Company tech support insists on only helping via voice texts, until exasperated IT manager does the same to them with all their passwords: ‘Suddenly they switched to text’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 1, 2026 6:00 PM EST

There is a time and place for a podcast-length voice note, and work is neither.

We all have that one friend who, instead of calling to catch up, sends you a 10-minute-long voice note (or should we say, podcast), where they go on and on about every single recent event in their lives. They love being able to yap without interruption, even though they lose their train of thought every 30 seconds and change the subject to something completely different.

You know what, we won't even judge you if you are that friend, we get it, it's fun. Sometimes we even put on these voice notes while we're commuting to work and actually listen to them like it's a podcast, then we spend the entire drive back recording our response.

But there is a huge difference between having a friend send you voice notes like these and having someone from work do it with work-related issues. Every. Single. Time.

The thing about voice notes is that they can be quicker for the person sending them, but they usually aren't for those who have to listen. You can get the same message across with a few written sentences, but nobody has the energy to articulate their thoughts into written words anymore. We just record our unfiltered thoughts and let the person on the other side try to decipher what we wanted to convey or what we need from them. And in a workplace setting, that can get really old, really fast.

The tech support in the story below insists on conveying their support only through voice texts. When someone from the company asks for their help, they reply with a two-minute-long voice note explaining what they need to do. Then, the person on the other side has to listen to the voice note, focus on what is being said between the "ummms" and the "hmms", and replay the note over and over again until they find the solution they asked for.

The company's IT manager kept asking the tech support team to switch to text, but they never complied. This led the manager to decide to give the team a taste of their own medicine, and started sending all their passwords and credentials in voice notes; long, messy passwords with numbers, uppercase, and lowercase letters all via audio.

It wasn't long before the tech team realized just how complicated they made things for other people…

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  • Tech Support Fixing Business Software Issue
    via @mungkhoodstudios-images

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

  • Support kept using voice messages, so I gave them a taste of their own medicine

    Hi. I am a 35 year old IT manager for a small family run sales company.
    via Piranhaweek
  • We recently moved from a very old ERP to a new platform that is modern, intuitive and much more efficient.
    via Piranhaweek
  • Technically it is a great produt. The problem is support. Their in app support is fairly fast but they reply almost only using voice messages.
    via Piranhaweek
  • I stopped listening to voice notes years ago because they break focus and force you to replay things just to get basic info.
    via Piranhaweek
  • Text lets me read, search and solve. Audio just slows evrything down. I asked them many times to stop using audio and even told them I was hearing impaired.
    via Piranhaweek
  • They ignored it. Yesterday the point of sale systems were not communicating with the local server, even though they were all online.
    via Piranhaweek
  • I did my part and contacted support because it was beyond my pay grade. As usual the first reply was an audio message.
    via Piranhaweek
  • When they asked for the remote access ID I sent it back as audio. Then I sent the password as audio too.
    via Piranhaweek
  • Suddenly they switched to text. They asked for screenshots. Then they needed the admin credentials and I sent the long messy password with numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters via audio.
    via Piranhaweek
  • From that point on everything was done in text, including todays follow up. Turns out they know exactly how annoying voice messages are.
    via Piranhaweek
  • They just do not care until it becomes their problem.
    via Piranhaweek
  • Password on Screen
    via Leung Cho Pan

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

  • Classic_Mammoth_9379 > They asked for screenshots. This is the biggest missed opportunity. Surely this requires a 10 minute audio description of everything on the screen, including OS elements, windows from your other apps, before you get to their app window.
    via Classic_Mammoth_9379
  • Piranhaweek Original Poster's Reply I was actually thinking about doing something like that or even starting a nice audio discussion, but I needed to get things working again first.
    via Piranhaweek
  • bankshot Or you could print the screenshot, load it into your fax machine and have the fax leave the audio message of the screenshoot.
    via bankshot
  • Piranhaweek Original Poster's Reply We do have a fax machine. I could go full "I'm extremely paranoid about security" and send the password handwritten in bad cursive. By fax.
    via Piranhaweek
  • formallyhuman I hate voice notes from anybody and everybody. It's the other person not valuing my time. You send me a two minute voice note instead of a few sentences I can scan and understand in a few seconds? Fuck you.
    via formallyhuman
  • Piranhaweek Original Poster's Reply Two full minutes of "hmmmmm” and "aaannnnnd". Just filler, no actual information.
    via Piranhaweek
  • SlavaUkraina2022 My thoughts exactly: "The screen is 1080x1920. Here we go. Pixel 1.1 grey, pixel 1.2 grey, pixel 1.3 grey, pixel 1.4, surprisingly, a lightly lighter shade of grey..."
    via SlavaUkraina2022
  • Piranhaweek Original Poster's Reply "So on the third line, pixel 345 is kind of a pinkish blue according to most people. Wait, John says it is more of a greenish blue. Let me tally the votes." 16hours of audio, and counting
    via Piranhaweek
  • sjclynn Their goal is actually to make interaction difficult enough that you don't call. Their KPIs improve and some manager gets a bonus. You have to live with their idea of support because your company is invested in the solution. As usual, the people who made the decisions leading to this don't have to support it.
    via sjclynn
  • Piranhaweek Original Poster's Reply That is actually a really deep point. You say it is by design, that making the support experience bad is a way to reduce the number of tickets. We should not have to deal with that kind of thing, but if it works for them, it is fair to be suspicious. So maybe there is no bad faith from the support staff. They are pushed to keep ticket numbers down. If I were not living in such a low tech environment, I would probably look into this idea. But locally, the amoun
    via Piranhaweek

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boss workplace-stories tech support employee manager job it manager tales-from-the-workplace password workplace company
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