I.T Workers, What's The WILDEST Thing You've Seen At Work?

[@v3ru586]

When I was a trainee, I ended up with a "broken" mouse that would move sluggishly. IT had checked the computer repeatedly but no one knew why the mouse wouldn't work, it worked when IT tried it remotely. Besides, it was more annoying than anything, the mouse wouldn't move as fast as you moved it and sometimes it would get stuck for no apparent reason. When I had some time during work, I checked the mouse and found it was an older piece, still with the ball instead of lasers. I grew up with this type of mouse, so I just took it apart and cleaned the components. It worked perfectly afterwards

[@godinogirl]

My dad used to do IT phone support, he taught me how to trouble shoot conputers at a very young age. He didn't want me to have to call anyone because i didn't know to restart my computer

[@RufusReadit]

Your dad really set you up for success. First lesson in IT: when in doubt, turn it off and on again. 😂

[@cybercifrado]

Story 2: To be fair; there never WAS an Easter egg in the code. It was actually a dinosaur egg. ;)

[@UltraManager]

The boss is so lame to remove the harmless Raptor Easter egg. Demo went super well and even made the 60 people laugh. But no, he have to make job 100% back to be boring.. This is why I am working to be my own boss, because I'm allowing myself to enjoy the day even if work is hard and etc.

[@jake8748]

It's fun until it pops up during an important client pitch etc. Just have to code it into lower relevance areas. But yeah I'd be pissing myself laughing if that popped up at a random work meeting.

[@simpleman806]

I believe it was back in 1997. I was 12yrs old then. My dad got us a desktop computer the year before. One game that I played was solitaire. My grandparents lived in a nearby town and I had a friend there that lived across the street. They just their 1st desktop computer. I asked if I could play on it and the parents told me I could. So I got on solitaire. When you beat solitaire, the cards fall across the screen. I ended up winning and the parents saw the cards fall. They freaked out thinking that I broke it. I had to win again just so they would relax about it.

[@OuchingTigerLimpingDragon]

😂 That's so funny! Of course they wouldn't know, but it's so amusing with the greater perspective that we have now.

[@chaylahskinner9390]

IT are so used to dealing with idiots that they start all conversations with "are you sure it's turned on", "have you restarted it", "turn it off for 20 seconds then turn it on again", and similar. The bad part is that most people don't know the difference between turning it on/off instead of restarting - and I don't blame them. On the other hand, I do all the basic trouble shooting and put in my ticket - being very specific about what I have done. IT will still ask me to do the exact same steps :(

[@cheergiver]

I lost it with that raptor story. lol

[@GromMolotok]

It was hilarious!

[@Schiebi86]

I would love that easter egg and not just with a raptor with every car named after an animal. Corvette Stingray ? Stingray fly across the Screen. A mustang ? A herd of them run from left to right...

[@mauriceclark6093]

Whoever playing borderlands in the background is killing it lol!

[@thatsmsdragon]

Many years ago, I worked at the Help Desk for a software company that kept records for furniture stores that made custom furniture and the like. One day I got a frantic call from a guy who worked on-site for a chain of about 12-15 stores. He yells, my servers on fire! What do I do??!! I told him to grab a fire extinguisher and put it out or pull the fire alarm and call 911. I'm response, he screams, "But what about a backup??" After a second, I replied that I thought it was too late at this point. (Note: he hadn't done a backup in 3 months and the company had to reconstruct all the data from their paper files.) I still laugh about it and when life gets hard, I'll cheer myself up by thinking, at least I'm not as f*#$ed as he was that day.

[@grsd8069]

I had one lady ask my co-worker how do you unprint a printed paper.

[@RufusReadit]

Guess she was looking for the "Control-Z" for real life. 😅

[@chrisquint3656]

Paper shredder maybe?

[@exodiatheforbid9355]

That rawwr was beautiful Rufus.

[@RufusReadit]

😉

[@Manhandle730]

Yeah didn’t sound lazy and computer generated at all!!

[@steve43t]

Few years back, I was having trouble with connecting to a server drive. So, I contact in house IT support. They suggested I turn my computer off and back on and the help desk person would wait on the line while I did so. I pause for a moment, and say "you know we switched to primarily VOIP phones, right?" They then launch into how much work it was to get that all setup. This goes on for a minute or two before they ask me how the reboot is going. I slowly explain that being on a VOIP call, if the computer is turned off, the call would be disconnected too, because it's run through the computer, not a separate phone line. They could only respond with an "oh... yeah". Moral of the story, don't feel too dumb when dealing with IT folks, they make stupid mistakes too.

