So, of all the people in IT where I work at the college, we only have one "real" OSX "Mac' user, that understands networking, and active/open directory, and the like.
Sure several of us have college provided OSX laptops that we use to support the user population, and help in our roles of application support I am one of those folks, because, with 20% of the college having and using OSX machines to retrieve email, I need to be able to answer a question when it comes in.
Unlike Windows PC's, you cannot easily "join" the Active Directory domain with a Mac. Sure there is a button under logon options to join, but, it doesn't really join the machine, it just "binds" itself to the AD DNS.
So, having said all that, my bosses boss, walked up to my desk today, and said "Alex" needs help joining a MacBook Pro, running OSX Lion Server to AD. Right now.
I responded that I do not have server, and that I have never been able to get an OSX machine to "join" to our AD. I did say, like a good minion, that I could see if I can figure it out, and let him know.
He disappears for 3 minutes, comes back with HIS boss, and both of them standing in fron of my cube state that Alex needs help now, and say, lets go. So, Now, with a growing sense of doom, I follow along, only to have my bosses' boss stop in front of me, and wave me forward, so that I am now trapped like a piece of roast beef between two pieces of sourdough bread. Like I was going to try and slip away or something.
So, we arrive in CIO's office. Alex is sitting there, and he is speaking with someone, and waves us in. I go in, and the Executive Directors that came with me stayed outside. I began to feel even more uncomfortable. I stood there for about 45 seconds, and then went ahead and slipped out.
Standing there, they are having a conversation about some meeting that they were both supposed to be attending in a few minutes from then, and BIG Boss then say to big boss, that he was going to slip away, just as Alex finished up with person he was speaking, and looking at the three of us says come on in....
Now we are trapped. Or, more accurately, I am trapped.
In the 2 minutes of "figuring it out" at my desk, I had found the first screen, and "guessed" what information that was needed for the different boxes, but, I hadn't got to test anything.
Walking into his office, I see that he was at the same screen, and he says to the Directors, "what information do I use in these boxes, and at this point, I bluffed my way through it, and miracle of all miracles, it worked.
But the point of this is that he should not have put me in that situation, where after telling your boss that you have NO experience at what he was asking, and insisting that I figure it out, on the fly, in front of the highest IT person in the college.
What if I had screwed it up, or, because I didn't know some subtle thing, failed. Do I really want to fail in front of that guy? Who is he going to remember next time its time to get rid of some folks.
Later, I saw my boss' boss, and told him that I was upset with him for "dropping me in the boiling cauldron" (direct quote). And the dude just laughed at me! Laughed! Thought I was being funny. Thought I was cracking a joke. Thought that the conversation was me pulling his leg.
Amazing.
I hate my job today.
Shalom.
Namaste, My Friends.
See You On The Other Side.