Isn’t it insane how workplaces don’t take their juniors seriously until the juniors prove why they need to be taken seriously?

This guy shares how he got yelled at for a simple suggestion.

Check out the full story.

Sometimes, the solution can be so simple…

This all happened about 10 years ago, but I’m still in contact with the people from the company and I hear that, unfortunately, things haven’t improved, not even in 10 years.

This story takes place during my first month as a trainee at the company, working in IT, mainly providing first-level support, but the easy stuff, like telling people how to turn on the computer and where to plug in the USB-Stick.

This is where it gets bad…

Wednesday, 11:55 a.m., just before lunch.

Back then, I was still a trainee with very little knowledge, but when suddenly 50 tickets from 10 countries landed in the ticketing system basically at once, all with the same message, “SAP is down,” I knew we had a huge problem.

The troubleshooting began, and after almost 20 minutes, we hadn’t made any progress. We had tried practically everything we could. T

he mood was terrible, everyone was hungry, everyone was frustrated, but the problem had to be solved now, production was at a standstill in 10 countries.

In my youthful innocence, I joked, “Maybe someone just pulled the plug.” Man, if looks could have killed.

That’s INSANE!

I got yelled at, “If I have nothing productive to contribute, then shut up.” Intimidated, I sat in the corner and watched while the others frantically tried to find a solution.

The phone kept ringing, new tickets kept coming in. All I could do was answer the phone and say, “We’re aware of the situation” and respond to tickets in the same way.

At 12:45, one of my colleagues returned from his lunch break; he had left at 11:45. He came in and saw how everything was going wrong. He asked what was going on.

We explained.

He just looked worried and asked basically to himself “Could this have something to do with the Telekom guys I left in the server room before my lunch break?”

UH OH…

Silence, dead silence. Everyone just stared at him. “You did what,” someone managed to ask, while two others had already started sprinting towards the server room.

“They were supposed to be here, we knew they were coming,”

“Yeah, at 2:30 PM. You can’t just leave strangers unattended in the server room and then go on your lunch break!”

“Okay, sorry, it won’t happen again.”

Suddenly, the connection to SAP is re-established. Relief. The two colleagues return from the server room. They both look down at the floor. The boss asks, “So, guys, what was the problem?”

“Well, he had to plug in a device for work and unplugged it. He said he didn’t think it was important because all the other plugs were labeled, only that one wasn’t.”

They might have overreacted to the whole situation…

Dead silence again. No one looks at me. After what felt like 10 minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, the boss simply said, “How about I order pizza for everyone? You all worked through your lunch break.”

People nodded and walked back to their desks. I was still sitting at the trainee desk in the corner, the worst possible spot. The boss came over and asked what kind of pizza I wanted.

I answered, and he kept walking. No one spoke to me for a good hour. I just kept working, processing the tickets related to the incident and eating my pizza.

In the five years I was with the company, the incident was never mentioned again.

However, every time there was another major incident at the company (and there were far too many, they were so awful), I was taken seriously and given a chance to speak before being yelled at.

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YIKES! That sounds super annoying!

Why wouldn’t they give him a benefit of doubt?!

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user knows how incompetent the managers are…

That’s right! This user knows the most basic things are sometimes the biggest problems.

This user knows people in this field always think about the worst case scenario.

This user knows he’s seen stories like these!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who won’t answer calls after hours since he was switched from salary to hourly pay.

This user shares their experience from tech.

Somebody clearly deserves a better team here!