At work Today - 22nd April
got into work at 08:10 as usual. My trip to work was no different from those I normally take every other day, well except for the fact that today the train stopped at Bedford for about 10 minutes, something to do with the doors not being able to close properly. But when you get into the habit of taking trains, and event like this is no big deal. So I got into work, dropped my stuff off at my desk and made my way downstairs to the company restaurant. LOL...yeah restaurant, I would normally call it a canteen, but this place of eating is too posh to be called a canteen. Anyway, I got myself a bowl of oats and a cup of coffee and headed back to my desk.
The morning was pretty busy, we are currently short staffed. Normally arrangements would be made for replacement support analyst to fill in the gap, but recently a lot of "politics" has been going on within managed services. Everyone has their suspicions that its to do with the renewing of the present contract.
About 20 minutes before lunch, I noticed that there were quite an unusual number of people gathered around Kirks [not his real name] desk. I had a quick glance and noticed that there was the Service Delivery Manager, another support analyst, the IT Manager for the company I currently work for; and a few other people. From the conversations that was being thrown about, Kirk was urgently trying to sort out a Lotus Notes issue for a VIP. The VIP needed his Lotus Notes on his laptop sorted out in the next 10 minutes as he was going on a trip. To the relief of all those standing around Kirk, he managed to sort the issue out, tested Lotus notes and confirmed that all was OK.
So we make our way to lunch with Kirk telling us what the issue was. Twenty minutes into lunch, we notice the Service Delivery Manager wondering around the restaurant. he heads towards our table and calls Kirk aside and walks off with Kirk. back upstairs, we notice that the Service delivery manager and the company IT Manager are standing around Kirk whist he is gathering his things. No one could tell us what was going on. From the body language, I immediately sensed that Kirk was being walked off site, but the question was WHY? After thirty minutes, the SDM [Service Delivery Manager] calls us all into the meeting room and informs us that Kirk has been suspended pending further investigations.
You should have seen the look on our faces. We were in total shock. What the hell is going on?
Apparently, after fixing the Notes problem, Kirk wanted to send a test mail from the VIP's laptop to himself. He asked the SDM and the IT Manager [to which they agreed] before sending the mail. Now the VIP notices from his Blackberry that an email has originated from his account into Kirks email account. Now here is the knockout punch. The test email Kirk decided to send was an email, with attachment of a document of very sensitive nature. So the VIP immediately calls the IT Manager and request that Kirk be dismissed.
Anyway, at the end of the meeting everyone seem to come to the conclusion that we needed to watch out for ourselves because management are just not an effective tool in supporting you in such a crisis like this. All during the meeting, it became more and more obvious that Kirk had been led to the slaughter house to save the hind of the SDM and IT manager.
What a shame....!