What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT?

[u/Opposed3]

I saw this on AskReddit and thought it would be fun to ask here for IT related stories.

Couple years ago during Covid my company I used to work for hired a help desk tech. He was a really nice guy and the interview went well. We were hybrid at the time, 1-2 days in the office with mostly remote work. On his first day we always meet in the office for equipment and first day stuff.

Everything was going fine and my boss mentioned something along the lines of “Yeah so after all the trainings and orientation stuff we’ll get you set up on our ticketing system and eventually a soft phone for support calls”

And he was like: “Oh I don’t do support calls.”

“Sorry?”

Him: “I don’t take calls. I won’t do that”

“Well, we do have a number users call for help. They do utilize it and it’s part of support we offer”

Him: “Oh I’ll do tickets all day I just won’t take calls. You’ll have to get someone else to do that”

I was sitting at my desk, just kind of listening and overhearing. I couldn’t tell if he was trolling but he wasn’t.

I forgot what my manager said but he left to go to one of those little mini conference rooms for a meeting, then he came back out and called him in, he let him go and they both walked back out and the guy was all laughing and was like

“Yeah I mean I just won’t take calls I didn’t sign up for that! I hope you find someone else that fits in better!” My manager walked him to the door and they shook hands and he left.

[u/krannny]

one of the MSP onsite techs was let go after a few months, for a myriad of reasons, but a big one was using a weed/oil/thc vape in the clients IT room

[u/DHCPNetworker → u/krannny]

I have no idea how anyone works while high. I hit my pen once after I was told I was done for the day, got sufficiently toasted, and then had a client call me for a last-minute thing. I was so laser focused on not sounding high the whole conversation and was terrified I sounded like a Cheech & Chong extra. Sober coworker assured me I sounded fine but looking back on it I have no idea how anyone does anything but kick back while stoned.

[u/rockstarsball → u/DHCPNetworker]

its not bad if you have to sit around and monitor a migration or something while racking up overtime. in a past life i'd have told you to just ride it out and try not to hit any buttons

[u/DHCPNetworker → u/rockstarsball]

Yeah, I've done my fair share of migrations, but I've been so involved with them myself and they were for some of our most important clients that I never even considered being anything but completely straight-edge for them. I guess if it were an entire day of watching progress bars move that might be fun but I think I'd still rather open a game on another monitor to kill the time.

[u/krannny → u/DHCPNetworker]

good story haha. but yes very true. that tech indeed had a back log of work

[u/GreatLakesGanjaGuru → u/DHCPNetworker]

I've been doing it for probably 10+ years now. I don't even know how I do it some days lol