Off the Record
Tech pros, do you have a real-life story from the front lines of IT? Send it to offtherecord@infoworld.com. If we publish it, we'll also send you a $50 American Express gift card -- and keep you anonymous.
New networking hire's lazy habits pull down the team
Is the new hire inept or lazy? The networking staff attempts to salvage a bad situation
DDoS or bust! Angry gamers come for IT
When gamers threaten to bring down the system, a tech team battens down the hatches and prepares for the worst
Hack the server room! No tech required
Secret codes and heavy locks on the server room door are no contest when the contractors simply don't do their job
A new manager learns the power of no
Stop the madness! An office newbie discovers the importance of setting priorities and limits
Life lessons: An intern earns his admin privileges
A techie takes his first steps into the workforce and gains valuable insight into corporate culture
Double-crossed: A decade in IT goes down the drain
A loyal, productive techie learns the harsh reality of cutthroat corporate culture at a large company
Execs know best? Not at these companies
IT expertise is no match for execs' stubbornness and agendas, even under dire circumstances
Rejected! 3 lies sink tech contenders
In a hot job market, good hires are crucial, but sometimes, a resume can be too good to be true
Hard drive nosedive exposes backup breakdown
It should've been a simple hard drive swap. Instead, IT must dive into the server’s core for a solution
IT gets a taste of the other side of tech support
In search of a simple service, a techie is frustrated personally and professionally by bad web work
Hotheaded manager backs tech into a corner
A higher-up wants a problem fixed yesterday, and a busy techie has to improvise a quick solution—without alerting upper management
Bad prep puts company’s cash cow out to pasture
The looming Y2K deadline forces a company to reckon with its lack of ongoing maintenance
Servers and scars: The perils of shortcuts
Haste makes waste, as one techie observes on both a professional and a personal level
Cool-headed techie defuses hot-tempered users
The first rule of help desk: Chill out when the heated support calls come in. The solutions will roll in soon after
Just say no to a bad job -- the fun way
Honesty is the best policy when you're interviewing for a job that you already know is not the right fit
Curiosity and chaos: A Unix newbie’s journey
A newbie is off to a grand start in the tech world, until an innocent mistake brings down the house
Got pliers? IT ninja attempts delicate operation
It never hurts to be a jack-of-all-trades in IT, but you can't plan for some job skills
Lax security? Now you're stuck, sucker
Sometimes a security lesson has to hit them where it hurts before the user learns
Motivated and efficient? You don’t belong here
Congrats, you've landed a new job! Too bad poor management and low initiative are the company norm
