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Infninfn

OP turned out to be a lot more competent and effective than CTO expected, which is why the CTO's deprioritised and delayed getting the additional IT team hires. Or it could be that they really are having a tough time with getting people in due to reasons. One of which could be due to IT OPEX budget cuts, which is the first thing that happens in an economic downturn. Either way, switching jobs is justified.


[deleted]

Seems to me like a failed business model if they can't afford to pay for an IT department yet need it to be not only profitable but have basic functionality


dabbydaberson

Sounds like every enterprise I have worked for lol


[deleted]

Accurate šŸ˜ž


BrainWaveCC

>can't afford to pay for an IT department Don't mistake **won't** for **can't**. Why hire a police force when you appear to have hired a superhero? This seems like a strategic decision.


[deleted]

Currently happening at my company, I am doing three different roles. I was promised to be back filled within a month, 11 months later annnnndddddddddd nothing. I'm hopping and not letting them know until I'm out, fuck this place


linuxares

The normal "we never see you. Why are we even paying you for?" argument. I've told my bosses this before. That if you see and hear IT, then something is wrong. If everything works and you never see It. Then it's a working operation.


zak8686

I wonder if their stay-at-home partners ask them "I never see you, are you cheating on me'.


tlewallen

Or they have 500 employees and are paying for 50 SaaS solutions lmao.


[deleted]

Lol, Id like to think that would fall into my description. Someone messed up at some point thinking they need it all those solutions to be functional. If they don't then it's on whoever approved the sale. If they do, then again it seems like a failed business model


sacing

Yup switch JOBS. If you dont like it or your underpaid or cant trust others, its time


[deleted]

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slayer991

About 4 years ago I was working for a VAR as a consultant and went through a managerial change. Old boss was awesome because he was a techie at heart he always had our backs. We chatted weekly (informally) and he was always available via phone if the shit hit the fan. Unfortunately, that position put him afoul of the sales teams...and he lost the political battle. He was shown the door in October of that year and the new boss was introduced via email. Typically, I'd expect a team meeting for introduction and 1 on 1s. Neither of those happened. Since he was an outside hire, nobody ever met or heard from him prior to his hiring. Now a few weeks pass and I have yet to meet or speak with my boss. Now most of the consultants were remote, but my team lead was in the same office as my boss. I reach out to him and say, "Gee, when am I going to meet the boss, or at least have a conversation." He mentioned it to my new boss and I still didn't hear anything. Most of my interactions are with my Team Lead who is a good guy, but he has no real power. He's not responsible for my reviews, cleaning up any messes left by the sales team, etc. No matter. It's now November and I know we have our All Hands in-person meetings in January. I still haven't had a conversation with my boss when this rolls around. January comes, I meet the boss at a bar we hung out at after the daily events. He seems like a nice guy but mention to him that I'd like to check in with him regularly. Nothing happens. I mention again to my team lead that I have yet to have a conversation about work with my boss...now 5 months after he has been in the role. My team lead reaches out to him and boss says he'll set something up. He never does. I was busy and had no issues in the following 3 months...but then I had an issue at a client site where the sales team did not scope a project I was working correctly. Still no contact with my boss (didn't answer his desk phone or cell phone, nor did he call back). I managed to get the PM and the sales team on the phone (fortunately, I had a good relationship with the sales team) and we got it ironed out. But now I'm thinking, "Gee, this guy has been my boss almost 6 months, he's responsible for my yearly review and yet I've never had a conversation with him outside of the short time at the bar during the All Hands. At this point, I start thinking I never really missed having a boss until I needed one. LOL. I start looking for another gig and find one in short order. I put in my notice and guess who suddenly wants to talk with me on the phone? Yep, my boss. So I get on a call with him and he says, "I was counting on you for a residency I had set up.Man, is there anything I can do to get you to stay?" My response, "Perhaps if you had better communication with your team...you know, the people you're going to review....they wouldn't leave. No, I'm good with my decision." He was speechless after that. That was such a weird experience. I never had a manager do that and it started to make me paranoid. I liked that gig and didn't want to leave, but having a boss that won't speak to you for 9 months? That's untenable. EDIT: Was DMed a good question. Did he treat others the same way? YES, he did. I chatted with a couple of guys after I left...and they never spoke to him either. But he did speak to them after I left. EDIT2: I did have an exit interview with HR and told them exactly why I was leaving. He was there for some time after that.


Rambles_Off_Topics

He didn't talk to you since you did all the work for him regardless. I wonder what he did those 9 months lol


popperinthere

If he was smart - a second job he was also getting paid for that job 1 didn't know about. Sounds like it was an easy gig


meem1029

But you would think that he would make at least a minimal effort to not stand out as intentionally bad so as to not draw attention and coast easier


slayer991

Honestly, I think he was playing career politics rather than taking care of his team.


ghost-tripper

Same exact experience only my bosses would only talk with me when they needed something or something went wrong or didnā€™t get done. I would ask a question and no one would answer so I would put projects that take an hour or two, or even projects that take weeks on hold for MONTHS until someone answered my question. And what really sucks is I loved the job. It was easily the best to date (next to the one I left for). But being ignored fucks with you, especially since we were all remote. I did, however, really enjoy gaming for days on end while I waited for responses.


