Anyone else get massively outraged by the "Oh while you're here" guy?

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SudoDarkKnight@reddit

No. We do customer service. I rather people think of me as helpful and reliable than the guy they are scared to ask for help.

My YouTube videos will still be there when I get back.

Shit sometimes I go to one office to help someone and will get hit by 5-6 people as I attempt to leave. It is what it is. Its why I'm being paid.

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jefe_toro@reddit

My attitude is the people we support are the ones that make the company money. Me helping people hopefully means the company makes more money. Then hopefully I get a bigger raise.

I know that's an oversimplification, but the idea has served me well over the years.

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SudoDarkKnight@reddit

It's true though. I.T. is always just an expense in most peoples eyes. Might as well make it worth their dollars

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the_firecat@reddit

But they still need to put in a ticket. If i can't take credit for my work I don't want to speak to them. Customer service is a give-and-take with clients.

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MrMeeseeksAnswers@reddit

What stops you from putting in the ticket either in the moment with the user or after the fact?

Of course if you have a big backlog of work you have to tell them to put the ticket in so it can be triaged, but if that isn't the case take care of the employee, document your work, move on to the next task.

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sybrwookie@reddit

What stops you from putting in the ticket either in the moment with the user or after the fact?

And that's how you get to the end of the week and go, "well, I just spent 60% of this week putting in tickets for users."

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MrMeeseeksAnswers@reddit

If it takes you that long to put in tickets, then maybe that's why employees aren't putting in their own tickets....

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

IME someone too busy to take the 5 seconds it takes to email the helpdesk is too busy to listen and learn when I try to teach them.

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the_firecat@reddit

I do put in tickets in these cases. However it's frustrating when people think that it's beneath them or think that their issue is more important than everyone else. IT people aren't the only ones that act with a sense of entitlement.

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jmbpiano@reddit

I literally just got done doing three consecutive laps of our entire manufacturing facility this morning because each time I got done with one person at the opposite end of the building from where my office is located, someone else at that end of the building put in a service request that I didn't find 'till I got back to my desk.

I'd much rather they'd seen me and caught me while I was down there. It would have saved a full twenty minutes of walking and I can document that it happened later.

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agoia@reddit

Got some good exercise, though!

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iliekplastic@reddit

Wait, your boss stares at how many tickets you do as a metric or something. Yeesh, I would hate that.

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the_firecat@reddit

Most IT jobs judge by number of tickets and satisfaction rating. That's the bare minimum. They also may track completion time and whether ticket are reopened or the same issue is reoccurring, so yes, putting a ticket for every repair is very important for some organizations and may impact evals and bonus structures.

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Zenkin@reddit

If i can't take credit for my work I don't want to speak to them.

Well at least no one can say you didn't try to do the bare minimum.

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Smart_Dumb@reddit

Agree. Especially if it's a ticket that I am going to have to end up doing anyway. I'd rather knock it out now.

Obviously, if I have more urgent matters, I won't stop to do it.

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mistakesweremade2025@reddit

Dare I say, I even kinda like it that way.

I spend most of my time maintaining and designing systems on my own, or with a very select group of people. So to walk by and be stopped by several people, sometimes literally lining up, and helping their day be slightly better makes me feel great.

Also, it's a bit of an ego boost to just solve things in front of their eyes, especially if I've never seen it before (which I will readily admit, as I'm a think-out-loud kinda guy).

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Few-Season4218@reddit

100 % agree. I love hearing "You are so smart" or "you're a genius". If you help them they are usually so grateful. especially when it is just basic questions from users. Not to show my age, but I've been working in IT since the 90's and a huge problem in IT has always been IT professionals having no soft skills. Being condescending or rude is very unprofessional. I try to make my interactions with users a teaching event as much as I can. I avoid using technical jargon and explain things in ways the user can understand. I feel like it is Help Desk Techs that get rude with users. I think more than anything it is because they are not knowledgeable enough to answer random questions. It is very easy to ask the user to create another ticket to do further research.

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DawnCrawler@reddit

So long as it doesn't get hectic, I like it that way, too. Makes the day go by faster.

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SudoDarkKnight@reddit

100% with you. It's genuinely fun to solve something you haven't seen before, which happens a lot really. And it feels good to help people even if it's something mundane like changing the default PDF reader back to Adobe.

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RCG73@reddit

I always tell my team that no the users don’t know how to do it. If they did we wouldn’t be getting paid to do it. As long as they are polite then just solve the issue if they aren’t polite make it my problem not yours.

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djaybe@reddit

Totally agree. I want to get the users what they need to function. If they start abusing my level of support, the boundaries go up.

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MBILC@reddit

And I am sure everyone you help and "go above and beyond" for also loves it, which when the time comes for reviews, or support from the company, people come out of the wood work for you.

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SudoDarkKnight@reddit

Exactly. I have made many good allies this way lol. They are very quick to let my CIO and supervisors knows as well how happy they are to have me around . And it genuinely feels good to help someone... So why wouldn't I.

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Bob_12_Pack@reddit

Amen. Years ago I was having a rough day and sent a "frequent flyer" a link to Let Me Google That For You and I felt like a complete ass afterwards. I still cringe just thinking about that. This person was someone that I had a great working relationship with, and she trusted me and my expertise and likely chose to ask me rather than some internet stranger, and I chose to be an asshole. That was a learning experience, don't be that guy.

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Recalcitrant-wino@reddit

DON'T BE THAT GUY is the best advice ever.

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iliekplastic@reddit

Nick Burns Your Company's Computer Guy was not an aspirational figure for IT people to become.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

"Oh, While you're here, would you take a look at..."

"Sorry, next time, I only had a minute to squeeze this in already"

"Sorry, submit a ticket and one of the helpdesk guys can get to you"

"NO AND THEN!"

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phannybawz@reddit

These are what I refer to as "drive-bys".

Explain to the user that you are on your way to deal with another ticket that a user has submitted and that if they too submit a ticket, you'll get onto it soon after you've completed the other outstanding tickets.

They won't bother to submit a ticket. They'll bitch and moan about you after you've left. But you won't need to deal with the trivial shit they just tried to con you into doing immediately.

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hogwater@reddit

Drive bys suck. But I hate fractal tickets. The ones where the user starts listing other issues in the ticket that have no relation to the root issue.

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rosseloh@reddit

>User replies to a six month old closed ticket email chain which reopens the ticket, very overdue now, with a completely different issue, because to them that's how you open a ticket.

Love it!

