Where to start when the Head of the IT department quit without work and did not transfer the case?

Question

System administration

In this situation, I ask for your help dear. The situation is as follows, my boss (of the IT department) came on Monday and said that he was leaving and he had to leave tomorrow, while he promised to be on the phone and you can call him for all questions, which I strongly doubt. The fact is that he (my boss) was of the opinion that I won’t write anything down, let them call me later and ask, and I’ll already think about helping me or not, in short, I did everything to be irreplaceable.
They told me to take over, but they don’t put me in his place, supposedly if you last a month or a half, we’ll look and maybe make him a leader. I am aware of most issues, but only superficially, because he did some things himself about which I only heard, but I don’t know the details.
I sit and thoughts fly by, what to do first, I would like to read about the experience of people who found themselves in similar situations and how they acted. Thanks for answers.

Answer 1

> The fact is that he (my boss) was of the opinion that I won’t write anything down, let them call me later and ask, and now I’ll think about helping me or not, in short, I did everything to be irreplaceable.
Immediately an indicator that if you happen to have an ass, you will not get adequate help from him.
Your former boss has ALREADY created a conflict situation, and it is not recommended to be his petitioner. Try to do as much as possible without his help 1 on 1, try to request all the help to him officially. It is possible in writing (in an email, copying someone's thread from the manual) A
normal person, when leaving, is obliged to hand over things normally. With a brief knowledge base on all the services that he served. If this does not happen - this is already a conflict.
> I was told to take over, but they don’t put him in his place, supposedly you’ll last a month or a half, we’ll see and maybe make him a leader.
Demand, if not the position of the head, then a bonus in the amount of his salary all the time while you will be doing his job. A month and a half is just the period for which you can figure it out to support the main critical systems. That is, you have the MOST difficult term of your work, and you are not promised to compensate for this?
Make sure that you either take on his cases, with the same pay, or let them immediately look for another. (And they won’t find another in 2 days, so push and be persistent in the issue of payment. They will feel weakness, and you can handle it - you will become a director but you will receive half as much as the previous one. Also, your former position will be reduced).
> I am aware of most issues, but only superficially, because he did some things himself about which I only heard, but I don’t know the details.
To assume someone's responsibilities, those responsibilities must at least be described. Job description? List of services for which you should be responsible?
If the office is so dull that no one is able to formulate duties, then everything is even sadder.
Describe everything you know, ask the former boss to describe in writing all the duties for which he was responsible, with maximum details. Keep all correspondence in email. Talk to the management of the company, and decide who you will include in CC so that they see all the correspondence between you and the former boss.
In the letters, ask any questions that you will not seem too adequately explained.
You may not ask how to set up kde under freebsd, but the names of the products used, access, contacts, on which servers what is located - these are the main questions. Your task is to find out everything before the moment when you can google the rest yourself.
> I sit and thoughts rush by, what to take first, I would like to read about the experience of people who found themselves in similar situations and how they acted. Thanks for answers.
Try to talk directly (1 on 1) with someone who in your company really depends on the salary, and say that you are ready to try to master everything, but you want a full-time job for the time that you will work hard. Understand right away that if you are the head of a department, you should beat out money not for yourself, but for the entire department. Therefore, immediately announce how many people you need to hire in the department (for example, instead of yourself, if you leave for the boss), and immediately knock out a rate for this person, even if you don’t hire him right away, but the costs for the department must be established.
As for cases, first take a list of everything that needs to be supported and sort it according to the degree of criticality. Forget everything that users can do without for a couple of days, list critical business moments and find out how to solve them. After that, slowly rake up all the rest of the garbage.
In the early days, you must clearly decide whether you can pull out all the business-critical processes. All the rest of the little things can be disassembled along the way. But if suddenly the shipment of goods or some critical server crashes, and you have no idea what to do, you should not take on such a thing.
PS Damn, in approximately the same way I grew out of an enikey worker, though my boss left a brief knowledge base and left not so suddenly. But yes, I had to learn a lot right off the bat.
PS From the point of view of the boss, always think a little wider - now you can make decisions about changing the products you use, and so on, the main thing is to learn how to justify this economically for those who pay.

Answer 2

I would start with an inventory... a global inventory
1. Equipment, jobs, server room, etc.
2. Current open projects and tasks (if there is no special software, you need to deploy something free, I use the manager myself )
3. Communication - providers, contracts, accounts, etc.
4. Interaction with clients and related departments
5. List of open questions - send to everyone who is involved in them, clients, managers, heads of other departments
Well, after you structure everything, describe (expand the local wiki if it is not there - and there is a description, and discussion of everything that happens), raise and update all existing regulations.
something like that in my opinion.

Answer 3

I would send nafig with such proposals. If you do not guarantee a place - demand an increased payment for this period.

Answer 4

my boss (of the IT department) came on Monday and said he was leaving

Today or a week ago?
If today - go to the director and resolve the issue so that it is not calculated, the bypass is not signed and the labor is not given until you accept the case - personally or remotely.
An unmeasured amount of fixed assets, spare parts and accounting tools hangs on it - there is a formal reason to do so.

Answer 5

Any person in the course of his career growth. reaches the peak of his incompetence during his promotion.
In a word, when you come to a new position through promotion, you are always incompetent.
Take it upon yourself to define the scope of responsibilities, otherwise they will hang too much on you. Who needs it? :)

Answer 6

1. an application addressed to the director in 2 copies with an incoming number about existing problems and missing data
2. an act of acceptance and transfer
3. an order to appoint you as the head of the department

Answer 7

Of course, you can run away from all these "problems", or you can level up in a two-month bustle and then decide whether to leave or not.
Pumping will consist in solving the problems that have arisen before you. Even if you are thrown with a promotion, at least you will gain experience, and this is important. Think about this situation in a positive way.
Get a notebook, write down all the points for analysis, prioritize and practice them.
In parallel with the discussion with the devotee, read the book System and Network Administration. Practical... and in a couple of months you will become much more valuable as a specialist.
It's my opinion. I left under the wing of the head of a department in one organization, became "my own boss" in another large organization, I had to solve a lot of issues that I had not encountered before, establish communications, etc., but you know, I got out :)
Good luck!