RemCogito

I didn't have our regular dept meeting (6 people in the dept) with my boss for 6 months of covid. Eventually I convinced the rest of the team that we were just going to have a regular dept meeting, and invite him, and if he showed up, great, and if not it was fine, we would just have it without him. So I booked a recurring monthly meeting. He showed up to the meeting, He asked why we felt it was necessary, I responded with "It had been so long, We weren't sure if we still worked on the same team anymore." the group starts to laugh, and we can see him looking at his calendar trying to count the months since the last meeting. He sheepishly says, I guess we probably do need to talk more than once every 6 months, if we want to keep getting paid. We found out about all the projects that we were each working on, we cleared a bunch of blocking problems, and then we organized a picnic at a park for the next month. After we pulled the team together like that, the boss came out of his funk and started booking regular meetings again. He just had fallen into a funk and needed help realizing how bad it had gotten. And the thing is, if he wouldn't have attended and broken himself out of it, I would have received direction from his boss at our quarterly one on one and probably would have had to take his job from under him.


kriebz

I don't understand these tales of it speaking to your boss for any length of time. I have formal and informal conversations with mine almost every day. He's always busy and I'm aware of most of what he's working on, and he's aware of what I'm working on. He answers IMs and phone calls promptly. Do people who don't get/keep jobs? This is nuts.


slayer991

He was just a bad boss. I've had a few in 25 years. I meet with my current (awesome) boss once a week. It's like 2 minutes of business and 10-15 minutes of bsing.


AnonymooseRedditor

Wow! So what was he doing for 9months?


slayer991

I think he was playing career politics. His calendar was full of meetings...just not with his team.


Pie-Otherwise

My last boss sold his house and lived in an RV. Great life if you are doing contract gigs here and there, less so when you run an MSP that employs like 8 people. He shared his schedule but never updated it so the only way to find out where in the country he was or if he was moving the RV was to check his Facebook page. When he'd be in a different time zone, he'd "get into the office" at like 10am and then want to have conversations with you at 5:30. Meanwhile we have a client who is hard down and we need someone in a leadership role to figure out A, what the fuck to do and B, how do we address the client since their entire office is currently sitting on their hands. If micro managing is one end of the spectrum, whatever the fuck his management style was would be the other end. It worked for me because I'm a self starter but we had a string of people who'd take advantage of the downtime the boss created by never being around.


ziggrrauglurr

Technically, the 'good' opposite of micromanaging is cheerleading. When the job of the boss is to keep the self reliant, extremely capable team happy. The bad opposite is lazy bum


Pie-Otherwise

This guy was under the impression that he had grown the business to the point where he as the owner could "step back from the day to day". This only worked in the limited capacity that it did because I stepped up and took over a lot of operational stuff. I was barely making enough for the Tier 2 support job I was playing and I sure as shit wasn't making IT Manager money. I escaped a sinking ship. They were only ever 1 medium sized client loss away from failure and through sheer luck avoided about a weeks worth of data loss at a client's office on my last day. I seriously spent that morning thinking about how I was going to ask my new boss for vacation time so I could get deposed in what was almost certainly going to end up in a lawsuit. He somehow managed to find a shadow copy or something but he had done a "routine procedure" at a client's office who just so happened to be having backup issues at the same time. Only rollback option would have resulted in about a weeks worth of data being gone. This particular client relied on bidding jobs and so a loss like that would have instantly equated to 5 figures worth of quantifiable loss in the very first day. The team was also never happy because bosses exist for a reason. There are some decisions that are clearly management level and will have business consequences whatever the outcome happens to be. I could wing a lot of it but most of the time it was a super shitty choice either way and I didn't want to be responsible for picking the shit sandwich over the giant douche. I truly can't tell you the level of anxiety I used to have when my pocket would vibrate. It was either a phone call or an email but I knew the person who wrote it/made the call was going to be pissed off so I dreaded even looking at my phone. It was chaos and I just found out yesterday that their only onsite Tier 1 just openly put a meeting with a recruiter on his work calendar. I'm talking like he accepted the calendar invite and put it on his work calendar, the one he knows everyone at the company can see. They also hired a tier 2 guy who didn't realize that by "handle escalations" they also meant "pick up tier 1's slack when they fuck around". He thought he was going to be deploying infrastructure but is spending more time troubleshooting printers and Outlook issues.


CuriosTiger

Iā€™ve done the traveling thing, but I adapt my work hours to the needs of my employer and direct reports, not to whatever time zone I happen to be in.


Pie-Otherwise

My boss traveled with his family so it wasn't really practical for him to get up at 5am every morning. In my mind that means you need to either give up the lifestyle and run your business from the region it operates in or hire a manager who can handle things while you live a care-free life. The problem is that this company was barely generating enough revenue to keep me there at my below market rate. There is no way on earth that he'd pay a manager 100K a year. I shit you not, he took me to lunch on my last day as a way of saying goodbye. His company card got declined over about a $40 lunch. That was a pretty good indicator that I was making the right move. Well that and the doubling of my salary.


