IT employee maliciously complies with a user's request for her printer to be fixed ASAP, which ends up pushing the repair date back even further: ‘She absolutely freaks out’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Jan 30, 2026 7:00 PM EST

Certain customers refuse to take an expert's word at face value, and that's when the expert starts to mess with you. When this IT employee grows sick of an entitled customer's impatience, they decide to mess with her.

Everyone's time is valuable. Whether you're an employee or a customer, it's important to consider that you're speaking to human beings, not all-knowing wizards. An employee can't drop everything they're doing to appease one customer; that's unfortunately, not the way the world works. If a 1:1 customer-employee ratio existed in any given workplace, then we'd be telling a completely different story. Even still, select teams rely on other groups to get their work done promptly. If one team isn't available, they don't have the pieces for the whole puzzle. And, of course, a customer so deep in their own entitlement wouldn't even attempt to get a clue as to why their problem has not been resolved; they'd prefer to complain, complain again, and then complain some more.

At what point does malicious compliance become acceptable in the workplace? At first, you want to give your colleagues and customers the benefit of the doubt. If you're honestly trying your hardest to be a good customer, coworker, or helper, you'd hope those around you are doing the same. Innocent until proven guilty, right?

The world doesn't work like this, friends. Out in the world, there exists a certain kind of customer who believes they might actually be the last person on earth, I Am Legend-style. Their problems take top priority, and they'll speak to your manager if you don't find a resolution to their issue swiftly. You can try to reason with them all you want about how you need certain parts to fix their car that aren't available at the shop, or that you can't put yourself in physical danger to retrieve an Ethernet cord for their printer, and they won't care. It's one ear and out the other. Scroll below to read about an IT employee who is dealing with a customer who won't accept the fact that their printer won't be repaired as soon as possible. She learns her lesson in the end.

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  • female employee sitting next to office printer on her phone with a cup of coffee
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • "Don't want to wait for the easy way? Alright, we will wait longer for the ‘official’ way."

    I work as on-site IT for a company, mostly user end hardware and networking sort of things.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Lots of "user error" or "turn it on and off" sort of calls. Can be mind numbing at times but I do enjoy it.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • The bane of my existence, and virtually every other IT person's existence I've ever known, is printers.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Which, of course, I get a call for one of our offices at the end of campus.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • I bundle up, grab my tools and supplies, and walk over. Get there and get the normal "everything is terrible and we \\need\\ this printer!
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • ....For the literally only three out of the normally twelve people are in the office today due to the cold.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • And this particular department has multiple printers in the area, like two more than the total employees in- office today.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • But I do my level A+ bestest to get it fixed. Clean the printer, change the rollers, check settings, all the stuff that usually works.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • But today on this damn thing it sure doesn't. Keeps crimpling up the paper and iamming.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • So I tell the lady that called it in "I am going to have to replace it." The normal doom and gloom follows and I schlepp my arse back out to our shop to get another printer.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • white and gray office printer
    via Mahrous Houses for Unsplash
  • I get the replacement ready. Set it up, get it set to DHCP, make sure the damn thing works, etc etc.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • But when I got back to the location I see that the ethernet cable had fallen behind a heavy filing cabinet.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • And, of course, the damned wall plate its plugged into is \right\ in the middle of this like six-foot long heavy cabinet.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Not enough room to reach it on either end, and too heavy for me to tip even if I had someone else available to grab the cable.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • I let the user know and she absolutely freaks out. \Apparently\ this printer that went down was the "\\The only one\\ use (also happens to be the closest to her by about three feet) and we (IT) just \have to get it up and running \\now\\." Which considering there is nothing special about the one that was broken and I had the exact same mode to replace it with, I doubt.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • I apologize, but let her know that "I can't reach it or safely move the cabinet.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • I can set up her computer to print to the other printer and tomorrow I will bring in a tool I have, reach the cable, get it hooked up, and it will be ready for her on Monday no problem".
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • She counters with a "Well then \who do I call to move the cabinet \today\?" I let her know "Well that would be Property Management, but their turn around time unless its an actual emergency tends to be 24-hours and they are only 'on-call' on the weekends" ie they are off tomorrow and won't move the cabinet until Monday at the earliest.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • She, subsequently, insists we call them.. Now for the malicious compliance. So I call PM on my mobile, put it on speaker, catch one of the guys before he gets ready to leave for the day, and he subsequently tells both of us "Yeah earliest we will get to it is Tueaday.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Gotta be at least two of us. Nopants can't help, hes in IT and not PM.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Let me get the ticket entered in." (pause for keyboard clicking and random sounds of blue- collar cussing).
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • "OK yeah we will be over Tuesday before noon unless something comes up. Nopants can I just plug that thing in?" I stifle a chuckle, knowing that PM guy is more than capable of plugging in an ethernet cable "Yeah unless you really want IT there we can have a tech come over.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Might have to check the schedule, I am off Mondays and Tuesdays. Who will be here so might have to push it baxn to Wednesday." This whole time the user has the stunned look of someone that got smacked upside the head and is still recalibrating.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • PM guy says "Nope we are fine. Tuesday before noon unless an emergency pops up." And he hangs up.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • I tell the user, "Well that will work for us in IT. I will get this old printer removed, thank you for your patience.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Once PM confirms that everything is done, we will have a tech come by and make sure the printer is still working and is networked properly." After I got back to the shop and told the other tech on duty we had a hell of a laugh.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • I called PM and told him to go ahead and cancel, will bring my little grabber tool in tomorrow and get it hooked up.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • He said he would wait until Monday since if he cancels the appointment it will trigger an email for the user since her name is on the ticket in the system.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Update: The cable has been successfully retrieved! Little grabby tool was able to get in there and get it, cable was resecured on its insecure little clip to hold it up, and subsequently plugged into the printer.
    via Nopantsbullmoose
  • Thankfully the Gremlins didnt mess with it overnight and I get to close out the ticket.
    via Nopantsbullmoose

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impatient work stories IT employee entitled customers printer
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