Weird and Cringe things you've seen while working in IT - Since everyone is too lazy to make such a thread where IT bros can vent

[Archie_Kimkicker]

In the late 90s/early 2000s, it was not uncommon for community college IT departments to use a student's state ID number or SSN as network user name.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Marketing guy said they need $3000 and around 3 months for a wordpress website.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

At least every two weeks I would try to make a new client sheet and the memory would be full. I couldn't delete anything myself because I "might delete something useful".

This reminds me of my last IT job before switching fields. Working as a programmer for a consulting shop, my first assignment with them had me assigned someplace where the onsite manager told me to get a program fixed/running with one caveat: "Don't change anything." As she walked away, I thought to myself, "If it's not working, don't I have to make changes?"

I wasn't kept on after my initial 3-month term, but it worked out better for me than it did for them. I was reassigned to an in-house project that was far more fun to work on. Meanwhile, the previous client was taken over by the state for being insolvent and eventually shut down.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

3 years ago I worked for a company that had 6 branches across NY (including the one I was working at) plus one in NJ and Connetticut. You'd think the IT department would either be BIG or that each branch would have their own IT team, but no... not counting me, whom at the time joined one month before COVID lockdowns were taking effect, the IT team consisted of only 4 people.

• The server/network guy (who was working remotely in one of the southern states, i think either Georgia or Texas, i forget)
• The head of the IT department, who was basically doing EVERYTHING outside of server/network issues
• 2 coders that were working on the companie's propriatary software

When I came along, I was basically THE go-to guy for the general stuff that the IT manager didn't have time for (so like 75% of the stuff that wasn't related to programming or network/server stuff).

• Account creations/deletions (which also included cleaning up the server space by removing inactive accounts from like 3+ years),
• exchange email account creations/deletions,
• password resets
• OS installs on new computers
• tablet/phone activations/deactivations
• contact the internet/phone providers for issues regarding those.
• Remoting into people's computers to help with their computer issues
• issues regarding Citrix Workspace, which is what everyone was using to run their programs on rather than actually installing the actual programs on their computers (which in itself is it's own headache, ESPECIALLY with printers)

When I joined the team, they were preparing to have their new password reset app go online within the month, and both the IT manager and server/network guy had finalized a PDF to be mass emailed to everyone in the company. Said PDF was a VERY detailed instruction "manual" on how to install the app on your phone, how to create an account, and resetting your password for the very first time (which was MANDATORY or else their account would be locked if they missed the due date). The idea here was that this would relieve the IT department of one less thing so they could focus on other stuff while everyone managed their own shit regarding getting locked out of their account.

Prior to the app going online we had sent like 3 or 4 warning emails to the whole company basically saying shit like "hey fuckers, this is not a joke, you NEED to pay attention and make sure you get this shit working on your phones!!!". Well for some, those messages went in one ear and out the other, and a whole bunch of accounts got locked out due to them not paying attention to the emails (probably due to a lack of giving a shit). One of them was a 70 year old boomer cunt (whom was "very well known" with the IT department as "that bitch") whom was so braindead and thick, even with her husband helping her out with me over the phone doing remote support, she STILL couldn't figure it out. 40+ minutes overtime later, and it turns out she was hitting the wrong buttons and going to a setting she wasn't supposed to, but rather than admit she fucked up, she blamed it on us.

At the start of the lockdowns I was going to multiple people's houses getting their work computers set up, making sure everything was at 100% (or close to it). I never realized just how filthy some people's houses were until that moment... was a bit of an eye opener. Apparently the temp agency i was under caught wind of what I was doing and had a massive shit fit, especially after i told them about the company's "BRILLIANT" (see also: fucking retarded) idea. Apparently they thought it was a good idea to rent-out a building in the Bronx on some ghetto-ass street (redundant I know, but more skeevy looking than usual) to have the people from Manhattan/Brooklyn/Bronx/Queens rotate there very few days to do their work there rather than 100% remotely, and they wanted ME to drive there with ALL the computer equipment to set it up. That plan quickly came to a close once my temp agency told them they were out of their fucking minds.

During the whole time at the lockdowns both the server guy and my IT manager were fighting like hell to keep me on, extending the temp duration and pushing for a permanent hire, but the head of the company wanted nothing to do with it, especially after more and more people kept complaining about their accounts getting locked out. Even after we covered our asses to where we would be absolved from blame, it still became our fault, so the head of the company decided to let me go, a few days after I had defended the network/server whom was getting his ass chewed by the boss on the phone. The head of the company's plan, once i was gone, was to give everything i was doing to the office managers of each branch and have them deal with them... the same office managers that were already draining in their own work and were tech-illiterate themselves.

