BOFH: The PFY wants a reference

"So let's just get this straight," I say to the PFY as he hovers about my desk. "You want me to write a reference for you lauding you as a veritable workplace IT savant who can leap laser printers in a single bound, bend RFPs in his bare hands and generally manage an IT project with the ease of a veteran?" "Yes." "So you …

[Rusty Warrior]

What...

...a bastard!

[Adam Foxton]

What a bastard!

Truely an inspiration and a good example of how to get back at those who've lied to you. Just with less chance of a retaliatory cattle-prodding.

A proper bastard, that one.

[Scott]

Mac

WHO would nick the Mac book and feel?????

Now wheres that cloth to clean up my tea, it seems to have gone all over my desk.

[Silas Humphreys]

The PFY should have known better.

The true Bastard is always at least ten steps ahead.

[amanfromMars]

What's up, Doc?

"You know," I say. "I was just thinking that the other day..."

Hmmm? Which way? Up or Down? Or Sideways for the Dexterously Sinister in Play?

Everywhere there are Choices and Opportunity to Grace with Fortunes to Spend in Grateful Appreciation ........ the Rock and Star upon which Islamic Banking is Founded.

You realise BOFH should have AI Health Safe Wealth Warning for the Tips Shared?

And have you ever considered what it would be like to read your own Psych Evaluation Report as interpreted by a Third Party for a Third Party, for what could they ever know whenever all that they know, is Second-hand and Sub-Prime, Dated and may even be Simply Wrong too. Then is anything built upon IT a Sham and will Ultimately Fail around the Fallacy.

The Fallacy is that Banks have Money whenever All that they Deliver and Server is Debt.

Ok ...Feeling a lot better after and for that BOFH Spin/Moment. Right, where were we? :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

:-) A title is required

Awesome episode!

True Bastard.. There's bound to be repercussions I think however!

[Andrew Moore]

Brilliant

"Richard Stallman is talking next week and I've been having some insomnia problems recently."

@scott: "WHO would nick the Mac book [sic] and feel?????"

Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

BCS

There's me thinking the application was to the BCS until we got to the bit about the number of references made. Even then its like writing out your application for one of those online PhD's (i.e. a load of made up nonsense that is never checked)

[Jeff]

Let's see...

... what the PFY has in mind next time... Surely the BOFH has won the battle, but has he won the war? Wasn't this an elusive scheme of the PFY to take Simon's place? Looking forward to the next episode!

Skull 'n Bones, for the deadly BOFH!

[Rosuav]

Hooray!

At last, another BOFH! I've been getting twitchy...

Brilliant stuff. Can't wait to see what happens to the old company if they both leave.

[A J Stiles]

Sheer class

Worth waiting the extra week for. Can't wait to see what the PFY will be cooking up by way of revenge .....

[William Hart]

Ah, life returns to normal...

The BOFH is suitably devious and the thick plottens.

[Ron Luther]

Across the Pond

Darn! I would have liked to have seen how the PFY handled that new assignment running the San Francisco muni system.

[AB]

Bob a job ;-)

I'm in the strange position of liking my tech managerial job (as jobs go) but wanting my boss to advertise my position, so I can transfer to another office within the company (where a position in project management I like the look of more is waiting for me).

Paris, because it's well-documented that she has experience at various types of job.

[Mike Fleischmann]

PFY slipped up

If the PFY had been properly sharp on the workings of the work place, He would have known better than have his boss write a reference. Unless... The other four went to the correct place and this was a bogus one so that the BOFH wouldn't get suspicious of the other references.

[Steven Shuster]

I wouldn't put it past our bastardly hero

to turn the tables on the pimply faced one so that he has to move the infrastructure, and Simon can return as the hero to save the day (once the hard work is done).

[Jean Stone]

Change of jobs?

Not likely. We've got another reminder of the impending move to the new site/batcave this episode so I doubt that angle will be dropped after building it up for months.

You really would think the PFY would know better by now. Double-cross the BOFH and you'll get what's coming to you.

