Mail Down Melt Down
The school I work for needs to upgrade the mail server. The tech director for the school sent an announcement of the upgrade thirty days before the scheduled date, which we’d target for a professional development day (no students in house, teachers all in workshops all day), and the administrative office signed off on the date. Weekly reminders went out that the email would go offline at 4 AM that morning, with anticipated restoration by 4 PM that same day.
My team all arrive at the office, verify mail backups completed, and take down the server. We get two hours into the upgrade when our data center phone starts ringing. The supervisor answers on speakerphone so we can all keep doing our individual tasks for the upgrade.
The building principal starts screaming at us about the email being down.
Principal: “What the f*** is going on?!”
Supervisor: “We’re upgrading the mail server. A notification was sent out a month ago by [Tech Director], and weekly reminders were sent. The admin office signed off on it. We’re planned to be offline until 4 PM.”
Principal: *Still yelling.* “That’s unacceptable. I need my email NOW! If you don’t get it back up in the next ten minutes, I’m calling the superintendent!”
Supervisor: “Okay, we’ll get on that.”
He hangs up and calls the tech director, waking him up. He explains the situation, and the tech director says to hold on. Thirty seconds later, he comes back on with the Superintendent (whom the tech director had gotten out of bed). They tell us to mute our phones and conference in the principal.
Superintendent: “[Principal], did you call the data center and yell at the IT staff to disregard the upgrade and restore mail service?”
Principal: “I never raised my voice. I only inquired about when the mail would be restored.”
Superintendent: “[Supervisor], please unmute the phone. Is the entire team listening?”
Supervisor: “Yes.”
Superintendent: “[Principal], the upgrade has been scheduled and approved by the administrative team, and the work WILL be completed regardless of your needs because the work will benefit the entire organization. The IT team does NOT answer to you. Any further interaction with IT staff will be through the tech director ONLY, regardless of the need. If you want to keep your job, you owe the entire IT staff an apology. Immediately.”
Principal: “Could we discuss this issue privately?”
Superintendent: “No, and there is a thirty-second expiration for the apology, and the clock is ticking…”
The principal apologized and was told to hang up. The superintendent told the tech director to let him know if the principal gave him any pushback and thank the IT staff for their work. We got back to work, and had the upgrade done, data restored, and mail service running again by about 10 AM.
That was only one example of how cool that superintendent was, and he was a total bad-a** to boot.