 

[Chimplord1997]

I worked for a military contractor at help desk level. I had a Vietnamese guy call in one time saying "the window disappear" over and over. Refused to elaborate.
It turned out he had minimized internet Explorer and didn't know how to enlarge it again.
He was a software engineer.
Working IT WILL make you racist

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

My coworker keeps arguing with me that I need to get the useless bloated-yet-incompetent phone app to view the schedule. I told her I prefer to just use the website on my phone.

"The website??? No no no! Look, let me show you how to use the app! It's so much easier!"

1. Opens app
2. App takes forever to load
3. Logs in
4. Clicks "show schedule"
5. "This functionality is not available in the app! Open full website in browser?"
6. She clicks "yes" after slowly scanning the entire message
7. Her phone browser boots up
8. She logs in AGAIN to the full website
9. "Look! Here's the schedule!"

I have tried to explain to her that she, too, is actually using the website to view the schedule and why doesn't she just go straight to the website in her browser? You can even pin websites to your homescreen just like an app, in Android at least. She has not been able to understand any of this in any capacity and has gone "No no honey! You really need to get the app!" and implied she thinks I'm the tech-illiterate one more than once.

Another coworker of mine desperately recruited my help to access her work email while using a different computer than normal. The only way she knew how to access her email was to start typing her email address into the search bar and clicking on the autofill prompt. When explained that she would have to actually navigate to the email login portal manually when using a different computer, she got very upset and said "I don't know how I'm going to remember this- I have to do this every time????"

Both of these people?

Nurses.

 

[PeePeeAndJay]

I worked for a military contractor at help desk level. I had a Vietnamese guy call in one time saying "the window disappear" over and over. Refused to elaborate.
It turned out he had minimized internet Explorer and didn't know how to enlarge it again.
He was a software engineer.
Working IT WILL make you racist

Similar story here, I worked with an African Sheboon who got hired on as a DevOps "engineer".
This was an important role, as we needed someone capable to help build out CI/CD pipelines for our projects.
However, months start to pass and our pipelines are nowhere to be found. Management was starting to notice.

Presumably in a panic, Sheboon calls me up for help installing some software.
While I'm telling her what to do, I simply asked her to create a new folder on Windows.
Simple enough task, right?

"Okay, now you're going to want to create a new folder to put the files into."
"Mmmmn, create a new folder? How do I do that..?"
" You... right click, and then click 'New Folder'."
"Oh ok."



These diversity hires have got to fucking stop man.

 

[GoysGoneWild]

years ago I worked in a datacenter that sold basically everything. Physical racks, blades, virtual stuff. Cage space. Fucking email inboxes. Everything. Anyway a customer from Britain orders a physical blade server to be provisioned, using RAID 0. This was almost never a mistake on their part since you had to specify RAID 0, it was not anywhere near the default. So whatever, those orders weren't terribly uncommon, we set it up. Months go by and eventually this thing fails, no backups ofc. Customer is enraged. Said they ordered RAID so why isn't the data there? When they were told it was a RAID 0 server and RAID 0 has roughly twice the failure rate of a "normal" server, they go ballistic and accuse us of making up the concept of RAID 0 in order to rip them off and give them half as many hard drives as they paid for. Ofc they also threatened to sue us unless we got the data back from a DR specialist, on our dime.

This went on, first entertaining then pissing off the overnight staff that I was a part of. It stopped when one of us just said fuck it and sent them the wikipedia explaining RAID levels as well as a copy of the order they sent in. When we rebuilt the server they were on our ass about every little thing, roasting us over stuff like brand names of RAM sticks. Fuck those cunts, glad their shit got rekt.

Miss that place.

 

[Chicken of the woods]

I know of a boomer employee who refused to open a PDF file because he thought it was a paedophile.

 

[Jump]

In the late 90s/early 2000s, it was not uncommon for community college IT departments to use a student's state ID number or SSN as network user name.

My student ID was strait up my SSN. It was on my ID. The login to the computer system (VAX/VMS) was your student ID# with the default password your mmddyyyy birthday. In some of the big auditorium freshmen classes I remember the professors posting everyone's grades on big green bar paper that listed everyone's ID and grade. 100 people would try and read it at once so friends would be yelling their SSN back and forth "John what did I get? I duno whats your number? 134-03-4545"... I guess it wasn't a big deal then. My drivers license number was also my SSN. They changed that in the early 2000s.

 

[VIPPER?]

