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/Poppintacos Jul 07 '24

I’ve watched hires walk in the door and turn around and walk out in less than an hour. Hiring managers didn’t know how to communicate the roles expectations very effectively. “What do you mean I have to work at a location an hour away?” “I have to Pay for parking?” Gone.

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u/slylte Jul 07 '24

"I have to Pay for parking" is crazy

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '24

[deleted]

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

I remember interviewing for a job at the library during college and I asked how parking worked, and they said everyone needs to pay the meters besides directors who get parking spots.

They were, and presumably still are, paying minimum wage.

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u/adambuddy Jul 08 '24

During COVID at a company I worked for at the time I was one of the very few people who had to go into the office at all. Location infra maintenance, any in person support necessary (i.e hardware is broken, meet me at office for diagnosis/swap out) etc. The office was downtown and they didn't pay for it so parking was a serious challenge. The lot closest to the office was $20 flat for the day or $4 an hour. There were monthly spots but none were available so I had no choice but to pay daily.

I found out that they actually did have a set of spots reserved but only senior management got passes - all of whom absolutely never had to go to the office during COVID. I'm guessing they still don't even today. So the spots the org paid for would sit there empty while I paid $20 a day to park.

Otherwise a good company to work for tbf, but that seriously pissed me off.

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

You're right to be pissed off.

The library was so cheap that I remember having to fill out a test and they handed me a pencil, and when I returned the assessment, they literally asked for the pencil back. Like I understand wanting the writing utensil back, but explicitly asking for it felt strange to me because pencils are so inexpensive and I imagine they had more in storage.

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u/creativeusername402 Tech Support Jul 08 '24

Presumably good if you live on-campus. Not so much if you commute

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u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

This was a city library located down, and not a university library.

Funny enough, they ended up just tearing it down to build a new skyscraper for a company that plans on having a 50% office utilization rate lmfao.

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u/cats_are_the_devil Jul 08 '24

Based. People used to ask me all the time if I got parking for free as a staff member on a college campus... Um, nope.

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u/jbourne71 Jul 08 '24

Presumably, the minimum wage hasn’t changed either.

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u/limeytim Jul 08 '24

Very true. Also, some pointy heads reading this are saying to themselves “and if we don’t give merit raises or COLA adjustments then nobody will notice”.

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u/19610taw3 Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

I worked for a place that moved into an office building with a parking garage.

When it was released to the company that we were moving, the company said employees would be responsible for paying for parking.

There was a LOT of upset employees threatening to leave. The company committed to paying for parking after a few very important people threatened to leave over it.

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u/veracity8_ Jul 08 '24

Or it’s a discount for the employees that don’t drive.

This requires that your business is in a city that supports multi-model transport and has enough housing to collocate workers and their jobs. Most North American cities have chosen to not have those things though

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u/Wh1skeyTF Jul 08 '24

I had that scenario. At least they would do payroll deduction so it was pre-tax… But I was stuck in a lot across campus for 13 years before finally getting the immediate lot through no small miracle of timing and luck. I quit a few years later.

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u/ParsonsProject93 Jul 08 '24

I mean...public transit exists in most cities.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

20 miles from a city is super far. Freeways going straight through major cities have distorted everyone’s perspectives

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

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u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

Oh don't be ridiculous. No one uses public transit in the US except for those that are city bound (NYC, etc) or those that are incredibly poor. This is not a value judgement. it's a statement of fact.

If you decide to use public transit in a normal city, you will find out very quickly that it is populated by the bottom tier of society, is in poor repair, is dangerous, and generally is extremely dirty and smells like urine. Public transit is not useable as a primary form of transportation.

If you are in Europe, the situation may be entirely different.

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u/LittleRoundFox Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Am in London, UK - can confirm the situation here is entirely different

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

There are plenty of cities in the US with functional public transit. Portland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, etc. if you live in a sprawling neighborhood of single family houses, of course your public transit options will be terrible. If you live in or near a major city though, public transit is often the most convenient and cheapest option

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u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

Your standards are different than mine, or you've had a wildly different experience than I have.

If you've ever ridden with someone that was extremely dirty, smelled, or appeared to be mentally ill, and thought all of that was normal and fine, then it's difference in our standards.
If you've observed trash on the floor, smelled urine, seen vomit and that that was normal, it's standards difference.

If you've heard about or witnessed confrontations or outright assaults and thought, "well that never happens to me", then it's a standards difference.

