February 13, 2026 at 7:48 am

IT Employee Investigated A Supervisor’s Slow Network Complaint, And Discovered They Were Disconnecting The Ethernet Everyday And Using Public WiFi Instead, Thus Handicapping Their Own Connection

by Heather Hall

Tech support worker trying to fix his manager's laptop

Pexels/Reddit

It’s always surprising when someone you assume knows exactly what they’re doing turns out to be the source of the problem.

So, what would you do if a supervisor who trains other employees kept complaining about slow internet, only for you to discover that they were sabotaging their own setup?

Would you help them discover the problem on their own? Or would you fix it for them and not even mention it?

In the following story, one IT specialist finds himself in this situation and is shocked by the whole thing.

Here’s what happened.

internal wifi

Yesterday, a staff member (in a supervisor position) reported that the network on their laptop was slow or intermittent.

In their office, they had the laptop connected to a dock. Normally, the network cable is connected to the dock.

This dock was not connected, and the laptop was connected to the public Wi-Fi network and using a VPN to connect to our secure internal network.

They only had themselves to blame.

So, this user (who trains other users) removed the network cable from the dock for reasons unknown (cable unused and still connected to a working network port), manually disconnects from the default internal wifi on login Multiple times EVERY DAY, connects to the public wifi (because they think it’s faster), then uses a vpn to connect to our internal network.

Essentially giving themself an 80% handicap on their network speed.

And they have a power supply plugged into the dock and the laptop.

Wow! The scary part is that they train other users!

Let’s see if the people at Reddit have ever experienced something similar.

Here’s an idea.

Wifi 3 IT Employee Investigated A Supervisors Slow Network Complaint, And Discovered They Were Disconnecting The Ethernet Everyday And Using Public WiFi Instead, Thus Handicapping Their Own Connection

This person does the same with the power.

Wifi 2 IT Employee Investigated A Supervisors Slow Network Complaint, And Discovered They Were Disconnecting The Ethernet Everyday And Using Public WiFi Instead, Thus Handicapping Their Own Connection

That does sum it up.

Wifi 1 IT Employee Investigated A Supervisors Slow Network Complaint, And Discovered They Were Disconnecting The Ethernet Everyday And Using Public WiFi Instead, Thus Handicapping Their Own Connection

It sounds like it.

Wifi IT Employee Investigated A Supervisors Slow Network Complaint, And Discovered They Were Disconnecting The Ethernet Everyday And Using Public WiFi Instead, Thus Handicapping Their Own Connection

Luckily, it was easy to fix. Hopefully, the user learned an important lesson.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.

Heather Hall | Contributing Writer, Life & Drama

Heather Hall is a contributing writer for TwistedSifter specializing in internet culture, workplace conflict, and viral customer service stories. With over a decade of editorial experience in digital publishing, Heather excels at curating trending online discussions and providing insightful commentary on the daily dramas that capture the internet's attention.

Since beginning her career in 2011, she has developed deep expertise in SEO-driven digital content, having written for a wide array of publications covering lifestyle, business, and travel. At TwistedSifter, Heather focuses on synthesizing complex social media threads into engaging, highly readable narratives that highlight the human element of viral news.

When she isn’t analyzing the latest internet discourse, Heather is a dedicated mother of three sons who takes family gaming nights entirely too seriously—whether she is dominating in Mario Kart, exploring The Legend of Zelda, or jumping into Roblox.

Connect with Heather on Facebook and LinkedIn.