That Time Things Went Sideways
Man, seeing that old server rack again really brought back some memories. Specifically, about this one time at my old gig. Let’s just call it the ‘forboden’ incident because, well, that’s what it felt like afterward.
So, we had this ancient database system. Super slow, barely held together with digital duct tape. Management knew, everyone knew, but fixing it? Nah, “no budget,” “not a priority,” you know the drill. Trying to get any real work done involving that thing was like pulling teeth.
I got fed up one Tuesday. Had a report due, and the system was just crawling. I remembered hearing whispers about an old admin tool, something supposedly locked down tight because it could mess things up bad if you didn’t know exactly what you were doing. Definitely not something regular folks like me were supposed to touch. It felt… forbidden.
So, what did I do? Late that afternoon, when things were quiet, I started poking around. Found the tool buried deep in some network share. No fancy security, just obscurity. Classic. Fired it up. Looked simple enough, just needed to run a quick cleanup script I thought might speed things up. I glanced over my shoulder, felt that little thrill, you know? The “should I really be doing this?” feeling. Clicked ‘run’.
- Checked the connection. Seemed okay.
- Selected the maintenance script. Looked harmless.
- Hit the execute button.
For about five glorious minutes, things seemed faster. I was thinking, “Ha! Told you so!” Started pulling my report data. Then… bam. Everything froze. Not just my query, the whole system. Phones started ringing. People couldn’t log in. Uh oh.
Turns out, that “harmless” script wasn’t so harmless on the live database. It started locking tables, then crashed the main process. Took the senior tech guys, the ones actually allowed to touch that stuff, nearly three hours to bring it back online. Three hours of pure panic for me, trying to look busy and not throw up.
The fallout? Oh yeah, there was fallout. Got hauled into my manager’s office the next day. Then his manager’s office. Lots of stern faces, talk about procedures, unauthorized access. Didn’t get fired, surprisingly, but got a formal warning slapped in my file. And guess who was suddenly ‘forboden’ from touching anything remotely related to database maintenance? Or anything critical, really. My access got locked down tighter than Fort Knox.
It changed things. Felt like I was walking on eggshells after that. Couldn’t really take initiative anymore, always second-guessing. Honestly, it’s part of why I started looking elsewhere. That feeling of being watched, of being the guy who broke the forbidden toy… yeah, not fun. Stayed there another six months maybe, but the vibe was just gone. Ended up leaving for the place I’m at now. Much better here, thankfully. But yeah, that ‘forboden’ feeling? Still remember it clear as day sometimes.
