It doesn’t matter how many warnings you send or how dramatically you warn people, some people just won’t follow instructions.

See why this worker faced the brunt of a manager’s failure.

Manager’s files went POOOFF

A few weeks ago the manager of another department needed to have their machine re-imaged because of some bugs. Simple job.

But they had had their laptop for months and never signed-on once to OneDrive.

So they tried to prevent the inevitable and imminent problems.

We send out regular reminders via email for users to “Please log in to OneDrive ASAP to back up your files.”

Unsurprisingly, those emails go unheeded as I find out every time I have to replace someone’s laptop or computer and ask if they have backed up to OneDrive and they give me a blank stare.

The day before this manager was supposed to ship out their laptop, I was asked to check in on them and make sure they had backed up their files. They, of course, hadn’t, so I showed them where to log on, what to sync, etc.

I let them know OneDrive could take awhile, so just continue working and let it run in the background. I walked away, whistling a jaunty tune, thinking all was right in the world.

But all was not right at all.

Manager shipped out their laptop, I gave them a loaner, the re-imaged laptop returned some days later.

The day the laptop returned, the manager called me and asked if I could help them find some documents. I asked them if they had signed on to OneDrive and they hadn’t, so I let them to know to do so and to call me back if anything was missing.

I got a sinking feeling in my gut, but was praying it was just gas.

The manager called me back and explained that OneDrive was signed in and syncing, but all that was available was folders and subfolders with nothing in them.

There was no gas. There was nothing.

I checked their OneDrive web portal, in case the desktop app had not finished syncing, and all I saw was empty folders. I checked with my boss, our O365 admin, and one other guy who had luck in the past resolving this, and they all basically said this manager was out of luck.

We’re pretty sure the laptop was disconnected too early and sent out without the manager confirming everything was backed up. I still feel really bad about it, but my boss reminded me the manager should have started backing up as soon as he got the laptop months ago and let it auto sync.

We had a long, hard conversation with them and they were understandably ticked. My manager and I both apologized, but there was nothing we could do.

Here is what folks are saying.

I’d be skeptical, myself.

Very true. Cover yourself!

Good idea.

I agree. Less stress, too.

LOL exactly.

Not my fault.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.