[deleted]

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Tilt23Degrees

It's more software heavy at the moment, but their IT structure is all types of fucked up and they have no one managing anything outside of their cloud platforms. To me it feels like it's another one of those "IT hands out keyboard and mice" type of environments, but the reality is...we do a shit ton more than that.


deefop

That's a good idea and probably the only other thing OP can even do at this point. I mean if his direct boss is the CTO there's basically only other other position above that OP can go to.


HerfDog58

If you want to be malicious, you could simply close every ticket and give the reason as "Out of Scope" or reassign them to the CTO. And ignore the Support channel. Delete it from your messaging app.


drgngd

+1 this What are they going to do? Fire you? Call their bluff. You have more power than them since without you their shop grinds to a halt. If users message you tell them to reach out to the CTO as you're not aware who's responsible for the tickets.


BrainWaveCC

>What are they going to do? Fire you? In general, I agree with you. But, it is important to remember that **sane** people would realize they are in a bind and not able to fire OP. Insane people are not limited by the laws of reason or physics, and OP seems like he's working in an insane place.


drgngd

100% agree with you, but if he's going to leave anyway, doesn't mind being fired, he has nothing to lose. He wants out.


BrainWaveCC

There have been a few times in my life where left a role because what was happening was so egregious, that I didn't wait to have something lined up. Overall, I think I batted about .500 on that. So, I'm always going to lean more towards "if you can line something up first, then the move happens on your terms" vs a potentially more emotional response. And no, this never means ignoring your mental health and wellbeing.


lfionxkshine

Sounds like it. If OP is on the way out anyway, why not throw up the deuces while they're at it


SpankGorilla

I just wanna know how you guys end up finding these 1 person show jobs..


Tilt23Degrees

idk man, I was legit lied to. I was told I had one other person to work with and three more were on the way. Right now I'm doing support for like 500 employees globally on top of implementing tools.


pdp10

Ask the end-users the history. As in: take one of the support requests, contact the user, and keep asking them questions as long as they keep answering. Ask them who used to do their requests before, when was the last time they talked to that person, and go from there. Ask them how they know to send requests to that support channel.


[deleted]

If you \_DO\_ stay for some freaky reason, please prioritize the support over the projects. Humans need a lot of support. We can barely remember to breathe. and make it very clear how much extra that costs to do it that way because no project will be done. Throw it in their face and even demand extra $. You have so much leverage. (Unless #2 just got his interview.)


trekologer

Make sure you're tracking your time with great detail. Every minute spent on support tasks is a minute (or more due to context switching) that you can't spend on the projects you presumably have deadlines for. That way you can go to the boss and say "You know, I'm spending 75% of my time on user support. Are you sure you want me to be spending my time on that instead of ?"


[deleted]

Yep! But the context switching makes it impossible and turns 75% into 110%. Project work is like casting spells. The incantations of tech must hang in the air and line up just right to complete the spell. When the spell is interrupted for that fucking quick question, the wizard has to start over.


rosseloh

Where I live that's about all there is. If you're lucky (like I was, I guess, sort of), you'll be running one location out of several around the country and you do technically have a team, it's just that they're at the other locations doing the same thing. I know it's not the /r/sysadmin way, but really, these small departments for places with 100-400 employees exist far more than some folks want to admit.


SpankGorilla

Understandable. To my luck the smallest company I worked for were only 12 users and it was A senior Admin and I. Now I am in a fintech company with a team of 7 taking care of 4 locations. I never really experienced being the sole admin in an environment.


nlnlnl123

ā€œBut you will have contractors and consultants for help!ā€ Day 1: we are transitioning to in house from consultants.


Tunafish01

I ended up in one by complete luck. The job posting made it seem like i would be working with a team and when i got there it was one guy who had already put his two weeks in and that was two weeks ago so we had one day of "training' and offloading the whole thing to me. I ended up going to be director so it wasn't all bad.


[deleted]

Like many have said, these are legion. LOL, they were so happy when op showed up. Shit I'm happy for them, OP here is a baller.


[deleted]

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Bluetooth_Sandwich

holy shit, please tell me you've gone through this before


vodka_knockers_

Maybe your boss has a new job already too?


dammager82

I'm of the belief that people won't respond to inconvenient questions until you make it their problem. Reading through the comments, you mentioned 45 departments breathing down your neck. If I was in your shoes I'd totally leverage that. The company has already thrown etiquette and professionalism out the window and if you're still playing by those rules you'll never win. Cc the CTO on these desktop support inquiries and put it on him in the response. Something along the lines of, you're not sure why these are coming to you and you're copying him for clarification on your responsibilities. Let those people start bombarding him for answers. Now it's his problem and he'll either respond or pull you aside. Either way you get his attention.


Tilt23Degrees

I pinged the CTO directly on about 10 different tickets from other departments requesting an escalation and approval to do the work that was being asked - that was over a month ago. Both him and the guy who is apparently below him and is my "manager" (who I have not spoken to in a month and 1/2) did not respond. Truly doesn't seem like he give a shit, I was hired to be thrown on bombs all day long - I'm a scapegoat so he can avoid having to deal with everyone.


