I work in IT
Today I realized I've been doing something wrong for at least 5.5 years and no one realized
This fuck up might have made the company lose millions over the years
What is the right course of action?
a) Let it be
b) Fix the stuff I did wrong
C) talk to someone
I was gonna go with b) but modifying 800 files overnight might raise a red flag. Someone might notice
On the other hand I have reasons to believe quality control might already be looking into this issue
What do?
what exactly did you do?
D) Find a new job.
Find a new job before they find out
Call the man in the van.
He will sort it out.
>5.5 years and no one realized
its not only you're fault then. if it really cost them millions they should've someone check on it, they can be glad you realized
What did you do?
>5.5 years of incompetent fuckery
Yeah, I'm sure they'll understand.
What exactly was the fuckup?
Yeah, fix it, you could try to pitch it as an improvement and everyone's happy.
don't be stupid
never say you did wrong. talk to your superiors and tell them you found a way to improve things, or something to save money. try to negotiate a bonus or a raise. even offer services as an independent consultant
good luck, dipshit
THIS.
Don't say you fucked it up. Say you found something you think could be improved, fix it, and enjoy whatever bonuses they give you.
Fuck me, you work for Tesco Bank!
>go to supervisor
>I noticed xxx can I fix it
>fix it
>your are a hero
You're looking at this completely the wrong way
You just found an improvement that could save millions.
>This fuck up might have made the company lose millions over the years
Tell us what the fuck up was, OP
Now I'm curious what this could be, please elaborate OP
THIS!!!
Love the "turning a negative in to a positive" posts but I'm sure they're going to look back and check who implemented the incorrect code in question.
Don't know what I'd rather be hung for, being a fool or a fucking liar.
While that's true, they're also gonna want someone to serve as a scapegoat. OP is fucked.
Blame it on QA or lack thereof.
The developer himself cannot be the one to certify his own changes. It doesn't work, it has never worked and it wil NEVER work.
Spit it out. What did you do?
>Blame it on QA or lack thereof.
They're gonna blame it on him. There's no winning move here for OP but not to play and look for a different job
You got a Plan B in case of losing your job, right?
Having Plan B is like doing backups of your very important data.
Kinda hard to explain but at one point I forgot to do something that allows people in accounting to see statistics from a specific sector. If I edit them all at once their sales will shot up. I was thinking doing a little every day
How do they do the accounting without this implemented? Did the sales not get accounted for? How did no one catch this for 5.5 years?
Yeah, prepare to look for a new job but if you have a good boss, be honest and own up and they might forgive you.
I have no idea but I don't think I can't tell anyone. I found out about this part of the procedure while reading some manuals
I checked what the people I work with have been doing and they were all doing it right. It's just me who messed up. I have no way to prove it but I believe they might have forgot to tell me during training
Ok, if the company has really lost millions, they should have investigated. That should have been detected at least in the following fiscal year.
This means the problem was most likely there already (or bookkeeping were the ones that really fucked up). Just do a quit patch, if it has been 5.5 years already, you can wait until the right opportunity comes along to fix it.
No KPI reports for the Accounts Department!
You cunt!
Time to press the reset button and drink some bleach.
That or put your notice in and find another job.
Cause a break-fix scenario to sneak the improvement in. You intentionally do something that notably fucks up the system for a bit, say you know what went wrong and that you'll have a fix out in X, use it as cover to implement your change.
If you have peers on the same level as you then come up with your plan and wait for a sick day or holiday.
Is it likely the others made up for your mistake one way or another? I would just fix it truthfully and answer questions with a huge patch if I was in your shoes. Up to you though.
But if this was as big of a loss as you say, a company would investigate this, because everyone else who was doing it right and you doing it wrong would produce numbers that would be worth investigating.
OP is gonna be on welfare very soon
put the server room on fire
destroy all tapes
fill the offsite backup server with zeros
This is the only way
Op if the company you work for is shit, just look for another job
If the company is legit doing good work, do the right thing, fix it, and also look for another job
You really just need a new job
Do what anyone else in IT does: blame it on someone else, then fix it and get all the credit.
Ok i know how to fix it. I should just sudo rm -rf /. But after making some backups and then ill try to fix it
Remember to take all posts as general advice. Nobody can really predict the outcome without understanding your position, the exact screwup, the effects on your company, the culture of your company, what about the screwup makes it more than a forgivable error, why is the error solely your fault and nobody elses, what are the personalities of the individuals involves who will be making decisions, etc.
My advice is, whatever you do, make sure you are in compliance with company policies and the law. Dont perform changes you're not authorized to perform by your job description. You might turn this issue from a mistake into a legal/ethical disaster for yourself.
If the company policies are weak (many are) and you have leeway to "just fix it" because that is generally what people with your job do, then go for it and try to sneak it in as "just doing your job". Just be careful that it doesnt turn into the kind of story that gets you fired, sued, or worse. Remember that if the senior management needs to explain this issue to the owners/board/stockholders, they would rather blame it on a malicious staffer that they fired, than their own failed QA processes which they are responsible for. One story is a lot simpler, cleaner, and safer for the VPs than the other.
>My advice is, whatever you do, make sure you are in compliance with company policies and the law.
This
Making a mistake is one thing, fix it and life moves on. Trying and hiding the evidence or tampering with the records to cover up your tracks is only going to dig a much, much deeper hole for yourself.
>they're going to look back and check who implemented the incorrect code in question.
edit the commit author info to point towards some other idiot and then force-push the change
I bet nobody there signs their commits