again. No response.

Wait a few more minutes and ask the security officer to try again. No response.

The supervisor temporarily forgot about the rule.

After maybe 25-30 minutes the supervisor walks by (by chance) and sees me.

He of course asks me where I’ve been, and why I didn’t just come in.

I remind him that Manager X had made a point of there being NO EXCEPTIONS and that I was only allowed in if signed in by a supervisor.

He thought a second and his shoulders slumped, oh yeah I remember Manager X saying that now. I’ll sign you in, and work on getting that changed.

That worked out well!

Next interdepartmental meeting a new memo is given out giving Systems Programming access again without having to be signed in each time.

To try and save face he also made some comments about using restraint as to frequency while doing his best not to look in my direction.

Documentation is key!

Glad I asked the security officer to log all their announcements in their log book since Manager X did try and claim that they probably didn’t make enough attempts.

When the security supervisor came to give them a “Talking to” they just showed them the logbook. Security supervisor made a photocopy and shut down Manager X

I have no idea how much money it cost the company to have al the customer service and data entry people sitting around for an extra half hour due to his rule.

Ridiculous rules sometimes only change when you follow them and the consequences are less than ideal.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s a similar story.

This is unrelated but still interesting.

This is weird.

Here’s another similar story.

Some rules were meant to be broken.

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