Replace Your Failing Hardware [story]

From Reddit:

You need to replace the switch!

Hi! So before I begin please let me set the scene.

I am the lone IT guy for a line of dealerships. I myself am a young man in my last year of college (huzzah!). The dealership I work at is filled with older people. My youngest coworker is in her late 60’s and hates computers. My own boss once said “we have operated for 40 years without IT. We don’t need IT now,but we will keep you on”. This is my life .

Now there is a switch here that is enterprise level which I hate. “Why do you hate it?” I hear you ask. Well dear reader the reason is because the fans on it are dying and it goes out about every third hour of the day. What does this mean? That for about 15 minutes of every third hour of the day the entire office loses internet access.

Now I approached my boss on Friday to say “you need to replace the switch.” What follows is the conversation we had.

Me: we need to replace that switch. It is going to die completely soon and we will meed to order a new one.

Boss: we bought that in 2002 it should be fine at least until 2032. I expect all our tech go last at least 30 years.

Me: (tries to explain how computer parts become outdated as quickly as bananas).

Boss: look I’ve been alive for 74 years. I know more about all this than you. Shut up and go back to your desk.

Today I get a call at about 11 am.

Boss: hey why the he’ll isn’t the internet up?

Me: I don’t know, is the switch on?

Boss: just get the (expletive) here now

I drive over and walk in and immediately go to the switch. Its dead.

Me : we need to buy a new one

Boss : Ok where do you get that? We have a deal that needs to go through today.

Me: well our supplier isn’t open until Tuesday so we wont be back up until then.

Boss: (expletive filled rant)

Now I’m sitting in my car and laughing because I know he is struggling to explain to his boss what happened. He might try to claim I screwed up but I sent copies of our email convos to his boss. So if he even tried that its gonna backfire spectacularly.

[image source:metrox.org]