Sacking an I.T guy

Hang the CEO head of HR and any other management that is silly enough to come near the court. :D

OH the IT person didn't do anything wrong it's all Managements fault. :p

Col

Lock down all the undocumented access that the CEO has.

I've yet to see a Professional do any harm but I've seen a lot of so called Management destroy companies through sheer stupidity.

Col

It's far more believable that Upper Management is taking a Pay Cut and trading in their Company Cars for a drive your own second hand pile of junk.

Sorry but when I see Upper Management tasking huge Pay Increases and Bonuses I have a bit of trouble expecting that layoff's are required to keep the profitability up.

Col

of whoever the IT person reports to, to understand where the information is and what to do about it.

If you are going to manage the only IT guy, you need to make an effort to know something about the job and the responsibilities.

I would lay this down as a failure to manage.

James

I've been laid off three times in my life, and I never would have considered retaliation. Except for one time, I didnt have any heartburn about the fact it happened. However, the key to it all was the attitudes and actions of the management. In most cases, a senior manager took me aside and explained the situtation to me, told me my options, and told me how he wasn't necessarily pleased that he had to do it, etc etc. The one time that I did have heartburn, my manager had a completely different manager tell me I had been let go. The second manager also told me how he thought that my manager was so poor in that he couldn't face his employees after he made his decision to let them go. The other manager acted professionally; my own manager didn't.

There is no accounting for personality, of either the manager or employee. But that is why there are professional standards, so the flaws of human nature are overcome, at least for brief periods. Unfortunately, management in many cases has become a playground for the egotistical, their private domain where they can humiliate and exercise "power."

This relates to the threads about the network "belonging" to the individual systems administrator. Usually that type of person is not professional, and has a personality flaw that will reveal itself over time. (In my experience, these flaws are usually something serious and self destructive, like drug or alcohol abuse.) When dismissed, this is the type of person who will get angry and will "show them" before going home.

We live, unfortunately, in a world where perpetual adolescence is encouraged, and maturity is neglected. What else, I suppose, can we expect?

I started rambling there; sorry about the rant!

Don't let the employee out of your sight until he's out the door. If you have a trusted network admin - have him disable the employee's network account, kill the VPN account, unplug the employee's PC from the network, etc... - while the employee is learning his fate. NEVER EVER give someone with administrative rights to your network advance notice that he's about to be let go. When the time comes - do it, take immediate steps to mitigate any damage and don't let the employee out of your sight!

As for "proactive" measures that a disgruntled IT employee may take ahead of time - make sure the employee is aware of the legal/criminal ramifications for doing so - make the exit interview his last chance to fess up (not to accuse him but to be sure that he did or he didn't). If he did - you have a chance to stop it.

Hopefully the domain admin password isn't given out to IT staff (they should have their own domain admin logon you can kill without causing problems downstream).

I have seen developers and engineers destroy their own files.
This only ever happened when the writing was on the wall, or they were informed by a little birdie.
It is common practice in my neck of the woods for IT people to be immediately escorted out of the building and off the premises upon termination.

I was working at an aeronautical plant and the IT manager was faking emergency callouts as he was travelling 60 miles on an emergency callout at $500 a time , he planted a time bomb. Lastime I heard of him the serious fraud squad locked him away.

So many people being rude to each other, I kinda got lost

;-)

(guess I'll get fired now, for posting that :S )

I have worked on telecom networks for the last 6 years and just give him garden leave, i.e pay them there notice and don't risk your security.

I resigned from my previous job, and the company actually asked me to stay on for longer than the notice period(30 days). From time to time I still get calls for assistance.

Remove that guys access to all the server, database and other imp location as soon as he get to know that he is going to get sacked... and then let him collect all of his other personal items.

i wont be doing anything to harm the company. though i could also say that i wont be doing anything good for the company after they fire me. i'll leave the premises immediately so as not to be accused of sabotaging the system. of course, its up to them to find someone who can manage the system that I left.

I was laid of 2 years ago by a larger company. My boss just showed up at my desk and told me I needed to be in a conference room meeting right away (I did not see it coming) when I walked in and there were 15 of us from different depts with the HR head, I figured it out pretty quick. when I got back to my cube, I was told my account was turned off but I was allowed to walk around and say good bye. After being there for 6 years this was a painful but an apreciated walk. I left there knowing I was ok with them, and they were ok with me.
I was just laid off (or fired, not sure) a month ago. I was hired on to do tech support (PC's and printers). It was just myself and the IT manager and 200 users. About 3 months after I got there they fired my manager, then it was just me and the 200 users. I was the whole IT dept. They hired a new manger after 4 months of that, kept him for 2 months and fired him. Then they waited another month and hired a network engineer, No IT manager.
3 months later I come in on a Monday and this kid (18 years old) from the dept next to mine comes in and tells me he is starting tody in IT. I never heard a word about any new people starting. The network admin told me to check with the operations manager. I had to wait till 10 am for her to show up, but when she did, yes... my job was over. No explanations, no performance complaints, just "A bussniess decision has been made". I was walked to my desk, they made everyone else leave the room, gave me a few min to pack my stuff and then walked me to my car and made sure I drove out of there. I never did get an answer of what the reason was. The network eng says he thinks its because he was willing to do my job for 4 dollars an hour less. I did get a severance pay, after less then a year I guess that is more then I expected. Now at 53, I am trying to find a job in tech support. Its not an easy road.

I never would have done any damage to either of them, that would make me unprofessional. I felt they should have given me an explanation of some sort.

any way, the main point, the first company handled it well and let me keep some dignity. The second company was totaly unprofessional. I am glad to be done with them, but it sure could have been done better.

I have to think that the individual being let go would have the respect for his peers in the IT industry and for himself to avoid causing damage to a company that let them go.

Someone is going to be charged with cleaning up the mess, not to mention the potential legal ramifications of causing damage...

Take it with a grain of salt, as it is a business decision. And move on

Some would do that yes, people have different ways of handling bad news. Some completely forget there's a tomorrow and do stupid things like that.

My strategy would be to catch him unprepared. Crocodile smiles etc... Then just don't let him in the next day (after changing all security info of-course)

As for the ones that would install a virus, such characters should be filtered out during hiring...

If you like your company and your workmates and you love your computersystem and network, you will not want to hurt them., or tell secrets.

G