Call center supervisors allow favorite employees to slack off while coworkers take calls, face payback when worker crashes personal computer: 'I'm just a call center employee. I don't code'

Author image for Ally Perry
Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Jun 13, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

In the system that we currently live in, most companies, businesses, and workplaces are supposed to be meritocracies. In theory, those who are the best at their jobs should be the ones who get recognized and rewarded, or at least, that is the narrative that we are often fed. In practice, many embittered employees know all too well that this can be far from the truth. Who you know and not what you know is the greatest asset in countless workplaces, when it comes to everything from promotions to lessening the personal workload. 

It goes without saying that being a hard worker who is not in the good graces of a boss or supervisor can be frustrating. Sometimes, the best thing that can be done in these situations, apart from leaving, is to get a little petty revenge on those involved. It might not be the high ground, but it sure can be satisfying. 

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  • 01

    Tired of being the workhorse while others chill. So I let my laptop 'accidentally' brick itself during BIOS update

    I work in a high-pressure call center. The way the system works here is deeply unfair. A handful of people who are close to the team leads get special treatment every single day. They get assigned non-call aux statuses, which basically means they don't have to take calls. They literally sit there doing nothing, scrolling on their phones, walking in and out of the floor, or pretending to work while avoiding the core job of actually speaking to customers. Meanwhile, the rest of us? We're forced to
    via Impromptu Hotelier
  • 02
    Cheezburger Image 10516905472
    via ThisisEngineering

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

  • This was how one call center employee felt after being continually frustrated at the expectation that they and others would pick up the work of a number of coworkers who were favored by the team leaders in the workplace. These employees were allowed to slack off and given various other advantages that others weren't.

    In a secret protest, the worker used a major update on their personal computer as a chance to wreak some havoc as payback. They shared their story.

  • 03
    I've been watching this favoritism happen every day. The same people getting breaks, extra time off, and even work-from-home allowances while we who follow rules, get treated like we don't matter. So, yes, over time, that builds a sense of burnout, frustration, and a feeling that the system is rigged. Add to that the fact that we're treated like children. We're not even allowed to wear rain ready flippers during the rainy season. If it rains and your shoes get soaked? Too bad. Walk around in wet
    via ImpromptuHotelier
  • 04
    So yes, when the update started, I intentionally restarted the laptop several times mid-update by holding the power button. I pretended I didn't know better. I'd already told my TL that the system was asking for an update. When it broke, I simply told them I don't know anything beyond logging in with my ID and password. And that's true. From their perspective, I'm not an IT expert. I'm just a call center employee. I don't code. I don't fix machines. So now IT has to take the laptop, reimage it o
    via ImpromptuHotelier
  • 05
    Cheezburger Image 10516905728
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)
  • 06

    Outsiders either commended these actions, or suggested some other ones.

    Rhodin265 I think you should use your newly-found free time to job hunt.
    via Rhodin265
  • 07
    glenmarshall Your action was in the original spirit of sabotage, where French workers in need of a break threw their wooden shoes (sabots) into a machine. Good for you!
    via glenmarshall
  • 08
    9lobaldude Find a new job as quickly as possible
    via 9lobaldude
  • 09
    MarvinPA83 The IT department don't hold a spare laptop for just such eventualities. How remiss of them.
    via MarvinPA83
  • 10
    Priest1969 It would be better revenge if the lazy people had to step up while you relaxed.
    via Priest1969
  • 11
    avid-learner-bot I really get what you're saying, it's infuriating how some people get treated like royalty while others are worked to death... and yeah, I think the system needs to be checked before it breaks more than just a laptop.
    via avid-learner-bot
  • 12
    Realistic-Knee-5602 What kind of company is that, that the phone statistics are not checked? If these people don't have calls that should be flagged far higher than their line manager
    via Realistic-Knee-5602
  • 13
    salaciouspeach The origins of the word sabotage go back to mistreated workers getting fed up and ruining the machines with their shoes. If you had only used your wet shoes to watch the computer, then you'd be a true saboteur, but even this still is some classic, wonderful sabotage. Look into the roots of sabotage and the luddites (and the neo-luddite movement). It's not about hating technology, it's about hating how the upper class uses technology to fuck over the working class.
    via salaciouspeach
  • 14
    Deranged Kitsune Find and email your boss' boss about this issue. Include times that the lazy people were off their phones sitting on their thumbs. See if you can include pictures as well of them doing that instead of doing their "projects". Phrase it all as your boss taking people off the phones needless and costing the company money by paying them for doing nothing and being understaffed. If you put it into that kind of language, they might acknowledge it. I've had a manager and a bunch of her
    via Deranged_Kitsune
  • 15
    ImpromptuHotelier OP Update (for those wondering if I'll get caught or lose my job). Not likely. The IT department here isn't the high-tier kind you're imagining. They're a completely separate team from the actual core IT division of our company, the folks who handle dev environments, push code, manage live servers, etc. The IT people at our call center are more like "clear cookies and cache" specialists who somehow ended up with IT tags. They'll try every trick in their limited handbook to get
    via ImpromptuHotelier
  • 16
    ugh. Melodic-Comb9076 this is life. it sucks. i hope you find peace and a way to get around these situations.
    via Melodic-Comb9076
  • 17
    ItPutsLotionOnltSkin Tired of being the workhorse while others chill. You need to learn how to chill too. The only reward for working hard is more work
    via ItPutsLotionOnItSkin
  • 18
    EarthBound Deity_ This is basically what being an entry level finance person is for most people who get into finance. You made me relive a few years of my life I'd like to forget. Kudos to you for taking time off OP!
    via EarthBoundDeity_
  • 19
    Sooowasthinking My Rules for work: 1. Never do more than you were hired for.Going beyond what you were hired for becomes an expectation. 2.No OT ever. Never let a boss "require" you to do more. Do it 1 time and that too becomes an expectation. 3. Never let personal and work life intersect cross paths ever.Its easy for a boss to text or call after work is over. In most EU countries it is now illegal for work to communicate after you have gone home. 4.Remember HR is only friends with the corporati
    via Sooowasthinking
  • 20
    kNyne I had a similar story when I worked in a call center. I was a student in software engineering and our management treated everyone as a metric. My pc was having an issue, I can't remember exactly what it was but could solve it in minutes. So I opened up, probably hardware manager or something, and my manager lost it at me. To her I was about to try to hack the damn computer or something so she told me to close that, and restart the PC. If that doesn't work, do it again, and again, and again
    via kNyne
  • 21
    Alterokahn Doesn't sound like the type of company to use drive encryption either. If that's the case, you can remotely load a windows registry or retrieve logs from the system's Event Viewer from the machine's drive. There's going to be a notice for something like KERNAL_POWER that's a telltale sign someone did an improper reboot. You can also typically swap the drive out with one from the same version of windows that happens to be on the same chipset. It slows things down a bit but you can get
    via Alterokahn
  • 22
    MedicatedLiver IT doesn't have to wipe and reinstall anything. The BIOS is bricked, assuming they can restore that (depends on how capable the UEFI is in that model) we only need to enter the escrowed Bitlocker key to allow the system to boot. BIOSOS. If they use standard equipment deployments, they can also just move the SSD into the new machine, again using the escrowed Bitlocker key to boot it. In reality though, for warranty reasons with Dell/etc they'll just deploy an already imaged machine
    via MedicatedLiver
  • 23
    nova_and_out A lot of jobs are like this. Especially entry level jobs. You get an uneducated middle manager on a power trip who surrounds themselves with sycophants, favourites, people they fancy etc getting the easy jobs, good jobs, or chill time while the rest of us do the real graft.
    via nova_and_out

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