Software developer complies with management's demand to stop helping users with system issues, leading to a lack of help desk: ‘That did not go well for the users’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Sep 15, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

How many times have you called customer support or a help desk, only to realize they can provide you with no help whatsoever? If you ask us, we think most of these calls end with us getting absolutely no help from the other side of the line. It seems like companies have a hard time sitting the right people behind the help desk, and end up giving the job to people who have no idea how to provide the service they were hired to do.

The software developer in the story below decided to do something about it. They realized that they could help users with issues that the help desk was, well, helpless with. So when calls came in, they were directed to this developer, who was more than happy to set aside time to help out.

The company, however, was not pleased with this change of responsibilities and demanded that he developer stop with this side job. It wasn't long before they realised that users no longer got the help they needed, and took that demand back.

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  • Luckily, the developer was more than happy to help people again, even after this debacle. 

    Scroll down to read the full story.

  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10552949504
    via sturti

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02

    Okay then, I won't help

    I'm sure lots of people have stories like this - and here's mine I'm retired now after a long IT career.
    via hastings1033
  • 03
    Like most such folks I worked as a software developer for part of this time earlier in my career.
    via hastings1033
  • 04
    For a time I worked for an engineering firm that produced a lot of architectural drawings and blueprints as part of the design process.
    via hastings1033
  • 05
    I was the dev lead and primary designer for a new system to track drawings as they moved through the development and review process.
    via hastings1033
  • 06
    To get to the point, the new system was launched to mostly good success and heavy usage.
    via hastings1033
  • 07
    As with all new systems, people had a learning curve. As it was not a huge company, most of the user community knew me.
    via hastings1033
  • 08
    Cheezburger Image 10552949248
    via SeventyFour

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 09
    We also had a "help desk" whose job theoretically included providing user support for this new tracking system.
    via hastings1033
  • 10
    However, the company had ignored my repeated requests to let them spend meaningful time with me to learn the system well.
    via hastings1033
  • 11
    The user community quickly realized the help desk was useless so they would call me directly. I was fine with this -
    via hastings1033
  • 12
    I always found helping the user community my favorite part of my job. Word came down to me that I was to direct all such calls to the help desk.
    via hastings1033
  • 13
    Frankly, I ignored this at first, but after a while it was made clear I could not. So, I complied.
    via hastings1033
  • 14
    That did not go well for the users. They basically got no help.
    via hastings1033
  • 15
    Took only about 3 days for word to come back that I could help people again and time was set aside for me to properly train the help desk folks.
    via hastings1033
  • 16
    FlamingoSundries Did you work for my company? I swear they do this every single time something changes. Hold a rah-rah-let's-do-this meeting,
    via FlamingoSundries
  • 17
    and then let everyone sink. If they would skip those pep talk meetings and just do real training, more people would learn how to swim.
    via FlamingoSundries
  • 18
    hastings1033 OP I don't work for any company anymore, but this was exactly the pattern of my last employer in fact.
    via hastings1033
  • 19
    PAUL_DNAP Nicely complied with, but what a utter shambles of an organisation. As you mention, when a new system is rolled out then the
    via PAUL_DNAP
  • 20
    helpdesk need to spend time with the developer ahead of the launch and then the developer spends time with the help desk after the launch. And not a "go away now, your bit is done".
    via PAUL_DNAP
  • 21
    androshalforc1 and time was set aside for me to properly train the help desk folks. This might have been your managers intended outcome they just needed to prove it.
    via androshalforc1
  • 22
    babamum The utter stupidity of expecting people to help solve problems with a system they know NOTHING about is mind-boggling.
    via babamum
  • 23
    Zoreb1 That was when you should have left for a better paying job.
    via Zoreb1

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boss workplace-stories employee manager job malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace reddit story ceo overworked-employees workplace Reddit company funny
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