Customer service jobs often come with their share of unexpected headaches, especially when it comes to manning the phones.

In this story, one government worker picked up the phone at the end of their shift to a fellow colleague going on a massive tirade. But they weren’t just fielding complaints – they ended up uncovering a massive, career-ending breach.

Read on for the full story.

Scream at me for 40 minutes on the phone? Enjoy getting investigated by the IT department for a data breach

When I was working for local government, I was manning the phones on the service desk.

We were about to finish for the day — like we were preemptively putting our coats on because we were about to sign off and leave. That’s how close we were to 5 p.m.

At 4:59:45, 15 seconds before the phone lines closed, someone decides to call the service desk. Let’s call her Jane A.

Jane had issues logging into her mobile phone. Okay, easy — probably needs a quick password reset. It’ll take a few minutes to do, and we’ll be on our way.

But this particular case wasn’t going to be as easy as they thought.

Oh boy, was I wrong.

Jane didn’t just call for help – she had something to say, and it wasn’t pretty.

She decided that this was MY fault and demanded to talk to the mobiles guy, who had already left for the day at 4 p.m. That was also somehow my fault.

Seeing where this was going, I popped her on mute while she was rambling and asked my manager if I could hang up because she was being rude.

My manager took this opportunity to listen in to the call from her desk, and what came next was absolutely mind-blowing.

The employee and their manager couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

For almost 30 minutes, I was screamed at by Jane, who decided that she didn’t want any of my help because it was all somehow my fault.

I offered to pass it right over to the mobiles guy so he could pick it up first thing in the morning. If she didn’t want to go through troubleshooting steps to help her out, then there was nothing else I could do.

But Jane wasn’t going to get off the phone that easily.

More screaming continued. I was meant to go home 30 minutes ago and was now being verbally abused during my unplanned overtime.

I killed her with nothing but kindness, which didn’t work.

She finally agreed to let the mobiles guy pick it up after another 10 minutes of screaming.

When it was finally over, the full weight of the ordeal finally caught up with the employee.

We hung up, and I broke down because I was so angry I couldn’t say anything to her. I was in tears. My manager was furious with her.

Worst of all, she’s a colleague. My manager couldn’t believe that she’d speak to a colleague that way.

The next morning, my manager brought in a box of chocolates for me and went straight to our department leader to complain.

I got a letter a week later from Jane, apologizing to me.

But then she stopped hearing from Jane all together.

Then, all of a sudden, she disappeared. No active directory profile for her — she’d been fired.

The problems went much deeper than anyone expected.

It turned out she was actually using another colleague’s account for her mobile phone and accessing their files.

Jane’s colleague, who also shared the same first name (let’s call her Jane B), worked in child protection, and Jane A was accessing files she had no business getting into. MASSIVE GDPR breach.

She then had the nerve to rage at the IT department for getting in her way.

She got hold of Jane B’s username and password. She passed all the security checks using Jane B’s information and got herself fired.

All because she couldn’t access Jane B’s mobile phone and threw a fit at the person who had enough patience to let her scream at them for 40 minutes.

But at the end of the day, the employee got more out of the deal than Jane.

I got extra pay for those 40 minutes, a box of chocolates, an apology, and she got herself fired for verbally abusing me and getting investigated by the IT department.

Looks like things worked out exactly how they were supposed to in the end.

What did Reddit have to say?

It turns out Jane wasn’t just rude – she was also a criminal!

Employees who are empowered to not tolerate abuse from customers end up much happier.

Setting boundaries with coworkers and customers is key when you work a service job.

Sometimes you’ve gotta keep your eye on the “polite” ones too.

Jane’s meltdown wasn’t just rude – it was incriminating.

Imagine that – dialing your own downfall.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.