[Carnifex]

Bastardry know no bounds

If we may presume that the PFY has learned anything from the BOFH during his years in the trenches, then the PFY should be a fair bastard himself. So what would a proper bastard do?

Never have made the other four references, for one. Delivered the reference from Simon to an accomplice, along with a script for two. Headed out for an extended lunch when the call (i.e. the bait) was delivered for three. Let Simon think he's putting the screws to the PFY when in all actuality there is no other job, so when the BOFH leaves for it the PFY is left as the new BOFH.

Not that it will last of course. Nobody out-bastards the BOFH (for long).

[Nebulo]

If you thought this was fiction ...

http://www.meccano.us/ will prove it's not ...

[Mike]

Meccano Difference Engine

But... Tim's got a nicely full beard, so hard to tell if he is PF. OTOH, 'Y' he is not. :-)

[skeptical i]

PFY would know better ...

... than to use BOFH for a job reference, this has to be a double- double- cross. Curious to see how it plays out.

[Anonymous Coward]

slightly off-topic, but...

I recently heard about a network administrator who, merely by changing a password, managed to lock out the entire city of San Francisco from all of its infrastructure networks...

...the BOFH lives???

[xjy]

triple-cross?

Sounds to me like the woman checking the references is out to screw them both. Blackmailing them and enticing them to the wilderness for a deal, then taking over at the old firm while they're away. Then she'll make a real deal letting them back in on probation but only if they agree to do all the boring stuff connected with the move.

Maybe we should open a book on the possible developments. Prizes and odds in hexadecimals of course...

(Steve cos of his look of triumphant deviltry...)

[Dr. Mouse]

PFY dropped the ball.

He did a good job by putting his own phone# for the reference, but then to go out and not divert hist phone to his mobile?! Noob mistake that!!

Unless of course Carnifex is right, and this is all just bait.

This could get interesting...

PS: Simon, you very nearly caused severe problems at my work. If I dont get my weekly fix of BOFH, I get very irritable, which is not good when the MD of the co who has just bought us out is visiting from the states. Any chance of a warning next time? An irritable mouse is a ticking timebomb. And don't get me started on those damn librarians....

[amanfromMars]

Magic Words A Bra C Ada Bra ... Lovelace PerlyGatesPython 4PGP2

"Sounds to me like the woman checking the references is out to screw them both. " ...... By xjy Posted Saturday 19th July 2008 14:41 GMT

Some would say that that is too much information, xjy, whilst others would considerate it just enough and all they need.to function Perfectly. That's QuITe a Woman's Driver and Impossible for a Man to Resist ..... for who would choose to be a Cad and/or a Fad?

[Herby]

Almost as good as...

The 30 minute Bill Gates talk I listened to yesterday (Saturday). Of course that is another thing to talk about, but another time.....

[hodag]

What is next

There will be a price to pay of course. PFY is not going to get off so easily as an electrified door handle or being locked in the tape safe.

[Paul Cooper]

@BCS

You mean the real BCS, the British Cartographic Society?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just that one line...

"No, not really, but Richard Stallman is talking next week and I've been having some insomnia problems recently."

Bastard better tape me a copy -- preferably one where he's explaining why I can't use my new laptop because the graphics card only works with proprietary drivers -- or why I should give up all Opera's nice features and use the bloated and inferior Firefox because of "freedom" -- or why it's "GNU/Linux" -- bonus if anyone can get ahold of the GCC guys and make 'em explain the whole thing with strings.h. You don't know insomnia until you've stayed up three nights straight to get a one-line fix that takes three hours to duplicate (plus about 45 minutes further re-mastering ISO's afterwards).

In fact, make it a deluxe DVD edition, with Microsoft Sam reading the inevitable flamewar when I copy-and-paste this comment over on some random Slashdot thread, I'll probably need it for the next round of patches after this.

[Paul]

With Lots of explosives, Ron Luther...

Concealed as The Big One