Tech support employee attempts to fix incompetent new hire's mistake but they get fired anyway: 'She just stared at her desktop'

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
May 18, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

Once I had a very incompetent coworker who was just the nicest person to walk the face of the earth. Seriously, it was so hard to be angry at her for not doing her job well because she was always so chipper and thoughtful. Much like Lucy in this story.

One employee took to r/talesfromtechsupport to share a story about their coworker, Lucy, who began working as a HelpDesk technician at a financial company. They did password resets, fixed Windows issues, and basically did all of the tech stuff related to the office. The tech support department was small, but they had a lot of turnovers. The employee in question had become the most senior person on the job, so they were given the task to teach Lucy how to excel at her work. Well, Lucy was adorable, but she also wasn't born to work in tech support, and that was the simple truth of it.

After reading how Lucy inevitably messed up despite her good intentions, check out this housemate who kept ordering food with their roommate's money and getting full refunds, but not returning the cash to their roommate.

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  • 01
    "The VP fired her right then and there."
    via Canva
  • 02
    The PEBCAK is coming from inside the house
    via u/IT_VI
  • 03
    Today I have a simple story about the moment I realized my coworker, "Lucy," was really, really not a good fit for HelpDesk. There are more stories about Lucy, but those are for another day. Setup: A decade ago, I worked for a financial company as your run-of-the-mill HelpDesk technician. Password resets, Windows issues, email distro lists, everything but network or hardware. Our department was small, only five employees, but we were going through a rough time with turnovers. I had gone from the
    via u/IT_VI
  • 04
    Enter our newest teammate, Lucy. Lucy was by far the sweetest person I have met in IT, and did several thoughtful gestures for me throughout my time with her. She always had a smile on her face and never complained. Really, I want to stress how funny and friendly she was. Because, unfortunately, Lucy couldn't troubleshoot herself out of a paper bag. I first started to get the feeling that something was wrong within the first week of training. Obviously, everything is done with supervision at thi
    via u/IT_VI
  • 05
    would do without direct instruction. It seemed like every time I would ask her to do something, her face would go blank like her brain was still processing what was asked. Even with very basic things, like clicking different options on a window. Warning signals really went off when we asked her to do [simple operating procedure utilizing clear documentation] by adding information to an Excel document. We had gone through this process about four times prior, as it was a very frequent but easy tas
    via u/IT_VI
  • 06
    I look over after about ten minutes of her working on the procedure and notice that she's... still on the Windows desktop? "Hey Lucy, how is it going with [procedure]?," I ask, "Just let me know if you need any help with it; I'm not busy right now." "I'm good, thank you!" she says, in a chipper tone. Lucy moves the mouse around but otherwise doesn't click on anything. Is she just playing on her phone or something? I wonder to myself, and take more frequent peeks at her over the next five minutes
    via u/IT_VI
  • 07
    I decide to throw her a bone. "I found the easiest way to start is to open Excel first, then worry about [other step] next. Why don't you go ahead and do that, then I can show you the next steps if you need?" She perks up. "Oh, okay! I can do that." There is another pause. I watch as her mouse moves over the screen, hovering occasionally over different icons on the desktop.
    via u/IT_VI
  • 08
    I speak up again, "Ah, it's the green icon, by the way. I know we have a LOT of desktop shortcuts, haha." She laughs and agrees, then silence again. Another few minutes pass... I gently offer that the Start Menu might be the best place to go if she doesn't have Excel pinned. "Got it!" she eagerly says. I watch in amazement as her mouse moves from to the upper right... the lower right... the lower left... ... ... then to the upper left.
    via u/IT_VI
  • 09
    At this stage, I'm baffled. I get up to stand behind her. "Here," I say, making every effort to not sound flabbergasted, "we can do it together this time. Let's go to the Windows Start Menu." I gesture to the lower left corner. "Can do!" she chirps, and the mouse begins its adventure anew. Right... left... up... down... 10 seconds... 20 seconds... 30 seconds of silence and a meandering cursor, all while smiling at the screen. I repeat my directions, this time adding that the Menu is at the far l
    via u/IT_VI
  • 10
    right... pause... left... right... This time, I point, finger making contact with the screen, and ask her to click there. "There it is!" she says triumphantly, and clicks the Start Menu! She looks up at me with a beaming smile. I breathe a small sigh of relief and try to shake off my confusion, keeping my face neutral. "Okay, great! Now that we are here, we just need to search for Excel to open it," I say confidently, looking at the obvious, white search bar with the cursor already flashing insi
    via u/IT_VI
  • 11
    "On it!" she says enthusiastically, followed by silence... I see her move her hand from the mouse to the keyboard... to the mouse... keyboard... mouse….. pause….. ... ... [clicks on Microsoft Word]
    via u/IT_VI
  • 12
    MartijnProper 12 hr. ago I'm sure Lucy is very good at something, preferably something I'm bad at. Not her fault she wasn't screened properly, not her fault for wanting to try. I hope she was quietly transferred to another departement where she could do some good... 28 Reply Share IT_VI OP. 12 hr. ago edited 12 hr. ago Let me research that. -googles like a madman- She ended up staying for several months and very, very slowly progressed in a few things she could do.
    via u/IT_VI, u/MartijnProper
  • 13