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Jaereth@reddit

Or sends an email to me, my manager, their manager, and the helpdesk. Everyone hits reply all each time...

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rosseloh@reddit

Our Oracle contractor does this all the time. So many duplicated tickets for no reason...

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sybrwookie@reddit

If I'm gonna handle something like that, first thing I do is reply all, take the user off, and say, "I'll call to take care of this" so a reply-storm doesn't happen.

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Flabbergasted98@reddit

i'd argue that the drive by's are the secondary users who ask for help as you're walking by.

Standard practice is that when you're closing a ticket with someone you ask "is there anything else I can help you with before I go" and answer any questions they have.

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endbit@reddit

Yep, personal best for being stopped with 'could I just ask a question' between office and destination is 6.

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deritchie@reddit

And to make a point, always submit a ticket when drive by effort occurs.

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MBILC@reddit

This.

It is amazing how unimportant an issue becomes when you request that someone send in a ticket.....

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the_firecat@reddit

Drive by issues also don't account for triage. Some issues are lower priority due to how many people are impacted or whether it prevents someone from working. Every user thinks their issue is the most important.

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fearless-fossa@reddit

They won't bother to submit a ticket.

The ones who bitch and moan will bitch and moan no matter what you do. It's their nature and they're neither willing nor capable of escaping it. Meanwhile the majority of other users will open a ticket, 1st line will deal with it and you can enjoy your coffee.

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Det_23324@reddit

Yeah customer service is definitely a competent of the job.

I will say that I get annoyed at times of this myself, but it is what it is at that point.

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notHooptieJ@reddit

Nope.

He's job security.

"hey while youre here could you.. X?"

"well real quick, lets kick in a ticket for X so i can track it, let me sit down here at your desk"

"Ok now that we have that in, i have to finish up what im doing, and if i have time i'll circle back, otherwise our service coordinator will schedule a time for me to take care of that on monday"

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bhillen8783@reddit

Sorry, I have to run to a meeting. If you need further assistance send an email to the service desk and open a ticket.

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coffee_ape@reddit

I used to be really annoyed by that. I would say “I’m working on a few other tickets in order. Just shoot helpdesk@HellComany dot com and it will generate a ticket.”

Now I’m I tell them “while I’m here….. because I’m not driving out here this” and most people can’t think of something on the spot.

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whatacharacter@reddit

"Sorry, I have to run to a meeting, but shoot over a ticket for that issue so we don't forget to get it fixed for you."

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

(Morgan Freeman voice) but there was never any ticket entered

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Jaereth@reddit

lol happened to me yesterday. Some woman walks up to my desk and starts with "I know you're probably going to say "open a ticket please but I was wondering if you could help me with this" and tried to shove some palm pilot looking device in my face.

Nope. Open a ticket i'll come to you.

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talltatanka@reddit

Open a ticket, provide no contact info, and then I reach out every day to get them to provide more info 3 times; That's an 3 day hold and then I close the ticket.

Call the customer, and they spill a bunch of of additional problems, and I try to talk them through it.

Open a ticket for asking me to correct a problem they created, that I can't correct because the mistake is already in the system. Explain the solution that they need to initiate, they ask for more help just doing the thing that they should have been trained for.

I try not to get wound up, but my patience is limited. If you return my call and I can't hear you, that's not my problem. If you have additional problems that don't involve me or the software I support, I will offer a shoulder and advise, but I can't legally fix your problems.

If you submit a ticket outside of the normal workflow and don't provide enough details, then I can't help you until you provide more details.

I can't tell you how many times I've remoted to user workstation and opened a Notepad doc to tell them to call me so I can assist them. More than often the ticket is urgent. If they deny my request to remote, then that's on them.

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kaaz54@reddit

No ticket, no problem.

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KingKnux@reddit

“And just like that there was no work”

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Ill-Error-9962@reddit

This is good. Need a ticket for tracking proposes and team sizing.

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Flabbergasted98@reddit

On the one hand, I am the "oh while you're here guy"
On the other hand, I feel like I'm only that guy with the people who are chronically unavailable.

If it takes 3 weeks just schedule a 30 minte timeslot with you. I'm going to use all 30 minutes to ask every question I think might be mildly important. because if it becomes impoortant later and I have to ask it then, it'll take 3 more weeks just to get you on a call.

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BryceKatz@reddit

If it takes 3 weeks just schedule a 30 minte timeslot with you. I'm going to use all 30 minutes to ask every question I think might be mildly important.

As long as you're fine with leaving an item left unfinished at the end of the 30-minute timeslot, there's nothing wrong with this. It's also just good customer service for a tech to ask if there are any other issues.

But getting mad at the tech because it took 3 weeks to schedule an in-person slot to resolve misses the point. Take your complaints about lack of IT response up the chain, as this will help the IT Manager justify hiring additional staff.

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llDemonll@reddit

While true, that’s different than helping someone with a task and them asking questions then related to something completely different and unrelated to their original ask. That’s very different than scheduling something in advance to cover a number of topics.

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Flabbergasted98@reddit

Normally when I'm answering a ticket, I end it with "is there anything else I can help you with before I go" if they have a question that's unrelated, I do my best to answer it. That's no problem. If what they ask is actually a time conuming tasks or a big ask, I tell them they would have to submit a seperate ticket so we can assign someone to look into that.

That's like standard procedure. rolling your eyes and huffing your breath because a user asked an unrelated question that's eating into your off the books coffee break is fucking asinine.

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I_T_Gamer@reddit

When I was younger I would get frustrated by folks doing the "while you're here". Now that I'm not frontline support, as long as time actually permits I'm happy to help. They pay to help, so I like to help. I also get a little dopamine now and again when I save their asses.

From my experience, if I'm willing to help and do whatever I can to assist. Users recognize this then if I have to put on my "Dad" voice, and talk to them about processes. Or some thing I can't assist with, or they shouldn't be doing, they seem more receptive.

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Breezel123@reddit

Absolutely the same. Life can be miserable enough, why not make people a little happy around you by being helpful and approachable. It makes me happy too.

It's not the same as letting other people run all over you. I put my boundaries where they belong, not so I can go and grab a coffee before the next meeting.

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BrainWaveCC@reddit

If it takes 3 weeks just schedule a 30 minte timeslot with you. I'm going to use all 30 minutes to ask every question I think might be mildly important.

Or you could open more than one ticket in advance...

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Madera7@reddit

It’s so simple right, but if not communicating well admin or user can get upset!