Last place I worked, we had regular inspections. Preventative maintenance and change control kinda shit. A guy comes to make sure no one is moving stuff around or stole anything or added unauthorized equipment or whatever. Also lots of making sure things are plugged in to the right circuits.

For some reason, the official regs, black-on-white documented stuff to check, was proper "sheep shanking" of cabling. You couldn't coil and zap strap it. You couldn't just get shorter cables. If they caught you splicing or crimping cables locally it was a huge offense. Cabling came in standard lengths from some shop up the road and they wanted us to do picrel with it if we ever had to replace a cable and the one they provide is excessively long. And it had to be done as close to one end as possible, not in the middle.

I couldn't even find a pic of doing it with cable or wire because why the fuck would you ever do this to your poor ethernet cabling? Also it broke tons of cables and ports because you have this bigass weight at one end. I asked one of the inspectors why we have to do that since it clearly damages the cables and ports, and he just shrugged with one of those "I don't make the rules" type responses.

Also they frowned upon labelling. Slapping a labelmaker sticker would make them frown, but if you used colored tape they'd freak the fuck out because it might conflict with security classification labellng.

Also they would freak out if a quarterly backup was missed but refused to:

• let me schedule it to run automatically
• let me run it during normal business hours
• let me stay late to do it after business hours
• provide a separate hard drive to put it on so it's not just a diff file stored alongside the files it's supposed to back up

I'm out now though.
But looking for even the shittiest min wage hell desk jobs is super fucked up. It seems like every job needs you to own a truck for some reason. It's the most bizarre new HR boomer thing to dwell on and my biggest new pet peeve. I have asked in interviews why it's needed; all these places want me to have a contractor van full of shit and drive to client sites to "repair" things that by rights should be running on Azure or AWS or at worst should be able to be RDP'd/SSH'd into, and hardware repair/replacement is almost never covered by these companies. It's always leased shit that should have a warranty or service contract with the manufacturer. I don't know why every enterprisey managed IT call-in help desk is having telephone desk agents also do house calls all of a sudden anyway. Nor why they think a 2-ton van is required to carry a couple screwdrivers and maybe something like a linkrunner or laptop and console cables. I see security guys and cleaning company men taking the bus with half their gear, I could understand having house call type positions, and I could understand the need for a license at all; why do I need a fucking work truck if the job description is for telephone help desk at a remote management company!? They always specify a truck or van; a city car won't cut it for them.

I'm a programmer now but when I used to do IT, I'd either have someone walk in with one of these or see it at a client's place. They always say the same shit, and always in a loop: "BUT THE CABLE EXISTS, SO IT HAS TO WORK!"

View attachment 3725264

I have one of these. It worked. On a CRT from 1999. Kinda. In that it was a torn black and white picture that wouldn't stop scrolling. But nothing exploded!
I also have no idea where mine came from or why anyone makes these.

 

[BeckhoffAX5702]

I don't personally work in IT, but I can tell you I have experienced second hand cringe.

This time it isn't from the employees but rather from a customer. To set the stage, we have a guy who knows all the ins and outs of DOS systems and a customer has a broken industrial computer, which they requested a swap for a refurbished unit.
Mind you, these are some 25+ year old systems used in the heavy industry, the hardware is ancient and rare to say the least (and worth quite a penny or two).
They request a repaired unit, which we provided. But after them insisting on installing the computer themselves they, for some reason, returned the refurbished unit. Not in the well packaged shipping crate with our company logo on it, but rather on a bare wooden pallet wrapped in plastic and the computer broken and dented in pieces.

I and the DOS guru were quite astonished by the stupidity we've witnessed...

 

[heisenbuug]

In cybersecurity engineering now, but had an internship a few years back in legal IT for corporate America. While I wasn't personally there for this event, being one of the only women in the office got me in on all the gossip quickly, so I got to hear about all the previous horrible fuck ups.

It was April Fools and my department decided to pull a prank on the office by switching print jobs from their designated printer to various random ones in the building. It was meant to be completely harmless and just annoying, because normal people don't print out BDSM knife porn on their work computer and printer. One of the execs did not get that memo and had been using company resources to hide his degenerate porn addiction from his family. Minutes after the prank was initiated, ten pages of tied and gagged naked ladies were sent directly to the HR floor-a department that was primarily women. In short, the dude was completely fucked and had to be escorted out by police after throwing a fit about being caught.

Sure, the prank was kinda asking for something like this to happen, but I will never understand why people have an expectation of privacy on a work computer.

 

[WoodworkingFreedom]

I work in software dev, and while I am not "IT", I end up getting on calls with people to troubleshoot product related stuff.

