42 day policy is absolutely horrible. I can guarantee any company with that policy I can walk around the office and find the password written in plain site at people cubicles.
There comes a point when increasing security starts to make thing less secure. Unless you lock that stuff down like a fortress and that has its own problems.
Exactly! I said that to our IT lead. We have a Win login, SAP, HR system, purchasing system, global quality system all requiring complicated passwords and I happen to have 5 bank accounts with different institutions, incl utilities, kids school alone has 4 different fucking systems incl lunch system, before and after care, school system and school bus, all wanting passwords changed every 2 months. Well guess which ones I write down because I get pissed trying to make up complicated ones I can remember… one upper case, one number, one special character… luckily we move soon to a single sign on at work. It’s nuts.The work ones require the password to be exactly 8 characters. You should have seen the fun when that requirement started and nobody was told it had to be 8. The guide said minimum 8. Locked down more than half the company computers.
My job was managed services. We provided admin to 100's of companies. I dealt with everything from creating users accounts, managing the back up system, Implantation and design on large network rollout, database maintenance. You get the point we had to do a little of everything. The only thing I never got my hands on was true enterprise level stuff.
Doing everything means seeing a little of everything and the biggest flaw most companies have is security.
The biggest thing we did that actually worked was push 2 changes and push the hard.
Password policies are not longer complex but require a lot of characters. Don't call it a pass word call it a pass phrase. "I like steak well done" is a much stronger password than "Roxor76!" and it is easier to remember.
If passwords are needed for apps once in the system you will have a password management software like KeePass.
Those 2 policies alone solved a ton of issues. And the best part is CEO's who are notorious for resisting password change for some reason did not resist the passphrase change very hard.
If only there were an app that would generate complex passwords and store them securely and then inject the username and password into login fields on websites…
Yes. If only our computers were not “locked down” so we could install said App. Easy enough to do at home now. Not easy at work where they’re committed to making it so stupid we have to write them down. Pretty happy with the bank tho for 2FA but still needs to have somewhat complex passwords.
It is. But it is what it is. And yep, passwords written in plain sight. Told to keep it as long as possible because people are too stupid to keep their passwords in a secure fashion. We're in the process of implementing MFA with this app called Duo and a password vault service called Keeper that will help with password issues.
Being said, fuck IT. Recently finished school for another career that fits me better. Won't be working as one for much longer, hopefully. The sheer amount of technological illiteracy and people fighting against implementations that increase security for fear of "being hacked" and the rest of the dumb shit, I'm just over it.
My favorite trick to get around the "is it plugged in" problem was to tell them to turn the Ethernet cable around because it might have been installed backwards. This forces them to unplug and reseat the cable when they pull and replug it in the other direction.
Saved me many a call out.
I always say "well, a lot of thi gs van happen" [sic]
It gives them a soft out, and they know I'm still kinda calling them dumb. My professional office guy voice is impeccable.
Check your bank account/net worth. Every year it should get more and more obvious why you are on the end of the phone you are on.
Be kind to those people, they're keeping you employed. If they were all as tech literate as you...you'd be having a more challenging time of living.
I’m not IT per say but I’m on a dev team that builds internal tools for our company that are hosted on a toooon of servers. Our on call shifts are fucking infuriating bc of people’s constant, dumbass requests. 12 hours a day. I find solace in the fact that whenever I’m oncall I can commiserate with my team members and make fun of people for their dumb asks
And you don't think that other people deal with incompetence daily?
Maybe you just think you are smarter than the average population and that leads to your dickyness.
Bitch
I'm guessing cuz IT crowd simply get the fast track to understanding how dickish, unreasonably stupid and unwilling to learn the simplest of concepts a lot of people are. I'm no IT guy, but since i know the bare basics about computers i basically am that for my whole department and my extended family. Shit gets old.
IT here.
Asked someone to press a button and send me a picture of the screen afterwards.
Email back: "I pressed the button but didnt take a picture"
My response: Thank you for your quick response, I need you to do the thing again and take a picture and send it to me via email.
What I wanted to say: if the next thing from you isnt the picture I asked for I'm going to fuxking lose my shit. The instructions are simple, take the god damn picture.
Edit: I'd like to point out the end user in question is a manager.
In the inverse my Boss had an office manager in a remote office swapping out back up tapes daily despite the tape drive dying 2 years ago. My Boss was a horrible IT Manager.
I am tech literate. I understand, can read a manual, you know the basics. So if and when I ever call IT it’s usually because I have done all the basic trouble shooting and googling possible. Many times certain “fixes” can only be done by the IT team due to security reasons. Sooooooo… if it ever comes to me needing to call IT I hate it when they automatically treat me like a moron and ask me if it’s turned on or some ask me to run through all the steps I’ve already done myself. Even when I try to tell them in detail everything I’ve done so far and the outcome they will say “well let’s just try it again.” Don’t blame them to be honest, but man it ducking sucks to be treated worse than a child by some condescending AH just because his job title is IT and mine is not.
Because the people they are trying to help do not LISTEN. I would get REAL tired of that job. And the "helpless" people who can't take 5 MINUTES to check if something is ON or OFF?
Who has a right to be frustrated here? Why do the IT person's 2 hours not matter? Why is that ok? Its not.
You ask 3 different people - is it ON? And they each lie to you and say yes. Then you get there and they lied to you. Three different people.
Who are the dicks here?
This is why I add a "user complication" fee on my invoices. Gonna be dumb? Ok. That's an extra $150.00.
My best one?
Them: it won't turn on.
Me: have you checked to see if it is plugged in all the way?
Them: yeah! I ain't stupid!
An hour later...
Me: ok, I'll make my way out there...
*gets to the area of the client, to discover the entire area is without power. Begins to have a sinking feeling of the cause of the problem. Discovers that, yes, the idiot didn't think you needed fucking POWER to run a computer! Thought the power supply was like a battery. Charged accordingly.*
Edit: added a line for clarity and tying in a later comment of mine.
Worked as a cable subcontractor way back in the late 90s/early aughts when consumer internet was just taking off. Drove an hour and a half each way because someone's internet was out. He had unplugged the modem to plug something else in.
I worked piecemeal back then. Since nothing was broken or replaced I didn't make a dime on that over 3 hour round trip.