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ArtisticConundrum@reddit

I've had this happen in places where I never joined in on any office activities. If you actively hang out or conversate with people you're no longer that guy who knows all the techs tuff. Try it, it's great

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persiusone@reddit

You are a support role. You produce literally nothing aside from helping the people who depend on you to do your job, so they can do theirs. This is part of the process when interacting with other humans, who also have stuff going on in their jobs and lives. If you hinge too close to this annoyance, you'll just end up quitting from the exhaustion and be another burnt-out employee.

I truly hope you adjust your perspective and expectations. Not everyone tries to solve problems the same way you do, which is why you're important. The other side of that blade is that you need to recognize others also don't either.

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GhostNode@reddit (OP)

lol I’m in an executive management and senior engineering, with a significant ownership stake in the company, roll, my friend.

I produce lots, including funding and founding the company that’s doing a good few million in ARR in our fourth year.

We built this entire company on a core deliverable of customer service, and building quality relationships with our entire customer base. Clearly, I don’t show my irritation when interacting with the user, do appreciate their business and their individual needs, and take all the time needed to ensure all of their needs are met and questions answered. But, that doesn’t stop me from posting the scenario in an online community of like minded folks with whom we can rant and chuckle and commiserate and bond.

I do appreciate your positive outlook and attempt at a constructive response, but let’s not assume we’re all first year fledglings ;-).

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persiusone@reddit

let’s not assume we’re all first year fledglings

And

a core deliverable of customer service

...you are literally contradictory and you seem to miss the "customer service" part here. Remind me not to do business with you, because you clearly miss the mark of expectations when it comes to what you do.

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BleedingTeal@reddit

No. I anticipate that happening and prepare accordingly.

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Sneak_Stealth@reddit

Am MSP. Every time i go to leave a site i hit them with an anything else before i skidaddle?

Theyll bemoan to accout rep if i leave and they come up with something new.

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DegaussedMixtape@reddit

You mean this morning when I dressed up to go onsite to a client for to advocate for their IT department in a board meeting and then they asked me to setup an MFP device on the way out the door? Yea, mildly annoying.

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Ron-Swanson-Mustache@reddit

As a department, we schedule field trips to all sites at least once a year just to handle "while you're here" stuff. It's best if you put it on the schedule.

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CowardyLurker@reddit

TL;DR: in some situations the whole ticketing thing is a mistake. YMMV

I once worked at a place where the ticketing system was only there for support staff to use as a tool to help keep track of things. I absolutely hated having to spend time sorting through each request, then try to interpret the vague "help, it no worky" requests. Correctly prioritizing mystery problems is a tricky thing.

Then I found out that nobody else in the entire organization ever looks at the number of tickets or how long this or that takes.. none of it was used to gauge performance or competence. As I was a lone wolf support, I had no need for coordination, I had my buildings, the other techs had theirs. I decided to abondon the ticketing junk entirely. That one single decision made everything so much better for me and everyone I was there to support.

I would visit each site and walk around visibly, stop and ask questions, check for signs of trouble, inspect problematic devices (printers, wifi, etc). At the end of the day I would leave and move on to start the next day somewhere else.

Eventually the normal routine of seeing my presence was reassuring to the staff. They knew what days to look for me, and they could trust that when they saw me they could just ask me then and there, or wait their turn if I was already engaged. Everyone started thinking in advance as to what they might need and sometimes even gave me a heads up if they knew it would be convenient for me to know I need to bring some special thing that day.

I loved that I never had to waste a single minute of my day entering any of that nonsense. I could just focus on where I was and what I was doing. I had every second to search and destroy every little problem until I went home for the day. That was a very fulfilling work experience, and my productivity was legendary.

All thanks to my manager not trying to micromanage every little thing. He put trust in me to do my job however I saw fit. The feedback he got from the management from every location was enough to know he had nothing to worry about. Things got done, and I was finally on top of it all.

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M-Valdemar@reddit

Grow up the lot of you...

If you're on a user call you're functionaries, you are there to provide a service, you are janitorial staff for digital services, do your fucking job.. fix shit..

You ever wonder why every round of redundancies, technology is first on the list, unless you're one of those novel or unique environments, where technology actually attempts to be a profit centre and not simply a bunch of boomer energy..

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JoeVanWeedler@reddit

theres a nursing home i do IT for and basically everyone is like that. if i have to go there for something that will take 20 minutes, i allot at least 2 hours because people will stop me in the hallway and ask about their printer or something. i don't mind, they are all nice and it's a really good account. i can also sneak in the side door to the server room if i really need and there's almost 0 chance i'll see anyone.

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roboto404@reddit

Got a guy about 10ft from my office, who just slides his chair out of his cubicle and goes, “Can I borrow you for 30 sec?” It irks the hell out of me lol

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GhostNode@reddit (OP)

Yah. I’ll have people CONSTANTLY just walk into my office, stand on my door way, and stare, until I inevitably disrupt what I was concentrating on, look up, and say “…yes?”

“Ahh hey. Yeah. I wasn’t sure if I should put a ticket in or not, but…”

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Deathdar1577@reddit

Print a sign.

“Ticket number please.”

Pop ot on your door 😀

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WantDebianThanks@reddit

Tbh, I usually say "is there anything else while I'm here?" when I finish.

They're gonna ask anyways, and I ask first, it seems to get users to he more cooperative on things they don't want to do.

Incidentally, users love me.

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sybrwookie@reddit

Incidentally, users love me

That's how I got everyone and their grandma trying to call me directly. That's how I showed up to a branch one time and found my name and phone number on a sticky note on someone's desk I've never talked to before.

I'm much happier with users liking me but not loving me

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GNUr000t@reddit

Yeah, if they wanna save me another trip and help amortize the assache of this one over multiple problems, I'm a happy guy.

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Bad_Idea_Hat@reddit

That probably explains why a lot of people seem to like me too. Granted, I avoid that line if I'm swamped, or if there's something else that just popped up that has "EMERGENCY" written all over it.

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Breezel123@reddit

If I have a bit of time I try to make a little chitchat and ask about their vacation or whatever. We get to know each other better and they know they can approach me when they're having issues.

When I took over the department, hundreds of tickets were rotting in the ticket queue and eventually no one opened tickets anymore because it was so hard to get support, especially for minor issues that are still annoying but not blockers. And with those I mean stuff like OneDrive not syncing (or never set up at all). That just causes bigger issues down the line and I can learn a lot about issues users are having by chatting with them and letting them know I'm there to help.

