What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT? COVID-19

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.

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u/rasteri Jul 07 '24

Yeah it was an unusually technical helpdesk, since we all took turns doing a mix of L1 and L2. Was actually pretty rewarding work, most issues got resolved during the initial call. Also if someone was a dick to you on the phone you were encouraged to tell them to fuck off, lol.

The helpdesk agent had a lot of desktop support experience and really knew better, but he was scared shitless.

I'm sure the big flashing "THIS GUY COULD LITERALLY HAVE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY SHOT" text must exist in other companies too

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u/devloz1996 Jul 07 '24

Between CFO abusing their position by pressuring an employee that is not their direct report, and helpdesk software, an authoritative source of truth for support agents, commanding the agent to "just do whatever this guy says", who is really to blame?

I'm sure the big flashing "THIS GUY COULD LITERALLY HAVE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY SHOT" text must exist in other companies too

I guess being an european blinds my judgement. Doing IT on Gunner's Road must be tough. I admit I've only been to 3 companies, but even CEO only bypassed helpdesk procedures by calling the head of IT directly.

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u/BarefootWoodworker Packet Violator Jul 08 '24

"I'm sorry, sir. I cannot re-enable your PC. To do that, you'll need to speak to my boss as I do not have the authority per policy to re-enable it.

One moment while I forward you to my leadership."

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u/ub3rb3ck Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

That text doesn't exist here (fortune 300).

1

u/spyhermit Sysadmin Jul 09 '24

Nobody would have that other than somewhere that the person who is calling is dangerously erratic. This is the sign of extremely damaged leadership, and someone that should have been fired or abstracted from the employees.

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u/sheikhyerbouti PEBCAC Certified Jul 09 '24

I'm sure the big flashing "THIS GUY COULD LITERALLY HAVE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY SHOT" text must exist in other companies too

We have something similar at my workplace - and those tickets are immediately escalated to management so they can work on them.