Sometimes, a last-minute check can prevent a major disaster.

So, what would you do if you were asked to quickly verify a software update before it was shipped to an important customer, but while testing it, you discovered that it broke the system? Would you quietly report the issue? Or would you call out the problem directly?

In the following story, one tech support engineer finds himself in this situation and can’t help but make a scene about it. Here’s the story.

The time we almost shipped tapes that would brick any machine it was installed on,

In the 80’s, I worked at an EDA (Electronic Design Automation) company where I specialized in application tools for place-and-route of printed circuit boards. As a headquarters applications engineer, my day-to-day job was handling tech support cases for both customers and field applications engineers.

Back then, pre-internet, we shipped software updates on 9-track tapes.

The day before a new software update was set to release, my manager asked me to verify a bug fix before he hand-carried a tape to one of our most important customers, a defense contractor in Dallas.

At first, the woman didn’t want to give him the tape.

It was actually really hard to get my hands on a tape, because although I was in a senior tech support role, I’d never been in a position to try to acquire a pre-release tape before, and the operations manager, who didn’t know me, made me grovel to get one.

It was like, “Who are you to demand a pre-release tape from me?”

But I eventually got one, installed it on a machine, and the machine then failed to boot. I went to the test department and borrowed another machine to test the tape, and it also failed to boot.

His approach could’ve been better.

I’ve often thought about what I did next. I could have been diplomatic, gone to the test group and told them, “Hey, you might want to test this tape before we ship it tomorrow,” so that they could handle it internally.

Instead, I went to the test group and said, “***, you signed off on shipping a tape you didn’t test at all!?!?”

I made some enemies that day.

Then came the printed memo.

The alarm got raised, and the shipment was halted. The next day, there was a printed memo on everyone’s desk from the test manager titled “The top ten reasons we almost shipped an untested tape.”

The operations manager stopped by my office to make sure I knew that she was “only kidding” when she made me grovel to get the tape.

I wish I’d kept that top-ten list, but the gist was: “We’re overworked, and who knew such a minor change could break the installation?”

Too funny! But it’s a good thing he checked the tape.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about it.

This reader’s first job had computer problems.

The whole thing frustrates this person.

Ah, the old days.

Hey, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

It’s a good thing they checked because that would’ve been a big customer to lose.

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.