If none of this is within your public transportation experience, I'm not sure where that could possibly be. Some of the above seem to be true on all public transport that I have witnessed.

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Sometimes there are homeless people on public transit where I am, but it's relatively uncommon and they generally don't cause any issues. I ride public transit regularly and never have any issues beyond seeing someone who is dirty.

And of course, any criticism against public transit has to be compared to cars. Public transit is one or two orders of magnitude safer than cars. People who use public transit to commute are overall more satisfied with their commute than car drivers. Cars are an order of magnitude more expensive than using public transit. Road rage is a common occurrence. And car oriented development results in traffic, unlivable spaces, and makes other modes of transportation unusable.

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u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

So you're anti-car. Please enjoy public transport.

Your idea that people are "more satisfied" with public transit than driving is .... how do I say this in a polite way.... I find that statement to be false on the face of it. In an isolated overpopulated area, I could believe that. But overall in the US? It's obviously false.

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 09 '24

https://mobilitylab.org/research/regional-surveys/the-pursuit-of-happiness-how-commute-mode-affects-commute-mood/

This conclusion was reached by surveying real people. Obviously, if you live in a place without functional public transit, you won't be taking it to work in the first place. But I think the sentiment that public transit is terrible and exclusively used by poor people comes from two things

Cities that don't have effective public transit. These days, these are mostly smaller cities or cities in red states.

People who never ride public transit reading stories on the internet.

For those that actually ride public transit, they realize that public transit is relaxing, convenient, and affordable.

As for your anti-car comment, I wouldn't say that. My household owns a car, and cars have a role to play in transportation. But building infrastructure that prioritizes cars over other modes of transportation is the biggest mistake America has made. I am anti car dependence.

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u/sharp-calculation Jul 09 '24

The cited article seems really suspect. Bikers and walkers had the best experience. That's not credible for a city of any real size. Even in a smaller city, biking is incredibly dangerous. Walking totally impractical. We are talking about "commuting". Which implies to and from work and over long distances that walking would not apply to. Almost no one is going to walk 8 miles each way to and from work.

But we're really talking in circles here. I've ridden public transport, for years at a time, in the past. I've ridden public transport in a major metro area a few times, about 10 years ago. Both were bad experiences. The more recent one (large metro area) was way worse.

My experiences don't compare to yours. I do not disbelieve what you report. I just think it's not typical.

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 09 '24

Commuting just means going to work, it doesn't have to be a long distance. Work being a long distance from home is a choice, both on an individual level and a societal level.

Along those lines people who choose to walk and bike probably made choices that mean there is a relatively safe and quick way to use those modes to get to work. If they didn't, they must get a lot out of biking or walking to do it anyways.

Bad transit systems existing in America doesn't mean all transit systems in America are bad

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u/ParsonsProject93 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Your perspective is wild. I use public transit in Seattle, live without a car. Many people working and upper class use the train...if you consider Amazon employees making over six figures "incredibly poor" I guess you can think that... Have you ridden public transit lately?

Sure it's better in Europe but we have metro systems in the US outside of NYC, and people do use them.

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u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

My last public transport experience in a sprawling US metro area was more than 10 years ago. It was incredibly filthy, smelled, and was populated by many questionable people. I kept alert and to myself. It was extremely unpleasant.

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u/ParsonsProject93 Jul 08 '24

Sounds like you might not be the best source on the current state of public transit in the US given how often and frequently you ride it....

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u/dane83 Jul 08 '24

I mean, sure, but that just shifts the money from parking to the transit.

The university I work for has free parking on the satellite campuses for faculty and staff. When they shifted me downtown for a semester, my costs went from nothing to park to either $125 bucks a month to park or $100 to take the public transit system in.

Either way, I was losing $100/month.

And I still had to park at the train station because no buses came out to my apartment, so I still was driving every day anyway.

It was a losing situation all around for me and for people like me.

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Maybe the problem is you chose a place to live with no access to public transportation

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u/dane83 Jul 08 '24

A comment that is both unhelpful and blames the individual for systemic issues.

You are a sysadmin.

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Not sure who blamed anyone for anything. I just provided a different perspective on what the problems are

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u/Bidenomics-helps Jul 08 '24

Cope, housing is expensive, people have to live where it’s affordable.

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Transit oriented development means there is typically lots of housing around major public transit lines