All employees think their work is too critical to be interrupted.

This trainee IT worker and his boss got fed up with employees pushing back the server transfer date because they had important work that couldn’t be disrupted by 30 minutes of maintenance.

Eventually, the boss had an idea, and the trainee learned a lot that day.

Read the full story below.

This server is too critical to move it!

During my traineeship, we had an MS Project server that was actively used by many people in our company: project leaders, sales, developers—everyone.

So, it happened that we finally got a new, nice server room with decent AC, redundant power lines, no carpet on the floor, etc. The last server that needed to be moved into this room was the MS Project server.

The moving date got postponed again and again because, surprise! it was too critical to move. Each time we scheduled a moving appointment, someone would say, “Yeah, but I have my deadline on that day. I need it.”

Even when we switched the timeframe to weekends, it was like, “Yeah… but… you know… I wanted to work that weekend to finish something important.”

So, our Head of IT got annoyed, and here is how he solved the situation:

The conversation went like this.

Head of IT: “You, follow me. Take my phone. If it rings, answer the call and just say I’m on it.”

Me: “Uh… huh? What? Err… okay.”

I took his phone and walked behind him to the old server room.

Head of IT: “Okay, remember: only say I’m on it—NOT what I’m doing. Understood?”

Me: “Understood.”

He was on it.

The Head of IT cleanly shut down the MS Project server, removed all cables, and started putting it on our small transport cart.

The phone rang for the first time.

Me: “Hi, yes, we know the server is down. The Head of IT is on it. No, no, I can’t give him the phone—he’s busy fixing it. I’m taking his calls to let him work. Yes, we will notify you when it’s working again. Bye.”

I repeated this for about ten other calls.

The server was moved within 30 minutes after a 3-month delay.

The Head of IT and I arrived at the new server room. He put the server back in, connected all cables, powered it up, and verified that everything worked.

Head of IT: “Done. Finally. After three whole months. Why can’t these people accept a scheduled 30-minute maintenance window, but they accept a 30-minute unscheduled downtime?”

And that’s the way I learned how to move servers that are just “too critical” to be moved.

Surprisingly, no one ever asked again why we never scheduled another date to move the server, not even after the old server room was renovated and used as the company’s “recreation room” (kicker, food, comfy couch, etc.).

I explained it to myself by thinking that people generally just don’t care how it is done. They just want it to do what they need. This time, we used that to our advantage.

Now that’s how you power through!

Let’s see what other people in the comments on Reddit have to say about this story.

This person appreciates the Head of IT.

Another user uses the same tactic.

Here’s a valid point.

Here’s an idea.

And this person finds the story relatable.

Maintenance? No! Unscheduled outage? Okay.

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