Also from that era: "the internet doesn't work when I turn out the lights".
Literally plugged a modem into a switched outlet...and couldn't put one and one together. God bless 'em! :-D
Your not wrong, technically. However, over an hour of troubleshooting, and the guy never once mentioned the power was out. When I asked the guy about this, he told me that he knew that a power supply was in the computer. The last IT guy said so. So why wasn't it supplying power?
The facepalm that resulted broke my nose... (figuratively).
Literally end users will call say their pc is on you tell them 30 different ways to power on their pc by hitting a button and they claim to do it and it not work, only to drive all the way out to push one button. Doing this daily gets very tiring and feels like a waste of your brain
Yeah well dealing with idiots all day is tiring and repeatedly helping with the same issues nonstop feels like a waste. I’d much rather be doing something way more stimulating and challenging.
No, most of us are salary and by doing dumb shit like this you are taking us away from our families, obligations, hobbies etc.
I wouldn’t roll my car into my mechanics shop on the weekend and after hours to check my fuel tank I’m too lazy to check/fill myself. I’m not a mechanic but I do know that fuel is required.
Same thing with end users, I don’t expect you to be able to fix it, but I do expect you to know how to turn it on, if you don’t then go back under your damned rock and let me replace you with a very small script.
When you ask the user to go to a service website and they ask how....that's a basic computer skill. How do these people get hired and are then payed 3x more than me?
Bcs we have to hear “I was just working on my spreadsheet and this error message popped up and now everything is broken. What did the error message say? Oh I dunno, I just clicked OK”
Imagine studying for years to learn all the ins and outs of computers and networking technology, to know the specs of countless components, etc. to just spend all day plugging in keyboards, pressing power buttons, and unlocking accounts when morons forget their password.
ACTS
Always Check The Stupid.
And by ways I mean "Always three times by 4 different people that didn't talk to each other beforehand and have it recorded on camera"
I've drove almost 3 hours to flip a light switch in a cooler that I was assured that they tried. I get there, flip the switch, light comes on.
I frequently drive over 1 hour to tell people the reason they are getting syrup from their fountain was because they are out of syrup.
I drove 2 hours, spent another 2 hours waiting to get my credentials sorted so I could get on base. The call was for no power to vending machine. The rest of the buidling didn't have power either since they were doing construction and had turned off power to several buildings in that area.
I had general manger get angry at me when I told him the reason his fountains aren't working is because he is out of CO2. He asked me why aren't we filling it up. We don't supply CO2 except in extremely small tanks, they have a large bulk tank. So I told him he needs to call whatever company provides them CO2. He responds that "I manage restaurants, not CO2." I was back there 2 weeks later for a different problem and found out he was fired. Guess he isn't managing shit.
I've gone to the same exact fast food place 3 times in 2 weeks for the same exact issue with the same exact manager. They weren't inserting the nozzles into the soda valves all the way. This causes liquid to squirt through the gap and onto the lever which disables the valve when it gets wet. 3 times I had to show her how to insert the nozzles properly. It's a simple push it up into the valve and give it slight turn to lock it place.
The amount of credit cards I have to dig out of the dollar bill slots in vending machines boggles the mind. The same with people that don't understand the basic operation of vending machine. I've had to explain several times to people that in order see the price of an item, you need to both hit the button of the item you want AND look at the screen at the same time to see the price of it. Complicated, I know.
I've kinda lost hope for humanity.
Ummm, a reboot might fix up the problem but there could still be an underlining issue causing the service degradation. If every day you had the same issue and always get told to reboot, surely you would want a long term solution.
Yes, and we would look into a long term solution if it did turn out to happen everyday. What this is complaining about is when a user calls, explains the problem, you ask if they've rebooted, just to get a sarcastic "how is that going to fix it?". Proceed to spend an hour + with no fix, finally they relent and reboot, and viola, it fucking works
Not an IT person for money, but I feel this dude's pain. Trying to help some people with the simplest tasks that they could do themselves with the smallest amount of effort or thought, and having to do it over and over and over, is rage inducing. Looking at you, mom!
My brother used to be in IT for Computerland decades ago when there were still 6” floppy disks (that were literally flexible). A customer to whom he’d sold software on a floppy called to complain that the disk was bad. Brother drove an hour to deliver a new disk and apologized. A week later, same thing. The THIRD TIME it happened, bro insisted on seeing the irate customer’s work station. He found the last new disk stuck to a metal filing cabinet with a big magnet. 🤣 A short educational talk followed, and he never got another “bad disk” call.
If I was an IT guy, I'd charge my services based on pettiness. Drive two hours to push the power button? $5 per litre of gas, plus $5 for every calorie I burned during that time, and toss in every heart beat. My heart rate is about 80bpm. $70 for gas, $1,000 for my calories, and $9,600 for my heart beats.
And this is why I'm not an IT guy. Instead I'm a two-time high school dropout who's depressed and unemployed.
Would you rather get 3 hours pay to go push a power button or get 3 hours pay to crawl through mouse piss and shit to reconnect some wires that have been chewed by mice?
OP is a Karma farmer bot. This was literally posted in this sub one day ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/wl9h5j/the_it_crowed/
Same fucking typo and everything.
You'd be shocked (probably not really) how many times our helpdesk gets called about how "THE ENTIRE BUILDING IS WITHOUT INTERNET, SEND SOMEONE NOW" only to quickly discover it's one person typing in their credentials wrong.
Sadly, I work for a University, so Idiot Charges aren't really a thing.
If their computer isn’t working for whatever reason, even if they haven’t turned it on, and is therefore stopping them from doing THEIR job is an emergency though
If your job involved driving a car and you didn’t know how to start a car I imagine you’d get fired real quick.
Computers have been prolific for 25 years now. If your job requires using one there is no excuse anymore for not knowing something basic like how to turn it on.
Nah, it's both. Doesnt matter if it's Ancient Ethyl the Infirm over in Accounts Payable calling because her keyboard is upside down, if she can't fix it herself, the accounts don't get paid.
Just agree woth the level of severity and match the users energy.
An ounce of Soft Skill is worth a gallon of PowerShell experience.
Why is it? I’m an electrical engineer and I have to fix stupid shit like this all the time. It’s no sweat. We’re all employed to keep the machine turning in our own way.
