Adventures in Administration
Greetings friends,
I know it's been quite awhile, I do tend to leave long gaps between my missives to the world. I do have an excuse though. I tend to be rather busy with all that goes along with working a full time job and having 2 special needs children. I frequently find that I either end up being far too exhausted at the end of my day, or I have to prioritize something else over my "Blog Time". Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I even bothered to start Blogging in the first place. I suppose I needed an outlet for my thoughts that served better than having heated discussions with my wife.
All that aside, I thought I might relate some of the goings on at my new job. Of course, much like when I was with Adelphia, I will be very sparing with the details, as I don't want to risk my job.
I am currently slogging through my new employers' 6 month probationary period. Yes, you read that right. They have a 6 month probationary period! I understand their desire to weed out bad apples, but 6 months? It's not like I'm a doctor, just a simple Windows Domain Admin! I guess they reeealy want to be careful.
Honestly, I can't blame them though. About 2 months after I started, they brought on a new programmer. Well, he was there for all of 2 weeks and one day called in to the HR manager from home. He told HR that he had taken an offer at another company, and quit on the spot. Not exactly "good form" if you know what I mean. Needless to say, while that is the first time that had ever happened there, they had experience with people not working out (my predecessor, for example.) and want to be cautious.
So I am dealing with the long uncertainty of this probation, and settling into my routine. Which is to say that I don't really have a routine, per-se. Oh, there are several things that I do every week, but each day seems to be completely different from the last. I always seems to be either running around putting out fires, or sitting at my desk (in my rather sizeable office) reading Slashdot because I have nothing else to do! I once read that being a Network Admin is alot like being a fighter pilot. Long hours of boredom followed by minutes of sheer terror followed by more hours of boredom.
In my quest to keep from getting bored and to prove my worth to my boss, I have recently embarked upon what may be one of the more foolish things I have ever done. I have set out to write a comprehensive Corporate IT Security Policy. Keep in mind that up until now we haven't had ANY IT security policies in place, other than what had been done in Active Directory by my immediate supervisor, the Enterprise Admin (he's located at one of our large project sites in another state.) Since it is more important than ever to have clear and concise policies and procedures in place to ensure security, it was something that couldn't be put off for any real length of time. I just wish I hadn't thought to do it all by myself! At least I had the good sense to give myself a 3 month completion period.
Well, I have to get back to reading that SANS article I was working my way through. Hopefully I will have the time to post again soon.
Wish me luck!
I know it's been quite awhile, I do tend to leave long gaps between my missives to the world. I do have an excuse though. I tend to be rather busy with all that goes along with working a full time job and having 2 special needs children. I frequently find that I either end up being far too exhausted at the end of my day, or I have to prioritize something else over my "Blog Time". Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I even bothered to start Blogging in the first place. I suppose I needed an outlet for my thoughts that served better than having heated discussions with my wife.
All that aside, I thought I might relate some of the goings on at my new job. Of course, much like when I was with Adelphia, I will be very sparing with the details, as I don't want to risk my job.
I am currently slogging through my new employers' 6 month probationary period. Yes, you read that right. They have a 6 month probationary period! I understand their desire to weed out bad apples, but 6 months? It's not like I'm a doctor, just a simple Windows Domain Admin! I guess they reeealy want to be careful.
Honestly, I can't blame them though. About 2 months after I started, they brought on a new programmer. Well, he was there for all of 2 weeks and one day called in to the HR manager from home. He told HR that he had taken an offer at another company, and quit on the spot. Not exactly "good form" if you know what I mean. Needless to say, while that is the first time that had ever happened there, they had experience with people not working out (my predecessor, for example.) and want to be cautious.
So I am dealing with the long uncertainty of this probation, and settling into my routine. Which is to say that I don't really have a routine, per-se. Oh, there are several things that I do every week, but each day seems to be completely different from the last. I always seems to be either running around putting out fires, or sitting at my desk (in my rather sizeable office) reading Slashdot because I have nothing else to do! I once read that being a Network Admin is alot like being a fighter pilot. Long hours of boredom followed by minutes of sheer terror followed by more hours of boredom.
In my quest to keep from getting bored and to prove my worth to my boss, I have recently embarked upon what may be one of the more foolish things I have ever done. I have set out to write a comprehensive Corporate IT Security Policy. Keep in mind that up until now we haven't had ANY IT security policies in place, other than what had been done in Active Directory by my immediate supervisor, the Enterprise Admin (he's located at one of our large project sites in another state.) Since it is more important than ever to have clear and concise policies and procedures in place to ensure security, it was something that couldn't be put off for any real length of time. I just wish I hadn't thought to do it all by myself! At least I had the good sense to give myself a 3 month completion period.
Well, I have to get back to reading that SANS article I was working my way through. Hopefully I will have the time to post again soon.
Wish me luck!
posted by The Weary Man | Tuesday, March 28, 2006
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