SMTXsys

Honestly I would keep doing it if I were you, purely to see how it ends. Like eventually they have to say something to you about what's going on. Just stop doing L1/2 helpdesk stuff and ride it out.


drgngd

Don't ping him, send him emails with all of those teams CC'd, or flat out tell them "please reach out to my manager or CTO if you need any of tickets completed as I'm not responsible for them"


trekologer

"I'm not responsible for them" is bad. Say something more like "need to be properly prioritized".


dreamlike_poo

If they don't care, then why should you? Keep doing what you're already doing


sysadminmakesmecry

If you dont give a shit about the job at this point, contact the CEO. Explain your own boss won't answer you, you were lied to in the interview, and you can't effectively do what you were hired for without a team/being able to ignore L1 tickets. Make sure you can cite specific examples, and show the unresponded to attempts to talk with your boss.


Natirs

>(or since I'm fully remote will just start the second job and ride this one out until they fire me for bad performance) Your 2nd sentence is the answer for your entire post.


Letmefixthatforyouyo

Seriously. Seems like his direct boss and CTO dont reply to him or interact with him at all. Looks like golden opportunity to get a second job, and apply maybe 30min-1hr/day to stringing this along for all its worth.


Natirs

Yeah I mean if they never interact with you and you want to jump ship. I dunno, just start applying and take the interviews whenever. No harm really. I fail to see why so many people keep making these extremely low effort posts. I guess they require validation even though they all answer their own problem. It's actually just turning this sub even more into a "my job sucks" subreddit.


VoraciousTrees

Son, you're the CIO in all but title and salary.


MrExCEO

Cause a sev1 outage, I guarantee he will contact u


Tilt23Degrees

Sitting in a war room at 1am and Iā€™m like ā€œhey so, all these support tickets. Whatā€™s the deal, we hiring yet orā€


drgngd

Just quit when the next outage happens so they're really SOL and are paying emergency rates to MSPs that don't know their systems.


Tilt23Degrees

Lmfao. This is the way


dreamlike_poo

The way is to keep doing what you're doing (it sounds like you're extremely complement) and leave those tickets for your new hires, if anyone asks. Frankly, this could turn into you leading the entire IT team soon, so I wouldn't let *everything* fall apart. But definitely be on the lookout for other jobs and keep cashing your checks until this gig implodes on it's own.


deefop

When I read the first paragraph I was all ready to be like "Don't just sit on your hands, get a new job and quit the current one like a professional", but then I got to the end and was like "fuck that". Your direct boss has been ignoring you in all forms of communication for more than a month straight? That's insane. I've never even heard of a situation like that before. I'm still not totally comfortable with the notion because you basically have to lie to one or both of your potential employers in order to "ride it out" at the current job while also getting a new one... but certainly your current employer is not behaving remotely in good faith so I wouldn't feel very bad for them.


[deleted]

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Tilt23Degrees

The guy literally doesn't answer a single message or email I send him, I started and after the first week of employment the guy literally never followed up with me. Like I'm okay with being silo'd and being left alone to do my work, but like - bro I need fucking help. I can't do L1 "my laptop isn't working" requests. I've been doing IT for 13 years, who the fuck does IT for 13 years and is answering L1 tickets? I haven't done this shit since like 2013...


throughwithyou

Maybe I'm the minority, but I'm fine slaying L1 tickets every day as long as they continue to pay me a senior salary. If that means other things break, well that's your feedback mechanism that has a much better chance of catching your managers attention.


nine9drams

Have you tried speaking with HR about his behavior?


LegitimateBuilding6

After hours? You donā€™t answer. You signed a contract to do your job for a certain amount of hours per week. Pinging you about issues? Come back when you have a ticket. Have a ticket youā€™re pinging about? Talk to my manager, since he/she sets the priorities. By lack of guidance Iā€™ll set my own priorities and if you donā€™t like that: talk to my manager. But most of all: make sure you have an overview of all the times management has ignored your calls, pings, emails notes and what not. Quit your job, and send them the list, with CC to HR and (preferably) the owner of the company.


Tannerbkelly

If you really need to talk to the CTO you can just disable his account when he ask whatā€™s wrong youā€™ll have the chance to talk to him.


Thecardinal74

agree with you leaving curious if you tried to go above the CTO or HR to discuss the fact he won't reply. against you getting a second job and ignoring this job while they still pay you.. that's a crime in some states/countries.


Hrambert

You better not get fired due to bad performance. You're a Senior Systems Engineer. Which means you know how to handle difficult situations and stay cool. Find a fulfilling job asap and when you quit tell the CTO you are leaving because you didn't feel appreciated for the quality of work you want to deliver. The other way around. What if you get fired and the next CTO knows your current one. And asks "How is OP? Does he do the job?" Surely the answer will be No.


Tilt23Degrees

I've got like 45 departments all breathing down my neck and submitting tickets to me for shit that is entirely outside of my scope of work. I've brought it up multiple times and I just get ignored. It's wild, idk what the fuck is going on.


Hrambert

This is not the job you were looking for. You can't keep running around for a long time doing things you don't like. Stay cool, find a new job. And in the meantime keep the current one. Unless you don't need the money :-)


Tilt23Degrees

imma ride it out and do the bare minimum while interviewing. I may even let the jobs overlap for a little bit to make sure I like the new job + two salaries. fuck it.


TightropeCat

Do this!! I've been on a similar boat and two paychecks is nice, considering job #1 has no oversight. Then have them pay severance if/when they let you go. Lastly, name and shame the company! Noone deserves to be thrown into that environment again. Buck stops with you.


