Non-tech manager gets power hunger with IT department, ends up eating his own tail when employees maliciously comply and anger company's VP: ‘[He] thought it was a Fortune 500.’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jun 12, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

When you find yourself being managed by an understanding, patient, and empathetic person, hold on tight to them. If you scroll through the internet for just an hour you will find a countless amount of stories from disgruntled employees working under incompetent and monstrous managers. These are the kinds of managers who simply got to where they are because of their ego, not their talent. Some truly have no business being in the business they are "managing," because they actually have no idea how to even do it. 

 

Like this tech manager! Head of the IT department, he couldn't even tell you what a server is. And yet, his hunger for power became insatiable. He decided to implement a horrible strategy that actually ended up being unhelpful—surprise, surprise—and his employees could do nothing by follow the rules. Luckily, it came to bite him in his own behind… 

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  • Eventually, his own horrid policy angered the company's VP and he couldn't even do anything about it until the damage was done. So, after that, he was knocked down a peg and his ego had to take a bit of a backseat. 

  • LEVIS
    via Unsplash+ (and Anton Savinov)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "If It Ain’t in the Ticket, It Ain’t My Problem"

    I used to work IT support at a mid-sized company that thought it was a Fortune 500. We were understaffed, underpaid, and expected to be psychic. People would call or corner us in the hallway saying things like "Hey, my printer's acting weird, can you swing by?" while we were juggling five tickets and trying not to lose our minds.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • Our manager, a guy named Curtis who had never touched a server in his life, brought in some consultant who told him we needed "more structure." So Curtis implemented a new policy:
    via N0-Affiliation
  • No work gets done unless there's a formal ticket. No exceptions. At first we were like, okay, whatever, more paperwork, but at least it protects us. Then Curtis took it further.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • He said if we did any task not in a ticket, even if it was five seconds to plug something in, we'd get a write-up. He called it "discipline for procedural drift." Fine. Message received.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • The very next week, the VP of Sales-big name, big ego- storms into the IT office yelling that his laptop won't connect to Wi-Fi and he has a Zoom call in ten minutes. I look up and ask, "Did you put in a ticket?" He goes, "No, I don't have time for that, just come fix it."
    via N0-Affiliation
  • I smile. "Sorry, we're not allowed to do anything. without a ticket. New policy." He scoffs and storms out. Two minutes later, we get a ticket: Urgent: VP cannot connect to Wi-Fi. Fix ASAP.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • But here's the fun part. The system had a rule. Tickets came in first come, first served, unless they were escalated by Curtis. Which this one wasn't.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • So I tagged the ticket and slotted it behind six password resets, two printer jobs, and one guy asking how to insert a picture in PowerPoint. Meanwhile the VP is pacing like he's waiting for a kidney transplant.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • Cheezburger Image 10516019456
    via Unsplash+ (and Jonathan Borba)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Fifteen minutes go by. He calls Curtis. Curtis calls me. "You need to go help him. right now." I say, "Absolutely. Can you go into the system and escalate the ticket?"
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  • Long pause. "You know I can't do that without a director-level override." "Exactly," I say.
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  • Forty-five minutes later, the VP has to call into his Zoom meeting from his phone. He sounds like he's standing inside a fish tank. After the meeting, he comes stomping back in, furious. I point to the open ticket queue.
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  • "We're happy to help," I say. "Just waiting for it to rise to the top." The next day, Curtis quietly changed the policy:
    via N0-Affiliation
  • "Tickets are still required, but urgent issues may be addressed immediately at IT's discretion." We kept the printout of that original policy on the office. fridge for months.
    via N0-Affiliation
  • TroublemakingB Always fun to hear when people who want to establish their dominance instead get their own in a sling. Not even in IT and I knew that sh wouldn't fly because those kinds of rules don't apply to the top dogs.
    via TroublemakingB
  • ShadowDragon8685 Wait, it was Curtis's policy that nothing could be escalated in priority without him doing a thing he was not capable of doing?! This obviously was a poorly thought- out policy!
    via ShadowDragon8685

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