Imagine working in tech support at a large company, and one particular office worker needs her password reset multiple times a day. It seems like every single time she goes to log in, she has to reset her password.

Would you simply keep resetting the password, or would you try to figure out what’s causing her to need her password reset so terribly often?

In this story, one tech worker is in this situation, and she wants to figure out the problem behind the problem so that the employee doesn’t need to keep asking to have her password reset. The employee resists this request, and things escalate from there.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out and what the real problem was with the password.

“Want me to get my boss involved?!?” Yes, let’s do that!

I work in the corporate office of a fairly large scale oil and gas company as an IT admin, but I’ve been doing IT work for the past 20+ years.

At the time, I had just moved over to this company from a smaller MSSP in the area, so I am new to the company.

While I don’t know every little in and out of the company workings, I can still fix simple issues like software lockups, password resets, and domain profile issues. Stuff like that.

About 3 weeks after I start, the finance company gets a few new contractors as well. One of them is our Karen.

The manager is extra annoyed with Karen.

This woman is the definition of computer illiteracy.

There are 3 people that comprise the IT staff in this building and we ALL have our issues with her.

The main issue being that she is needing a password reset at least 3 times a day in order to get into our financial software program.

My manager, the service desk administrator, after 2 weeks straight of this, has just about had enough and he does NOT contain his temper well. So, he starts spending less and less time in his office, (when Karen needs her password reset, instead of sending an email as per policy, she walks/waddles down to his office and sits at his door until he resets it. Like he doesn’t have anything else to do.)

But someone has to deal with Karen.

So, guess who starts taking the brunt of her requests? That’s right! ME!!

Now, before I get to the main story, let me setup how my office is laid out. We’re basically one long hallway on the top floor of a new work park building.

Directly across from my office is both my HR manager and my CIO, who is the reason I was hired and how I got such a huge boost in pay, so he and I get along awesomely.

One day, Karen barges into my office with, what I suspected, was another reset of her password. And, while I was right, she didn’t appreciate my assumption. At this point, Karen has become more demanding and entitled, thinking we actually work directly for HER supervisor. Not even sure why.

Meet the key people in this story.

Our cast:

Karen: The entitled waddler with no memory

Me: Your hero/stuntman

AHRM: Awesome HR Manager

S: Karen’s Supervisor

CIO: My BOSS boss (Chief Information Office)

SDM: My boss, (Service Desk Manager)

Here we go again…

Karen: “I need you to reset my password.” Immediately starts to walk off.

Me: “Whoa, wait a moment, Karen. I need to know which password you are talking about.”

Karen: *huffs in disapproval* “The SAME ONE I ALWAYS have reset!”

Me: “This seems to be happening a lot for only you. Let’s try and find out WHY this is happening. Could you come back and troubleshoot this with me?”

OP wants to solve the actual problem.

Karen: “I just need it changed! I don’t have time to troubleshoot anything with you!”

Me: “I understand, but I feel like we are just putting a band-aide on the actual issue. I want to FIX the problem so you aren’t wasting time coming down to our offices all the time. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Karen: “Listen, do you want me to get *her supervisor* involved in this?!?”

Me: “We can, but it won’t help you get this problem fixed sooner.”

Karen insists on getting her supervisor involved.

Karen: “I’m just going to go tell *supervisor* you won’t help me!” Goes to leave.

Me: “No problem! Perhaps with *supervisor*, we can get to the root of the issue.”

Karen leaves in a huff.

Now, I have to explained, she was not being quiet. And voices carry in this office building, (bad insulation, honestly.) Within 5 minutes, my Awesome HR Manager walked into my office and closed the door.

The HR manager had a question.

AHRM: Sits down and uncaps pen to write in a notebook, “So, tell me what just happened.”

Me: “Well, Karen came in and demanded I reset her password. Everyone here knows she’s been having issues with it and I wanted to rectify the main problem. Karen was obviously having none of it and threatened to get *supervisor* involved for no reason other than to intimidate me into just doing what she wanted.”

AHRM: “That’s what I thought I heard. Ok! Thanks for your time!”

With that, she walked out of my office and into my CIO’s office.

Then Karen’s supervisor showed up.

A few more minutes later, Karen’s supervisor was in my office. She’s actually really chill.

Supervisor: “Karen said you aren’t helping her?

Me: “Sorry S, but that’s not correct. I’m was trying to fix whatever password issue she has going on, but she wasn’t cooperating with my troubleshooting.”

S: “I understand. Would you mind resetting it just this one last time so I can get her working? She’s already WAAAAAAY behind on work.”

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

Now, the CIO has a request.

Me: “Sure! Here’s the password she’ll need to use until we can find the issue”

I hand S the password I’ve already changed Karen’s password to, written on a post-it and she’s off. As S is walking out, CIO is walking in.

CIO: “Hey OP. Mind writing up an email of what just happened with Karen? SDM has been having issues with her, but had no witnesses. AHRM just came in and confirmed everything SDM has been saying about her.”

Me: “No problem!”

Yikes! It didn’t end well for Karen.

I wrote up a quick email about what happened and sent it over to CIO, AHRM, S, and SDM.

The very next day, I get an email to block Karen’s email, computer login, and front door access. She was escorted out of the building 5 minutes after I turned off her network access.

And, to top it all off, her password issue? As you may not be aware, when you are given a temporary password in this office, you are REQUIRED to reset your own password upon login.

She eventually figured out the password problem.

I looked up the logs and she would reset her password correctly. The computer would eventually time out, but when she tried logging back into the computer, instead of using the password she had JUST SET IT TO, she would try to use the TEMPORARY PASSWORD!

It would lock out her profile in 3 tries.

I should have realized that this was a full on PEBKAK error, (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Karen.”

I’m not exactly sure why Karen got fired, but at least they won’t have to deal with her anymore.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This could be embroidered on a pillow.

This person likes a ticketing system.

Another person is confused by people like Karen.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who found a way around his company’s denial of company time to study for his Commercial Driver’s License.

This person has to deal with a similar issue.

Nobody wants to work with someone who acts like a Karen. Nothing against people who are actually named Karen. I personally know that there are lovely Karens in the world.