Answer 8

No matter how strange it may sound, but on the contrary, I am looking forward to such a situation and such a chance with pleasure :)
I would take a chance and try what would come of it. Of course, there are many different circumstances and reasons for doubt, but it will always be.
If the authorities want to deceive, they will do it one way or another. I would knock out as much as possible everything that is possible on the shore, and then I would do what I can.

Answer 9

All IT leaders are different. Some are specialists in work, others are specialists in building relationships.
Someone is a good organizer, and someone vice versa.
In any case, in your situation, everything is purely individual. You need to understand what he was doing, and start by continuing his work.
But judging by what you write, your director was a very good specialist. And so you have only one option. Either grow up to his level, or go further downstream

Answer 10

Hello, topikstarter!
First of all, ask yourself if you are ready to do this and if you are ready for the consequences.
Depending on the answer to these two questions, either take on the task that comes across, or look for another place (comrades say that the boss did not decide to leave from scratch).
However, my boss was fired one day, and the reasons for the dismissal are unknown to anyone except the higher management.
On the case:
1) Documentation - look at what gaps it has. Priority in descending order - inventory (hardware, systems, grid, addresses, etc.), then instructions / procedures, then what remains on the little things
2) Colleagues and potential subordinates - talk to everyone, see who is experiencing what problems. Even if you and the manager are half-assed, you are responsible for them
3) With whom will you have to keep in touch? Neighboring departments, management, etc. Make contacts.
To be honest, I would have requested (precisely requested) a half salary increase as an interim, and then a full one to a managerial one. All these "you work, and we will think" never end well.
Good luck.

Answer 11

Oh, nostalgia, it's like I'm an assistant in the automation department in one office, with a dubious reputation, I got a job. As a result, when the company scored 100,500 orders, with fabulous promises, and my manager came up with a "clear scheme", which, in his opinion, should have become the most specifically capable in the region - in the end I realized that I couldn’t cope with this and, in general, flew over large - quietly dumped, declaring "everything will work, even a child can handle it." As a result, when he left, they put me in his place, I began to understand all this shit, where I was not initiated and realized that trying to sell cash registers on Linux software (already forgot the name), which was only in beta version, does not support at the moment and half of the functionality promised to customers, and most importantly, to let fiscal and non-fiscal checks from one cash register from an incompatible inventory, without a test stand and a margin of time of at least half a year - A very stupid idea. As a result, I somehow made a crooked handler that exchanged a cash register directory with a 1C inventory config, and the boss began to blackmail "Until you do everything that your boss promised, we won't give out a salary" - quit to hell.

Answer 12

I myself have such an "irreplaceable" boss, only he hasn't quit yet, but everything is going))) I've been "spying" on him for 2 years now and using all sorts of tricks to extract information from him. Why didn't you do that?

Answer 13

Think what you need.
If you want to improve your skills - go ahead. Inventory, look at all the servers under a magnifying glass, task tracker and let's go.
If there is no desire to pull up skills - hammer it. If they wanted to promote you, they would have told you directly about it, and not "we'll see." The only thing I advise you to discuss about the bonus - perhaps they meant that "let's see if you can be a leader - if it doesn't grow together, then we will give you a bonus for extra work." There are people who are really not destined to work as a leader (they don’t get along with people, for example).

Answer 14

I just left my post at DC. Here's some advice for the future - appreciate the staff and pay accordingly. Otherwise, no matter how you write everything down there, an offended IT specialist will find a way to feed you. Where to begin? With a review of their attitude and analysis of the reasons for such a departure.

Answer 15

focus on Marat Yuldashev
, but it is necessary to prioritize absolutely all issues - and, according to this gradation, work them out - both current and newly arriving ..

Answer 16

Since, as I understand it, you need to get up to speed quickly, I would do the following in this situation:
- I would talk separately (one on one) with everyone involved in the process in order to understand what's what. In the course of the discussions, it will become clear what condition and for what reason the person left.
- Further - I would find out what condition (from the material and technical base) remained in what condition.
If you go from the state of the material and technical base that you got into management, you can miss the understanding of the processes and communications between its participants. And since these are the main components of the sphere of responsibility of any leader, then most likely, in this area lies the reason for the dismissal, and it is with clarification of the details on these two parameters (processes and communications) that we must begin.

Answer 17

It is not clear from the question how large the company is, how many (of course, approximately) employees and departments, whether there are separate divisions (branches, representative offices) in the regions, what exactly the IT department is responsible for.
The first thing to do is to do everything so that the current issues of the department are resolved no less quickly than now. To do this, you should listen to the boss while he is in place. If possible, take an inventory of the economy for which the department is responsible, extract all possible documentation on the functionality of the available hardware and software, equipment connection diagrams, specifications of tasks solved by specific equipment (for example, a server), network laying diagrams (cable logs), a list of the most frequently emerging typical problems of the IT department and methods for solving them. It is also a good idea to bypass subcontractors with whom there is interaction, make acquaintances, find out for each circle of interaction issues and decide on specific actions on them. But it can be done in the second place.
Well, then - build work with your direct management and subcontractors, gradually expand the range of tasks - and do not forget to write down and document everything.

Answer 18

There was a similar problem, I started by talking with the manager, I got information from her on current affairs. Actually, that's how it dragged on.