Question for you IT pros, and professional practice in general

"phenotyp" (phenotyp) 03/26/2019 at 10:45 • Filed to: professional practice, IT, computers

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So yesterday afternoon I get a call from the CFO of the company I used to work for, and was laid off from, last January (as in, 2018). He wanted my password for my laptop.

Background: Surface Book (1st gen). When they told me I didn’t have a job anymore, I deleted the browser stuff, took what I needed, and since we used Dropbox as a company, nothing but raw Keyshot renderings were stored locally on the SB, there’s nothing but OS and programs (at this point should all have been well past their license exipry). All under the eyes of this CFO. I was half the IT dept at the two companies I’d worked for prior (mostly building computers and network, small companies, low turnover), and said, here you go. Burn it down, it’s all yours.

I had offered to buy the SB from them, and they said, sure, for $2100. So,

I went and bought my SB2, which is what I should have done anyway.

I had told them that I would do the burn-down and reset on it, like I had on all of my and my co-workers’ machines over the years, and they said no. So I shrugged, let it go, and moved on. As one does.

Then, 14 fucking months later, I get this text from the CFO about wanting my password yesterday. My reaction, past WTF, was a rush of many things. First: you didn’t wipe it and start over 14 fucking months ago . So he calls me, and I’m like,

Second, pretty angry about it. Third, not surprised at their incompetence and general fuckery. Apparently he was trying to add a new user to it, and needed admin access he didn’t have. I mean, if you had a search warrant? Sure, go ahead. In this case? I don’t know how to help you at this point. I offered. You assholes wouldn’t let me. Your problem, at this point, not mine.

So help me out, here, people— was I right?

PartyPooper2012 > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 10:51

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14 months ago... i forgot

14 months later - who dis?

Wrong number

Consultant fees for million billion per second. 

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 10:53

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I’d have said I forgot it. Accomplishes the same thing but remains slightly more amicable. That being said, I too have reached that point of “It’s been a year, I no longer get checks from you guys, so guess what? You should’ve asked for this as I was leaving”. It’s what most people do, but it’s still good practice to at least remain surface level friendly. People can be petty.

Tekamul > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 10:54

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Yeah, no. You get that stuff at an exit interview, and not a day later. They deserve  nothing, and that’s what you give them.

Nibby > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 10:55

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take the high road and delegate them to their IT department

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 10:56

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Ha ha ha ha ha.... yeah you have every right to say I don’t remember or go pound sand.

phenotyp > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 03/26/2019 at 10:58

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We remained friendly. Apparently he and his wife are expecting a daughter soon, so we talked about the parenting transition for a minute. But as for the password, I was steadfast in my (polite) fuck-off response.

“You didn’t let me reset it then. There’s nothing of mine you need, here. It’s your tool, not mine, and I don’t know what else to tell you beyond that.”

phenotyp > Nibby 03/26/2019 at 10:59

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They don’t have one. Again, their problem, not mine.

Aremmes > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 10:59

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Block his number.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:01

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You are absolutely in the right.

Their responsibility to reset and wipe it. If they chose not to, that is not their problem. Under absolutely no circumstances whatsoever do you give anyone any passwords, even if you remember them. Period. That’s basic security. Even giving support your password where I work, that’s an immediate and automatic security training revocation first offense.

Not to mention that you have absolutely no obligation to help the company out, at all. They are not paying you. I wouldn’t have even returned the message at all.

phenotyp > Tekamul 03/26/2019 at 11:01

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Thanks for the confirmation.

phenotyp > Aremmes 03/26/2019 at 11:03

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Eh, that’s more escalated than necessary. He’s a good dude, it’s just that they handled this poorly, and it’s their problem, not mine. No torche s on bridges.

knelipot > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:04

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I’m seeing all these “Nope” comments. Why burn that bridge? How is it going to hurt you to give the password and then laugh at their incompetence after you hang up? You got no horse in their race anymore. Th is attitude of FU won’t help you in this or most situations in the long run. Grow up, kids. Get in the habit of trying to be helpful, if possible, and courteous, always.

phenotyp > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 03/26/2019 at 11:04

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That’s where I was coming from.

facw > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:05

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Yeah, no don’t do that. First, you don’t work there any more, they can offer you a consulting contract if they need you for anything. Second, never give out your password to anyone, no good can come of it. Third, in any competent IT setup, they should be able to log in as an administrator and reset the password (if they can’t do this, it means they fucked up badly, and should definitely be paying you big consulting dollars if there’s something important on there).

I would just say something, “Sorry, I don’t give out passwords as a matter of good security practice, but IT should be able to reset it for you without any trouble”.

