Network Guy (NG):  NG is a smart, knowledgeable, funny guy.  YT really likes him, and NG is always helpful to YT.  NG isn't always user friendly though.
Helpdesk Girl (HG):  Helpdesk girl is a nice girl, very helpful, not always the most knowledgeable, but thus far not detrimental in anyway.
NAC:  A way of restricting which computers can access the network and what resources they can access once on the network.

Tuesday Morning

Today's story is set in New Building.  YT's org just recently built New Building and over the last few weeks has been moving new users into New Building.  These moves occur on Tuesdays.  This particular Tuesday involved roughly 30 new users moving into New Building.  YT hasn't moved into New Building yet, but is there to help out.  Not long after arriving at New Building, YT overhears NG talking to another co-worker:

NG:  Yeah, we are going to turn on NAC on the 1st floor today.

YT tucks this little nugget of information into the back of his head.

Tuesday Afternoon

The phone rings, on the other end is HG.

HG:  Hey guys, I'm setting up these 5 users on the 1st floor and they are all getting an error message that I have never seen before.  They can't get logged on.
YT:  Hey, I think NG said he was going to turn on NAC on the 1st floor today.  Let me go check with him.
HG:  Oh really?  We had an hour long meeting today, and NG never mentioned that at all!

YT goes to find NG, who happens to be troubleshooting the same problem that HG already called in about.

YT:  Hey, did I hear you say you were going to turn on NAC today?
NG: Yeah, I'm working on fixing it now.  I tested it, but I didn't test logging into the workstations the same way that you guys actually log into them.
YT:  Do you think that maybe a Tuesday wasn't the best time to turn that on?
NG:  Well, it had to be done sometime, and I'd rather do it when there are only 30 users coming into New Building rather then on a week when there are 60 users moving in.

NG guy's manager is standing right there, so YT decides not to bring up the fact that this could have been fully tested and implemented over a weekend when fewer users are in the building.  The team works over the weekend anyway, so there would be plenty of people around to help test and at a minimal impact.

This was not one of NG guy's finest moments.

FUCKING GENIUS!

When last we left YT he was facepalming the genius actions of E-mail Guy who decided to send all of the org's e-mail to a spam filter that he knew was not yet fully configured.  At this point in the day e-mail is working correctly for all users, even though there are still some issues behind the scene to be cleared up.

Monday Afternoon

EG:  Hey buddy, I still see some mail in the mail queues on my e-mail server.

YT takes a look at the mail servers and see some things that are not right.  There are some things that should be running on one of the mailbox servers, but aren't.  YT lets EG know about this via an e-mail and asks EG to investigate and fix.  Shortly after this exchange occurs that involves New Admin (NA).  NA was hired to work on a completely different system and sits directly behind YT.

NA (reading a message on his computer):  Outlook has lost connection with the e-mail server.
YT:  Yeah, I'm reading that too, and it appears that I can't communicate with the e-mail server.  WTF is going on?!  Let me try closing Outlook and reopening it.

YT closes Outlook, reopens, and is able to get back into e-mail.  When he does so he sees an e-mail from EG, which he reads outloud:

EG:  Hey buddy, I see that there is stil e-mail stuck in one of the queues and I see the error message you were talking about.  I am going to try rebooting all of the e-mail servers.

Boss Man (BM) sits behind YT as well and hears what is read.

BM:  Is EG really going to reboot the mail servers during the day?!  With users actively connecting to them?!  Let me give him a call.

BM:  EG are you really rebooting e-mail servers in the middle of the day?!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  You can't reboot a server in the middle of the day!!  What are you thinking?!?!?!
EG:  (after about 5 seconds of pure silence)  Uhhh, well I was going to but I can wait and do it later.  I mean, I rebooted two of them already but I can do the rest later.

FUCKING GENIUS!

E-mail guy (EG): The guy we hired to setup our new e-mail system, basically because we had no other options.  I wanted to fire him after 2 weeks, we just never could find anyone more qualified (which is quite scary!)

Yours Truly (YT):  Uhhh, that would be me.  AKA the guy that EG has a man crush on, and the one that EG turns to whenever he has a problem that he can't solve (which so far has been just about all of them.)

Thursday

EG:  Hey, buddy, I'm ready to start sending mail through the new spam filter.
YT:  No, don't do that EG.  I am not finished configuring it.  It is not ready.
EG:  Oh, ok buddy.  Just let me know when you are

Saturday

EG comes into the office to move mailboxes to the new e-mail servers.  He finished early and has nothing else to do, so he tries to create work for himself.  EG sends out an e-mail to the team:

EG:  I just wanted to give everybody a status update on the new e-mail servers.  I finished moving the mailboxes early.  I went ahead and configure the new e-mail servers to start sending mail to the new spam filter.

Monday Morning

YT arrives at the office to find e-mail sitting in the mail queues on the new spam filter which hasn't been finished being configured, and users complaining that they are getting messages that their e-mails couldn't be delivered.  After scrambling around to work with other members of the team we are able to correct the situation.  YT calls EG to find out what the hell happened.  The entire 10 minute conversation can basically be boiled down to this condensed exchange:

YT:  EG, did you change the e-mail servers to send e-mail to the new spam filter?
EG:  Yeah buddy.  I wanted to get that ready so that when you had the spam filter ready we could start sending mail to it right away.
YT:  EG, when you do that the mail servers start sending e-mail to the spam filter.
EG:  Oh yeah.  I'm sorry buddy.  I guess I should have disabled that setting after I configured it, huh?

Fucking genius!