I had a similar experience, that was at least as groan inducing. I was working a low-level IT job, as an AS/400 operator / network tech. The "IT manager" was a complete fraud who knew about as much about technology as I know about the culture of ancient Mesopotamia, and she had some project she was trying to get done, involving moving some data from an old database into a new one. OK, easy enough, right? Well, a couple of her "pet" subordinates spent a couple of weeks trying to migrate this data and couldn't get it done, so they gave up. I came into work one evening and found a fracking HUGE stack of greenbar on my desk, and then she comes in and goes "we're going to rekey all this data into the new database over the next couple of weeks, so start chewing through as much of it as you can tonight."
My first thought was "WTF?" My second and third thoughts were something like "Are you f%!#ng shitting me?" and "You are f%!#ng braindead."
So, after everyone else left for the evening, I found the machine with the old database (running Paradox 4 for DOS), exported the data to dbaseIII format (because I knew it was a commonly used and widely supported format), put it on a floppy, took it to the machine with the Access database and loaded it up. Turns out I had to write one update query to populate one of the fields, but that took something like 5 minutes. 30 minutes into the whole thing and the entire database is finished.
Next day I see the "IT Manager" and she's like "How much of that data did you key in last night?" I looked at her and said "none." She about blew a fuse and started yelling "Why not, I told you to <blah, blah, blah>?" Then I told her the whole thing was done and she's like "But.. wait, what? But..but... spluttercoughsplutter but, but... So-and-so and You-know-who spent TWO WHOLE WEEKS trying to migrate that data and you mean to tell me you did it in one night?"
Of course she never forgave me for showing up her "pets" like that.
Needless to say, I didn't work at this place very long.
Edit: there's another fun story to tell about that place, and how this same IT manager used the AS/400 system message queue facility as a poor man's IM system, and - more to the point - used it to talk shit about anybody and everybody she worked with (myself included). Of course this dim-bulb didn't realize that when I was logged in as QSYSOPR I could read all her messages. So, on my last night there, I printed out copies of a few "choice" messages from her, and then sent a systemwide message saying something like:
"Foo: You should probably be aware that a QSYSOPR can read all of your system messages, and knows what you've been saying about everybody in this company. You should probably hope that somebody doesn't take offense, and print out copies of some of these messages and distribute them so that certain other people can see what you've had to say about them."
In the end, I decided not to leave the printouts to be found, but a co-worker told me a few months later that I nearly gave this "IT manager" a heart-attack and that she spent weeks doing damage control and trying not to get fired.
That was like 13 years ago, and I'm guessing she hasn't forgiven me for that either. shrug
Of course she never forgave me for showing up her "pets" like that.
People like that are legion. I was fired by one such. When I applied for unemployment - and was turned down - I found out that I'd been fired because I was 'incompetent' and ms-represented my credentials.
Which was funny: I was fired because I did not bring in cookies on Friday.
My first thought was "WTF?" My second and third thoughts were something like "Are you f%!#ng shitting me?" and "You are f%!#ng braindead."
So, after everyone else left for the evening, I found the machine with the old database (running Paradox 4 for DOS), exported the data to dbaseIII format (because I knew it was a commonly used and widely supported format), put it on a floppy, took it to the machine with the Access database and loaded it up. Turns out I had to write one update query to populate one of the fields, but that took something like 5 minutes. 30 minutes into the whole thing and the entire database is finished.
Next day I see the "IT Manager" and she's like "How much of that data did you key in last night?" I looked at her and said "none." She about blew a fuse and started yelling "Why not, I told you to <blah, blah, blah>?" Then I told her the whole thing was done and she's like "But.. wait, what? But..but... splutter cough splutter but, but... So-and-so and You-know-who spent TWO WHOLE WEEKS trying to migrate that data and you mean to tell me you did it in one night?"
Of course she never forgave me for showing up her "pets" like that.
Needless to say, I didn't work at this place very long.
Edit: there's another fun story to tell about that place, and how this same IT manager used the AS/400 system message queue facility as a poor man's IM system, and - more to the point - used it to talk shit about anybody and everybody she worked with (myself included). Of course this dim-bulb didn't realize that when I was logged in as QSYSOPR I could read all her messages. So, on my last night there, I printed out copies of a few "choice" messages from her, and then sent a systemwide message saying something like:
"Foo: You should probably be aware that a QSYSOPR can read all of your system messages, and knows what you've been saying about everybody in this company. You should probably hope that somebody doesn't take offense, and print out copies of some of these messages and distribute them so that certain other people can see what you've had to say about them."
In the end, I decided not to leave the printouts to be found, but a co-worker told me a few months later that I nearly gave this "IT manager" a heart-attack and that she spent weeks doing damage control and trying not to get fired.
That was like 13 years ago, and I'm guessing she hasn't forgiven me for that either. shrug