If they aren’t able to do get access and there is something valuable on there, you could then offer up a consulting deal, or (if you are still interested), say you’d still be interested in the laptop and if they send it to you to keep you’d be happy to unlock it and copy off and send them the contents before wiping it.

Mercedes Streeter > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:06

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IT Analyst here...I’ve done the same. Back in 2016 I worked for a company that promised me $65k in a couple years. I applied to do internal IT and maybe some data entry, but the job I was hired to do was internal IT, data entry, and to bring the entire business’ tech into the 21st century. I would then be their go to IT person instead of the folks in Jordan. I’d also be tech support for our customers. Fun and easy, right?

Well...as it turns out I am really good at taking old decrepit tech and making it good again. I’m also somewhat decent at innovating. Using a third party program I found out an awesome way for us to do tech support for our customers on an unparalleled level. Within a month I had absolutely nothing to do because my grand mission was basically complete and much to their surprise, everything was working flawlessly. Customer tech issues that normally took hours now only took minutes to solve. The only thing I had left to do was make their operation HIPAA compliant.

So, bossman decided to turn up the pressure by making me program (this was 2016, I knew absolute jack about programming and that wasn’t in the job description) and he made me a part of sales (nope nope nope nope nope).

After being an absolute joke at sales (you hired me for IT, don’t get salty that I can’t sell things) they decided to get rid of me in favour of that aforementioned team in Jordan. Okay...we’ll just ignore the fact that some dudes halfway around the world can’t help you when your hard drive burns up or your network breaks again, but sure...whatever.

One critical mistake they made is giving me complete and entire control of the third party program that handled our IT. I had the password and I was the only one who knew how to use it. When they let me go I was going to give them the password and tell them how to use it, but they demanded me out of the building with literally no time to clean up. So fine, I wiped out the third party program and every other thing I did for the company. Aside from the fact that their desktops were still running well, I basically brought them back to where they started...potential HIPAA violations and all (since they didn’t care to let me get anywhere on that project before making me a sales person ).

phenotyp > knelipot 03/26/2019 at 11:08

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I neither set a match to any bridge, nor did I laugh. It’s just basic security, and basic IT competence. Neither of us owes the other anything, and after 14 months, this should in no way be a problem of mine.

We talked about how having kids changes things, after we got past the password topic. So don’t assume too much.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:10

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Yeah. I mean it’s just basic security  here. On both your part and theirs. They should know better than to be asking for passwords in the first place. Especially since that’s a common phishing attack to boot.

WilliamsSW > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:11

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“sorry, but I’ve forgotten it” is the best possible answer. You don’t owe them  anything, and clearly they’re idiots, but there’s no value in pissing them off. Some day you might need a reference from them.

phenotyp > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 03/26/2019 at 11:15

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Yeah, I’m assuming incompetence rather than malice, here. But still. 14 months after you laid me off without severance? Are you fucking kidding me?

Berang > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:16

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Why would they expect you to still have the password anyway? I would have forgotten by this point.

phenotyp > facw 03/26/2019 at 11:20

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There’s nothing there. It’s just a hammer that they don’t know how to use.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:26

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Sounds like a whole lot of “their problem, not yours”. You owe them nothing, and quite frankly shame on them for even asking. If this proves anything is that it was a good thing they laid you off, working for a company like that can do you no favours in the IT world. 

Gerry197 > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:27

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IT is a small community, everyone talks to everyone, I would have helped them simply because your next employer in the future may know them or ask for a reference and he may not be too cool about giving a positive one to you.

Don’t burn your bridges, they have a way of coming back and people are people, they are likely to take things personally.  

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:28

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Maybe so, but you can’t assume anything. Violates the basic foundations of security. Probably it is, but why take the chance?

And yeah. That’s not even close to record though. The record so far is a shop that called me 5 years after I left because they changed my responsibilities, because they’d completely fucked up something again, and the only backup they had was one I’d made 5 years ago. Which they couldn’t figure out how to restore.

I   sent them my consulting rate sheet.

phenotyp > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 03/26/2019 at 11:35

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No, they certainly get no points in the IT world. I did all my own IT work, and I and a couple co-workers did everything for the companies we’d worked for prior. This just seemed like evidence of incompetence, and a whole lotta not-my-problem.

phenotyp > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 03/26/2019 at 11:42

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That’s a pretty good one. 5 years? Why are you calling?

arl > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:46

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Sorry Mr. Ex-Boss, I can’t help you. You really should call your IT department - I’m sure they can help (then block his # so you never have to deal with his dumb a@@ again).

And who the hell remembers a work password from over a year ago anyway ?