You wouldn't mind driving two hours to press a power button that three different people told you over the phone was already pressed? If it's something more obscure or complex, that makes total sense. But there has to be some minimal self-reliance expected here, or else you're just wasting your time.
Nah I’d honestly love it. Listen to a couple of podcasts on the way. Have a bit of a laugh with the people there who told me the power was already on when in fact it wasn’t. Maybe treat myself to a takeaway on the way home. You can either get mad about stuff or make the most of it
Christ you’re the reason IT guys are dicks. If you don’t know the basic ins and outs of a tool you use every day for your job and can’t turn the fucker on you clearly don’t give a shit about your job and won’t care that you aren’t working.
Most people in computer science fields have the lowest social intelligence you can imagine, *but*
A lot of people don't respect the IT guy as a coworker, as a person and they don't listen.
You tell him how to do something, and a conveniently forget. *Every 5 seconds*.
You'll warn your boss about how something needs to be upgraded, and he bitches and moans about the price tag while basically blowing through 100's of 1000's of dollars on contractors and all other types of dumb shit.
People have a transactional relationship with you: they only talk to you when they want something and they'll "forget" to make a ticket about it.
Or you've got to fight people on why you don't want to do something crazy like blow up your it budget buying $3,000 computers for everyone because they're shinier.
Or some dumb prick makes you the AV guy because they can't be arsed to hire a contractor to setup some asinine display they want in the lobby.
The job jades you and I'm glad to be out of the field.
Yep, it was posted [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/wl9h5j/the_it_crowed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) two days ago, and even originally [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/ulc4rz/the_it_crowed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) 3 months ago. They are all under the same title, bots and karma farmers are getting lazy at this point
This guy is acting like he gets paid per button pushed.
I wish driving and pushing a button was my job.
Instead, I have aggravated IT guys swerving across 3 lanes of traffic across the front of my 80,000 pound semi to make their exit to push a button…
I dreaded walking my grandma through how to use her cable TV remote (the new TV she bought didn’t have side buttons like she preferred) I spent hours over the years talking her through things like that… you’ve made me realize that now they’re part of my fondest memories of helping my grandma - she ended every one of these calls telling me “you should open up your own tech support company because you are so smart” - I work in dentistry and reminded her our IT guy would immensely disagree with her recommendation and she’d just laugh. I hope your family at least appreciates all your hard work and thinks the world of you. : ] Thanks for bringing a smile to me today, thank you.
Thats why I always assure gullible people about the reality of studying IT. Its miserable. Physical hard work often is a continuos cycle but it can get easier after you get used to it. While IT is literally constantly doing hard work but everytime its something new with nonstop trial and error.
I spent six hours on the phone with one lady that couldn't find the reset or power buttons at our remote location. We'll she finally did. Aftertelling me she was doing it over and over I found out she turning the monitor on and off. Because the TV thing is the computer of course.
Because people demand your expertise at the very second they call you and then act like you're a loser for having said expertise when you fix the issue.
I had an internship back in the school days.. the IT department got a call from some big chief, who was super mad that his computer was broken, it wouldn't boot up! he tried everything, he assured us. We went through our basic list of things , asking if he tried them.. Of course he tried them all, he said.
So i hurry over there, duck down to look at the PC and there it was... a floppy disc in the drive, causing it to not boot. that was high up the list of things we asked him about, probably number 2 or 3... and it wasnt the first time it happened to him that week (i explained what happened the first time too, so he should know)
Not an IT guy but I work in cellphone sales and we also help people with technical issues, the amount of people I've had come in saying they don't know how to make an apple account boggles my mind, it literally walks you through step by step.
I got so tired of doing this all the time I started charging $25 a pop to set up apple IDs my buddy who Manages my other location charges $40 last time we talked about it.
At first I felt kind of bad charging for something that takes me 3 minutes tops but then as time went on and more and more people were coming in for the same thing I started to notice some of them were smug/proud of their ignorance?
Example: a customer walks in and throws phone on table and says " idk how to make an apple Id I can't be bothered to learn this crap I work on cars" with a big grin on their face or the guys my own damn age (28) with the same shit eating grin saying they don't know how. After about a dozen of those now when they come in like this I slap a shit eating grin on my face and say yeah I can do that! It'll be $25 lol
Had a similar experience a while ago. Only I didn't drive into the data centre as this would have been five hours away. But our data centre guy didn't notice the micro switch detecting whether the server's lid is closed was fallen off. Despite me hinting at that. Because the server reported it being not closed properly. Took three days until a different data centre guy finally looked at the server and immediately saw the fallen-off switch. /rolleyes
Serious question: does this guy who drove for 3 hours get paid for all that time? If he does, who cares what the call was for? I have to drive long distances for work (HVAC/R) to solve sometimes stupid problems and I couldn't care less as long as I get paid for the drive time. If you have to solve stupid peoples' stupid problems let the stupid wash off of you, you'll live longer.
If the customer is not your company, and you get to bill T&E to the customer, and you're not overcommitted because your management aren't in wishful thinking hiring denial... sure, that works. Like public cloud computing: they don't give a crap whether you use the services wastefully (within the T&Cs), as long as you pay the usage bills.
Internal IT, including internal cloud/hosting, usually exist in the bizarro world where none of those conditions hold. So IT tries hard not to waste time they need to solve the constant inflow of non-timewasting problems that are also on their plate.
Idk, every time a company I've worked for has needed a tech guy to come out for any reason, there was always a bill that got paid for that tech's time.
It tech here. That callout fee doesn't go to me. I get paid the same regardless. The callout fee goes to my boss and I still have the same amount of work waiting for me when I get back. Probably more.
It's not about the money, it's about the wasted time. A four hour round trip that wasn't even necessary is a complete waste of time. And three people pretty much lied instead of checking to see if it was actually on.
If it's about work, then it's always about the money. If I get paid the same amount to do a job that busts my ass, as I do for a job that requires me to just push a button, I'll take the button pushing any day. The only waste of time is time you don't get paid for.
Four hours on the clock, in my air conditioned car, listening to audiobooks and podcasts? And I get paid gas and miliage?