[@techman3420]

27:21 You can’t be serious…. A guy really thought wireless meant it did not need power?!?!?!

[@philw245]

I had a woman come into the shop I worked in to buy a new mousemat, just before she paid for it she asked, "Will this be compatible with my computer.?"

[@RufusReadit]

Must’ve been one of those high-tech, Bluetooth mousemats. 🤔

[@cybercifrado]

"Unfortunately, ma'am, this mousepad says it's compatible with Windows XP. You may be out of luck."

[@robertsissco2439]

To be fair, I do remember seeing "Windows 98/ME/XP compatible" printed on the packaging for mouse pads back in the day.

[@DesmoChoJo]

I have a lot of stories from working IT when i was in the Air Force. My boss, a Major, said his computer was running slow and when i checked the logs his computer hasn’t been shut off in 5 years. For 5 years all he has done was shut off his monitor. After i reset his computer he came back to me because he forgot his login pin.

[@Chris_at_Home]

I’m surprised they dont make people change their password. Most places I worked at we were required to change it every 60 days and it had to be a high security password. No wonder the government gets hacked.

[@DesmoChoJo]

@@Chris_at_Home they do. He’s account even said how many days overdue he was. They just can’t ask you to change it if you’re logged in.

[@Chris_at_Home]

@@DesmoChoJo we would get locked out after the 60s days. It didn’t matter if you left your computer logged in.

[@Randomkitty74]

I’m somewhat computer literate because of my dad. He was an IT director, and had to deal with a lot of weird moments. But, now if I have issues, I can ask my dad. I also know how to look out for malware and avoid phishing.

[@RufusReadit]

Nice, with an IT dad, your browser history must be squeaky clean. 😂

[@Randomkitty74]

@@RufusReadit ohhh yes it is. Downloaded malware once as a kid by accident trying to download a game. Dad had to teach me in very fine detail on the horrors and dangers of malware. Scared me as a kid lol.

[@travis-n-joy]

We have a particular user that's not too bright. Well she came into the IT Manager's office one day when we were all just shooting the sh*t. She announced that everything she typed was always in capital letters. My co-worker says to her, "I swear to God if your caps lock is on..." She replies, "What's caps lock?" I kid you not. What's worse is that this lady is a mechanical engineer and can design 3D models just by asking her. A true idiot savant.

[@Yamipaladin]

I work with engineers as their tier 1 It help desk and these people are the dumbest geniuses in the world. They'll lock themselves out of the computer because the pc turned off numlock or switch login type from their normal method to something else.

[@ericdodson3630]

I am head of IT for a medium sized CPA firm, If i find any inappropriate items on a work computer, that gets reported to HR, I'll let them deal with it, they can use their personal computers at home to look at that stuff. I recently replaced the firewalls and I setup IPS\IDS and web filtering, there was none previous to me setting this up (including social media). Once I get my new switches and AP's i'll have an employee VLAN that they can look at social media on their personal devices but not on company devices unless there is a good reason to be looking at it.

[@LVL58Designs]

I can relate to a lot of these as I am a computer technician and deal with stupidity on the daily. Thank you. A lot of these gave me a good laugh.

[@hardcoreplur]

Story 3: I would have gone to the CEO and Board and told them she was a security risk and she locked out and retrained or fired.

[@KaeYoss]

A buddy's company fired a female employee for using company time and equipment to run a side business. That was the official reason. The side business was "servicing" coworkers in the bathroom during the lunch break.

[@HrLBolle]

for Story 8, 12:33, I would probably handle a find of this "type" the same way. Speak to a trusted college graduate and have them escalate the issue to the appropriate agency. That's my personal view... Alternatively, I would involve an outside agency if it is warranted by the find, an example would be the "most despicable type of P involving very under age."

[@madaboutmarceline]

I would never last working in IT. I’d lose my job in a matter of weeks for insulting the customers.

