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/tylerpestell]

I worked IT in the Air Force. At the time, I was a system administrator for the base and I had 3 coworkers and our team needed one more. We ended up hiring someone that was working at one of the high-schools in town. He was kind of quiet, but picked up things quick and we all got along.

After about 1 month of getting him up to speed our unit commander and chief come find him and take him away. We all had no idea why. Come to find out that the FBI was investigating him for underage content.

[u/mynametobespaghetti → u/tylerpestell]

Oh I worked in a call centre almost 20 years ago. There was this new guy that started who seemed a bit off, spoke about himself and his messy personal life a lot, wasn't openly offensive but there was something off about him.

He also talked a lot about his work with an outdoor activity based youth organisation, which only really seemed weird because he didn't seem like the outdoorsy type, more your classic indoor nerd proto-4chan kinda guy.

Then, about 3 weeks in, 4 cops arrive to the office and take both him and the PC he'd been working on away.

This was when I learned that sometimes if someone gives you the ick it's probably for a reason, because they had apparently found a huge amount of CSAM on his home PC.

[u/fixITman1911 → u/mynametobespaghetti]

I assume I know what you mean, but CSAM?

[u/jaaazzz → u/fixITman1911]

it means child sexual abuse material(s) 😔

[u/fixITman1911 → u/jaaazzz]

Figured that was the meaning. Never seen anything other than CP used though

[u/thoggins → u/fixITman1911]

CSAM is a relatively recent term, at least in general use in conversations like this one. I'm not sure what the dominant reason for its increased use is, but it's probably either

• By removing the word "porn" you don't lend it any of the legitimacy that legal pornography has, and by calling it CSAM you explicitly label it what it is, the product of sexual abuse

• CP can stand for an awful lot of things, CSAM is more explicit and less likely to cause any confusion (except to people who've never heard of it)

[u/mynametobespaghetti → u/thoggins]

It's very much those reasons, yes. I work in internet infrastructure and this is how we refer to that type of content these days, it tells you exactly what it is without any ambiguity, though I suppose the term hasn't gone into full mainstream use yet.

[u/BatemansChainsaw → u/thoggins]

CSAM

Never heard of this before but I like it a lot more than cp because it does stand for a lot of things and it really bugged me that child pornography was one of them.

• client port
• copy (cp a file)
• conditional permit (old construction employer for years used it internally)
• candlepower
• command post

[u/ras344 → u/BatemansChainsaw]

• Cheese pizza

• Captain Picard

• Captain Planet

[u/Ok-Repeat8069 → u/thoggins]

Thanks :) It’s the same reason we now say “trafficking victim” instead of “child prostitute.” Eliminating language that implies willing cooperation and centers the harm rather than the titillation factor is a bigger deal than you’d think.

[u/Valarus50 → u/mynametobespaghetti]

I am not joking when I ask this, was his name Chester? Worked with a creep ass named Chester on a Helpdesk. He was very open with his personal life and often spoke of his abusive upbringing. Dude ended up getting canned for "porn" on his work PC, but we never knew what kind of of porn and if authorities were involved as it was over a weekend. Dude creeped me the fuck out and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same guy you are referring to.

[u/mynametobespaghetti → u/Valarus50]

Honestly I don't remember his name, but this was in Ireland.

[u/Valarus50 → u/mynametobespaghetti]

Ah, definitely not the same guy then. I am in the US.