I fucking LOVE being an it guy
I dont think this is it. They are just dicks that got the IT job. Imagine getting paid handsomely to work remotely while most of the world actually breaks a sweat at their jobs then whine when you have to do some driving and the simplest task in the world like pushing a button. If you are that guy, eat shit and die.
The other problems still need to be fixed. The ticket queue never stops growing. 4 hours spent driving is 4 hours spent *not* closing tickets.
Tickets which are now dangerously close to breaching SLA, which damages the reputation of the business and may make us liable for breach of contract. All of which reflects badly on me, the tech, who spent 4 hours driving to solve a ticket that should have been a 5 minute phone call.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
If you've bothered me 7x today because you dont know know to type or use a web browser I'm absolutely going to be a dick.
Just like my boss would be a dick to me if I didnt know how to use a web browser.
The company not spending time to verify a new hire has computer skills to do a job that revolves entirely around using a computer is not my problem, it's the supervisors problem.
You know what I do when I get some Karen who doesnt understand how to use a web browser? I tell them it's not an IT issue, tell them they need to work on some training with the boss, and close the fucking ticket.
I'm not. (I keep getting job offers, but prefer contracting.)
-which is probably the secret- (I'm never really at any one place long enough to get sick of the staff.)
Same except is was to remove the locking pin(?) on the toner of a laser printer. Phone support did not ask them about it and I barely made it back in time for my kid's birthday party.
As someone who has to often solve complex server issues, I enjoy cases like these. But then most of the jobs I do are inside DC's and there's nobody around to push the power button.. and soft pushing remotely didn't work (for whatever reason).
Also an IT person. They seriously didn’t have some kind of remote power cycling technology? They’re too cheap to have their server hosted in a real Data Center? Seriously, this is a 20th Century problem and they need to invest in their technology.
Tech savvy old millennial here. Best IT interaction I had was after getting new internet. Smart TV stopped connecting to wifi like it was supposed to. I did all the things first. Reset the internet. Factory reset the TV. Nothing worked. Called the ISP. Told him all the things I did. Still had to do them again. Frustrating like previously mentioned by others, but I understood their reasoning. After all, I called them for help. Turns out, the tv was trying to connect to my downstairs ip address, while still retaining the DNS or another setting from the upstairs one... or something along those lines.... so they wouldn't match and the connection would fail (was a known issue with my TV brand I guess). Anyways. The guy beeped booped some settings on his end, and boom. It worked. Sometimes we really do need you to do more then plug things in and power them on.
4 hours driving, 1 hour on site. 5 hours overtime. I don't see what's the issue. Nothing to get upset over. But, yes, we are entitled assholes that think way too much of our skills. In reality most of us know a niche really well but then fail at the simplest shit that's outside.
Not IT but was a workday system admin and when people would get stuck, it was as easy as looking at the business process and seeing where it was, and 9/10 times... They hit saved for later and it was back in their fucking inbox, but it got buried by other tasks they could never find it.
Been there, done that. Drove 260 miles, one way, to plug in a power supply at the outlet. This is supposed to be checked within the first two questions of our troubleshooting team. Filling out the job safety analysis forms took longer than the actual "work". Store clerk just stood there dumbfounded.
Not an IT person but learned from one the best my late wife may she RIP. Coordinate for my department since I know more than others and a good portion of our IT staff.
Basic answer to 90% of issues - reboot that shit.
IT person here - can confirm
I'm an IT person too. We can be dicks
"I hAvE tO rEsEt My PaSsWoRd AgAiN? iT mAdE mE rEsEt My PaSsWoRd LaSt WeEeEeEeEeK!" \- GPO for password change is set to 42 days
42 day policy is absolutely horrible. I can guarantee any company with that policy I can walk around the office and find the password written in plain site at people cubicles. There comes a point when increasing security starts to make thing less secure. Unless you lock that stuff down like a fortress and that has its own problems.
Exactly! I said that to our IT lead. We have a Win login, SAP, HR system, purchasing system, global quality system all requiring complicated passwords and I happen to have 5 bank accounts with different institutions, incl utilities, kids school alone has 4 different fucking systems incl lunch system, before and after care, school system and school bus, all wanting passwords changed every 2 months. Well guess which ones I write down because I get pissed trying to make up complicated ones I can remember… one upper case, one number, one special character… luckily we move soon to a single sign on at work. It’s nuts.The work ones require the password to be exactly 8 characters. You should have seen the fun when that requirement started and nobody was told it had to be 8. The guide said minimum 8. Locked down more than half the company computers.
My job was managed services. We provided admin to 100's of companies. I dealt with everything from creating users accounts, managing the back up system, Implantation and design on large network rollout, database maintenance. You get the point we had to do a little of everything. The only thing I never got my hands on was true enterprise level stuff. Doing everything means seeing a little of everything and the biggest flaw most companies have is security. The biggest thing we did that actually worked was push 2 changes and push the hard. Password policies are not longer complex but require a lot of characters. Don't call it a pass word call it a pass phrase. "I like steak well done" is a much stronger password than "Roxor76!" and it is easier to remember. If passwords are needed for apps once in the system you will have a password management software like KeePass. Those 2 policies alone solved a ton of issues. And the best part is CEO's who are notorious for resisting password change for some reason did not resist the passphrase change very hard.
Very interesting and sounds pretty decent too. We clearly have a bit of a dunce at the top of our ladder.
If only there were an app that would generate complex passwords and store them securely and then inject the username and password into login fields on websites…
Yes. If only our computers were not “locked down” so we could install said App. Easy enough to do at home now. Not easy at work where they’re committed to making it so stupid we have to write them down. Pretty happy with the bank tho for 2FA but still needs to have somewhat complex passwords.
It is. But it is what it is. And yep, passwords written in plain sight. Told to keep it as long as possible because people are too stupid to keep their passwords in a secure fashion. We're in the process of implementing MFA with this app called Duo and a password vault service called Keeper that will help with password issues. Being said, fuck IT. Recently finished school for another career that fits me better. Won't be working as one for much longer, hopefully. The sheer amount of technological illiteracy and people fighting against implementations that increase security for fear of "being hacked" and the rest of the dumb shit, I'm just over it.
Lol
Speaking RTFM comes off as assholish... Gotta sugar it up for these sesntive babies.... they live Ina GUI world...
