But presumably your IT department would have recognised this risk and had set up a system to regularly back up the data?
I worked at a place with two part keys. Luckily the shaft had a screw fitting to secure the head firmly.One of my first more important jobs was doing the admin for a well known clothing store. Just a typical day cashing up and going into and out of the safe...
What we used to do was leave the safe key in the lock. It was a two part safe key that is designed so that you can keep both parts separate and link them only when using the safe. ( 0==== + ==MM) = (0======MM)
Being well used it was well known for falling off. Just my luck I managed to split the key when it was inside the lock. The key head dropped inside and I pulled out the shaft. Now we had an open safe that we cannot close with about 20-30k worth of cash inside.
I had to tell my boss who was less than pleased to say the least. Fortunately I managed to resolve the issue thanks to a Houdini escapology trick. Other than my boss being stunned at my safe cracking skills nothing else was said. However, a new key was ordered.
Accidentally printing a 200 page A4 report on our A0 plotter printer...
I had one today which I'm not sure is strictly a cock up. Had a customer tell me I hadn't done all I could to help, after being on the phone to them for thirty minutes trying to help I told them the only thing I hadn't done to help was call to their house and try and fix their gas boiler myself which I'm not qualified to do. Don't think I would be in bother in work though, I was polite when I said it.
Ha ha, nightmare. This is the worst time of year where I work. The customer I was dealing with was in a horrible situation but I tried to get the boiler fixed same day and also offered the alternative of a hotel stay which the company would pay for. The customer wasn't happy with a hotel stay and I couldn't get an engineer and the relevant parts there same day. Stalemate.That reminds me of a friend of mine who’s a plumber/gas fitter.
He told me last year that he’d replaced a load of parts on a lady’s boiler down in Starcross and given her the bill. Week after week went by and she didn’t pay him despite numerous calls and reminder letters.
In the end he realised that she had no intention of paying for the work and in anger he decided to take matters into his own hands.
He went to the house one afternoon and the lady’s teenage son answered the door so he told him that he had to finish off some work on the boiler.
The son let him in and left him to it.
My friend then isolated the boiler and took the new parts off, replaced them with the old broken parts (that he’d kept in his garage) and stuck a ‘CONDEMNED!’ sticker on the boiler.
He told me about this just after his second police interview under caution when he’d just managed to avoid being struck off (oh and after he’d finally confessed to his wife who still wasn’t talking to him)...
It turns out you’re not allowed to do that kind of thing.
Funny how when someone doesn't pay you your due it's 'not a police matter' but as soon as rough justice is dispensed then they can't wait to get involved. Double standards.That reminds me of a friend of mine who’s a plumber/gas fitter.
He told me last year that he’d replaced a load of parts on a lady’s boiler down in Starcross and given her the bill. Week after week went by and she didn’t pay him despite numerous calls and reminder letters.
In the end he realised that she had no intention of paying for the work and in anger he decided to take matters into his own hands.
He went to the house one afternoon and the lady’s teenage son answered the door so he told him that he had to finish off some work on the boiler.
The son let him in and left him to it.
My friend then isolated the boiler and took the new parts off, replaced them with the old broken parts (that he’d kept in his garage) and stuck a ‘CONDEMNED!’ sticker on the boiler.
He told me about this just after his second police interview under caution when he’d just managed to avoid being struck off (oh and after he’d finally confessed to his wife who still wasn’t talking to him)...
It turns out you’re not allowed to do that kind of thing.
That reminds me of a friend of mine who’s a plumber/gas fitter.
He told me last year that he’d replaced a load of parts on a lady’s boiler down in Starcross and given her the bill. Week after week went by and she didn’t pay him despite numerous calls and reminder letters.
In the end he realised that she had no intention of paying for the work and in anger he decided to take matters into his own hands.
He went to the house one afternoon and the lady’s teenage son answered the door so he told him that he had to finish off some work on the boiler.
The son let him in and left him to it.
My friend then isolated the boiler and took the new parts off, replaced them with the old broken parts (that he’d kept in his garage) and stuck a ‘CONDEMNED!’ sticker on the boiler.
He told me about this just after his second police interview under caution when he’d just managed to avoid being struck off (oh and after he’d finally confessed to his wife who still wasn’t talking to him)...
It turns out you’re not allowed to do that kind of thing.
There’s definitely a poetic justice element of that to doing that. Did the woman end up paying?
Although clearly a risky strategy, and not one I would condone (albeit in his position I’d be tempted to do the same). Doing that is likely to constitute criminal damage and would carry the risk of a manslaughter charge if the boiler was used and ended up exploding of asphyxiating the occupants.
I bet he will go down the small claims court route next time that happens!
In my IT life I did once bring the system to a halt at 2pm. I had been running an important batch job over the quiet lunch time period. This was against the rules but I knew that it wouldn't hurt at that time with the priority set to low. It was still running at 2 so I killed it. What I hadn't realised was that all the security settings were wrong and rather than just stopping it carefully backed out all the changes to the temporary work files at maximum priority, blocking everything else until it finished. I would probably have got away with it if I had just let it run.
Not my one but someone sent out a pre-Christmas mass mailing with the title "Is Satan Coming Down Your Chimney This Christmas?"
Not my doing, but I was told of how you'd think a school's academic planner may have been a cheese order form...
...It was spotted the day before they printed around 1500 of them that they had the word "dairy" in large print across the front rather than "diary". Cue a hasty update being sent to the printing company...
The England cricketer Ashley Giles had, as part of his benefit season with Warwickshire, mugs made with the legend 'King of Spin': trouble was they actually read 'King of Spain' If it happened today he'd probably be extradited to Madrid and face a 25 year jail sentence for sedition.
Saw the King Of Spain play for England a few times at Old Trafford. Ha ha.The England cricketer Ashley Giles had, as part of his benefit season with Warwickshire, mugs made with the legend 'King of Spin': trouble was they actually read 'King of Spain' If it happened today he'd probably be extradited to Madrid and face a 25 year jail sentence for sedition.
Not me personally but a couple of years back a friend accidentally sent about 3000 pages to print using the school printer as he'd gone right to the bottom corner of a spreadsheet and entered text and forgot about it when it came to printing out the work we'd done during lesson. The technicians had to be called to sort it out, it took all morning to stop the job.
Safe to say all members of the class, including the teacher, made sure he never forgot about it for the rest of the course.