A brief tale

A major network upgrade is scheduled for the weekend at this IT shop, and that means one of the techs will have to come in and babysit the process, says a pilot fish in the know.

"It's usually no big deal," fish says. "You come in and start a backup and wait for it to get done, then start the upgrade and wait for it to get done. Lots of sitting around. In the past, technicians would bring a book, surf the net, sleep or whatever to pass the time.

"Early Saturday afternoon, one of the senior techs is in the neighborhood, and decides to drop in to see how the upgrade is going.

"He walks into the data center to find the other tech sitting at his desk, boots propped up on a table, playing the guitar -- and not a stitch on except his underwear.

"We're still not sure why he had put his boots back on, but it caused us all to shudder at the mental picture.

"The technician ended up leaving for other pastures before long -- but not before there were new directives that wearing clothes while at work was required, even during non-business hours.

"When he left, we retired his chair to surplus, as no one wanted to sit in it."

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