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If you can fix a tech problem yourself, it is almost always a lot faster and cheaper than going through the IT department at most companies.

That is what the manager in this story always did, which allowed him to keep his store working well enough, but it also meant that corporate refused to get him the upgrades that he needed.

Eventually, the IT department demanded that he report tech problems properly to them, so he did, which quickly led to the store losing money. Eventually, he quit, and when someone new came in, they realized that the store needed a major upgrade, just like he had been saying for years.

Read through the full story below and see what you think of how it was handled.

IT told me I didn’t understand the systems, so I stopped fixing them. The store learned what I actually did.

Backstory: I won’t bore you with tech jargon. I’ll just keep it simple.

Let’s set the scene.

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.

He has the knowledge needed to do the job well.

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 and just preached about the benefits.

I took it, and from there is how this all happened. 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). Now to the story.

Wow, he is doing a great job.

Becoming unofficial IT

So, I had gotten into the routine of things, 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).

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

He has to keep a lot of different things working all the time.

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.

Sometimes it is easier to just do things yourself.

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.

It is always something breaking down.

The server is down? I fixed it. 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 the register was not talking to it.

At least he gets a break from his normal store.

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.

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.

Most things are pretty easy to fix.

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.

I knew the issue. You see, when those three are out at the same time, it is always the 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.

Apparently, the IT department doesn’t like what he is doing.

The compliance

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.”

They wanted tickets; he’ll give them tickets.

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.

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.

Things are happening just as he predicted.

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.

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.

He came prepared.

The review

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.

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

At least his manager seems to have his back.

I gave them the correlations of me fixing the equipment 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.

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).

It is clear that he is burnt out.

The aftermath

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 working so much standing); I could not stand for long, and I even blacked out at work.

Finally, he quit.

I had to quit. I did write down in a notebook (because typing it was risky if they could access it and 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. 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.

At least they invested in the store as they should have years ago.

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.

He was upset because he said talent that is learned through the trenches is valuable. 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.

Things have worked out for him in the end.

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

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.

A lot of this trouble could have been avoided if they had just upgraded his store in the beginning.

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

Yeah, this wasn’t smart.

Here is a comment from an IT guy.

Don’t go above and beyond for a company that doesn’t appreciate you.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was passed over for a promotion, so got a job with the competition and quit immediately.

This commenter is exactly right.

IT does hate it when people try to fix their own issues.

He made the company a lot of money over the years, and they thanked him with nothing. In fact, they gave him a bad review in the end for all the money he saved them.

This is an unfortunate reality for many people who work for large corporations.