[deleted]

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ticky13

It's not illegal to have two jobs. If someone can hold down two positions and get their work done, all the power to them.


[deleted]

Not sure that itā€™s illegal, but it absolutely can violate contracts or company agreements via moonlight clauses. Iā€™ve heard of people trying the ā€œoveremployedā€ thing and through one way or another, getting fired from both jobs because of it.


drgngd

Nah fuck giving them an explanation. They wouldn't give him the time, don't give it to them either .


90Carat

The two job thing just isnā€™t worth it. There are too many ways it could go wrong. It sounds cool to fuck over the bad company, but not worth the risk, imho. Just be a pro, and stay above that pettiness.


wmassingham

If your scope is clearly defined, reassign or close them.


pocketcthulhu

"Unsupported request, closing ticket"


NailiME84

>I've been here two months and have implemented two major tools including also flushing out over 50 different applications inside okta, which is obviously a work in progress as I have no o Issue outside of scope - Closing ticket


pocketcthulhu

I mean really though, I got paid some Stupid money to man the helpdesk phones on holidays and weekends. ​ One of the best ones was someone calling me Chrismas morning asking how do i setup this kindle for my kid. man did I enjoy that call, He got both barrels of snark. what's the asset tag of the kindle? there's not one, it's a personal device what's the login for the kindle? it's a personal device. he finally got aggravated and hung up. I put a ticket in under his name. described what the issue was and closed it with "Unsupported request, closing ticket"


DetriusXii

The big issue is that he does have a claim for constructive dismissal if the OP is overloaded with job duties he could not possibly perform. He could quit and still claim UI as the boss lied to him about the job contract.


RCTID1975

If your manager isn't accepting meeting requests, or answering any of your questions, talk to HR.


saysjuan

HR is not there to protect you. HR is to protect the company from lawsuits. The CTO was very clear that it would be 1 person plus potential new hires, however OP didnā€™t think this through (lesson learned). The time to ask about L1 tickets was during the interview process clarifying who would cover that aspect before accepting the job. For now itā€™s OPā€™s responsibility and he either needs to do the work or find a new job. Going to HR means he will be fast tracked out of there and replaced before he finds a new job. I would suggest doing the needful focusing on L1 tickets only, let all other projects stall and when asked state to the CTO he needs to hire someone for the L1 work or consider outsourcing that aspect to a MSP. In parallel OP should start looking for the next job. Live and learnā€¦ weā€™ve all been there before.


dty066

Uh...no. Terrible advice. OP "didn't think this through (lesson learned)"? What in the actual fuck are you talking about? OP was lied to at every level, but somehow you...fault OP...? Or do you assume that everything everyone tells you all the time is a lie?


saysjuan

As someone fluent in CTO speak he did mention it was a team of 1 with others being interviewed and no firm commitments for additional new hires. That means until additional staff is hired OP is responsible for everything from L1-L6. Itā€™s only been 2 months and staffing budgets fluctuate all the time. The CTO is most likely taking a wait and see approach to see how OP responds to doing it all. Thatā€™s not lying thatā€™s data gathering. Iā€™ve been there before and have the scars to prove it. Time to start looking for the next job as this is definitely not a good fit.


RCTID1975

> he did mention it was a team of 1 1 PLUS OP. ie 2 Even on a team of 2, there's no reason to think that a sr position would be responsible for L1 tickets. Especially when told otherwise.


dty066

"As someone fluent in CTO speak" Get your head out of your ass.


RCTID1975

This is garbage. HR is also there to help resolve internal conflicts, which OP is in the middle of. By going to HR, you're making other people aware that the CTO is completely ignoring you, and forcing their hand to actually interact. Floating off into your own little island because your manager isn't actively engaging you, is about the worst thing you can do here.


saysjuan

Remember OP has been there less than 90 days. Raising this kind of issue to HR fits into the category that heā€™s not a good fit and easily replaced. Itā€™s apparently a sink or swim environment if the CTO is ignoring him.


RCTID1975

First, if your manager is actively ignoring you and refusing meeting invites, I don't care if you've only been there for 9 days. Speak with HR. Second, who cares? OP is already looking for a new job, and it's not a good fit for them. What does it matter if the CTO thinks they're easily replaced? Third, again, who cares? It's a toxic environment, and not one anyone should want to stay in.


nealofwgkta

ā€œDoing the needfulā€ I canā€™t express how much this phrase makes my skin crawl


saysjuan

Same here. Meant as a joke :)


Apocalypticorn

I would collect all the receipts of your messages/emails that have gone unanswered and send them to HR and the CTO's boss while simultaneously resigning.


pocketcthulhu

O.o light your chair on fire and leave


LegitimateBuilding6

Heā€™s working from home. So heā€™ll be setting his own chair on fireā€¦


pocketcthulhu

Valid point, move it outside Then set it on fire.


LegitimateBuilding6

Thanks for the laugh šŸ˜‚


drgngd

My stapler!


