Randolph West has a series of career-limiting moves, which sadly I had missed until now. I’ll make up for that by linking the whole series.
For whatever reason, we ran the script in the Oracle SQL*Plus client, which Wikipedia generously describes as “the most basic” database client.
Cut to the part where we run the script. The
DROP TABLEcommand was run successfully and committed, but the previous step where the data was moved had failed.The entire table was gone.
Second, saying “no” at the wrong time:
My job was to provide technical support to a senior staff member, and I said no because I was busy on something that was, for all intents and purposes, not as important.
This was of course escalated very quickly to the managing director, who in turn shouted at my boss, who in turn shouted at me. If I recall correctly, my boss eventually helped his colleague with her important problem and only reamed me out after the fact.
Third, playing the blame game:
She explained to me that whether or not that was the case, the language was totally inappropriate and calling a vendor on the weekend for something that did not constitute an emergency was unprofessional. In any number of scenarios, I could have been fired for my behaviour.
Chastened, I took away several important lessons: it doesn’t matter whose fault something is. The job had to be done, and I was around to do it. Furthermore, it is important never to be caught bad-mouthing someone on the record, no matter how good a relationship you have with a vendor. It will always come back to bite you.
His current in the series is Reply All, in which he’s looking for your stories.