If the barrier is too high people are not going to seek help. Having to open separate tickets for each minor issue can be a barrier for a lot of people.

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ATek_@reddit

I think we’d all rather be practicing customer service with our coworkers/clients than with random customers 😄

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Thrawn200@reddit

I get more upset at the "This is impacting my ability to work/teach." guy.

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GhostNode@reddit (OP)

Oh god yeah. I have an entire client full of those people. Best part is, most of the time it’s a result of something they did. “I replaced this printer and need the new one set up. We’re unable to print and it’s holding up production!”

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meesersloth@reddit

I get more outraged by the "Ever Since".

"Ever since you updated my outlook/anti-virus/henti game, my car wont start/marriage failed/toilet clogged, and its your fault."

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sybrwookie@reddit

It's amazing how bad people are at communicating.

If someone comes up and says, "this is going wrong. I have no idea if it's connected, but the only thing I know that changed around this time is XYZ," no one gets mad at that person. They're offering info they know, but they're not being accusatory.

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willwork4pii@reddit

ever since we had the wifi outage where a garbage truck took out 12 telephone poles and lit the forest on fire 4 years ago our microwave hasn't worked

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palebleudot@reddit

And because it plugs into the wall, it must be IT’s responsibility.

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NightMgr@reddit

You're correct.

Don't make me shut down your liver.

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MeatPiston@reddit

Sure got a ticket number? No? Sorry We’ll both get in trouble if I work an issue without documentation. Submit a ticket through the portal and we’ll get that fixed asap.

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Recalcitrant-wino@reddit

We know this is absolute bullshit, and so do our users. If it needs a ticket, ask them to submit one. If you can sit at their desk and drive for 5 minutes and solve their issue, just do it. If the solution isn't immediately achievable, get them to submit a ticket. But the "You're not worth my time" attitude is why users hate us. You're doing a disservice to our entire community.

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MeatPiston@reddit

This depends heavily on the infrastructure and culture of your work environment but imo you really should not be working any issue that is not tracked and documented if you have a ticket system.

You’re doing your customers and organization a disservice by bypassing that regime. Incidents that can be indicative of a larger issue don’t get recorded. Metrics become skewed if problems are not recorded (Why do we keep this guy there’s nothing for him to fix!)

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Practical-Alarm1763@reddit

I generally answer most questions with "I don't know, I'd have to look at it"

The whole helpdesk motto where the user is your "Customer" is complete bullshit.

The "Customer" is the organization and it's stakeholders as a whole. Don't eat shit from users.

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Recalcitrant-wino@reddit

WRONG.

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Practical-Alarm1763@reddit

gif

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thedrizztman@reddit

"Sorry gotta go, but send me the ticket number and I'll take a look"

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redrick_schuhart@reddit

You know the procedure. File a support ticket and the team will get to it.

End of conversation.

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willwork4pii@reddit

There's always "Oh, by the ways..."

Something I've always been plagued with as a field guy.

But nothing like I've experienced at my current job. Some of these places have NEVER had an I.T. guy visit and they don't do anything about it. Printers with a disconnected ethernet cable FOR YEARS and they've never made a call. Shattered screens. Broken keys. And 0 history of calls and they'll even straight-up admit they've never called.

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sryan2k1@reddit

"Sorry you'll need to open a ticket, I don't normally deal with desktop support"

"Sorry I've got a meeting, please open a ticket"

"Why are you in my office, open a ticket"

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MBILC@reddit

Seems to be a trend in "I.T" You have people doing support at various levels who think their job is to sit in a back room, not interact with anyone outside of emails and teams chats.

This is why so many people not in I.T, do not like I.T, or do not know they exist....I.T needs to make themselves known, build those relationships with people, you do not have to be people's best friends, but in all my 25 years in I.T at various levels, being friendly with people made life so much easier...

I am an introvert, but I still manage to be social enough to make my job easier. When people in the company understand I.T, and what it is we do all day, it is amazing the stress that is lifted. You now have people asking for help, but also not acting like everything is an emergency, because they are aware you are a busy person.

Building those relationships ends with people coming to you for everything, big or small, which is good, because when you tie that in with security and other area's, things just flow.

I.T starts to get asked their opinion more about things they may of otherwise not been consulted on, until the last minute, example "Hey we are implementing this new software, we need it done tomorrow, it requires XYZ and 123 and we already paid for it" And now you are raging about why I.T didnt know about this, or ask you about requirements...

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Jaereth@reddit

I.T needs to make themselves known, build those relationships with people, you do not have to be people's best friends, but in all my 25 years in I.T at various levels, being friendly with people made life so much easier...

Yup i'm "work level" Friends with almost everyone here except the dickheads.

Also - the server room goblins probably don't realize this but - if you can get to that level with anyone - your day is actually fun then when you go out to do deskside support because you're talking and bullshitting with everyone the entire day. Makes 9 hours feel like 4 then off to home.

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narddawgggg@reddit

this is so truthful. despite how flustered or frustrated I’ve gotten in my current role as a sr. system admin, or previous roles as I’ve climbed the ladder, I always try to stop & remember: 1) I’m literally getting paid to be here 2) The end user(s) I’m most likely frustrated with are coming to me bc it’s my job to help them. Not to bother me. & more importantly I can’t do their job just like they can’t do mine

Now the level of respect we’re given is a different story & depends on the company culture tbh

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MBILC@reddit

Exactly....I mean we know it doesn't always go this way in all companies, but we can only do the best we can with what we have and the more understanding we are of users and their roles and what I.T's role is, it can only make life easier for all.

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Affectionate_Row609@reddit

OP needs to realize that he's not that important. A little flexibility also goes a long way.

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Existential_Racoon@reddit

Lotta tech guys forget this.

My boss is ops. If she asked me to do something that would take 5 minutes, or her 3 days of annoyance until she spent an hour trying to figure it out to only ask someone else?

The fuck am I there for? My job is to make tech flow smoothly for users. No, I don't know how to make a function in excel do that for you boss, do you need it? Oh it'd save you an hour a day? Lemme look into it for you.

Users, obviously not as in depth, and obviously if you have a meeting it's understandable to let them know you gotta go and to submit a new ticket.

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Recalcitrant-wino@reddit

I tell people it's my job to make sure technology doesn't get in the way of them doing their jobs.

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Few-Season4218@reddit

Exactly. That is the job. We use technology to provide solutions for business problems.