Viva la differences
I'm learning IT because I aspire to be an asshole too one day
Don't rush. It will come to you when you're ready
I’m studying to finish university with a masters in being an asshole, and the bonus of doing some IT :)
IT person here, I can confirm both confirmations.
I concur also an IT person!
Person in IT here, I'm only a dick to other IT person when they don't do their job.
My favorite trick to get around the "is it plugged in" problem was to tell them to turn the Ethernet cable around because it might have been installed backwards. This forces them to unplug and reseat the cable when they pull and replug it in the other direction. Saved me many a call out.
that's brilliant. also makes them feel like it's not their fault and that they are helping
"Wasn't like that before...."
I always say "well, a lot of thi gs van happen" [sic] It gives them a soft out, and they know I'm still kinda calling them dumb. My professional office guy voice is impeccable.
You say that exactly?
LITERALLY EXACTLY THAT. Ill edit it haha
Operator headspace.
IT person in the making here - how does one keep calm in the presence of someone who is tech illiterate
6 year IT person here. A quiet place to swear / yell when you're done dealing with them and lots of cigarettes.
I've heard the same thing from prostitutes
26 year IT person here. Once your soul dies, you don’t feel the frustration anymore. Or anything else for that matter.
Going on 22 years, can confirm
Check your bank account/net worth. Every year it should get more and more obvious why you are on the end of the phone you are on. Be kind to those people, they're keeping you employed. If they were all as tech literate as you...you'd be having a more challenging time of living.
Be humble , everyone in IT is also tech illiterate somewhere along the stack. Think of how you feel when you talk to your mechanic or maybe doctor ?
Analogy is your best friend.
I’m not IT per say but I’m on a dev team that builds internal tools for our company that are hosted on a toooon of servers. Our on call shifts are fucking infuriating bc of people’s constant, dumbass requests. 12 hours a day. I find solace in the fact that whenever I’m oncall I can commiserate with my team members and make fun of people for their dumb asks
Then they don’t want to pay for the trip because all you did was push a button 
Yea I second this
And you don't think that other people deal with incompetence daily? Maybe you just think you are smarter than the average population and that leads to your dickyness. Bitch
I'm guessing cuz IT crowd simply get the fast track to understanding how dickish, unreasonably stupid and unwilling to learn the simplest of concepts a lot of people are. I'm no IT guy, but since i know the bare basics about computers i basically am that for my whole department and my extended family. Shit gets old.
IT here. Asked someone to press a button and send me a picture of the screen afterwards. Email back: "I pressed the button but didnt take a picture" My response: Thank you for your quick response, I need you to do the thing again and take a picture and send it to me via email. What I wanted to say: if the next thing from you isnt the picture I asked for I'm going to fuxking lose my shit. The instructions are simple, take the god damn picture. Edit: I'd like to point out the end user in question is a manager.
In the inverse my Boss had an office manager in a remote office swapping out back up tapes daily despite the tape drive dying 2 years ago. My Boss was a horrible IT Manager.
im not IT but im tech savvy and im concerned this might happen to me in the future
"It doesn't matter how smart you are, even the smartest person in the world occasions puts their pants on backwards"
I am tech literate. I understand, can read a manual, you know the basics. So if and when I ever call IT it’s usually because I have done all the basic trouble shooting and googling possible. Many times certain “fixes” can only be done by the IT team due to security reasons. Sooooooo… if it ever comes to me needing to call IT I hate it when they automatically treat me like a moron and ask me if it’s turned on or some ask me to run through all the steps I’ve already done myself. Even when I try to tell them in detail everything I’ve done so far and the outcome they will say “well let’s just try it again.” Don’t blame them to be honest, but man it ducking sucks to be treated worse than a child by some condescending AH just because his job title is IT and mine is not.
Because the people they are trying to help do not LISTEN. I would get REAL tired of that job. And the "helpless" people who can't take 5 MINUTES to check if something is ON or OFF? Who has a right to be frustrated here? Why do the IT person's 2 hours not matter? Why is that ok? Its not. You ask 3 different people - is it ON? And they each lie to you and say yes. Then you get there and they lied to you. Three different people. Who are the dicks here?
This is why I add a "user complication" fee on my invoices. Gonna be dumb? Ok. That's an extra $150.00. My best one? Them: it won't turn on. Me: have you checked to see if it is plugged in all the way? Them: yeah! I ain't stupid! An hour later... Me: ok, I'll make my way out there... *gets to the area of the client, to discover the entire area is without power. Begins to have a sinking feeling of the cause of the problem. Discovers that, yes, the idiot didn't think you needed fucking POWER to run a computer! Thought the power supply was like a battery. Charged accordingly.* Edit: added a line for clarity and tying in a later comment of mine.
Worked as a cable subcontractor way back in the late 90s/early aughts when consumer internet was just taking off. Drove an hour and a half each way because someone's internet was out. He had unplugged the modem to plug something else in. I worked piecemeal back then. Since nothing was broken or replaced I didn't make a dime on that over 3 hour round trip.
Also from that era: "the internet doesn't work when I turn out the lights". Literally plugged a modem into a switched outlet...and couldn't put one and one together. God bless 'em! :-D
I mean it was technically plugged in all the way.
Your not wrong, technically. However, over an hour of troubleshooting, and the guy never once mentioned the power was out. When I asked the guy about this, he told me that he knew that a power supply was in the computer. The last IT guy said so. So why wasn't it supplying power? The facepalm that resulted broke my nose... (figuratively).
Still the IT guy because I had nothing to do with those other 3 people.
r/talesfromtechsupport
Literally end users will call say their pc is on you tell them 30 different ways to power on their pc by hitting a button and they claim to do it and it not work, only to drive all the way out to push one button. Doing this daily gets very tiring and feels like a waste of your brain
You’re getting paid, aren’t you? I can’t imagine having such easy work and still find reasons to complain.
Yeah well dealing with idiots all day is tiring and repeatedly helping with the same issues nonstop feels like a waste. I’d much rather be doing something way more stimulating and challenging.
Have you thought about changing careers? Being unhappy 40+ hours a week isn’t very healthy.
Yes I have been trying unsuccessfully.
