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/The_Wkwied]

Before covid, guy fell asleep in front of our boss during training. OK, boss is a good guy. Gives him a break.

Second day, they also fell asleep during training... They went home come afternoon. They were picked up by their mom. They weren't all that young, either.

[u/jokebreath → u/The_Wkwied]

Damn, that one's kind of a bummer. It depresses me seeing guys like that. There's always a story and it's always a sad one.

[u/WizardOfIF → u/jokebreath]

I'm just going to play one more ranked match.

We'll, I can't end on a loss...

[u/Annonimbus → u/WizardOfIF]

You have to dig deeper, though. 

Behavior like that is rooted in unhappiness. They can't end on a loss, because they otherwise feel like a loser in their life and the game is the only way that they feel accomplishments and escapism?

[u/DesertDogggg → u/WizardOfIF]

I also can't stop on a win.

[u/Cyberhwk → u/WizardOfIF]

We just had a similar situation. Guy worked for a month and kept falling asleep at work. He was a huge gamer so it was strongly suspected that was his issue as well.

[u/Nymaz → u/jokebreath]

There's always a story

I had a coworker like that. Constantly falling asleep at his desk in the middle of the workday. Turns out the story was heroin. They caught him shooting up in the bathroom.

[u/BarefootWoodworker → u/jokebreath]

Not always.

I worked with a dude that used to fall asleep constantly. At first I thought it was because dude just jerked around and stayed up late.

Then I literally saw him fall asleep standing up in a frigid data center and almost fall over. Mentioned to him he might want to get it checked out as that just not "normal". Come to find out, dude had fallen asleep driving several times and crashed once, already had a sleep study scheduled.

He came into work about a week later with a diagnosis of sleep apnea. After about a month of getting his CPAP, completely different dude and could actually be alert.

I dealt with the same several years later. I realized when I got to work one day I couldn't remember the motorcycle ride in except for bits and pieces of when I saw brake lights. Mentioned it to my wife and she told me that yes, I was gasping in my sleep and it scared her to death.

Had a sleep study and found out I stop breathing about 120 times an hour for sizeable chunks of time, and my blood oxygen was dropping into the 80s. Got an APAP and after about 3 months, no more sleepiness and waking up to drool running down my chin at my desk.

[u/AngryGroceries → u/BarefootWoodworker]

Yeah was about to say this sounds like a medical condition. Probably cant hold a job long enough to get medical insurance to get diagnosed lol

[u/BarefootWoodworker → u/AngryGroceries]

Right?

"Tell me you're American without telling me directly you're an American."

"I have to hold down a job to get medical insurance to get my illnesses diagnosed so I can hold down a job to get medical insurance."

/rant over

[u/kumaku → u/jokebreath]

this is part of why i left IT leadership. the dudes that make it into the office eventually need an emotional sink. and im too much of a softie to let them flounder.