Supervisor demands employees file help tickets for everything, employees maliciously comply by refusing to accept verbal requests: 'Enjoy waiting for your own approvals'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 2, 2025 3:00 PM EST

There's always a stickler for the rules in every company, and when this person decides to make everyone else comply, too, it can really gum up the works. 

There are very few careers where everyone works 100% by the book 100% of the time. There are some fields where this is crucial, but chances are you know that ahead of time if you're choosing that career path. This person is sharing the story of their middle-management boss who is a true stickler for the rules, and wants things done by the book, every single time, just because. This guy loves opening and closing help-desk tickets. It seems like he literally won't answer a question unless a ticket is formally filed by his employees. 

Actual help-desk tickets are useful for those who answer said tickets — they provide a log of errors going on with someone's computer, as one example, so that the random worker fixing it has some background information about which solutions have been tried already. And for employees, filing a ticket is a good way to cover themselves, ensuring that they won't be penalized just because some of their equipment is broken. If you have to file a ticket for literally everything, they lose their meaning, not to mention their priority status. If you have one important ticket to deal with, it'll get dealt with before lunch. If you have 150 tickets sitting in your inbox, where do you even begin? You might approve a few less important tickets while totally missing out on the actually urgent ones. 

Commenters urged this person to report back when they have an update! Check out the full story below and see if you side with the frustrated employees, or with the boss who got stymied by his own communication style. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10582062080
    via Hannah Nicollet on Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    I work in a mid sized logistics office and our supervisor loves rules more than oxygen. A few months ago he announced that from now on every single task must be logged in our internal ticket system. Not just big stuff. He meant every tiny thing. If you need a label
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 03
    reprinted, ticket. If you need someone to unlock the supply closet, ticket. If you need clarification on which truck gets loaded first, ticket. He said verbal requests create chaos and we must follow the Process. Yes he said Process with a capital P.
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 04
    At first we tried to play along but it quickly turned into a swamp of pointless tasks. The system is slow and every ticket needs an approval from this same supervisor before we can actually do anything. We warned him that our workflow will
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 05
    crawl but he insisted that order must be maintained. So fine. Order he gets. Last week he walked up to me and asked verbally if I could generate a quick route sheet for a late arriving driver. I said sure please submit a ticket. He
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 06
    blinked at me like I suddenly started speaking ancient runes. He said it was urgent. I repeated that I am not allowed to accept verbal requests because it creates chaos. He stared at me for five silent seconds then stomped back to his desk.
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 07
    He submitted the ticket. The ticket went into the queue like all others. Our system auto assigns a twenty minute expected wait time. Meanwhile the driver was waiting in the hall eating a sad vending machine sandwich. After twenty six minutes the supervisor wrote me
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 08
    again asking if I saw the ticket. I replied that I will process it once the system moves it to my active list. He had to explain the delay to the driver himself. The irony was glowing. By the end of the day he told us we may
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 09
    use verbal requests again when appropriate. Order has been restored in the funniest way.
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 10
    Easy_Lengthiness7179 Need to get that in writing. Otherwise continue requiring tickets.
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 11
    jreddit0000 He told you it was OK to respond to verbal requests? He didn't put in a change request via a ticket? I don't think you can change your workflow without a ticket..
    via u/paris_ian5
  • 12
    Business woman in black and white striped shirt leans on desk and smiles at laptop in office setting
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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