‘She’s had this problem for over a year': Incompetent employee's manager insists IT messed up after finding out she wasn't doing her job following her promotion

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Feb 12, 2024 1:00 PM EST

Why does IT always get blamed? Employees always expect them to read minds, to predict the future… But they're humans with a lot on their plate, and they don't bow to snobby managers from various departments who are trying to cover for their incompetent employees.

One such employee approached OP (who was working in IT) after she failed to receive emails. OP immediately began troubleshooting and found the problem relatively quickly. The issue was a rule that she had set up, and OP pointed her to the folder that the emails were going to. Then they turned off the rule and showed her how to turn it back on. Ticket closed, next.

Unfortunately, that was not the end of it, as this woman's manager called OP into a meeting, where they were unfairly reprimanded. Scroll down to read about how this chaos ended. Then, check out this customer who got back at a record store after they tried to lock him into a 36-month contract. This was back in the 80s, so he had to get old-school clever.

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  • 01
    77 78 79 Y 80 81 82 85 86 88 // error suppressed with if (error_reporting() e) { Boss: She's had this problem for over a year. Tech Support: Um, no actually... She hasn't. case E WARNING: case E_USER_WARNING: $error = 'Warning'; break+
    via Canva
  • 02
    "She's had this problem for over a year" Medium We got a ticket that said the employee wasn't receiving emails sent to a certain group. Some quick troubleshooting:
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 03
    1. Checking to make sure there were no issues with the group email getting through. 2. Making sure she was on the group. 3. Checking her junk folder settings to make sure she didn't mark it junk. 4. Checking to see if she had set-up a rule to sort emails from group.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 04
    We found the problem quickly. It was a rule she had set-up. Showed her the folder the emails were going to so she could find any she missed. Turned off the rule and showed her how to turn it back on if she ever wanted to sort them again. Noted the ticket and moved on. Being the curious type, I looked through our system and I found a ticket from 2 years ago where she actually asked us for the rule. I knew
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 05
    she couldn't have done it herself, so I knew we had a ticket. In the ticket she was complaining about being spammed by those emails. The person who work with her, left DETAILED instructions on where the email was going. How to find the rule. How to turn it off. And made it clear before closing the ticket that should she want the emails not sorted, she needed to turn it off and while the rule was on she would not see the emails in her regular inbox.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 06
    I just kind of put that little bit of information away. I didn't make a deal out of her asking for the rule to be set-up. About 3 days later, I am in a meeting and her boss had a list of items he wants to talk about. One of them was her 'email' issue. "That was fixed," I told him.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 07
    "She said it took a while," he answered. I pulled up the ticket and showed him, that from time the ticket was opened until it was closed with a satisfactory conclusion was only 15 minutes. "She told me that she's had this problem for over a year," he said.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 08
    "I don't know what to tell you," I said. "She only opened this ticket on this date and it was fixed 15 minutes later." "Shouldn't you know if she is having issues?" "What do you mean?" "She hasn't been receiving these emails for awhile, shouldn't you know that?"
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 09
    "I'm still not following. We knew when she told us. We don't have the ability to know when the employees here are expecting emails unless they tell us." "It seems like that is something IT should know. Email is very important. If it isn't working, alarms should be sounding." "Email was working correctly." I pointed out again that all we did was turn off a rule that she asked to be made in the first place.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 10
    "Maybe she just didn't understand what you guys were doing with the rule." I again pointed out that, on the original ticket, the tech took her time to spell out the entire solution and even explained what was happening with the email.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 11
    After the meeting, I got kind of curious why he was so persistent that we messed up. It turns out that she got promoted a year ago. Part of her job was supposed to be taking care of those emails (before it was a group thing where it was kind of passed out, but her promotion made her in charge of the entire program). And she kept telling all the other people she was
