‘Oh rats!’: Employee treats tech support with 0 respect, so IT leads her district manager to the break room where she's been living with her cat

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Nov 11, 2025 11:00 PM EST

One of the best pieces of advice you can get when joining a workforce is to treat your tech support team with the utmost respect. They truly can see all and if you do anything on the clock, they will know. Take this disrespectful employee who though she could get away with moving into the break room… 

 

So this place was a franchise and the owner of the franchise seemed to have a little secret. It all came to light one day when she called tech for some support and was demanding, entitled, and just simply mean. So what did tech do? They discovered that her district manager was also having some tech issues and chatting with another person on the team. So, they got together and devised a plan that got the Karen out of the break room, and the district manager into it. There, he discovered that she had fully moved in, with her bed and everything, even her cat. She tried to explain that her place was being treated for a rat problem, to which the IT employee responded to with, "Oh we couldn't help you today? Oh rats!" Love the pettiness. 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement

  • "I couldn't solve your problem today? Oh Rats!"

    ‘Oh rats!’: Employee treats tech support with 0 respect, so IT leads her district manager to the break room where she's been living with her cat
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

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

  • (Reposting here since my story wasn't quite maliciously compliant enough for the malicious compliance club.) Years ago I worked for H&R Block's Internal Tech Support.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • If Tax Preparers or Company Offices had issues, they called me. They may know taxes, but those beloved senior citizens know NOTHING about computers.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Little did I know this day would be a special one. I was lucky enough to take a call from a real peach of a lady who was both misinformed how computers worked and belligerently stubborn.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • She was in a hurry and demanded I reinstall her entire offices server because of some mild tech issues she was having.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • That's the equivalent of asking a mechanic to rebuild your cars engine to change the oil.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • This lady was pushy, rude, and unusually cagey when asked for information. The worst part was I couldnt just hang up on her for that.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • It was weird but not out of the ordinary enough for me to cut her lose, so i dealt with it.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • She would frequently put me on hold as she was apparently roaming around looking for joy to crush.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Long story short she used to be a franchise office, not a company owned office, so changing everything back to company software had some hiccups.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • ‘Oh rats!’: Employee treats tech support with 0 respect, so IT leads her district manager to the break room where she's been living with her cat
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

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

  • So, as you can see, you do not want to get on the bad side of your tech support team. True they are there to support you, but if you don't treat them with respect, they can quickly turn to the opposite. 

  • One of these times I had her on hold for some diagnostics, I overheard a coworker on another call.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • He was saying things like our records for an office, call history from a specific employee, and other very unusual things.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • He was on the phone with a district manager, a VERY big deal. All the sudden I hear him say "Sorry, I don't see anything that far back, it was a franchise office...
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Yeah, you would have to ask the owners name" The same owner I WAS ON THE PHONE WITH!
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • I immediately get my coworkers attention and tell him that I'm on the phone with the woman he is talking about, and he fills me in on the most insane story I'd heard on the job.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Turns out The Owner was LIVING IN THE OFFICE! The district manager was there to inspect the newly required office and make sure it was functional for the upcoming tax season, but the owner Refused to let them into certain rooms including the break room.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • The DM really wanted to see what was going on in the break room, so we told her the insane coincidence that I was on the phone with the psycho owner and we coordinated a plan.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • I told her to go to the server room for some made up reason, while gone the DM pryed the door to the break room open.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Inside was a cot, clothes in a suitcase, food, dishes and even prescribed medicine in the fridge with the owners name on it.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Oh, AND HER FREAKING CAT TOO! Needless to say not long after the door was opened the Owner 'had to put me on hold again and I got the info from my coworker that she admitted to staying in the break room for a few days, but only because her home was infested with rats.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Now, keep in mind this whole time I've been yelled at, insulted, and forced to do unnecessary work by this goblin.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • And now I had my chance to strike back. Once she got back on the phone I told her to go do a test on her end I knew would fail.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • ‘Oh rats!’: Employee treats tech support with 0 respect, so IT leads her district manager to the break room where she's been living with her cat
    via Unsplash+ (and Nikolett Emmert)

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

  • When it did I said "That didn't work either? OH RATS!" She audibly gasped, but managed to stammer out whatever demanded she had next.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • I had her go and try something else I knew wouldn't work. Did that not work either?
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • Oh Rats. Her discomfort was obvious. She started to tell me something, I cut her off.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • "Oh, hold on let me juuuuust... Nope, not that either, RATS!" This went on for the next minute or two.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • She finally told me she would call back when she had some more time to work on the issue (which I had fixed by now).
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • "I understand, it sounds. like you have a lot going on at the moment. I just wish we could have solved it for you today...rats." This happened almost 10 years ago so I'm not 100% on this last part, but if I recall correctly they backed out of buying her office back into the company.
    via PossiblyAPodcast
  • I remember looking her up a while after the incident and she was listed as a franchisee again.
    via PossiblyAPodcast

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

management getting fired salary karens boss firing story I got fired firing tech support employee fired employed fired hourly manager job fired story work coworkers upper management how I got fired I fired them reddit karen co-workers IT employee fired on spot employees what goes around comes around entitled people karma pay back career supervisor karens in the wild justice served workplace entitled karen karma I got fired today r-entitled Reddit company karen story business karma karen entitled people got fired
Scroll Down For The Next Article