Its hard for me to explain the culture of haphazard business processes that happens here.. In a nutshell the IT infrastructure is very old.. to the tune of 8-10 years old. This includes servers, clients, printers... etc. Windows 7, Office 2010 (with red non-activated bar across the top). As a graphic designer (ind contractor) I'm using an 8 year old PC with 4GB RAM. They've been through 3-4 IT managers in the last three years.

The server was in a tiny little room on a shelf. Last Fall the shelf the server was on collapsed. Immediately after that we started having intermittent problems. and by January the server died. Turns out the back-up drive wasn't set up properly and reflected over 150 failed backups..

The ownership really just doesn't value people or do anything to empower the people that work here. There is no coordinated planning. The business often winds up in the black anyway... so nothing changes. The people here are great, but the ownership is terrible. Not a lot of options as I'm in the rural midwest. Hanging in as long as I can because the pay isn't terrible for this area.

Sorry to go on about this... but you asked! I understand if you're shaking your head after reading this...