If you work in a role where your job is to fix problems, it can be very frustrating and overwhelming when employees are constantly giving you problems to fix. How do you know what should take priority?

In theory, a ticketing system could be a good idea so that the problems are clearly written down, and you can go through them one at a time as they’re submitted.

But what happens when there’s an urgent issue that needs to be fixed right away?

In today’s story, one IT support worker refuses to make an exception for an urgent issue. Read on to see how the story plays out.

 If It Ain’t in the Ticket, It Ain’t My Problem

I used to work IT support at a mid-sized company that thought it was a Fortune 500.

We were understaffed, underpaid, and expected to be psychic.

People would call or corner us in the hallway saying things like “Hey, my printer’s acting weird, can you swing by?” while we were juggling five tickets and trying not to lose our minds.

The new manager made a new, very strict rule.

Our manager, a guy named Curtis who had never touched a server in his life, brought in some consultant who told him we needed “more structure.” So Curtis implemented a new policy:

No work gets done unless there’s a formal ticket. No exceptions.

At first we were like, okay, whatever, more paperwork, but at least it protects us.

Then Curtis took it further. He said if we did any task not in a ticket, even if it was five seconds to plug something in, we’d get a write-up. He called it “discipline for procedural drift.”

Fine. Message received.

Urgent requests were NOT an exception.

The very next week, the VP of Sales—big name, big ego—storms into the IT office yelling that his laptop won’t connect to Wi-Fi and he has a Zoom call in ten minutes.

I look up and ask, “Did you put in a ticket?”

He goes, “No, I don’t have time for that, just come fix it.”

I smile. “Sorry, we’re not allowed to do anything without a ticket. New policy.”

He scoffs and storms out.

Submitting an urgent ticket wasn’t enough either.

Two minutes later, we get a ticket: Urgent: VP cannot connect to Wi-Fi. Fix ASAP.

But here’s the fun part.

The system had a rule. Tickets came in first come, first served, unless they were escalated by Curtis. Which this one wasn’t.

OP wasn’t about to break the rules.

So I tagged the ticket and slotted it behind six password resets, two printer jobs, and one guy asking how to insert a picture in PowerPoint.

Meanwhile the VP is pacing like he’s waiting for a kidney transplant.

Fifteen minutes go by. He calls Curtis. Curtis calls me. “You need to go help him right now.”

I say, “Absolutely. Can you go into the system and escalate the ticket?”

This wasn’t going to work either.

Long pause. “You know I can’t do that without a director-level override.”

“Exactly,” I say.

Forty-five minutes later, the VP has to call into his Zoom meeting from his phone. He sounds like he’s standing inside a fish tank.

After the meeting, he comes stomping back in, furious.

He still had to wait.

I point to the open ticket queue.

“We’re happy to help,” I say. “Just waiting for it to rise to the top.”

The next day, Curtis quietly changed the policy: “Tickets are still required, but urgent issues may be addressed immediately at IT’s discretion.”

We kept the printout of that original policy on the office fridge for months.

The new policy makes more sense. Really, requiring tickets in theory sounds like a good thing until there is a truly urgent issue.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person liked the way the story played out.

Here’s how another person handled a similar ticket policy.

This person thinks requiring tickets was a good idea.

Seriously, what was Curtis thinking?

This person makes two points.

There are always exceptions to the rules.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.