Kiltedpadre > Mercedes Streeter 03/26/2019 at 11:48

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My wife had a similar situation with a more amicable end. She’s an accountant and was hired by a local uniform and linen supplier to handle reports for their CFO.

She built a spreadsheet program for the company that basically changed her workload from that of an accountant to a data entry person. They told her they couldn’t justify keeping her but gave her a months notice and let her spend half the day job hunting on the clock. She ended out going back to rebuild the spreadsheet  after something wiped out their computer systems. Unfortunately my wife is much nicer than me and did it at her old hourly rate instead of charging a lump sum consultants rate.

phenotyp > Gerry197 03/26/2019 at 11:51

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Sure, but they have no IT staff. Just the CFO and marketing dude. Asking for a password 14 months later is just pretty fucking stupid on thier part, and shouldn’t have anything to do with me.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 11:52

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Because they were exactly that fucking incompetent. One of the many reasons I left there. My favorite is when they demanded I permanently destroy several hundred systems, with no backups, two days before a new system was to go live. A new system that had absolutely no testing, had not even been configured, much less turned on.

I refused unless they put in writing, from legal, that I was not in any way responsible for any of the consequences or results.

If you think it went about as well as you’re imagining, you’d be wrong . It went worse because 2 hours after it was turned on? They found out that the salesperson had outright lied and sold them pre-alpha  software. 

phenotyp > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 03/26/2019 at 11:55

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Man, at least with hardware you know what’s going on. Fuck software.

:)

TorqueToYield > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 12:01

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My response would have just been this gif:

phenotyp > TorqueToYield 03/26/2019 at 12:03

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Pretty much.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 12:05

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Simply put, yes, you were/are right.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 12:29

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Oh, the hardware was completely inadequate too. By a factor of 50. Which was truly staggering considering I’d been raising hell for months about the existing system’s hardware being inadequate for the demands by a factor of 20.

loki03xlh > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 12:35

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If you think you may need a reference from them, help them out. If you left on bad terms and had issues, fuck ‘em.

Manny05x > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 12:46

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I would had try to charge them for my time.

LOREM IPSUM > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 15:01

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I had something similar happen years ago. Got hired by a recent Yale grad to do marketing for his startup. Guy was not technically inclined at all, so I setup and maintained just about everything. Servers, workstations, voip, vpn, etc. Everything but the website, which he had someone else build.

Shortly after we moved into a new office and I set everything up for the second time, he hired a couple of kids fresh out of high school for minimum wage whom he figured he could train to do marketing (and edit ivy league college applications and letters, actually, lol.)

Few weeks later, he fired me without cause. I wasn’t too broken up about it, and since it was a cash job I really didn’t have much recourse.

Couple of days later I get a call from one of the new hires I had been friendly with. He says that the boss wants the passwords for everything. My response was something to the effect of:

“LOL, Tell the boss that I said good luck with that. I don’t work there anymore.”

I didn’t hear from them again, when suddenly months and months later I get a call from the guys fucking mother. She says that she needs my social, so she can do his companies taxes. I politely told her to get bent, as that’s not how cash jobs work, at which point she tries threatening me with prosecution.

She clammed up quickly when I pointed out that her little grad student committed a litany of felonies during the course of his little endeavor, including tax evasion, as well as what could have become conspiracy and wire fraud charges were someone motivated enough to pursue it... Also mentioned that she was now an accessory to some of those crimes as his accountant, as she was acting on his behest.

Never heard from them again.

(And yeah, I claimed it, lol)

knelipot > phenotyp 03/26/2019 at 16:26

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Cool. I got from the article that you didn’t give the psw to them and you came here to bitch about them e ven asking after all this time, etc. My bad. The tone of the oldest comments I read agreed that the best course was to tell them off. Cooler heads have since entered the thread.

phenotyp > LOREM IPSUM 03/26/2019 at 16:44

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That’s...

bonkers.

pip bip - choose Corrour > phenotyp 03/27/2019 at 06:28

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you were correct

Deltatango > phenotyp 03/31/2019 at 07:48

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My general rule is once I leave acompany I make a list of ALL the credentials I know of, leave nothing personal on any company device anywhere (better not to put any private data on company tech in the first place), hand the list over to my superior and that’s it. Even if I feel to have been wronged by being fired, that’s just a professional attitude.

Thus the former employer has all credentials I’ve ever known, doesn’t have any reason to contact me ever again, and doesn’t have any reason to be mad at me.

And - as someone in the comments already pointed out - you always meet twice and IT is a small world in many areas of the world. Maybe even in Silicon Valley . It definitely is here in Munich.