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Jfish4391@reddit

It's more nuanced than this. OP didn't give us any info on how his company operates or the size of their IT team. In larger teams where there are dedicated help desk techs it makes perfect sense to direct users to put in a ticket in this scenario.

Getting upset over it just because the user "isn't respecting your time" is crazy though. Directing users to HD because that is the formal process is fine. Directing users to HD because you feel slighted is weird.

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Recalcitrant-wino@reddit

We (collectively) tend to lose patience with people who don't grok technology the same way we do. We need to remember that everyone's skill set is different. That user might be the payroll accountant who makes sure you get your check and is an Excel wizard but doesn't really understand client/server architecture, why they need to use their VM, and WTF is TCPwhatever, anyway? We work for our users. My job may keep the company running, but I'm not actually generating a ton of revenue. I work for a law firm, and I sure as hell couldn't make legal arguments in a courtroom. It's unreasonable to expect users to know all the stuff you know. Take the time to help them when they ask. They didn't pester you, they asked you something that needed attention while you were already assisting them. Get over yourself.

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Bad_Idea_Hat@reddit

On the other hand, while I couldn't give a care about my time when I'm at work, it does irk me that a lot of the people I've encountered who do this don't understand that my time also belongs to a few dozen other people as well. If I have the time, it's not too big of a problem. If I don't have the time, I'll just have to come back.

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Kryptiqgamer@reddit

Completely agree. This is the way.

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BeagleBackRibs@reddit

It's our policy that any work has to be approved by a manager. That shuts this down very quickly

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Recalcitrant-wino@reddit

I couldn't work in a fascist environment like that. Micromanaging every little thing is not only stupid, it drives up support costs.

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_northernlights_@reddit

There was one who massively pissed me off. Literally "while you're here please change the light bulbs in the ceiling". WTF. Good thing I had a good manager who I asked to confirm they wanted me to use my time to do that and he tore the guy a new one.

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Dizzy_Bridge_794@reddit

I always ask if there is anything else. If I can fix it quickly I do. If I can’t I simply state that there isn’t time, let’s upon up a new help desk ticket and we will address the problem as soon as possible.

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Flam5@reddit

"guy"?

Like there's only one of them? I want your userbase.

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Ill3galAlien@reddit

that is the result of being 'white glove' the expect you to just bendover and do whatever they ask for.. because they pay you x amount of thousands of dollars monthly

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Mystre316@reddit

I'll take the 'Oh while you're here' person over the person that sends a message 'Hey can you help me?' then doesn't respond for 2 hours. But I'm slowly (after 10 years) adjusting my attitude to 'If you don't raise me a support ticket, I'm not going to do anything'.

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cbelt3@reddit

Eh, it’s okay. I have a job because we have users.

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BurntToastMan24@reddit

I always told those people to submit another ticket. I didnt care, and I was sometimes rude about it. But like you said, you are budgeting time and effort to working on a specific problem for that ticket only, and thats exactly what I did. If they have another issue, they can submit a new request and I'll get to it when I get to it. Meanwhile I have 5 more tickets to knock out while I'm around this area of the building with people who also have issues that need to be addressed. Learn how to wait your turn in line folks, because I'm not going to let you waste my time.

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evantom34@reddit

This is natural and happens to everyone. Mechanic - Car; Contractor - Home.

I think you can communicate with your users to let them know that you're booked up and need to reschedule a meeting at a different time to get to it.

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greenmyrtle@reddit

Getting “massively outraged” at users? Woah man! Your in the wrong line of work!! This is a customer service job. If your upset cos you don’t have enough time to do a bunch of stuff then learn to say that clearly. They don’t know your schedule “wish i could, but i don’t have time right now. Tell me the full list and I’ll start a ticket for you.” Or “can you get a ticket open now? let’s just get them all documented and we’ll get back to it”

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deritchie@reddit

“sorry, need a ticket for labor tracking per my supervisor and to document effort to justify manpower. Doing more with less these days…”

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drnick5@reddit

User: "Oh, While I"ve got you, Why does ____ Happen all the time?"
Me: "I dunno, thats a good question! Have you opened a ticket about it?"
User: "No...."
Me: "Well, I have another appointment to get to, but open a ticket and I'll set up a time to take a look"

9 times out of 10, I never get that ticket....

If you just say "Sure let me look at that right now!" the users will never, ever learn.

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nehnehhaidou@reddit

The root cause of 'while you're here' may be something you want to investigate further. Maybe it's a perception that IT are hard to reach, or don't respond to level 3 or below issues in a timely fashion. Are your self service tools doing what you need them to do?

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Jarlic_Perimeter@reddit

Yeah, in my experience a lot of time it's nice users that don't think some issue is worth a ticket and will just deal with it for months, or a niche use case for some specialized app that needs to get escalated to a 3rd party.

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nehnehhaidou@reddit

Yeah it does depend on context and culture

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Physical_Aside_3991@reddit

Absolutely not, but helping users is my jam.

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FletchGordon@reddit

Sounds like you are awful at customer service and I'm sooooo glad I'm not a grouch like you.

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Indrigis@reddit

It's worth taking a proactive approach.

People in IT are not busy 100% of the time. When you're walking around, come into a random office, say hi to people, ask if stuff is working and if there's anything they would like to discuss or have fixed. If you can't fix it right there, make a note, come later or send someone. Ask for tickets if it's something worth ticketing.

This creates a better image for you. When you're always pleasant, polite, sociable and helpful, people will have a much harder time believing you actually ~~did kill all those children and bury the bodies~~ did make a major mistake and if they do, they will be more willing to forgive.

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Ssakaa@reddit

did

He was always so quiet...

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BryceKatz@reddit

If you budgeted 30 minutes, give them 30 minutes. At worst you'll have to say, "This is going to take more time than I have to resolve. Here, let's get a ticket in so we don't lose track."

Once your 30 minutes is up, absolutely hit them with, "Unfortunately I need to get to my next appointment. Please submit a ticket for any additional problems you may have & we'll get to them as soon as possible." You are responsible for managing your time effectively & setting appropriate boundaries.

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Affectionate_Row609@reddit

Respect my time and either submit a comprehensive list of tasks or issues initially, or follow up and reschedule with additional items

I'd actually take the exact opposite approach. Fix their issue and then ask "While I'm here is there anything else I can help you with". If its something you can fix then and there do it. If not ask them to open a ticket. This isn't an enduser problem this is a you problem. Work on your soft skills dude.

