Hey all,
I like this site a lot and am an avid reader. The articles and forums are interesting and there seems to be a lot of people like me here, so perhaps, one can shed light on what to do in this situation.
I run the whole IT show for Company X. Everything. My gut feeling tells me the company is down sizing (firing, budget cuts, departmental cuts, etc.). I have a feeling that I’m next. My only possible successor is my boss, who has knowledge -OF IT-, and when explained on paper can understand [some] things.
He requested that over the next few weeks, he’d like a documentation of what it is that I do on a daily basis. He wants to know addresses of servers, firewalls, and backup sites. He wants it detailed with an explanation. Now, I think I can teach a 6th grader with relatively basic computer skills how he can do everything I do when I’m on vacation or something like that. I mean, I automated EVERYTHING and dumbed down everything to the point where running certain batch scripts can a) start backups b) connect departmental drives c) start/stop databases, etc. etc. We run on Windows so unlike Unix they won’t need to have knowledge of command lines or have much trouble understanding what (if anything) I write down on paper.
My question to you, fellow members/ IT people, what am I to do in this situation? If I tell him everything, I’m pretty much done here. There won’t be a reason to justify my salary in the long run. Short term, they’ll need me, just until someone figures everything out according to my documentation. I feel that by writing this documentation I am committing career suicide within Company X. It will be my downfall.
What do I do? Do I start stripping the network of my customized scripts and start uninstalling network related applications that make my job easier and automated?
Any advice would help. Sorry for the long read.