Over my years of working (too long really) I have had my share of "OOOPS! Did really do that?" or "Doh!". I have been chastised by my mentor (back in trade school when I sort of caused an extra day of work by misreading the drawing) to unmounting a live file partition while 5 miles away from the server (where I held the mirror up and called the image a dunce.). Mistakes happen. As Derek stated a few messages back, the organization "should" have procedures that minimize or prevent such happenings. (I paraphrase). But it happens and will always happen until they implant some sort of neurological device in us that handles decisions. A good supervisor/manger/company will take this in stride unless this was the x number of times it has happened. When I was in DoD we had a 4 star general state this:
"First I am going to train you to do the right thing. If that doesn't work I will train you again, harder, so we don't repeat history. If I have to train you a third time you will not like the training as it will not be here at the center." After he stated that there was a big influx of retirements and transfers. So I adopted that way of managing. I handle it like I handle my coaching in Football. Mistakes happen. But if mistakes are the norm you are not playing in the game. In work if mistakes become the norm, fire up your resume. My best Manager told me that 80% of your problems come from 20% of your workforce. He said his job was to get that 20% as low as possible rather than let it increase. If training didn't work then he would do anything to remove that 20% before they infected the others. Believe me it worked. Where I work now if you make a mistake there is no forgiveness. There is no "Well you are human." or "Things happen." So folks around here walk on egg shells. As for me I just figure it is part of learning it just can't be the norm. On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 10:41 AM, Paul Graydon <[email protected]> wrote: > There is a difference between not doing the blame thing and ignoring > incompetence. In the post incident process for each of those events (and > they definitely would be one), the individuals actions would almost > certainly be the root cause. After a incidents as the root cause, that > clearly reaches disciplinary territory. Making a mistake is fine, being > incompetent is not. > > The problem has been that too frequently that the former is punished > (encouraging the blame game) or the latter ignored. > > > > Michael Tiernan <[email protected]> wrote: > > >On 5/30/14 1:11 AM, David Lang wrote: > >> One of the most corrosive things you can do to a team of sysadmins is > >> to start playing the blame game and punishing people for making > >> mistakes. I've seen it happen. > >There's another side of the equation too and that is not punishing for > >mistakes at all. > > > >I worked with a [character] who was worse than a bull in a china shop. > >At one point he was "cleaning" the racks (good idea and did a fair part > >of it well and yes I told him) but he got overly enthusiastic and *cut*, > >with wire cutters, the connecting cable to a big Sun storage array for > >our most important customer. When he saw what he'd done, he pulled the > >power connection to the rack. > > > >Either one of those actions could have been dealt with but both caused > >massive disk corruption. > > > >Okay, massive screwup. Took me and another person 18 hours to return the > >system to the land of the living. I've done stuff probably close to as > >bad. Learn from the mistake and move on and don't do it again. > > > >However, when he *did* do it again, three weeks later to a different > >storage array in a different rack and didn't learn from the previous > >mistake, it is a disaster and should not have been permitted to continue > >but it did. No ramifications. > > > >So, we all learned that make a mistake, you're forgiven. Keep making > >mistakes and no one cares. > > > >Give out a root password to an outside contractor who called on behalf > >(supposedly) of one of the corporate branches. No ramifications. Zero. I > >quickly changed the password on the specific machine and told the boss. > >No ramifications. Found out an hour later he also gave the password to > >our divisions Root CA. No ramifications. > > > > > >Wow, look how short this message is. So *that's* what a delete key is > >for.... Hmmm.... > > > >-- > > << MCT >> Michael C Tiernan. http://www.linkedin.com/in/mtiernan > > Non Impediti Ratione Cogatationis > > Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs > > should relax and get used to the idea. -Robert A. Heinlein > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Discuss mailing list > >[email protected] > >https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > >This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > > http://lopsa.org/ > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > -- John J. Boris, Sr. Online Services www.onlinesvc.com
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