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JohnBeamon@reddit

That presumes OP has free time and nobody else's tickets to deal with. If User has an issue that requires more work and resources and has not been diagnosed or recorded at all yet, then you would have OP start an undocumented, open-ended use of their day. If I disappeared for three hours, my boss would ask where I've been. I'd have to answer "I took an open-ended request with no paper trail, and now I have to go document all the resources it consumed". That's not in everybody's leeway to accommodate.

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Breezel123@reddit

You can also just, you know, tell them nicely that it looks a little more complex and could they perhaps open a ticket so I can have a look at this more closely at a later time.

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MBILC@reddit

This, would you rather go back to your desk and now have that same person asking you something new and then getting upset "I was just over there, why didn't they tell me! Now I have to walk back over...ugh"

I know we all get super busy in I.T and have a million fires to be putting out, but just taking those extra 10-20mins can go a long way in building those inter-company relationships. I can not count how many times I have had praising feedback come from the most unexpected places because of just the little things..

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BoltActionRifleman@reddit

If there’s a policy in place for submitting tickets, this is 100% an end user problem. If they can’t be bothered to submit a ticket and just wait to catch someone when they show up for another issue, that is not an IT dept. soft skills problem.

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ddmf@reddit

Ah I'm logged into the bank now so I didn't have time to send a ticket as it's urgent...

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LForbesIam@reddit

It doesn’t bother me. I intentionally used to do rounds and fix issues like this. Helped me understand my environment and the biggest call drivers and fix at global level.

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agoia@reddit

Also, it puts a friendly human face on the department that can change perceptions of IT drastically from "the nerds who hang out in the dark room and are grumpy all of the time" into something much more positive. And you get to know stakeholders and judge who is going to be an asset if something goes down in that area/group.

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Alpha_Majoris@reddit

You need to switch to meta-mode. You don't answer the question, you discuss the situation...

I don't have time now. You can file a ticket.
That is not my responsiblity. Ask your manager.

That is no verbal jujitsu. It is how you communicate professionally. You can use this any time, like with family who wants you to change the font in their word document.

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Stryker1-1@reddit

This used to bother me and I used to feel obligated to answer all their questions now I simply tell them I'm sorry I have a hard stop as I have other engagements I need to tend to.

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DixOut-4-Harambe@reddit

I'm t he opposite. I don't care if they have a long list. I'll sort it all out while I'm here and have their attention.

I'm happy to not get 30 calls from someone, and they're happy that all their shit is sorted at one time.

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fourpuns@reddit

I’d get mad except I do the same to others

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Sultans-Of-IT@reddit

I was asked to come over and "move the cords on my desk to the ground". I said i'd be right there and never fucking came over. Lady I'm here to do something else not fucking move your cords. Fuck off with that shit.

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TEverettReynolds@reddit

Respect my time and either submit a comprehensive list of tasks or issues initially, or follow up and reschedule with additional items.

You need to be able to say no, sorry, I don't have time for that, please open a different ticket and someone will help you shortly.

Seriously, this is a YOU problem. Do you think their BS works anywhere else?

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sdrawkcabineter@reddit

That's your cue to leave.

"While you're here..."

That's the amount of time you have.

I dose them with Thorazine so I don't strain myself.

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ThatWylieC0y0te@reddit

I’ll be honest it doesn’t bother me, I would much rather just deal with it now instead of having to set something else up

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

I don't get outraged, but I do sometimes get overwhelmed by it, then not so happy... usually the drive back to the office would be enough time to return to some kind of equilibrium.

I don't mind it so much because it's testimony that I'm doing something right... what gets me is that the others don't get that... so a lot of the time I hear users don't want so and so working on their machines because of this that or the other

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cfrshaggy@reddit

We call those Christmas list users. I need this, and this, and this, and this… ad nauseam.

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No_Strawberry_5685@reddit

No , haha once they tried that and I said “No I don’t have time”

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Old_Acanthaceae5198@reddit

Nah, you need to relax.

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Sh1rvallah@reddit

Gotta learn to be ok with being perceived as being rude.

Please submit a ticket for this issue and someone will be in touch.

Walk away.

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datagutten@reddit

I am very specialized in networking, so I am not up to date with all end user stuff. I try to help if I can, but often I have to tell them to register a ticket or call Helpdesk as I don’t know how to help them.

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ugonlearn@reddit

This could be easily corrected by the use of soft skills.

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Voy74656@reddit

Being this rigid isn't good for mental or emotional health. Feeling slighted or disrespected for being asked to do your job is weird too.

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thegeekgolfer@reddit

This is the problem... no one respects the IT person's time or schedule. They think you are just there to do whatever they need, right at that time. And you can be super nice and tell them you can check the other thing later. But, if you say that, they will just ask again and again. And they tell you the "real" problem later in the session. Like, "oh.. and I get this message about my hard drive failing and these blue screen errors 5 times a day, is that ok?".

Then they report you when you've said you have to go and for them to put in a ticket like 5 times nicely, but are blunt the last time and "you are the problem".

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RangerNS@reddit

You can be a little flexible. Chit chat doesn't take time.

Also, you can make them file a ticket and excuse yourself for a meeting or another appointment.

And if this is a chronic problem in some office, then its a business problem. Something like office hours, or IT lunch day, or a drop-in helpdesk would go a long way to making users happy. These only are options if you've got enough bodies and management buy-in, though.

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fdeyso@reddit

For remote offices we do yearly visits to accomodate for thes Culombo type jobs, they’d never report it but while you’re there they’ll ask.

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ultradip@reddit

OP, if you allocated 30 minutes, why do you get upset about using the 30 minutes?

IT's job is to support the business, including those darn pesky users.

I get that a lot of people who go into IT aren't exactly "people persons", but at the end of the day that's the mission.

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i_accidentally_the_x@reddit

«Smile and wave, boys»

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Doublestack00@reddit

I am on the other side of the fence on this, but our situation is probably different.

If I am on site I ask if they need anything else while I am there. Especially if someone from IT hasn't be onsite for a long period of time. I was recently at a location that no one from IT had visited in 5 years.

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niallb_ie@reddit

That's when you find all the workarounds that have been in place for the last 4 years...

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

We have office in da "deep south" I was there with my boss and someone said "now that you are here can you fix this (broken thing)" Was broke for six month and they said "sweetie you knew some point you'd be down here to fix us"

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Doublestack00@reddit

Bingo.

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yrogerg123@reddit

I do that all the time to my other senior engineers and I hate that about myself.

