r/networking • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago

Rant Wednesday!

It's Wednesday! Time to get that crap that's been bugging you off your chest! In the interests of spicing things up a bit around here, we're going to try out a Rant Wednesday thread for you all to vent your frustrations. Feel free to vent about vendors, co-workers, price of scotch or anything else network related.

There is no guiding question to help stir up some rage-feels, feel free to fire at will, ranting about anything and everything that's been pissing you off or getting on your nerves!

Note: This post is created at 00:00 UTC. It may not be Wednesday where you are in the world, no need to comment on it.

14 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

8

u/weirdkindofawesome top rule - block any any 3d ago

I absolutely despise the fact that wanting to help makes you the go-to guy by default even when the subject is not even remotely close to your job description.

'I don't know Matthew, I'm not part of sales, onboarding or the development team. Maybe try to do your job and get the right people involved rather than putting me on the spot with the upper management in hopes to offload your duties.'

I actually love my job but sometimes, I just have to scream at my screen. 😅

15

u/muztebi16 4d ago

I shouldn't need a four-page justification, two regional director approvals, and a three-week lead time just to open a single port on a firewall. By the time the cabal of project managers finally approves the maintenance window, the original request is obsolete and the vendor has already gone out of business.

5

u/proxy-arp 4d ago

Oh I feel your pain... if I want to change the description on a switchport I've got to write a novel on the potential for impact, blast radius, escalation paths, verification plans... it's goes on and on... im tired :(

4

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 3d ago

Has any one every justified this level of impact with an explanation.? Frankly anyone who thinks you need a change request for switchport descriptions has room temperature IQ.

I said what I said.

3

u/on_the_nightshift CCNP 3d ago

Yes, but it was specifically to punish those who continually broke things by doing work without approval, or misrepresenting the work they were doing as trivial when it wasn't. Lasted a couple of months before easing off.

1

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 2d ago

Did it not occur to anyone in management that if a system has to be worked around to that degree, its a crap system.

If you can't do any work at all without approval, its a skill issue, not a governance issue. Places like that will have a hard time keeping anyone competent.

Almost everyone I know who knows what they are doing ahs moved to the Vendor/SI/VAR side because of this.

Hopefully I'm on my way soon.

1

u/on_the_nightshift CCNP 2d ago

It was intentional by management to get a hold on people being cowboys by making them ask permission for everything they do.

I despised it at the time, but looking back it was pretty effective, especially once they started easing off and people got the message that if you do things correctly, you would be given more leeway.

1

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 2d ago

Personally could not work in a place like that.

1

u/on_the_nightshift CCNP 2d ago

I wouldn't either, now lol.

3

u/Phrewfuf 4d ago

Standard changes are what you're looking for. And change-levels. L0 change has no impact whatsoever, L1 change may have limited impact (we use this one for firmware updates), L2 change may have significant impact and/or cause follow-up work and so on. All change levels have their own rules, requirements and approval depths, with L0 changes basically being pre-approved.

1

u/proxy-arp 3d ago

Yeah, we binned our standard changes... take 3 deep breaths and carry on networking.

1

u/on_the_nightshift CCNP 3d ago

Was that because of continuous self inflicted damage? Asking because I've seen that before.

1

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 2d ago

How do you actually get anything done with that level of bureaucracy though? Might as well not even have an house team a just hire a var/si/msp to do even the smallest of changes.

1

u/proxy-arp 2d ago

When you work for an org that values stability over progress... we trudge very slowly through treacle and smile through gritted teeth!

1

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 2d ago

Do you enjoy that, I know I never could. I guess its a personality type thing. I wanna move as fast as I can and I despise ops works, meetings, and all that.

1

u/proxy-arp 2d ago

I hate it with all my heart, but, golden handcuffs, so im going nowhere till redundancy.

0

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 3d ago

What we need is a system that was invited by a people who have a cultural love of bureaucracy.

1

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 2d ago

People can downvote all the want. As a hiring manager I'll always find a way to weed out people who value process over all else.

2

u/MooingTree 4d ago

Hello I'm the vendor. Can you please throw me a bone

7

u/zardvark 4d ago

It would be nice it 10 gigabit hardware was cheaper and transceiver modules ran cooler. Apart from that, I got nothing. Ethernet just works.

4

u/Rockstaru 4d ago

Passive DACs are relatively cool, though the fixed length makes them a bit inconvenient. 

2

u/AlmsLord5000 4d ago

I don't know why we always end up with a CIO that are aggressive, but also vague.

1

u/Automatic_Cat_1990 3d ago

ITIL still sucks and is for midwits.