This might be an example of ?No good deed goes unpunished.?
I was hired as the Network Administrator for a local law firm in 1997. At the time they had around 45 users which included 19 Attorneys. I was working as a service tech for a reseller, replacing a guy who was moving out of the area. I handled upgrading to Windows 95 and adding another Netware file server. Later, we once again upgraded workstations to Windows 2000. I did all of the usual Law Office stuff, handled migration from WordPerfect to Word, (Three versions) Internet access from dial up accounts to a central shared modem server and ultimately to a high speed connection. Did day to day things that make a huge difference but can easily be taken for granted. I was pretty ruthless when it came to spending money, getting the best possible deals in hard and software. In the seven years I worked for them, total Network down time was about three hours. We were hit with numerous virus attacks, all of them being stopped cold. We suffered no major server crashes or data loss. I fixed printers and managed the phone and Email systems.
In October of 2003 two things happened that were to have a far reaching effect on my future employment. First, the managing partner attorney retired. He was the driving force behind the technology in the firm. He understood how much more efficient and profitable computers could make a law firm. We got along just fine. The new managing partner had no understanding or interest in technology. Second, five of the primary revenue generating Attorneys left the firm and started their own thing. This drastically reduced my work load. Not wanting to lose the person who has kept them running for the last six years we made a deal with another Law Firm to split my time. This worked out well for both places for the next six months. The second firm was larger but basically had, for lack of a better description, a hobbyist for a computer administrator. (They had a 50 user, peer-to-peer nightmare network). The first firm was moving into a new building and it was time for a major Network upgrade. (They wanted to get away from Netware?) The managing partner, as previously stated, had no knowledge or interest in computers so he turned management over to a junior partner. The office manager asked me how I would handle a network upgrade. (Novell to Windows 2003) I told them I was planning on bringing in a server specialist to insure a smooth transition to Exchange. That was eight months before the planned move and the last time I was asked anything about the network. Since I wasn?t consulted again, I figured that the network upgrade was on back burner status and would be revived after we were in our new office complex. I continued along, fat, dumb and happy.
I didn?t know it at the time, but I had somehow displeased the attorney who was now in charge of the network. She apparently had taken a personal dislike to me and made sure I was not included in the network planning. She went so far as to contact the server specialists I had planned on using and hired his company to handle the network upgrade. I found out about two months before the planned move. They made decisions that were very inefficient, extremely expensive and amateurish in their scope. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, I immediately approached the other firm I was splitting my time with about going to work for them full time. Since I had installed a server, straightened out their data problems, eliminated the constant virus attacks and generally made life quite a bit easier for them, they immediately hired me full time. The other firm still needed network administration, but since they had cut me out of everything, I felt it was no longer in my best interest to continue working for them. They planned on using me a couple of days per week but received an ugly surprise when they were informed by my present employer that I was no longer available to them.
The really hard thing to deal with was the fact that I did nothing wrong. The first managing partner had me adopt the attitude: ?You do your Lawyer stuff, worry about those billable hours, I will take care of the computer systems. You don?t need to know the details unless you want to know them.?
Everything worked out for me in the end. My new employer is happy, I received a substantial raise. Ultimately, the big loser here is the first firm. They went from immediate service to having to wait to have problems addressed and paying quite a bit more. I still have a number of friends, attorneys and secretaries, there. I feel sorry for what I now see happening to them. I guess we are all just a management change away from potentially having our world turned upside down.