Some managers would blame everyone but themselves.

This tech support went to a client’s site to troubleshoot an issue when he realized the equipment was moved to an area without power or network. When the plant manager tried to blame him, he brought the receipts.

Read the full story below.

But it was working on Friday

I was tech support for a $90M Tier 1 automotive company that had a secondary operation making the same product, but for the aftermarket crowd (official dealer repair).

That plant was about 8 miles away, just far enough to be a PITA. Maybe 20 PCs, a local LAN, and a Novell server for local storage.

Anyway, I got a call on a Monday morning that a shop floor PC could not log in. No details, no errors, the office person calling was just relaying that the worker couldn’t do their job, there was a loss of production, and it was MY fault, yada, yada.

So I grabbed a cuppa coffee and headed out. I got there, headed to the shop floor area, and…

Nothing—literally nothing—the desk was gone, the PC was gone, the entire work-cell machine was gone.

I grabbed the plant manager, and he said, “Oh yeah, they moved it over the weekend.” He took me to the “new” area where the PC was sitting in a pile of wires, power cords, power strips, printer, you get the picture.

We started looking at it, and…

This tech support took pictures of the new area with no power or network.

The “new” area did not have any power, even close, no network drop, basically just a pile in the middle of the floor.

I told them to call me when the power and network were ready and left. I did make a point to snap some pictures and, back at the office, talked with the division manager about the incident. He told me to play it quietly for a while.

Sure enough, on Friday, I was called into the production staff meeting, already in progress. The other plant manager had just told the group that production in that area was down because the PC didn’t work and that I had been called, but…

I had my laptop, plugged into the projector they were using, and lo and behold, there were the pictures I had taken.

I enlarged the one of the plant manager with his hands in his pockets, looking at the pile of PC stuff.

He humbled the plant manager who tried to blame him.

I said, “You were going to call after you had power and network squared away. Is it done?”

Response: “Uh, no.”

“OK, call me whenever it is ready.”

I turned to the division manager and asked, “Anything else you need me for?”

Straight-faced, he replied, “No, thank you.” And he did buy the refreshments after work…

For what it’s worth,  yes, things happen, but this was bad planning on the manager’s part.

I still would have let it slide, but he DID make a point of throwing me under the staff meeting bus, so there you go, bubba.

Way to clear your name and get back at that manager.

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Brilliantly done, says this reader.

The pictures say it all.

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