[@jaydenallen7742]

Matter of weeks? Then you have far greater tolerance and/or patience more than me since I would make a sailor blush within the day

[@hibaakaiko3888]

Went out to a home to do a desktop repair. Very well cared for but the wifi card was shot. She just wanted it replaced with the newest version of that particular card. Fair enough. But we don't carry that brand and will need to order it. It will take a few days to get in. She's okay with this. Sweetess gem of a person. Most would start yelling at me at this point as if i could magically shit out the part they needed on the spot. The only problem she had was, the computer let her work from home so she NEEDED wifi asap. She's been so sweet i'm like "i'll set your computer up for a land line." So she will have wired internet until her wireless card got in. Totally over the moon with that declaration, she's thanking me profusely. I teller i just got to go get the cat cable and we'll be done for the day. Suddenly she shouts "no!" Very loudly. It freaked me out how loudly she had yelled that. "I have dogs, they don't like cats. Do you have dog cables instead?" Dog cables Still the funiest shit i've ever heard.

[@myself-cs5fr]

My first job in IT was for a small business working out of a the house of a crazy-professor type. Assembling the physical parts of a pc is easy enough, like lego and the guy would sometimes get his kids to assemble PC's for him. I found sticky lollipops and candy wrappers inside some client's pc's at times LOL He had terrible cashflow and was always broke, so if he sold a new PC to a business he'd often just take used parts from the stack of old computers he had, and build a pc from that...I'd be embarrassed installing some of them. They didn't even LOOK new LOL

[@djkiltech]

8:51 OOH! THIS WAS THE REHAB I DID MY INTERNSHIP!!! I was one of the only ones who actually complied (I was an intern and it was part of my degree)

[@KaeYoss]

We had one smart cookie use the call forwarding on his work phone to forward to one of those spicy numbers they always sing in late night TV ads (or used to 25 years ago, dunno what late light TV ads are up to these days). He'd then obviously call his office from home at night. Still no idea why he thought he could get away with that.

[@sakurakittynoir1400]

In testifying, the pastor actually broke two of the ten commandments. 3.) Thou shalt not bear false witness. 9.) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Basically using God's name to justify your terrible choices or those of another)

[@KaeYoss]

Story 5. That Pastor got sentenced to prison AND eternal hellfire. It's kiterally bearing false witness.

[@beepboop9712]

Rawr

[@treywasherebam]

Comment

[@97stratocaster21]

Reply

[@robertsissco2439]

"You there, computer man, fix my pants."

[@Aoskar95]

I'm pretty sure the guard from story 5 was on an episode of the darknet diaries podcast

[@kimberly8185]

Every time I email IT I think I'm probably driving them nuts with my lack of technological knowledge... I don't feel so bad now... 😂 but seriously IT folks are my heros!

[@geeknupthenight7417]

Apple went down hill long before that

[@SeriousPinoyGamer]

The problem with working IT is that non-IT people think they know everything about technology and are then baffled when they can't make it run their way. You then have to go through multiple meetings just to explain why something can't be done in a way that doesn't make yourself look like "you just don't want to do your job" only for some people to think they can do it better

[@VerdePenguin]

I've had to explain to people in 2023 2024 that a wireless network for the internet still requires an abundance of wires to run the whole back end, including your phone network is run off of wires

[@bytesabre]

Crawled under the thick high voltage cables which were the main power feed for a major subway line because the idiots working there had stashed a bunch of CRT monitors in there that needed to be sent for e-waste recycling

[@bytesabre]

Same company had a gas power station that was using an old combustion chamber from a rolls royce trent jet engine as a waste paper basket. That place was cool I miss visiting there.

[@jhutto1984]

I have so many questions about "The Sasquatch."

[@briarbarfield5809]

Man, fuck 2fa. That shit is the reason I permanently lost my original discord account.

[@bookkeeper1995]

2fa to link a work account to a private phone is a whole issue

[@MaduroMan]

I’m so glad I’m retired from this field.

[@3frenchhens818]

Can somebody put the raptor Easter Egg up on line so we can use it in our posts? I mean as a little animation.

[@VerdePenguin]

I've also had people try to gaslight me and tell me that it was my fault to which my response was no, I just did these things that would not affect your computer such as updating The BIOS drivers or something?

[@Christmas4200]

Have I been pronouncing "Ethernet" wrong my whole life? Lol 31:41

[@Lollocide]

Hmm. I guess life does find a way. Anyway...

[@bootsbooy]

limewire 2016?

[@wclark3196]

Your mom.