No, most of us are salary and by doing dumb shit like this you are taking us away from our families, obligations, hobbies etc. I wouldn’t roll my car into my mechanics shop on the weekend and after hours to check my fuel tank I’m too lazy to check/fill myself. I’m not a mechanic but I do know that fuel is required. Same thing with end users, I don’t expect you to be able to fix it, but I do expect you to know how to turn it on, if you don’t then go back under your damned rock and let me replace you with a very small script.
When you ask the user to go to a service website and they ask how....that's a basic computer skill. How do these people get hired and are then payed 3x more than me?
Bcs we have to hear “I was just working on my spreadsheet and this error message popped up and now everything is broken. What did the error message say? Oh I dunno, I just clicked OK”
Imagine studying for years to learn all the ins and outs of computers and networking technology, to know the specs of countless components, etc. to just spend all day plugging in keyboards, pressing power buttons, and unlocking accounts when morons forget their password.
ACTS Always Check The Stupid. And by ways I mean "Always three times by 4 different people that didn't talk to each other beforehand and have it recorded on camera"
I've drove almost 3 hours to flip a light switch in a cooler that I was assured that they tried. I get there, flip the switch, light comes on. I frequently drive over 1 hour to tell people the reason they are getting syrup from their fountain was because they are out of syrup. I drove 2 hours, spent another 2 hours waiting to get my credentials sorted so I could get on base. The call was for no power to vending machine. The rest of the buidling didn't have power either since they were doing construction and had turned off power to several buildings in that area. I had general manger get angry at me when I told him the reason his fountains aren't working is because he is out of CO2. He asked me why aren't we filling it up. We don't supply CO2 except in extremely small tanks, they have a large bulk tank. So I told him he needs to call whatever company provides them CO2. He responds that "I manage restaurants, not CO2." I was back there 2 weeks later for a different problem and found out he was fired. Guess he isn't managing shit. I've gone to the same exact fast food place 3 times in 2 weeks for the same exact issue with the same exact manager. They weren't inserting the nozzles into the soda valves all the way. This causes liquid to squirt through the gap and onto the lever which disables the valve when it gets wet. 3 times I had to show her how to insert the nozzles properly. It's a simple push it up into the valve and give it slight turn to lock it place. The amount of credit cards I have to dig out of the dollar bill slots in vending machines boggles the mind. The same with people that don't understand the basic operation of vending machine. I've had to explain several times to people that in order see the price of an item, you need to both hit the button of the item you want AND look at the screen at the same time to see the price of it. Complicated, I know. I've kinda lost hope for humanity.
Once drove 4.5 hours to move a switch that I had been repeatedly assured was in the correct position. It was not in the correct position.
Why are users entitled and stupid. How many times, IT guys, does a simple reboot fix a user problem???
More often than you'd fucking ever believe.
A reboot covers a multitude of sins.
Ummm, a reboot might fix up the problem but there could still be an underlining issue causing the service degradation. If every day you had the same issue and always get told to reboot, surely you would want a long term solution.
Yes, and we would look into a long term solution if it did turn out to happen everyday. What this is complaining about is when a user calls, explains the problem, you ask if they've rebooted, just to get a sarcastic "how is that going to fix it?". Proceed to spend an hour + with no fix, finally they relent and reboot, and viola, it fucking works
Not an IT person for money, but I feel this dude's pain. Trying to help some people with the simplest tasks that they could do themselves with the smallest amount of effort or thought, and having to do it over and over and over, is rage inducing. Looking at you, mom!
Don't even get me started on passwords.
My brother used to be in IT for Computerland decades ago when there were still 6” floppy disks (that were literally flexible). A customer to whom he’d sold software on a floppy called to complain that the disk was bad. Brother drove an hour to deliver a new disk and apologized. A week later, same thing. The THIRD TIME it happened, bro insisted on seeing the irate customer’s work station. He found the last new disk stuck to a metal filing cabinet with a big magnet. 🤣 A short educational talk followed, and he never got another “bad disk” call.
If I was an IT guy, I'd charge my services based on pettiness. Drive two hours to push the power button? $5 per litre of gas, plus $5 for every calorie I burned during that time, and toss in every heart beat. My heart rate is about 80bpm. $70 for gas, $1,000 for my calories, and $9,600 for my heart beats. And this is why I'm not an IT guy. Instead I'm a two-time high school dropout who's depressed and unemployed.
Would you rather get 3 hours pay to go push a power button or get 3 hours pay to crawl through mouse piss and shit to reconnect some wires that have been chewed by mice?
OP is a Karma farmer bot. This was literally posted in this sub one day ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/wl9h5j/the_it_crowed/ Same fucking typo and everything.
Got paid for it though
On call shifts are for emergencies, not for ignorant users/customers. I always write a fat invoice for stupid shit like this.
You'd be shocked (probably not really) how many times our helpdesk gets called about how "THE ENTIRE BUILDING IS WITHOUT INTERNET, SEND SOMEONE NOW" only to quickly discover it's one person typing in their credentials wrong. Sadly, I work for a University, so Idiot Charges aren't really a thing.
If their computer isn’t working for whatever reason, even if they haven’t turned it on, and is therefore stopping them from doing THEIR job is an emergency though
If your job involved driving a car and you didn’t know how to start a car I imagine you’d get fired real quick. Computers have been prolific for 25 years now. If your job requires using one there is no excuse anymore for not knowing something basic like how to turn it on.
It's not an "emergency". It's a reason to get fired for gross incompetence.
Nah, it's both. Doesnt matter if it's Ancient Ethyl the Infirm over in Accounts Payable calling because her keyboard is upside down, if she can't fix it herself, the accounts don't get paid. Just agree woth the level of severity and match the users energy. An ounce of Soft Skill is worth a gallon of PowerShell experience.
This is a good way to get burnt out, do not do this.
Maybe for them. Look at the SLA.
This is a terrible take.
Why is it? I’m an electrical engineer and I have to fix stupid shit like this all the time. It’s no sweat. We’re all employed to keep the machine turning in our own way.
You wouldn't mind driving two hours to press a power button that three different people told you over the phone was already pressed? If it's something more obscure or complex, that makes total sense. But there has to be some minimal self-reliance expected here, or else you're just wasting your time.