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 12
    working with that she wasn't getting them. Other people were taking care of them for her. I guess he was embarrassed that she was skimping on that part of her job and was blaming IT. No, she didn't get punished at all.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 13
    Vektor0 11h ago Excellent example of why tickets are important, and particularly why detailed notes are important. If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen. 4210 Reply Share
    via u/Vektor0
  • 14
    Budget_Quote3272 • 9h ago "It seems like that is something IT should know...." I have heard that many times concerning classroom, conference room, emails, and etc. idk what users expect us to be magic all wizards to have this code alert system to know person A can't turn on a computer, or person B can't login. I always detail tickets to cover myself since a lot of them blame IT for delayed work. Crazy office politics to use IT as scapegoats. 63 Reply Share
    via u/Budget_Quote3272
  • 15
    81 KelemvorSparkyfox • 8h ago Bring back Lotus Notes No, she didn't get punished at all. Meanwhile, I got reprimanded yesterday for not letting my manager know that I would be arriving after 09:00* because someone else in the office complained that I wasn't there when according to Shifts, I ought to have been. Makes me seethe. Manager now wants to know when I'm going to be later into the office, so that he's not caught wrong-footed in future. Think I'll just log onto Teams from my phone and upda
    via u/KelemvorSparkyfox
  • 16
    *We have core hours of 10:00 - 15:00, so it's not like I was in danger of breaching cover or anything. Also, given the only people who were in the office when I arrived, I have a good idea of who the snitch is. Which is going to make things interesting. 30 30 Reply ↑ Share ...
    via u/KelemvorSparkyfox
  • 17
    AngryCod. 7h ago The SLA means what I say it means "Shouldn't you know if she is having issues?" Aren't you her boss? Shouldn't you know if she's been unproductive for the last year? See, two can play that game mo 4 20¹ er. Reply ↑ Share ...
    via u/AngryCod
  • 18
    djdaedalus42 9h ago Success=dot i's, cross t's, kiss r's Add a note to the ticket about the boss. Don't hold back. Ⓒ ↑ 17 ↓ Reply Share konq • 5h ago I'd do the same. I'd also add the original comment from the year's-long ticket (with the timestamps) to make sure the original user is aware that IT already told them all of the information they are now being re-told a year later.
    via u/djdaedalus42, u/konq
  • 19
    tmstksbk • 7h ago That whole situation sounds suspicious. Manager shouldn't be defending obvious idiocy, so why is it happening. Ⓒ4 10 ↓ Reply Share ... LifeStartingAgain • 7h ago Maybe but for this idiocy, she is actually good at her job. There are certain skill sets that will have everything forgiven and forgotten. 46↓ Reply Share ...
    via u/tmstksbk, u/LifeStartingAgain
  • 20
    creegro • 2h ago Computer engineer cause I know what a mouse does Sounds like upper upper management. Taking the word of other management like it's the word of God, cause they wouldn't lie about being stupid and missing work, would they? Of course not! They are fellow managers, who got there by their own bootstraps and not by some totally flawed system that lets complete ons become supervisors.... And then one person says "this hasnt worked in a year" is a red flag. Either IT is truly not helpin
    via u/creegro
  • 21
    K1yco • 8h ago "Shouldn't you know if she is having issues?" Well, if this were possible, then there would be no reason for anyone to contact IT ever because everything would be fixed instantly. You go to the doctor to tell him you are sick and to give pill but never tell him you broke your arm then how is he supposed to know you have a broken arm? 416 Reply ↑ Share
    via u/K1yco
  • 22
    mailboy79. 6h ago PC not working? That is unfortunate... "It seems like that is something IT should know..." If i had a dollar for every time I have heard similar language, I'd own at least half of Bahrain. IT is NOT clairvoyant. ↑ 8 Reply Share
    via u/mailboy79
  • 23
    GodOfUtopiaPlenitia • 8h ago In a REAL company, she would have been fired for asking for her literal job to be sent into the "Oblivion" Folder. 4 10 ¹ Ⓒ Reply Share LifeStartingAgain • 7h ago No she wouldn't. It would depend on who's easier to replace: her or IT 45 5 ↓ Reply 1 Share
    via u/GodOfUtopiaPlenitia, u/LifeStartingAgain
  • 24
    Jeffbx 6h ago ● Have your boss call her into a meeting & ask her the same things. 44 ↓ Reply ↑ Share tigerb47 9h ago The takers get the honey, the givers sing the blues! 41 ↓ Reply 1 Share
    via u/Jeffbx, u/tigerb47

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promotion boss tech support manager job workplace stories reddit work upper management troubleshooting it emails employees workplace ticket company employment
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