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jacobpederson@reddit

Back in 2006 when I started this gig we used to have a OBT code (Oh by the way). We don't have one anymore :*(

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dlongwing@reddit

Absolutely infuriating, but I have a reliable way of shutting them down.

"We can take a look at that issue, but I need you to put in a ticket for it. My department uses tickets as part of our performance reviews, so I really can't work on issues that don't have tickets attached."

Now if they press the issue they're being a jerk to you personally. We don't actually use them as part of our performance reviews, but they don't know that.

What drives me up the wall is other staff in my own department who enable this behavior. It'd stop completely if we presented a unified front. Instead staff are terrified of coming to me because I'm the evil hardass who insists they write an email describing their problem.

It seriously amazes me how much work people will do just to avoid typing anything. This is a white collar job, if emails are scary, go work at Applebee's.

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FrankensteinRomeo@reddit

I do whatever they need, write down everything I did, then when I get back to my desk I open and close a ticket for every additional task. They get a bunch of emails saying the task was closed, and mgmt sees how needy they were and how much work I actually do.

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jbourne71@reddit

If your help desk had better phone support, we would t have this problem!

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stonecoldcoldstone@reddit

"sorry I'm doing something else" send over an email or I guarantee I'll forget

if they are insistent "mate I'm looking into something that might end someone's career leave it be"

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KrakusKrak@reddit

Depends on the context Is it a quick thing that may take a few seconds? Sure

Is it something that requires actual research and not my field of actual expertise? Ticket and explain that I actually don’t know how to solve this quickly.

If I’m on a time crunch, I do make that clear when I get there that I have xyz to do at such and such a time. Like others said, part of our job is customer service skills but we also need to establish boundaries.

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Helpjuice@reddit

Just respond with put in a ticket and we will get back to you and walk away. If they continue mention that all requests must be requested through the ticket system and you are done. If they need a consultation with various issues that is fine, but you will be able to budget for what was asked for and then move on to other priorities. If they need help with non-related things that should be captured in the ticket and transfered to the right department.

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Creative_Onion_1440@reddit

I used to be annoyed by "Oh, while you're here" requests when I worked in a shop that loosely allocated about 30 minutes per customer interaction.

Current job has no official guidelines on time per interaction so I find I don't mind it as much.

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HerculesMKIII@reddit

gif

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Upbeat-Carrot455@reddit

I always fix it but ask the user to submit a ticket so I can get credit. Happens all the time. I only get frustrated when they fight me on the ticket for the second, unrelated issue.

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iliekplastic@reddit

"That is interesting, I'll have to think on that. Shoot a ticket so I can take a look when I get time."

You should not be getting this upset over having to do this kind of reply.

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Loud-Sherbert890@reddit

No, it’s just another way to report an issue. If I didn’t have time at that moment for them I’d create a ticket right in the face so the issue is documented properly and just tell em we need to reschedule.

It’s a bit annoying at first but just the nature of what we do. The inverse is that we get a bad reputation as never being available or seen as unhelpful which is just as bad as actually being unhelpful.

Sometimes it’s so hard to get ahold of end users to actually resolve an issue so it can be nice to knock it out while you are there. IT is ultimately there to support the business—it’s really not about us. I like to say that IT support is like a white collar custodian. Just like janitors keep the bathrooms clean and stocked. We keep computer systems running and functional. We are the help essentially no matter how highly we think of ourselves.

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Taikunman@reddit

It's situational. If the 'one more thing' is just a simple question or easy request, it's probably easier to just deal with it now.

If I'm genuinely in the middle of something else I'll usually still entertain the question then direct them to create a ticket if it's not something simple.

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SkyrakerBeyond@reddit

Not as much, because we bill extra for that.

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Rockyson99@reddit

I work in legal IT at a smaller firm (around 35 employees). I'm the only IT at the office and they have on prem everything besides primary backups. What you describe is literally my job. I don't even have a formal ticketing system because all these old-heads I work with would never be down with all that.

They send me emails, or call my desk phone when they need something. I get up, walk over, sometimes grab a cup on the way if its convenient, and usually deal with some either printer, email, or extremely excessive overuse of computer resource issue (having 45 PDF's open dating back 3 months, 4 chome windows with 26 tabs each etc..)

Sometimes my job is more interesting than that if the server starts acting up or we have a lot of employees starting all around the same time, but I like the spontaneity of my job ... but if I was working in a more difficult or technical IT roll I'd probably not. I was a dev before I HATED getting bricks dropped on my head at 3pm.

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boyinawell@reddit

I actively tell my team to push back on this. Even when someone submits a ticket with subject A, which may be simple, but the body includes a subject B, I get them to create a ticket on the users behalf for the other issue and let the user know it may be dealt with by a different agent.

I have the backing of upper management to do this, thankfully.

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ZAFJB@reddit

No, because all I say is 'please raise a helpdesk ticket' and walk away.

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chum-guzzling-shark@reddit

while you're here I have this problem that requires a tool from your office. I could have called or submitted a ticket so you could have brought said tool onsite but instead I'll stop you while you look busy doing other stuff

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Vynlovanth@reddit

Just have to communicate honestly. Tell them you have a meeting to get ready for and put in a ticket and you’ll make time.

The people that drop by my desk unannounced while I’m in a meeting or on a call, expecting help while I’m still in that meeting or call, make me more annoyed.

I sometimes don’t mind if I’m out at another site or another part of a building and people grab me to look at an issue, I’ll help if I have time. This depends on the environment but usually they’ll remember the IT guy who went out of their way to make time, listen, and help. Good customer service makes allies and that can be more important than ticket metrics, but that’s why I said depends on the environment.

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GeeWizard666@reddit

Me yesterday! Drives me crazy as I was on schedule yesterday since I had to leave at a certain time for personal reasons. As soon as I walked in the Owner was laughing saying things like “Haha glad you’re here, and I will say you’re not going to like it. I need you to do X and Y, oh also Z as well.” None of it was what I was there to do.

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Man-e-questions@reddit

The cool thing about these guys is everyone in IT knows. So if you are late to your standup etc then you say sorry, i was helping so and so, and everyone on your meeting says oh glad it wasn’t me.

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Bad_Idea_Hat@reddit

Oh yeah, all of my "one last question" users are very well known as such, so it's definitely a valid excuse if I'm meeting other IT department members.

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concentus@reddit

The one who does it occasionally? No.

The one who does it repeatedly and goes so far as to block my car in its parking space with a truck, and then barricades me in the room with the PC they want me to work on while cleaning a rifle? Yeah that one annoys me.

