"Re-enable my account right now! I did nothing wrong!" Tech Support |
| "Re-enable my account right now! I did nothing wrong!" Posted: 05 Jul 2019 08:28 PM PDT I am the manager of my college's IT helpdesk, but I started out as a student worker. I have plenty of stories from working here, enough that I joke with my manager a lot that one day I'm gonna write a book of them. But my favorite experience is by far before I was hired on as the full-time manager, still job shadowing the person who had my position previously. Background: My IT department has very strict cybersecurity regulations, seeing as cyber criminals enjoy targeting smaller, likely less protected schools, which contain a lot of sensitive information about students and staff. One of our rules for employees of the school is that anyone employed at the college (even student workers now, though not at the time of this story) must complete mandatory annual IT security training. This consists of the standard phishing recognition quizzes, social engineering cue reading, etc. We give employees the entire semester to complete this training and send bi-weekly notifications to their employee email addresses to let them know of the training deadline. The consequence of not completing the training? The user's account is marked as disabled until they reach out to us, provide us with an alternate email address to which we can send their customized training link, complete the training, and then notify us. Now, after the deadline, our security admin (SA) sent out a spreadsheet to our team containing the names and email addresses of all the employees who failed to complete that training. The list was... remarkably long lol. Most people who called in were understanding, apologetic, and polite. But one employee was... yikes. We'll call her angry professor (AP). Me: Thank you for calling your IT service desk, how can I help you? AP: I need to get into my email. It's urgent. Me: Alright, not a problem. Will you please let me know the error you are receiving when trying to access your account? AP: It says you've disabled my account. I need to know why that is, and I need you to re-enable it right now. Me: Pardon me just one moment, and I will investigate what might be causing this issue. (When I checked the list of employees who hadn't completed the IT training... yep, AP was on the list.) Me: Ah, I see what the issue is. Our records indicate that you had not completed the IT security training by the deadline, and the system automatically disabled your account-- AP: Excuse me, but uh. I'll have you know that I did complete that useless training you guys make me do every year. I have proof on my iPad. So, you had better re-enable my account immediately. Me: I understand your frustration. If you will, please provide us with an alternative email address that I may provide our SA so that he may correspond with you to get this situation resolved right away. AP: No, I won't do it! I don't see any need for that because I did nothing wrong and I have proof! I want you to fix my account right now! Me: My apologies, but unfortunately, I am not authorized to re-enable accounts which have been disabled due to our security policies. However, I will be happy to email our SA on your behalf to get this resolved. AP: You better get this fixed right now. I'll be expecting a call back ASAP. Me: Understood, is there anything else I can help you w--- AP: (hangs up) So, I emailed SA to let him know that AP was on the list of individuals who hadn't completed the training and refused to provide us with an alternate email. He eventually emailed back and let us know that, while she had completed the training, AP had completed it two weeks late. He told us that he had re-enabled her account and should be available to her "whenever the system processes the change". This gave me a very inaccurate time frame, and a very bad position. If I called AP back and told her that her account should be available in the next few minutes, she could check too soon and call back in a rage. But... if I told her a few hours, she would probably throw a fit that it couldn't be done immediately. So, I thought up a plan seeing as it was about 2 or 3 hours until the end of the day and gave her a call back. Me: Good afternoon, AP, you called us earlier regarding your disabled account? I am calling to inform you that your account has now been re-enabled, and you should have access to your email again before the end of the day. She was silent on the other end of the line for a solid 5-7 seconds. I thought the line had disconnected, but before I could confirm, she spoke up. Keep in mind, at this point, I'm still a student worker. And this is a professor speaking to me like this. AP: End of the day??? Make it go faster!! Don't you know I can't do my job without my email, you idiot! Me: I believe there may be some miscommunication, ma'am. The system is currently processing the request to re-enable your account. This may take some time. I understand your frustration, but--- AP: Well you better just call the vendor of that system and tell them to make it go faster! I need my account NOW! Me: I understand; however, I do not have the ability nor the authority to follow through on that request. Thank you for being patient and understanding. AP: Well. I'll have you know. Once your system lets me back into my account, I'll be writing a very strongly worded letter to Mr. IT Department Director about what a terrible employee you are that you can't do your job. Me: Thank you for your feedback. Is there anything else I can help you---? AP: (hangs up again) Yikes. I was sweating, but the jaded guy who had the helpdesk managerial position was laughing since it was his last week: "same sh*t, different day". Now, I was thinking that was the end of that; she'd get her account back, send an email to the director, and the director would laugh at her and tell her exactly what I told her but less kindly. But no. She calls back later, a smug tone in her voice. Me: Thank you for calling your IT service desk, how can I help you? AP: Guess who has access to her account now. ~ Me: I'm very happy to hear that. Please let us know if we can-- AP: I just wanted to let you know before you misinform anyone else that they won't have access to their account until after the end of the day. Me: Understood, thank you for your feedback on our customer service. We're always looking to improve the experience our users have. Is there anything else I can help you with? :) AP: (hangs up) I couldn't help but laugh when she hung up that she twisted my words from earlier. Later that week, I asked my department director if she ever emailed him, and he told me no. However, he also explained that based on her actions, he let her immediate supervisor know of her behavior. And if anyone, especially an employee of our college, ever acts such a way to me or anyone working with me again, to let him know immediately so that he may act. Ever since then, every time AP calls the helpdesk, she is as sweet as honey. :) [link] [comments]  |
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