If managers stopped making rules without thinking them through and testing them, their work lives would be a lot easier.

Check out why this new policy went splat in the most satisfying way.

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.

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.”

It worked out just as badly as you can imagine…

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.

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.

The response must have felt good to deliver.

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.

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.

The more it escalates, the more fun he has with it.

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?”

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.

Finally, the message is understood.

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.

Here is what people are saying.

Are they actually urgent problems, though?

SO poorly thought out.

Sounds like a rough gig.

That does sound stressful.

Catchy!

This isn’t going to work.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.