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Bob_12_Pack@reddit

Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and remember we are all humans. There's probably someone that thinks you are a pain in their ass too.

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Cell1pad@reddit

We call those things Columbos

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JazzlikeSurround6612@reddit

Yeah I hate that even worst is the ones that will see you rushing somewhere and be like OH yeah I just remembered X dumb shit I need help with.

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snugy_wumpkins@reddit

I used to be, but I leaned into it, because by not accepting it and working with it gets some really dumb shadow IT things going on, misinformation and distrust happens. If I’m already there, I’m going to help, and at the end I’m going to ask if there’s anything else I can help them with, and I’ll make the tickets for them. Those conversations often tell me what’s really happening, and that there’s often faulty equipment happening that they haven’t told anyone about and are struggling with. If I can help make IT more approachable, I will, and I see these conversations as a part of that approach.

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gatogordo86@reddit

Pretty much everybody has a calendar they adhere to now. You have to make it clear that your calendar is just as important as theirs.

I am in sales and am usually either in meetings with potential clients or driving to the next place. I get calls from clients all the time wanting an immediate solution to a non pressing issue. Most of them could have been solved by calling our Customer Support and I never needed to know about it. Obviously, there are exceptions where I have to drop what I am doing to get someone taken care of. My usual line is "I am not in the office right now but will be on X day at X time. Can I get back to you then?" Very rarely do I get pushback as most people respect you are busy too.

I truly understand always wanting to be helpful to people but it can get extremely grating and you can run yourself ragged. Owning/sticking to my calendar has probably been one of the greatest things I have ever done for my mental health.

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Specialist_Ad_712@reddit

Yep, get it ALL the time. My favorite is when you're on a call and some deicides to go off agenda with the precursory "so since you're on the call, request. My favorite reply lately if it has nothing to do with my area. "So anyway, here's Wonderwall" and click the Leave button.

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Not_Rick127@reddit

F that guy

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FriendlyITGuy@reddit

No. At my last MSP gig if we went on-site we would swing by all the C-level offices to see if anyone needed anything while we were there, as any other time they may be too busy to put in a ticket.

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cowfish007@reddit

If I have time I’ll take care of it then and there. If I don’t have time I tell them I currently have other tasks to attend to and ask them to please put in a ticket so I don’t forget. If it’s really an issue, they’ll put in a ticket.

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D3moknight@reddit

You just say, "Sorry, I have a meeting to prepare for. Shoot me an email and I will get back to you when I can."

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rrmcco04@reddit

Tacking on with all of the other statements. Come up with your standard response for the ask for a ticket that you employ consistently. As you did, budget extra time for a desk visit as you will get the whole you are here.

The job of someone doing support is 75% customer service and 25% technical knowledge. I would always rather have someone with the soft skills come by my desk then someone who is more competent.

As long as the person is respectful of the "sorry, I have another client/meeting/ticket" statement, generally you are covered.

Also, carry a clipboard. I found that when I walk through somewhere with a clipboard and a printout of a ticket, people generally assume I'm busy!

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jazzdrums1979@reddit

I don’t. My response is always let’s see how much I can get done in 30 minutes. If we have to come back to some things, we have to come back to some things.

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Kogyochi@reddit

Use your words or find a different job. Whenever I get asked stupid questions, my #1 thought is "I'm compensated well to tell someone how to turn on their monitor"

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PenguinsTemplar@reddit

Eh, case by case. If I got time the PR helps. But don't actually delay another person unreasonably.

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spidernik84@reddit

"quick question..."

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dirthurts@reddit

I personally don't mind. If I have an opportunity to help someone and buff my ticket count, I'll take it.

Yall salty. :p

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FSK405N@reddit

Agreed. After I solve an issue, I'll ask, "While I'm here is there anything else I can help with?". That one simple thing goes a long way to keep everyone cool and calm, including me. No second trips.

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skeetgw2@reddit

I work with attorneys. It’s always this scenario. It’s miserable.

My favorite is being talked to for 45 minutes why they don’t have time for the reboot I suggested would fix the issue. Such is life I suppose.

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ronin_cse@reddit

Please enter a ticket and I'll be able to do that

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MN_Myth@reddit

“We base our staffing on ticket metrics. I will help you, but as a courtesy to my team will you please call the help desk and get a ticket logged while I am working on this?”

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djholland7@reddit

LOL no. Why would you get mad at someone genuinely asking for help? Do you need a career change? Just send them in the right direction. If you can knock it out quickly, why not just do it? It improves how they view IT overall. Hell, I close out every call with "Is there anything else I can do for you while we're together?" Its Perfect. I offered to help. 9/10 times they say no. If later on an issue comes up, I can point out that I offered to help. Its more of a CYA thing for me really.

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Maxplode@reddit

I would get this a lot at my last job when I had to visit sites. My workaround was "I can take a look but know that you will be charged for my time" :)

Then it was usually like a "oh well nevermind" then I'd tell them to call the help desk that they were already paying for.

OR if I was certain this person was an ass-hat I would just say yeah and offer to take a look when I'm ready then just fuck off. Just say I forgot to go look and usually they'd never call the office to tell on me.

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Neratyr@reddit

tale as old as time

CONGRATULATIONS! You are human, and have compassion and empathy. This is good!

ALSO CONGRATULATIONS! You are not an asshole for stating you can't do it. Deflect, blame process, SOP, IT MGR, whatever it takes. Blame something or someone else. "So sorry we're really emphasizing process and DOCUMENTATION so we can rapidly improve our service for the company. I need you to throw this into a ticket for me because I have to run to my next scheduled ticket appointment urgently" <-- Or somethign to that spirit and effect.

If you have 30-60 seconds, tell them something like what I just said, then state "however I'd love to help you out by VERY QUICKLY hearing your issue and I can tell you a good way to start out describing it in the ticket I need you to open for this?"

The second option is nice because you meet them part way, demonstrating that you care and wanna help. Also it helps train and educate them on what the most pertinent parts are.

Keep in mind its just like when you go to trust and seek service from any other professional - You cant tell what details matter vs what does not, and you can't know the 'industry lingo' that most briefly describes it. Taking a moment to help them mention some highly relevant keywords helps them BOTH feel validated and heard, as well as helping your ticket process by increasing the initial quality of the description your team then relies on.

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Bane8080@reddit

This used to piss me off when I was doing service calls 20 years ago.

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smilaise@reddit

it's just a part of the deal and you have to be clever to work around it. There are many tactful ways to ask people to create a ticket.