There must me something in the NJ water.

OK, what is going on with Sys Admins in New Jersey? Now we have 2 high profile cases of logic bombs being set in New Jersey by disgruntled Sys Admins. I just don't understand the mindset of someone who would get so upset over something that they would be willing to potentially destroy a company and the jobs of those who work for the company. Not to mention the downstream effect that it could have.

Don't get me wrong. I get upset with my boss and even my company as a whole at times. I've been done wrong in the past. I've worked my butt off only to have a boss take the credit. I've worked long hours and never even gotten a thank you from management. I've been promised things that were never delivered. Lost "guaranteed" bonuses. On and on and on and on. Yet it never entered my mind to try and destroy the company. Planting a logic bomb or erasing data........ never even considered it.

In 2002 my wife was pregnant with our first child. I was the WAN Security Administrator for a small regional financial services company. My boss called me in one day and told me that he wanted me to start researching some companies that we could outsource some functions to. He gave me a list of requirements and off I went. As I looked over the requirements it hit me that MY job was what I was asked to find a replacement for, among other things. You can read a little about it in this Redmond Magazine article. It's about half way through the article under the heading "Hiring Your Replacement". Did I get mad and devise ways to bring the company to their knees? No, I did as I was asked. The way I figured it was that I worked for them and this was a project that I had been given. As long as it wasn't illegal or unethical then who as I to refuse to do it. Of course I had to do some work after hours to get things in place to get a new job, but I still did my current position to the best of my ability. I did find a company to outsource my job to and I did get laid off and I left in good standing. After about a year they decided that outsourcing the job wasn't the way to go and brought the position back in house. Since I had left in good standing I could have gone back to that position if I wanted.

Things worked out well for me in the long run. I was able to get a position that allowed me to learn many new things that I would not have learned otherwise. I'm making more money and my career is heading in the direction that I want it to. I'd say that is much better than being bitter and hoping that my logic bomb puts them out of business. Not to mention now I don't have to worry about how do I keep "Bubba" from trying to be my boyfriend.