Rejecting a promotion sent field service tech into support hell

Preston, a field service technician in the late 1990s, declined a promotion to consultancy. He enjoyed working at clients' sites and appreciated the appreciation from his colleagues. Preston's colleague, however, took the promotion and soon struggled with projects, such as reconfiguring Windows NT 4.0 servers, configuring backup systems, and ensuring uninterruptible power supplies.

Preston continued with his own work, but the quality of the colleague's performance deteriorated rapidly. One customer even refused to work with the consultant after witnessing a major database wipe. Preston also faced issues, including a system that daily downed the power and an improperly installed UPS. To protect his company, Preston covered for his incompetent colleague.

Eventually, he quit IT services and became a trainer. He emphasized the importance of learning from mistakes made by others when installing and faultfinding on customer sites, and warned against relying on the previous person's work.