She Spent Two Hours Fixing a Server Migration That Wasn’t Her Job—Then the IT Guy Tried to Blame Her for the Breakdown
Magnific
Tech support calls often involve slowly realizing you’re now responsible for a problem you didn’t create and sometimes aren’t even qualified to fix.
At least this is what happened to a woman who decided to skip lunch only to receive a call from an IT professional working for one of their company’s clients called about a server migration.
Normally, their team supports the actual product, while the client’s own IT staff is responsible for servers, networking, and infrastructure.
So she felt like she was there only for emotional support when she found herself spending nearly two hours troubleshooting with an increasingly confused IT guy who apparently wasn’t even sure what his client actually wanted.
Read the full story below.
I became the emotional support NPC for a server migration
Yesterday I got a call from someone who wasn’t even our customer.
He was the client’s IT guy aka the IT guy they hired to manage their network infrastructure.
Our company literally has it in our terms and agreements that customers are responsible for their own servers, networking, infrastructure, etc.
But this wasn’t the case.
We support our product. We answer how-to questions. We log bugs. We are not network engineers.
Apparently he had just helped migrate the client’s server to a new one, and afterwards all of their data locations were a disaster.
The client was understandably upset…
SOMEHOW, I became the emotional support NPC for a server migration I had absolutely nothing to do with.
The best part? (Worst part.)
This man didn’t even seem to fully understand what his client was actually asking for.
She was also confused now.
We spent almost TWO HOURS troubleshooting things that the client apparently didn’t even care about because he kept sending us down random rabbit holes.
Then he hits me with:
“I’m going to conference the client in so you can explain the bad news.”
Sir… what? 😭
Then she understood what was happening.
Translation: “My client is mad at me, so I’d like you, a complete stranger to the situation, to take this grenade for me.”
It honestly made me feel so powerless because I’m sitting there thinking, “This isn’t my fault, this guy is just incompetent.”
And now I have to call them back today.
Am I going to? Yes.
Do I want to? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
She felt ambushed.
I am going to speak to some coworkers first which is what I honestly should have done yesterday but I’ll also confess something that definitely didn’t help me out yesterday: I skipped lunch.
By the time this surprise marathon call rolled in, I was hungry, thirsty, and my brain had entered low battery mode.
This area of tech support at my job isn’t one that I have ever felt very strong in and usually rely on being able to say “you’ll need to get your *keyword: QUALIFIED* IT to help you with this”.
I so badly wanted to feel like I could quit after this happened yesterday but alas, can’t be irresponsible and non-resilient 😔.
Never Miss a StorySign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
If she’s going to do it, she might as well do her best and then be ready to say no the next time. But what did Reddit have to say?
A reader shares their thoughts.
I agree.
Another suggestion.
Another commenter chimes in.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who gets fired, then ends up with extra cash due to a loophole in the termination letter.
She could have done that.
Now she knows she should have probably involved her coworkers sooner, stuck more firmly to the boundaries of what the support team actually handles and eaten lunch.
It’s also okay to encounter a problem outside your expertise and say: “You need qualified IT for this.”
She clearly learned from the situation, so that’s good.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