It blows my mind how many people use company laptops for personal purpose. Nothing malicious, but they log into bank accounts, have all their passwords stored in Chrome, surf youtube etc with their personal google account etc.

These are so called IT professionals who do not have a personal computer, and just use company laptop for all their stuff, like paying bills etc. It really makes me wonder what they are going to do if they ever end up not working for the company anymore....seeing as how they don't have a computer of their own...boggles my mind.

I never use my work computer for anything other than totally work stuff. Don't even check my personal email. These people conduct their entire life on a work machine. One time, I saw someone applying for jobs etc., using their work computer. lol.

 

[WoodworkingFreedom]

In cybersecurity engineering now, but had an internship a few years back in legal IT for corporate America. While I wasn't personally there for this event, being one of the only women in the office got me in on all the gossip quickly, so I got to hear about all the previous horrible fuck ups.

It was April Fools and my department decided to pull a prank on the office by switching print jobs from their designated printer to various random ones in the building. It was meant to be completely harmless and just annoying, because normal people don't print out BDSM knife porn on their work computer and printer. One of the execs did not get that memo and had been using company resources to hide his degenerate porn addiction from his family. Minutes after the prank was initiated, ten pages of tied and gagged naked ladies were sent directly to the HR floor-a department that was primarily women. In short, the dude was completely fucked and had to be escorted out by police after throwing a fit about being caught.

Sure, the prank was kinda asking for something like this to happen, but I will never understand why people have an expectation of privacy on a work computer.

Why was he printing stuff?? Especially porn...what the heck...lol

 

[heisenbuug]

It boggles my mind too, the most forgiving reasoning I can think of is that most people don't expect their IT department to go through their information unless they physically have the computer. To be fair, all the cybersecurity training I've taught/had to sit through involved being defensive against threats outside your company instead of your company itself, I think it gives people that aren't super tech literate a false sense of security on their work network/resources.

Why was he printing stuff?? Especially porn...what the heck...lol

I have no idea-I think he was an older dude? Maybe thought it was safer to print it than keep it up on the monitor haha

 

[SIMIΔN]

They're nothing to write home about still... Most of the time I get enough speed to watch 144p youtube videos though.
Shoot me now.

I'd recommend you download the videos first using a downloader, random pauses are never fun.

https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader-42

 

[2ndBest]

Had to perform a cutover with fiber optic cables at a chemical plant. They sent someone with me from Texas, obvious minority hire from India, and when the engineers on the bridge said to begin the cutover he actually took a pair of scissors and cut the fiber optic cabling meant for the new switch. Was about a week until they could send us some more.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

I worked for a military contractor at help desk level. I had a Vietnamese guy call in one time saying "the window disappear" over and over. Refused to elaborate.
It turned out he had minimized internet Explorer and didn't know how to enlarge it again.
He was a software engineer.
Working IT WILL make you racist

I once pressed Fn+Tab and the whole screen disappeared; clicking the start bar did nothing. I panicked, because I was in an exam and restarting the computer was not allowed.

I work in software dev, and while I am not "IT", I end up getting on calls with people to troubleshoot product related stuff.

It blows my mind how many people use company laptops for personal purpose. Nothing malicious, but they log into bank accounts, have all their passwords stored in Chrome, surf youtube etc with their personal google account etc.

These are so called IT professionals who do not have a personal computer, and just use company laptop for all their stuff, like paying bills etc. It really makes me wonder what they are going to do if they ever end up not working for the company anymore....seeing as how they don't have a computer of their own...boggles my mind.

I never use my work computer for anything other than totally work stuff. Don't even check my personal email. These people conduct their entire life on a work machine. One time, I saw someone applying for jobs etc., using their work computer. lol.

Why is this a big problem though

Does the company install tracking software onto their own hardware?


Can they actually get access to this information, even if the laptop is cleanwiped?

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Why was he printing stuff?? Especially porn...what the heck...lol

Cum tributes?

I'm not sure if it's a repeat, but the first IT place I worked at had an "Ops PC" that was originally the only computer with internet access via dialup before we got corporate DSL. Once that happened, the Ops PC was was the only one used for remote accessing our long distance clients.

One day when I had to remote access a client, I discovered the company's co-owner wrote a scathing letter to a former exec on the Ops PC and never closed it. So, in a lapse of privacy, if not security, I got to read the full behind the scenes story involving the former guy and his lack of success growing the company. It also confirmed the general dislike for him by myself and the other programmers as he single-handedly killed morale during his short tenure.