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People who understand how technology works can often fix most problems on their own without a true expert.

What would you do if you were the manager at a gas station where all the equipment was old, but you figured out ways to keep things running until the IT department told you to stop fixing things and report issues to them?

That is what happened to the manager in this story, so he complied with the demand and things quickly fell apart, costing the company huge amounts of profit. Eventually, he quit the job and moved on to better things.

Stories like this can be so frustrating because they happen all the time. IT or middle management thinks they know better than the front-line workers and managers. Read through all the details below and see what you think.

Don’t touch it? You got it.

A bit of backstory. This happened 4 years ago, so not every conversation is word-for-word.

When a company gets bought out, a lot can change.

I worked at a gas station as a manager. They sort of trapped me in it. I was the guy you called when a store across state lines was short-staffed, or if they needed help with paperwork and or training employees.

I was a staff lead on track to go to their IT department, until a company bought them out. I was, at the time, basically an assistant manager without handling money, that was until the promotion.

Promotions don’t always end up being good things.

The store was in the red, and they saw how I turned one store around when there was no manager, and the district manager (DM) handled the money.

So, they moved me to this new store as the new acting manager and just preached about the benefits. I took it, and from there is how this all happened.

Knowing how to work with computers is very helpful in many areas of life.

I am by no means some genius, but I have been developing things for Linux in my own time for myself.

I had a side job where I repaired computers, and sometimes I built whole computers from parts people ordered. I’m smart, but I would not classify myself as a senior sysadmin, but definitely not a beginner, and I document everything (important later).

Background knowledge is important.

The store I moved to had its kitchen removed and a damaged freezer, which tanked sales, but they believed it was other issues.

I was on the track to join their IT, so I knew things beforehand about their systems, and all fixes were ones they would do; anything more, they would use the manufacturer. Now to the story.

Companies need to keep their systems properly updated.

So, I had gotten into the routine of things as a manager, paperwork, safe, bank, schedules, and started some weeks in the black, some in the red, before finally getting all in the black consistently (it took a couple of years to get everything fixed and convince them to bring the kitchen back).

Well, the issue that made this happen was the equipment. Gas pumps, the server, the registers, the office computer, all of it was not extremely old, but showing its age.

These little problems get annoying to deal with.

We had to defrag the office computer a couple of times. The card readers would go down, the server would just say, “Not today,” registers would need us to call because an update broke something, pumps with BIOS errors, and so many more issues.

At the head of all of that was what they called the commander. It basically controlled every single device in the store.

IT teams everywhere are overworked.

Well, when things would break, we had to make an IT ticket; they chose based on who had it worse. Two guys, 30 stores. It would be weeks before they would come out at times.

I did not like that, so I fixed them myself. Granted, they have insurance and many other things to worry about, but their efficiency was bad.

He is figuring out the routine he needs to follow for his store.

The server is down? I fixed it (this was not a tamper with it; mostly, it was a process somewhere that had an issue or was stuck). The office computer was down? I fixed it. Registers giving errors? I fixed it. Any problems that arose, I fixed them. Soda machine down? I fixed it.

The most common one was the card readers. They were always on, so they had to be reset most of the time. You also could not just swap them, something I found out trying because I found the real error that day was that the register was not talking to it (normally, you could swap them if one was down). A lot of things had to be reset more than once a month.

I bet things are going to break while he is gone.

I never took these things apart; these were all band-aid fixes against the real issues. Well, one day, they called me to train a new manager for a different store.

My DM would handle my store while I did this. Why did my DM not train them? Because there were a few DMs, and it was not her area, so to preserve the proper chain of command, they saw this was the better option.

He must have predicted that this would happen.

As these new stores were bought out by us, they needed to learn the new structure. I did not care; it was a change of pace, seeing the same walls for 70+ hours a week gets tiring. This was where things started.

While there, I get a call, and another, and another. They asked me if I knew why something was down. Card readers, registers, and the pumps were not working.

This guy has a workaround for everything.

I knew the issue. You see, when those three are out at the same time, it is always the Verifone commander. If it freezes up, the whole system will not allow transactions with cards.

I explained it, they did what I said (which was just to reset it), and it was working again. I was glad it was not the pumps because if they gave a BIOS error, you have to play a game of “Am I fast enough?” because you have to turn off the breaker for that pump, wait, turn it back on, reset the commander, and pray it worked.

The arrogance of these IT guys shines through.