    But then she ended up making a fatal error she once made with me, but I caught it immediately and spend hours undoing it. The second time, no one caught it until it was far too late, and it required a huge intervention and blowup from VPs :( She was let go. According to her LI though, she's still in IT! Maybe she caught up! 38 Reply Share ...
    via u/IT_VI
  • 14
    Legion2481 12 hr. ago Lucy sounds like that segment of the population that survived to adulthood by being so personable and nice everyone feels really bad calling them out on anything. 129 Reply Share IT_VI OP 12 hr. ago Let me research that. -googles like a madman- Honestly, probably so. She was so kind and thoughtful and absolutely wouldn't hurt a fly. I wanted her to succeed so badly :( 81 Reply Share
    via u/IT_VI, u/Legion2481
  • 15
    MadnessEvolved. 14 hr. ago Destroyer of Circuits I can't say my best was quite so... that? But I've had a few people come through and pass their training. They sit in a small group after they're done shadowing and they get their own L2 for the next couple weeks. No real issues during that time presents itself. Cool.
    via u/MadnessEvolved
  • 16
    Then the training wheels come off and they're on their own, like the rest of us. And by that I mean it's a call centre surrounded by others who are always happy to help and share. There's an even distribution of L2 for each shift, meaning there's always plenty of help available. Always. Plus all of the documentation we have on hand, etc etc. There's been a few of these notables who have been pulled up pretty hard, including by myself, because what they were telling the end user was so very very
    via u/MadnessEvolved
  • 17
    Two in particular that come to mind had issues with the same kind of call. I'm at an RSP, customers call in when they open a service with us and we do New Service Setup. Ensure the right cables are plugged in to the right devices and the router is configured correctly. Very routine, doesn't take long to get familiar with doing it. NSS calls would leave these two completely stumped. They'd barely have any idea where to start or what questions to ask. "What model router do you have?" or the leadin
    via u/MadnessEvolved
  • 18
    They'd also get the connection type wrong, despite having this information on screen in front of them. Which made it terribly difficult to troubleshoot things not working, because they're looking at the wrong things. Which I've done before, and that's ok. But instead of realising this and recovering they'd double down on being wrong and start accusing the user of . Or tell them it's broken and a tech needs to be sent out. Or to just turn it off for an hour and call back. Or to just go buy a new
    via u/MadnessEvolved
  • 19
    I was so glad when they didn't pass their PIPs and were let go. I genuinely feared what they were telling the end users and how much money they cost customers who couldn't afford it. Having some people in this kind of role can be dangerous. It's really not for everyone. 108 Reply Share
    via u/MadnessEvolved
  • 20
    Harry_Smutter ⚫ 12 hr. ago How old was Lucy?? She definitely didn't belong and whoever hired her for the job should get the boot, too. That's just insane... 49 Reply Share IT_VI OP 12 hr. ago Let me research that. -googles like a madman- She was younger 20s and was actually an internal hire She worked a NOC role and wanted to advance. We had been consistently understaffed for months and had several failed new-hire attempts, so we finally said yes. 49 Reply Share
    via u/IT_VI, u/Harry_Smutter
  • 21
    Harry_Smutter · 12 hr. ago O_o What did she do in NOC!? Get them coffee and donuts!? 30 Reply Share IT_VI OP 12 hr. ago Let me research that. -googles like a madman- No, they actually had technical stuff to do! It wasn't Sysadmin level or anything, but we had a set of archaic servers and programs that ran on PuTTY and practically DOS systems (I only worked overnight relief sometimes so I just knew enough to execute the right commands at the right time, so there was a lot about the role I don't k
    via u/IT_VI, u/Harry_Smutter
  • 22
    RandomBoomer · 10 hr. ago I worked as an account manager in a company that provided software support for a Microsoft product. To be fair, training was haphazard and new hires were mostly just thrown into the developer pool and expected to ask lots of questions. One particular new hire -- without the amiable personality described in the OP -- was having difficulty filling in a log-in form to get to the client server and do some minor updates on the product. He never called for help, just kept try
    via u/RandomBoomer
  • 23
    Looking over his shoulder, I immediately noted that he was pulling his credentials from an email, then plugging them directly onto the online authentication form. "Okay, let's rule out the simple issues. Paste your credentials into Notepad, then copy from there so we're sure you have clean text." He nodded and stared at the screen. Moved his mouse around a bit, but didn't follow my instructions. I re-phrased a few times, still no response. At that point I was called away and left him to struggle
    via u/RandomBoomer
  • 24
    The next day, someone else filled me on what was wrong. The guy didn't know what Notepad was or how to access it. He refused to admit that or ask a simple question like "How do you do that?" He just sat there in sullen silence. At our level of work, it never even occurred to me that a DEVELOPER hire would be unfamiliar with Notepad; I didn't provide detailed instructions on how to do that, I just accepted it as a given that he would know. He was out before the end of the month. 25 Reply Share
    via u/RandomBoomer
  • 25
    IT_VI OP 9 hr. ago Let me research that. -googles like a madman- Ouch, that's a rough one. I genuinely think that the refusing to acknowledge a lack of understanding is a massive set back in the IT world. Sometimes there is just a software or task that you've just never happened across before (granted, Notepad is eyebrow raise worthy...). At my current job, I've been working with our software for 5 years, and I still sometimes come across functions or what-if logic that I hadn't seen before. Cla
    via u/IT_VI

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