Manager threatened to fire a colleague, then gave them a critical task – which they flubbed
Nobody noticed for years, at which point the boss realized they had to cover up their poor decision
Welcome to Monday morning, as The Register introduces its reader-contributed column, Who, Me? In this week's installment, we hear from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous, known here as Gordon. Gordon recounts a workplace mishap from his time as an engineer at a major semiconductor corporation.
Gordon rose to become the manager of an engineering team working on a popular PC chipset. During his tenure, he had a colleague who was not performing well. After a discussion, Gordon was tasked with informing the underperforming colleague to step up his game or face termination.
A few weeks later, Gordon's team was assigned the crucial task of performing a full backup of the chipset's production stepping - a significant point release. The backup was intended to serve as a restore point for future use. Gordon assigned this task to his underperforming colleague, believing it was a sensible course of action given his workload.
However, the underperforming colleague's negligence cost him his job. Unbeknownst to Gordon, the colleague decided to delay the backup until after the next stepping was complete, but never informed anyone of this plan. As a result, the colleague was promptly let go.
Fast forward six years, and Gordon found himself in a new situation. A customer approached The Register's parent company, interested in a radiation-hardened version of the old chipset design for use in satellites. The company approached Gordon to locate the backup of the design database.
Gordon and another colleague pieced together what had happened. They searched through old backup tapes, gathering bits and pieces of different chip designs. Once compiled, they handed the data to the customer. The outcome remains uncertain, as Gordon does not know if the customer was able to produce a useful chip or if the project was canceled before any results were realized.
Following this experience, Gordon has become more discerning in assigning critical tasks. He now keeps records of backup requests and confirmation of completed backups. Have you ever mistakenly assigned a job to the wrong person or provided clients with subpar data? If so, share your story with The Register by sending an email to Who, Me?
Written by urgent.news from The Register's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