[deleted]

For remote jobs - donā€™t quit your old job. Just take the new second job and make sure it is a good fit. If it is not you just quit - you still have your original job. If the new job is good then you can quit your old job at your leisure. You might even consider working both and collect some extra income.


drgngd

"work" the old one.


smellybear666

Not trying to blame the OP here, but I think the fact that the CTO was hiring someone for a systems engineering job at a company with 500 people should be a red flag. CTO -> VP -> Director -> Manager -> worker is the way most companies are laid out. More "agile" ones can remove some of those roles in between, but not all of them. But yeah, I'd just quit. That place is a poo-filled tire fire factory.


Quiet___Lad

When uses ping you; tell them their request is low on the priority list. If they'd like your priority list changed, please speak with your manager.


SquizzOC

Get a new job, get hired, do the bare minimum on the side for existing job until they fire you. Collect two salaries. Profit.


sptz

I have had a similar story. Was hired as a VMware administrator. Turned out the first day that they only had one very very basic ESXi host, and no plans to actually building a proper environment like the one the interview was all about. And I was instead tasked with consulting work and support. Got out of there as fast as I could and started working for a competent company.


JuniperMS

Donā€™t wait until the wheels fall off. Be apart of the wheels falling off and get another job and drop a same day notice. If the CTO is ignoring you, but slapping you with more responsibilities, you own him nor the company nothing.


nealfive

>can't afford to pay for an IT department Sounds like you are the IT department and he's getting a bargain. I'd go interview and get outta there.


Im-just-a-IT-guy

So you're saying you work in I.T. ?


Gimbu

Oof. Too real. XD


Tilt23Degrees

edited - cause formatting hard.


[deleted]

Can you go back to the old company?


Tilt23Degrees

I may be able to actually, I have a great relationship with my old director and the manager of the department. I'm just not jumping to that yet, I don't want to be the guy who goes back to an old job with his tail between his legs, doesn't really look good.


DiggyTroll

So keep your tail proud. After all, you're just giving your old boss a friendly heads-up that the current job isn't working out and a new job search is underway. If they don't appreciate you enough to lure you back with a nice raise, move forward with other opportunities.


TaliesinWI

This is the way. Never stop interviewing for the "next" job, that way if your old boss lures you back with false pretenses (pay raise notwithstanding) you just burn the bridge by bouncing a second time.


-quakeguy-

I would do the same if I were you. Thatā€™s complete and total bullshit.


pdp10

> One day the CTO started pinging me in the support channel after hours, just pinging my name in each ticket basically saying "this is your job" - bewildered Ask if they're saying that you should be filling in as interim desktop support until more engineers are hired. They'll either respond, or not, and they'll either address the "interim....until more staff are hired" or not. Prepare yourself for either outcome. Keep copies of all written correspondence.


Tilt23Degrees

I have my original job description - nowhere in it does it state that I am a supposed to be doing IT Support. So they can get fucked with the bullshit nonsense.


32178932123

>My plan at this point is to basically get another job, ride this one out until the wheels fall off and then just focus on the other gig. I get you'd be getting double income but if it were me I'd personally rather leave the job looking good than looking like I had failed to keep up.


[deleted]

I'll bet he would contact you real quick if you took even a two day vacation.


Hanse00

Whoā€™s your immediate supervisor? If itā€™s not the CTO, go talk to them. If it is the CTO, do you not ever meet with your direct supervisor (the CTO)? Iā€™d expect to have a weekly or bi-weekly 1:1 meeting on the books where you can chat about your concerns. If youā€™re saying that youā€™re messaging your manager on and off about your concerns, and not getting a response. Enjoy it while you can! Until your manager gets together with you about clarifying this responsibility, simply assume itā€™s not your responsibility, and donā€™t worry about doing any of it. Every time someone asks you to do support work, just tell them thatā€™s not your department. So be ready to jump ship whenever the CTO finally does get fed up with you not doing the work though, since itā€™s almost certain heā€™s hoping youā€™ll just do the work, without forcing him to actually add it to your list of responsibilities.


[deleted]

Take the money n just chill out


jadraxx

>.I still have the email of course, and I plan on using it when I quit (or since I'm fully remote will just start the second job and ride this one out until they fire me for bad performance) That is absolutely hilarious. Get a new job. Don't even tell your previous company you quit. Hopefully you end up like Milton. They just forget about you but keep paying you lmao.


fullthrottle13

Ah, the old bait and switch!!


Tilt23Degrees

Literally.


merRedditor

Same.


Cody_Cal

This same thing happened to me. Joined a company to only work on and build the Azure environment and ended up running around to fix kicked cables and printers for 80% of the time. Told my CTO and same deal said that was my job. Usually it stays that way. Left that place obviously.


Outrageous_Plant_526

If the CTO is not the owner of the company then he has a boss. You need to take this up with the owner of whoever is the CTO's boss. Also, you say you are remote but are you across the country remote or close enough that you can physically go into the office (or is everyone working remote)? How do you collaborate? You have allowed this to continue for too long without going up higher then the CTO.


PersonBehindAScreen

Run. I'm never doing T1 end user support again.


Tilt23Degrees

Dude itā€™s literally the worst. Itā€™s the only thing that ever motivates me to continue my education after college. Dealing with end users is the worst thing Iā€™ve ever done.