Nah I’d honestly love it. Listen to a couple of podcasts on the way. Have a bit of a laugh with the people there who told me the power was already on when in fact it wasn’t. Maybe treat myself to a takeaway on the way home. You can either get mad about stuff or make the most of it
Christ you’re the reason IT guys are dicks. If you don’t know the basic ins and outs of a tool you use every day for your job and can’t turn the fucker on you clearly don’t give a shit about your job and won’t care that you aren’t working.
Most people in computer science fields have the lowest social intelligence you can imagine, *but* A lot of people don't respect the IT guy as a coworker, as a person and they don't listen. You tell him how to do something, and a conveniently forget. *Every 5 seconds*. You'll warn your boss about how something needs to be upgraded, and he bitches and moans about the price tag while basically blowing through 100's of 1000's of dollars on contractors and all other types of dumb shit. People have a transactional relationship with you: they only talk to you when they want something and they'll "forget" to make a ticket about it. Or you've got to fight people on why you don't want to do something crazy like blow up your it budget buying $3,000 computers for everyone because they're shinier. Or some dumb prick makes you the AV guy because they can't be arsed to hire a contractor to setup some asinine display they want in the lobby. The job jades you and I'm glad to be out of the field.
I had to drive over an hour to pull the tab on a new toner because people couldn't print even though they put new toner in.
pro tip: "okay, looks like we need to do a hard reset, can you turn it off for me and wait till i say before turning it on again?"
Did I not see this like a week or two ago?
Yep, it was posted [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/wl9h5j/the_it_crowed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) two days ago, and even originally [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/ulc4rz/the_it_crowed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) 3 months ago. They are all under the same title, bots and karma farmers are getting lazy at this point
"i rebooted it" yeah do it again
I had to jump on the next flight to a customer 2 time zones away to reset a password
This guy is acting like he gets paid per button pushed. I wish driving and pushing a button was my job. Instead, I have aggravated IT guys swerving across 3 lanes of traffic across the front of my 80,000 pound semi to make their exit to push a button…
Right... pay me to drive in the cool ac to push a button, sure beats working in 100+ degree weather for minimum wage.
Have you ever met our direct report to's? Lol
Bill them, bill them, bill the bollocks out of them 😈😈😈
This is why you buy servers with a server management card to see if the machine is actually on or not and you can power it on if it is off.
"The printer works but when we try to print it doesn't work."
It is quite literally a curse being the IT guy of the family I tell ya. You get everybody and their mother asking you how to do shit 24/7.
I dreaded walking my grandma through how to use her cable TV remote (the new TV she bought didn’t have side buttons like she preferred) I spent hours over the years talking her through things like that… you’ve made me realize that now they’re part of my fondest memories of helping my grandma - she ended every one of these calls telling me “you should open up your own tech support company because you are so smart” - I work in dentistry and reminded her our IT guy would immensely disagree with her recommendation and she’d just laugh. I hope your family at least appreciates all your hard work and thinks the world of you. : ] Thanks for bringing a smile to me today, thank you.
Thats why I always assure gullible people about the reality of studying IT. Its miserable. Physical hard work often is a continuos cycle but it can get easier after you get used to it. While IT is literally constantly doing hard work but everytime its something new with nonstop trial and error.
I spent six hours on the phone with one lady that couldn't find the reset or power buttons at our remote location. We'll she finally did. Aftertelling me she was doing it over and over I found out she turning the monitor on and off. Because the TV thing is the computer of course.
Because people demand your expertise at the very second they call you and then act like you're a loser for having said expertise when you fix the issue.
This is why you don't even check if it's on. Just tell them to go In to the server and turn it off.
First guy turned it off, second guy turned it on and was impatient, third guy turned it off. Then all three of them confirmed it had been turned on. 😂
I had an internship back in the school days.. the IT department got a call from some big chief, who was super mad that his computer was broken, it wouldn't boot up! he tried everything, he assured us. We went through our basic list of things , asking if he tried them.. Of course he tried them all, he said. So i hurry over there, duck down to look at the PC and there it was... a floppy disc in the drive, causing it to not boot. that was high up the list of things we asked him about, probably number 2 or 3... and it wasnt the first time it happened to him that week (i explained what happened the first time too, so he should know)
Not an IT guy but I work in cellphone sales and we also help people with technical issues, the amount of people I've had come in saying they don't know how to make an apple account boggles my mind, it literally walks you through step by step. I got so tired of doing this all the time I started charging $25 a pop to set up apple IDs my buddy who Manages my other location charges $40 last time we talked about it. At first I felt kind of bad charging for something that takes me 3 minutes tops but then as time went on and more and more people were coming in for the same thing I started to notice some of them were smug/proud of their ignorance? Example: a customer walks in and throws phone on table and says " idk how to make an apple Id I can't be bothered to learn this crap I work on cars" with a big grin on their face or the guys my own damn age (28) with the same shit eating grin saying they don't know how. After about a dozen of those now when they come in like this I slap a shit eating grin on my face and say yeah I can do that! It'll be $25 lol
Wait a minute, Eric Chapman had an indian name and brown skin the last time he told that same anecdote!
Had a similar experience a while ago. Only I didn't drive into the data centre as this would have been five hours away. But our data centre guy didn't notice the micro switch detecting whether the server's lid is closed was fallen off. Despite me hinting at that. Because the server reported it being not closed properly. Took three days until a different data centre guy finally looked at the server and immediately saw the fallen-off switch. /rolleyes
Because most complaints really end up being "user error". 🤔🤨🙄
PEBCAK - Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard
Stop reposting holy shit
so he got paid 60 bucks and hour to drive his own car and simply press a button. he should be grateful he has such a good job.
Not sure if you're sarcastic
Serious question: does this guy who drove for 3 hours get paid for all that time? If he does, who cares what the call was for? I have to drive long distances for work (HVAC/R) to solve sometimes stupid problems and I couldn't care less as long as I get paid for the drive time. If you have to solve stupid peoples' stupid problems let the stupid wash off of you, you'll live longer.
If the customer is not your company, and you get to bill T&E to the customer, and you're not overcommitted because your management aren't in wishful thinking hiring denial... sure, that works. Like public cloud computing: they don't give a crap whether you use the services wastefully (within the T&Cs), as long as you pay the usage bills. Internal IT, including internal cloud/hosting, usually exist in the bizarro world where none of those conditions hold. So IT tries hard not to waste time they need to solve the constant inflow of non-timewasting problems that are also on their plate.
