Our network was almost burning down today.

The proxy to the world outside the firewall was having trouble receiving the authenticators from our HSPD-12 smartcards at our desks. We were getting "Windows Security Subsystem" pop-ups repeatedly asking for login credentials whenever we tried to access something outside the firewall. Since not all of our systems are on-premises and just happen to be operated by contractors we pay lots of money to, access to these operational systems caused these pop-ups to proliferate.

We were told to deal with it, limp onward, and be thankful we had at least malfunctioning systems rather than no systems at all. The telephone dial-in hotlines for the public to call that we answer are not really shut down. If all our internal data systems aren't working, we literally pay our staff to sit there and tell people that the systems are down while suggesting callers call back later.

My five year service anniversary is coming up on December 16th. I never planned to be in this particular job this long.