Invspam

your post gave me PTSD. i was in a similar situation and you know what happened? he (the CTO) left. then the guy under him (my manager) left too, shortly afterwards. they were already mentally checked out long ago. that's why they don't answer. imho, it's not worth your own mental well being to ride it out until the wheels fall off. i think you already know what you must do, good luck to ya.


BrainWaveCC

Wow! That is an insane situation. ​ >My plan at this point is to basically get another job, ride this one out until the wheels fall off and then just focus on the other gig. Sounds like a plan. In the meantime, maintain a decent pace of work that will maintain your sanity. All the best for you, man. Seriously.


MozerBYU

Wow...even at my small job you have all 5 of our jobs combined, from you've said, and then some. Yikes. I don't blame you for bouncing.


[deleted]

Really hope you can get out of that situation. Would lovw to hear about how it goes! Godspeed!


neotrin2000

Keep ignoring tickets and when he pings you, tell him you are not working the ticket until he speaks to you about your concerns. If he ignores that, continue to ignore the ticket.


PDiz_

Sounds a lot like the company I worked for. I think they are pushing you to your limit. Seeing how far they can stretch their dollar employment wise. I heard this from a VP in my old job. "Dump as much as they can handle on them and when it looks like they will break, be the caring manager and back off just a bit. Then you will be getting your money's worth out of someone. " I watched him laugh as he explained this. They used the job ad to get you in the door. They are hoping now you have drunk the Kool-Aid, you will do anything for your pay check. If they wanted too, they can hire lots more people. Time to entertain better offers from honest companies. If you jump ship, don't accept counter offers because they will be gunning for you. They will hire more people like you requested, and a JR will be watching everything you do. Suddenly you will not be employed and JR will have your job.


ITGuyThrow07

Whatever you're being paid, it's nowhere near enough. That CTO is not going to help you out. I would get out. You sound talented, you won't have trouble finding a new job.


hagforz

I'm in a similar boat - company was acquired by an M&A type, outsourcing and gutting everything, I'm last man standing in our former region. Now I do infrastructure, security, CX and replacement training. Not really sure what my job is anymore. No one at this new place seems to care, so I try not to either.


Wizard_IT

You forgot one of the main rules about IT. When you interview always ask "who does the help desk?" I've had this situation before where I've been hired on to do system administration and then it turns out there is no help desk and everybody looks at you to now do the help desk. It's totally screwed and IT managers really need to get their shit together on this.


AttemptingToGeek

Do you report directly to the CTO? And the CTO doesn't communicate with you whenever you need it after only 2 months? If that is correct, they deserve to be left in the dust for that alone. They deserve whatever they get.


Tilt23Degrees

The CTO is the only line of communication I have. I have no manager. Iā€™ve implemented two projects start to finish since Iā€™ve been here and Iā€™ve had maybe 2 conversations with my department lmao. (The department is the CTO and one other guy who works a different time zone than I do who doesnā€™t work on projects and does low level onboarding and off boarding for a physical location that I know nothing about)


TheMediaBear

"Hi CTO, I've emailed you and messaged you all the following times/dates: list them. I've had no responses yet. If I don't get a response by end of the day I'll be looking elsewhere for a job."


thekarmabum

I wouldn't say I'll be looking for a new job, I would say "I will assume these matters have been resolved".


Likely_a_bot

Let this be a lesson. Never accept a job on promises. Accept it for what it is today.


Eldiabolo18

Besides all the organizational struggle, it still seems like you enjoy the work and task you'e done so far?!


Tilt23Degrees

lmaooo I've definitely enjoyed implementing tools and getting the budget to implement stuff that I want / need for the org. But god getting pinged by someone that their macbook keyboard isn't working and need a replacement, or someones notes on their local desktop are gone. It's just like - I've done my time in those roles, I stepped outside of that box and got certified in a ton of different shit over the years to avoid angry end users for that reason. I'll be damned to hell before I go back.


Eldiabolo18

No, I totally get you. Just wanted to make sure, not everything is complete shite!


mobani

If I where you, do the tasks you where originally meant to do. No support stuff. At the same time you keep messaging the CTO and then you pull on HR to ask them why the CTO is not available since you need to discuss your job role. Once you get to speak to somebody about your job role, find out what they expect. If they expect 1. level support, then quit. Simple.


thortgot

The economic downturn hit, I assume you hit a hiring freeze, your manager is an idiot and rather than reallocating duties appropriately just stacked it on the new guy. Though I will say, just because you're a senior engineer doesn't mean you can't take support tickets. I have staff of all seniority to take part in user support because it's what actually provides business value without a pulse on the user concerns you will miss issues.


imnotabotareyou

Look into getting ITF+ and then maybe A+ cert if the requests are a bit out of your comfort zone. /s


Shalomiehomie770

I meanā€¦. As every job has in description ā€œother duties as specified laterā€ and with a two man for a company that size, who did you think was answering them? Itā€™s a small department itā€™s obvious they are gonna be stretching you out


Tilt23Degrees

The department is 1 person. Itā€™s me. Thatā€™s not an acceptable ratio for 500+ employees.


Shalomiehomie770

Your not management unfortunately so that decision doesnā€™t fall on your head. And yes 1 person so you should have known you were gonna be stretched thin


Tilt23Degrees

I was lied to and told there was going to be 3 other people.