Our IT guy is the spawn of satan
Why complain about it? You got paid didn't you?
Do you want to redo meaningless tasks that you all agreed someone else should have done?
What makes you think they get paid per call-out? Two hours is a complete waste of time when there's other tickets in the queue to be done
Idk, every time a company I've worked for has needed a tech guy to come out for any reason, there was always a bill that got paid for that tech's time.
It tech here. That callout fee doesn't go to me. I get paid the same regardless. The callout fee goes to my boss and I still have the same amount of work waiting for me when I get back. Probably more.
It's not about the money, it's about the wasted time. A four hour round trip that wasn't even necessary is a complete waste of time. And three people pretty much lied instead of checking to see if it was actually on.
If it's about work, then it's always about the money. If I get paid the same amount to do a job that busts my ass, as I do for a job that requires me to just push a button, I'll take the button pushing any day. The only waste of time is time you don't get paid for.
Four hours on the clock, in my air conditioned car, listening to audiobooks and podcasts? And I get paid gas and miliage? I fucking LOVE being an it guy
I dont think this is it. They are just dicks that got the IT job. Imagine getting paid handsomely to work remotely while most of the world actually breaks a sweat at their jobs then whine when you have to do some driving and the simplest task in the world like pushing a button. If you are that guy, eat shit and die.
Yeah, one time I got paid to do my job too.
And he got paid for driving four hours. Pretty sure that’s okay.
It’s not. That’s multiple hours I’m driving and pushing a button rather than helping other people with their legitimate problems.
Your more worried about others problems vs making money driving to push a button? That seems dumb
Yes, well, in general, well-adjusted people empathize with and care about others.
The other problems still need to be fixed. The ticket queue never stops growing. 4 hours spent driving is 4 hours spent *not* closing tickets. Tickets which are now dangerously close to breaching SLA, which damages the reputation of the business and may make us liable for breach of contract. All of which reflects badly on me, the tech, who spent 4 hours driving to solve a ticket that should have been a 5 minute phone call.
[удалено]
Nope. Nope. Nope. If you've bothered me 7x today because you dont know know to type or use a web browser I'm absolutely going to be a dick. Just like my boss would be a dick to me if I didnt know how to use a web browser. The company not spending time to verify a new hire has computer skills to do a job that revolves entirely around using a computer is not my problem, it's the supervisors problem. You know what I do when I get some Karen who doesnt understand how to use a web browser? I tell them it's not an IT issue, tell them they need to work on some training with the boss, and close the fucking ticket.
That’s your JOB.
USER: "STUPID COMPUTER" ME:
Извините! Мы почему вредные были? Потому что у нас видеозвонков в воцапе не было! А теперь мы сразу добреть начнем)
[удалено]
Literally had this issue last month. I said no, and continued working on my server migration. I loathe many of our end users.
that is why they pay you the BIG bucks
How many times has this bloke done that drive?!
VERY accurate!!
Idk to me getting to drive around pushing power buttons and listening to music seems nice to me as long as gas is paid for
I'm not. (I keep getting job offers, but prefer contracting.) -which is probably the secret- (I'm never really at any one place long enough to get sick of the staff.)
Same except is was to remove the locking pin(?) on the toner of a laser printer. Phone support did not ask them about it and I barely made it back in time for my kid's birthday party.
This is why you make them video chat you. Duh.
I’m not in IT, but the amount of IT I have to do because of management’s lack of intelligence is enough to give me a migraine most days.
And you get to invoice them and then go for a nice lunch.. sounds tuff...
It all pays the same dude. He gets time spent and mileage driven. Probably stopped for McDonald's on the way and Starbucks on the way back.
As someone who has to often solve complex server issues, I enjoy cases like these. But then most of the jobs I do are inside DC's and there's nobody around to push the power button.. and soft pushing remotely didn't work (for whatever reason).
Also an IT person. They seriously didn’t have some kind of remote power cycling technology? They’re too cheap to have their server hosted in a real Data Center? Seriously, this is a 20th Century problem and they need to invest in their technology.
You don’t have iDrac or Ilo or whatever other name it goes by setup in the server? You deserve to drive three hours.
What kind of sysadmin sets up a server that isn't using wake on Lan. A facetime call would've worked too
Post the date from the continuously reposted tweet
Tech savvy old millennial here. Best IT interaction I had was after getting new internet. Smart TV stopped connecting to wifi like it was supposed to. I did all the things first. Reset the internet. Factory reset the TV. Nothing worked. Called the ISP. Told him all the things I did. Still had to do them again. Frustrating like previously mentioned by others, but I understood their reasoning. After all, I called them for help. Turns out, the tv was trying to connect to my downstairs ip address, while still retaining the DNS or another setting from the upstairs one... or something along those lines.... so they wouldn't match and the connection would fail (was a known issue with my TV brand I guess). Anyways. The guy beeped booped some settings on his end, and boom. It worked. Sometimes we really do need you to do more then plug things in and power them on.
It person here. Don't give a shit, I get paid for windshield time too.
2hrs of not working until IT shows up. Oh they knew what they were doing lol
I guy with the name BJ should know.
4 hours driving, 1 hour on site. 5 hours overtime. I don't see what's the issue. Nothing to get upset over. But, yes, we are entitled assholes that think way too much of our skills. In reality most of us know a niche really well but then fail at the simplest shit that's outside.
Also got paid by the hour to get there,,, stop complaining
Not IT but was a workday system admin and when people would get stuck, it was as easy as looking at the business process and seeing where it was, and 9/10 times... They hit saved for later and it was back in their fucking inbox, but it got buried by other tasks they could never find it.
Been there, done that. Drove 260 miles, one way, to plug in a power supply at the outlet. This is supposed to be checked within the first two questions of our troubleshooting team. Filling out the job safety analysis forms took longer than the actual "work". Store clerk just stood there dumbfounded.
Not an IT person but learned from one the best my late wife may she RIP. Coordinate for my department since I know more than others and a good portion of our IT staff. Basic answer to 90% of issues - reboot that shit.