Where do I start? Well, I went through a phone screen interview, then a second interview, and they sent me an offer letter. I was specifically told that I would be replacing a person that had quit after going through SCCM training and received a certification. What I was not told was that I would also be replacing a person that did not even hold the same title, experience, or knowledge, that filled more of a Helpdesk role, not an Engineering type role. Not only that, but this role would also be performing tasks/duties that are completely extraneous to the primary role listed in the job description which was never divulged during the interview process. I had a job description in my hand, yet it never, not once described any of the "additional duties" that this company assigned the Senior Desktop Support Engineer role. Not only do they want this role to manage and maintain the SCCM and Intune infrastructure to support the end user desktop environment, they also want this role to perform the following tasks (this is not a joke people):
- Monitor and maintain security cameras.
- Serve a "Facilities Manager" role, meaning, if a light bulb goes out, or a toilet over flows, the Senior Desktop Support Engineer role must report it (I am dead serious).
- Users were literally stopping the individual, that I was going to be replacing, in the hallway and asking him to unlock their user accounts, or to come over to their cubicle and resolve their Outlook issues, or whatever else issue they were experiencing rather than contacting the actual and official Helpdesk for these menial problems. This is a true sign of mis-management.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me was when I took a closer look at the transition plan and saw that I would be performing tasks listed above that I NEVER agreed to. The person I was going to replace even took a ladder and replaced a security camera, that was it for me.
Because the United States has horrible "At-Will" laws, companies like this can get away with this. I flew to Texas on my own dime from Oregon and lived out of an extended stay hotel for two weeks. I am 43, have 3 degrees, 17 years experience in IT and to be treated like this was something I would have never imagined. Needless to say, I walked out, flew back to Oregon and never looked back. This is another example of a company trying to treat someone as a "Wage Slave" and not rendering the respect that someone deserves. This company lost a $124M per year contract with some prospect in Canada, so apparently they think they can just squeeze every bit of labor juice out of someone no matter how inequitable it is, because in the good ol' US of A, they obviously can without any consequences. I have had enough of it. Everyone, no matter what political persuasion, needs to contact their Legislators, State Representatives and demand reform when it comes to "At-Will" employment laws, because this has to stop.
