Credit goes to /u/CornyHoosier for posting here.
I took a low level job at a new city I moved to because I needed work asap. The company was being bought out by a larger company and so had fired all their IT staff. I was the (only) person brought in to do the short-term support and tear-down. Keep in mind, this new company literally marched the old IT staff out of the building with no warning when I walked in on day 1. I had no a knowledge of software, infrastructure or any passwords other than a domain account. Fast forward: After a month or so there things were going pretty smoothly. I had broken into most of the major systems and prevented anything large from crashing. The director who was put in charge of the takeover project was non-technical and based in the Midwest, so thought I was out there slaying dragons and heaped nothing but praise on me as all deadlines were being met. However, one day something crazy happened... As I'm sitting in my office I hear a HUGE boom and the entire building begins to shake. Suddenly there are large cracks all around the doors frames, things have fallen everywhere and people are freaking the fuck out. I assume some sort of gas main exploded. Now you should know, I'm not little guy. At 6'4 ~270 lbs I am a fucking bulldozer that you should never get in the way of, and my fight or flight response (definitely flight mode) was in full gear. The primary door to get out of the facility was solid wood. I could see a few of my older coworkers fidgeting with it trying to get it open as I peeled around the corner. At my full booming voice I simply yelled, "MOVE" and charged this thing at a full sprint. I threw my entire weight at the door ... and it moved about 2 inches. I was on the floor (with a now injured shoulder) and already scrambling to get up. The build was still tremoring a little bit and everyone just saw a guy my size barely able to budge the door. Needless to say panic immediately set in. One of the other staffers mentioned another exit door and the entire office is now flooding that way. It was crazy seeing little old women in their office attire throw their heels off and run down back exit stairs. As we flood out into the parking lot we notice that no other building in the area have evacuated and I didn't see any smoke (so my gas line explosion was out). The other floors of the ~6 story building were streaming out behind us when someone notices the cause of the problem. People are pointing at the giant cement pillars that were the support structure for the building. They are literally cracking in front of us and hunks of cement are falling to the ground. A shit ton of firefighters showed up and everyone was told to go home and wait for instructions. (The reason the door didn't budge from earlier was because the floor had shifted and so the door wasn't able to open) Over the next few days the brand new multi-million dollar building is temporarily condemned and a temporary site is rented nearby for people to work at. While setting up my laptop at the new site I get a call from my boss. They heard all about the building incident, but there is a ton of data in the building (this was a healthcare company so some of that customer data is quite vital as well). He asks if I'm still able to complete the project. I remind him that I was a lowly paid sub-contractor with no health benefits and he was asking me to go into a condemned building. We end the call and he said he would call me right back. Sure enough, 10 minutes later I get a call and he told me to "say my price". I think it over and reply that I want a $10,000 bonus and free reign of anything in the office (expept for harddrives, which I would box and return to corporate). Without a moment's hesitation he agreed. I had him and his boss both send signed confirmation emails before I was going to get started. I'll be honest, I was a bit worried going into the building, but the city and county had both sent inspector who approved that the bracing on the pillars were secure and people could go back in if needed, just not for day to day work. So I went in and got to work. Within a day or two I stripped every hard drive I could from every system and server had it boxed up and ready to send. Then I got down to real business. I rented a UHaul van and a small storage place nearby and started to get stuff out: I immediately went for tons of brand new laptops, monitors, (6) 70 inch TVs, multiple Cisco servers, routers & switches, 3-4 Paladin networking tool sets, several HD projectors, new plotters, new industrial printers, standard printers, mini refrigerators, authentic artwork, executive chairs & every sort of peripheral and bit of technology you could imagine (as well as a bunch of healthcare equipment. I didn't know what it did, but it seemed expensive). I stripped the place bare in almost two weeks, by myself, working well into the evening most nights. I didn't know my new city very well and had no friends, so I threw myself into this project. I ended up getting another storage unit because I ran out of room in the first one. When I was done and figured everything of value I could move myself was gone, I called my boss to update him on the progress. They were ecstatic! They were so happy they ended up adding an extra couple grand to the $10,000 I asked for, gave me amazing written references and offered me a job with their local corporate office (which I accepted). I ended up working for them for a year before moving on to something bigger and better. Regardless, it took me about a year to slowly sell off all the equipment I got. After subtracting the stuff I wanted to keep for myself, I ended up making more off the resale of the items than I did with the bonus + contract + year of working for them.
Submitted June 24, 2016 at 08:57AM by KindOne http://ift.tt/28QtZ67 talesfromtechsupport
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