Fast forward two weeks, and the head of IT and maintenance emailed me. They said that from now on, I had to put in the form to get things fixed.

I, of course, emailed them back that if I do that and they do not come out soon enough, the store will lose money. They said, and I kid you not, “You do not understand how complex these systems are, any ‘fix’ you do could damage them.”

If they want IT to handle it, then he will let them.

That last comment irked me a bit. I did not understand them? The guy who has been fixing things and pleading for updated systems for months does not understand them? Ok, fine. I told them I would comply.

Again, I am not some genius, and I am not messing with the internals; I am doing what they would have if they came out. This would not have been an issue if there were a better system in place for soft resets, or if some kind of manual on issues that we could handle had been given out. But they wanted IT to handle it all.

I bet they didn’t expect this many problems.

After that, every time a card reader is down, send a form to IT. Every time a register is down, send the form to IT. Soda machine was down? Send a form to maintenance.

They piled up very quickly, and to the point that they were fixing more than one issue when they came to my store. My DM asked why I stopped doing it myself. I explained, she was mad, but she could not tell me to fix it since the one in charge of the two departments was above her (the owner’s son’s friend).

They have a lot of nerve blaming him.

After about 4 months of this, we had a manager’s meeting where we all got a review (basically, corporate telling us what we are doing wrong and if you get a raise).

They said my performance was bad, that I let the store get as bad as it was, and that I needed to change a few key points.

He came with receipts.

I stopped them right there. I had come prepared because I always document everything. When I say everything, I am obsessed with documentation.

I gave them the correlations of me fixing the equipment, making them fix the freezer, forcing them on bringing the kitchen back, and sales going up, I gave them the notes I had jotted down about when machines went down, I explained why my paperwork was late because I had to wait for the system to even work for 5 minutes to even email it off, I showed them the email of being told to send forms, and my sales dropping since then.

Good, his DM has his back.

I told them they can’t give me a bad review for complying with what I was asked to do.

This was when my DM chimed in and explained that I was originally supposed to be on the fast track to working IT, but after the company was recently bought out (because they kept buying more gas stations, they went into the red), I was removed from that track since the new company had their own much larger IT staff (they have not been brought in yet as it was a recent buyout, and the full change would take a while).

He can’t be doing this type of work anymore.

Well, they had to hold meetings after that; they had to talk about my review, about why I was dropped from the IT track, and about the current situation with the buyout.

Well, unfortunately, around this time, my body was failing me (working 70+ hours with a bad back, bad knees, and a few other issues does not agree with so much standing at work); I could not stand for long, and I even blacked out at work (found out the hard way that I had developed type 2 diabetes and my steroid shot for back pain the night before caused that). I had to quit.

Wow, I’m surprised he is willing to leave behind all his notes.

I did write down in a notebook (because typing it was risky if they could access it at all and possibly not have it) instructions on all of the equipment and how I fixed things.

Error codes, what certain situations looked like, and what they most likely meant, and so on. It was a masterpiece of documentation explaining everything I was doing and how to tell what the different issues were and how to fix them.

Maybe he will actually get some recognition.

I put my two weeks in, I left, a few days later I got called about the notebook, I told them where it is, they used it, and all seemed good.

I heard from the grapevine that after the new company got to my old store and saw how I had to do things, they found my notebook, and the new owner heard about the whole thing.

It sounds like he is doing well for himself.

He was upset because he said talent that is learned through the trenches is valuable (really chill dude, met him a few times). But they ended up replacing the equipment sometime after I left, and I heard it cost them thousands. Not damaging money, but enough for a pocket to feel lighter.

Now I work from home, I still develop Linux tools and have made some public, started writing, and have worked with content creators.

I wonder if the IT team ever learned their lesson.

I don’t make as much as I did there, but it is peaceful, and I don’t have to worry about an outdated system fighting me every day.

Moral of the story: don’t blame the guy trying to keep the ship floating.

If companies would just appreciate the hard work their employees do, far fewer of them would quit or get burned out. I’m glad to see that this guy is doing well for himself.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

I agree, he should have kept the notebook.

This commenter has a good suggestion.

Why would a company want bad documentation?

Maybe bad IT is common at gas stations.

Focusing on your own job is often the safest route.

He should have kept his documentation to himself unless the company was willing to pay him for it. The amount of money he saved and generated for that company is likely huge, and all he got for it was being overworked and sick.

Fortunately, he was able to quit and work from home, but many people would be stuck in a situation like this for years to come.