Doing The Bosses Bidding

Doing The Bosses Bidding was Originally Posted on June 24, 2013 by lavarock

There is an article title in my news feed asking “If you saw something wrong at work, would you report it?” and I assume it is based upon recent NSA whistle blowing. While noting similar to security like that, I did have an “almost” like that. I was working for a large computer company and the Boss (yes it was “Bob” for those who know where this happened) went on vacation and left me in charge. He told me to have the desk-sized mainframes stacked on top of each other as they had done at Corporate, in an effort to conserve floor space.

I called the boss on his vacation and gave him a heads up that this was not going to happen. There was a pause and then the chilly reply “WE WILL DISCUSS THIS WHEN I GET BACK!”.

The day he returned to town he came into the office and “hunted me down” and directed me into a conference room. “I left you in charge and asked you to do ONE THING”, get those two computers stacked on top of each other! You couldn’t do that one simple thing!

I began to explain. When I approached maintenance to fashion some brackets, they said “NO” this was to dangerous and that “Corporate” spent lots of time and money to secure their systems (they were in the Silicon valley earthquake area). Maryland also had earthquakes on occasion. The more I delved into a solution, the messier it got. I looked into floorspace loading (we used a raised floor in Maryland). I looked into how we were going to raise the one computer and get it on top of the other. I investigated how we were going to route power, console cables and internet connections. I looked to see how we could mount the second console and where it would be.

As I explained these items, the veins in his neck shrunk, a more natural color returned to his face, replacing the dark red it had when we started. He began to get very calm and finally said to me, “I am disappointed that we could not make this happen. “I am going to contact the I.T. Manager at Corporate but it sounds as though you really did try. I knew you were a good choice to leave in charge”.

Three things happened after this. 1) We never did stack those computer mainframes, 2) I don’t remember Bob ever going on vacation again and 3) Probably to both of our relief, I was never left in charge again!

Bob retired and eventually passed away a while ago, but those who knew him will attest. He could be a bit authoritarian at times, but he really was a teddy bear inside that gruff exterior.

If there is a computer room in Heaven, Bob is running it and even God will have to sign in to get access!