The short path from cost cutting to smut peddling

Years ago, I worked at the headquarters of a large manufacturer with a number of plants in various locations. This manufacturer was eventually taken over by a bigger one. The management team of the first company had its faults, but overall it was a decent place to work. But the new managers took over, and we saw how bad things could really get.

Cutting costs was the priority the minute the new managers had keys to their offices. They put pressure on the various plant managers to do whatever it took to make and save money. Soon the economy took a dive, and the new execs closed plants for a week or two at a time to further save costs, giving employees a “furlough” of unpaid leave.

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During these closures, several of us from the main office were sent to the locations to help the IT admins with tech maintenance, taking advantage of the break in production. At one plant, we saw firsthand what a blend of bad management, poorly qualified IT admins, and unprofessional employee behavior can do to a work environment.

We knew this particular plant would be a challenge because its previous two-person IT team had not been very qualified for the job, and we later found out that the plant managers worked them 60-plus hours a week at very low wages. One of them was caught stealing and reselling computer equipment, and the other was rumored to have had a breakdown and quit. These two admins had just been replaced with only one person — better qualified, but already overworked.

We arrived at the site and got started. Our job was to re-IP each computer and printer, run updates on all systems, and install the corporate antivirus software. We very quickly discovered that the former IT pair had installed Symantec Antivirus on all 300 PCs — the home edition. To top it off, they’d botched the updates, so not one of these systems was running a current virus definition.

We ended up having to remove the old software, reboot the machines, then install the corporate antivirus software onto each system. In addition, one out of three PCs had some sort of virus on it that we had to scrub off with a boot disk before we could install the corporate upgrade. I hoped this was the biggest challenge we’d run into. But then I started working on a PC in the shipping department.

As expected by this point, it had a virus, and I booted it to the floppy to start cleaning it. The problem was the PC was so badly contaminated that even the floppy couldn’t clear it. I took the PC off the network and brought it up locally to see if I could find something obvious.

Did I ever! I saw a number of JPG and AVI files and opened a few. What I saw would shock a zombie: It seems the shipping department was running a porn server using that PC.

I pulled the PC into the IT area and brought in the plant’s new admin. This was way above my paygrade and a complete violation of company policy. He was as shocked as I was and started documenting what had been found, while I went to work in another area of the plant.

Our team finished our task and returned home. It turns out the geniuses in that shipping department were running an internal porn mailing list. Needless to say, at the next round of layoffs for that plant, everyone on the list found themselves “redundant to needs” and on the unemployment line.

When I saw him again, I asked the plant’s admin why they hadn’t fired these employees. He said that HR hadn’t wanted to deal with the hassle and paperwork, knew layoffs were coming, and got rid of those employees then.

The manufacturing company floundered even if — or perhaps because of — their severe cost-cutting attempts. People left when they could, layoffs continued, and eventually plants started closing.

I’d been looking for work but got laid off before I could find anything. But fairly soon I got a contract at another company. Compared to where I’d just come from, the new place was like a vacation for me — employees were treated like an asset rather than a liability. But that’s something too many managers forget.

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This story, “The short path from cost cutting to smut peddling,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more crazy-but-true stories in the anonymous Off the Record blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.