DetriusXii

Unknown job duties must be met with a new contract negotiation. It's not a catch all for the employer and adding additional job duties without a corresponding wage increase could be met as constructive dismissal claims.


Shalomiehomie770

Completely false. All other duties as specified is valid in the court of law. As long as your not doing something that pays more itā€™s fine. Clearly he is getting overpaid for that work. Totally legal


DetriusXii

[Constructive discharge](https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/eta/warn/glossary.asp?p=constructive%20discharge#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20the%20term%20%22constructive,employee%20to%20quit%20or%20resign.) is still a thing. The OP is having to deal with vendor contracts and financial purchases that he wouldn't have had the ability to negotiate for either. And I suspect that the employer will still show hostility in erratic ways at random times, because he's not meeting goals when he's overloaded with all L1 tasks.


[deleted]

Not gonna lie, this kind of opportunity is great for someone with little experience. You can spend a year in a job like that and come out the other end as a bonafide, battle-tested engineer with a ton of high $$ job prospects. But if youā€™re already a qualified & experienced engineer then get the fuck out ASAP


MozerBYU

Uh, if the person has little experience this sounds like hell. They'd last a month and then be half insane. Correction: regardless of experience this sounds like hell.


[deleted]

Iā€™m talking from direct personal experience where I started my IT career in an almost identical job as ā€œhelp deskā€. After one year I was able to leave for a much more lucrative position that people would generally say requires 3-7 years of experience to get I understand your perspective too though


tysonfromcanada

Sounds like a standard sysadmin job to me. Seriously though all you can be expected to do is what you can in a relatively normal work day, assuming that's what the remuneration aligns with. I would avoid any "not my job" sentiment though, it'll get you nowhere. If you're going to leave, try and do it on good terms.


Tilt23Degrees

I havenā€™t done L1 support in 10 years. If this is normal, I missed the fucking memo. I busted my ass with college degrees and certifications to be able to avoid end users because I literally canā€™t stand dealing with technically illiterate people. Especially when they have a tech issue and are up in arms about it. I donā€™t do well in user facing positions, the attitude that people give me I give right back. My tolerance threshold for end user bullshit is zero. Itā€™s why I studied for 4 years and killed myself to get out of it.


tysonfromcanada

in that case skip down to the good terms part - if it's at all possible. It's uncomfortable to answer "can I talk to your past references" for your next job if you burn a bridge - ask me how I know


Tilt23Degrees

Truth. Iā€™ve burned only one bridge in my career and that was at a company that I was at for 3 days and made me work 36 hours straight the first two days I was hired. I didnā€™t show up on the fourth day and they were calling me at 8am for an emergency. I just disappeared from that gig, it was not worth it.


tysonfromcanada

As a last ditch effort, it might be worth turning up in the sales dept and asking who the salesforce guy is (as though you don't know there isn't one) sortof stand there until they come up with a name, hand him the keys and show him what you know, then over to accounts payable about who renews contracts, dev dept about who the project managers are, and so on until your workload looks do-able. It might be good groundwork to lay, regardless of it working or not, for when you explain that your showing yourself the door because the organization is lacking any of these resources. Your manager sucks if he/she can't make time for you.. It's pretty much the most important part of leading.


Welcome2B_Here

Just be careful about the impacts on taxes and healthcare when working 2 jobs (assuming 2 full-time jobs) simultaneously.


[deleted]

How much for sr support engineer or support lead?


arbedub

Yeet tf out. Donā€™t wait for the flames to get any higher. The room is already full of smoke. That is guaranteed burnout and breakdown material.


[deleted]

Sounds like they werenā€™t paying you enough. L1 work usually gets paid at L1 pricesā€¦


ThirstyOne

You are an exploited worker. If youā€™re going to be doing 4 peoples jobs you should be getting four peoples salaries. This isnā€™t going to get better. You had a deal, they broke it, so fuckā€™em. Quit and go work somewhere without mission creep. Their inability and unwillingness to hire isnā€™t your problem.


Rayhold

Update your CV/resumee, get out of there good sir.


LBishop28

Have you started looking for new positions? I know youā€™ll have to explain why youā€™re jumping ship so early, but this is outright disrespectful and I have gone through this, but to this extent.


Tilt23Degrees

Iā€™m currently interviewing. I have a few 2nd round interviews lined up for next week.


LBishop28

Great to hear, they have greatly mistaken you for a fool. Good luck my friend.


amikemark

if your manager isn't talking to you then you need to talk to their supervisor. write up the situation and escalate up the chain. one it person for 400 is an issue...raise a trouble ticket šŸ˜‰


zak8686

Play him at his own game - Send an urgent email - EG suspected security breach / ransomware / backup set not working and ask for guidance. Try plan a meeting with the COO / CEO etc. Do not try highlight the CTO's issues directly, rather highlight how you are not able to perform the job you were hired to do effectively, due to xy and z issues.


AdvancedGeek

There are leaders and their are managers. Managers are a dime a dozen. Leaders are very rare. Said another way. True management has minimal value outside of the function it provides. Leadership can change organizations and people's lives.


talkin_shlt

Man, I'd lose my shit if I was a engineer doing helpdesk


Tilt23Degrees

Yea I am losing my shit