The Audi ticket
Posted by dlongwing@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 57 comments
So we've got a Teams chat at work called "Information Tech Chatroom". We didn't set it up. Someone else did, and then invited the whole IT department to it. Every time someone posts to it, I debate deleting it. It's sometimes useful when dealing with a large outage, but 95% of the time, posts in it should be tickets. We have a standing policy to convert posts from the chatroom to tickets and to remind posters to submit tickets.
We got a gem this morning.
Employee - Good morning colleagues, there is a dark gray Audi car which has its headlights on in the HQ parking lot.
Me - Hi EMPLOYEE. This chat is for reporting and discussing IT issues that impact multiple people or entire departments. The right place to post this kind of announcement would either be in the All Staff Team here in teams, or by sending an email to DISTRIBUTIONGROUP.
They sheepishly thumbs up the post and the chatroom falls into irrelevance again.
Except... Well, we have that procedure. Issues reported in that chatroom should be converted into tickets.
So I go to the ticketing system and I create a ticket.
We've received reports of an Audi in the parking lot with it's lights on. HELPDESKSTAFF, please check that it's in Action1 and run a software update against it. There may be a CVE about the lights being an exploit and we don't want it to get ransomware. I can't find it's IP address on the network, so it's likely on VPN. Maybe check whether there's an issue with it's VPN tunnel too.
Happy Monday folks!
HELPDESKSTAFF takes the ticket:
Everyone knows that Audi's are blocked on the Firewall. That's why you aren't seeing an IP for it. If they would like to request access to the network so we can turn their lights off, it will have to go through NETWORKADMIN. Passing to him so he can review.
NETWORKADMIN updates the ticket:
Please put in a Change Request for a VPN Tunnel between Primary Firewall and an Audi. Thanks!
NETWORKADMIN reassigns the ticket to me. So I add the change request template to it and pass it back:
Change Request
Description of change
Please outline the requested change: Configure tunnel between Audi onboard computer and the Primary Firewall.
Risks
Please note any risks or problems the change could cause: Traffic may incorrectly route through the Audi while the Audi is routing through traffic.
Rollback plan
How will the change be reversed if necessary: Send someone out to smash the headlights.
Stay sane out there, and if you can't stay sane, then at least have fun while going mad.
whyevenmakeoc@reddit
Only internal IT has the luxury of wasting this much time on a non ticket, policies are meant to be guides there was clearly no need or requirement to create a ticket for it, sounds like you're having fun on the company dime or whatever but so kudos to you kid.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
You mention "Only internal IT", so I'm betting you work for an MSP. There's two possibilities:
I've been praised for my productivity at every job I've held across nearly two decades in IT, and yeah, that included places with 15 minute first-touch and 24 hour resolution SLAs. Maybe work on your time management a bit if this level of "distraction" worries you.
Or better yet, get a job that respects that you're a human being.
rabidWeevil@reddit
They don't need to get a job that respects that they are a human being, the way they phrased that response, they're either Management or Capital; what THEY need is an understanding that their 'human resources' are human beings and how to respect them.
GeneMoody-Action1@reddit
Other company's IT: "I cannot get my users to put in a damn ticket to save my life!"
This company's IT: "Really? We get tickets even when someone leaves their lights on in the parking lot!"
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Oh no, they didn't submit a ticket. I had to put one in for them because they posted to a Teams chat we didn't even create.
GeneMoody-Action1@reddit
Yes I read that, I was just being silly.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Huge fan of your product by-the-way. We use Action1 for all our endpoints... well except the Audi. Is a compatible agent for car computers on the roadmap?
Dense_Dress_1287@reddit
Tell users if it's not in a ticket, then it doesn't exist and you can't work on the problem.
If they send the problem in an email, simply reply back with a standard message, saying please submit a ticket, emails are ignored
GeneMoody-Action1@reddit
The IT team worse these as a team costume in the company halloween contest, second place. https://www.amazon.com/Funny-Did-you-Ticket-T-Shirt/dp/B0828Z715N
SecretLoathing@reddit
Rollback plan: put it in neutral and push.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Oooh that's good.
Recoveringfrenchman@reddit
Here I am, thinking about just putting it in reverse? But I'm just a Luser.
Stryker_One@reddit
That's great that all the other departments immediately keyed in on what was going on and played along.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
My coworkers are why I'm still at this job.
Stryker_One@reddit
It's amazing the difference it makes when you are working with a great crew.
hey_nonny_mooses@reddit
I suppose that IT channel is less problematic than our IT distribution list which sometimes receives a forwarded phishing email.
ThunderDwn@reddit
That's the best laugh I've had this morning. Thank you. 🤣
didact@reddit
You ever thought about setting up a passive-aggressive power automate thing to open and update tickets from that chat?
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Several times! It's ultimately not worth it. We don't get a ton of traffic on that channel (thank goodness), and when we've got a wider outage it's a useful way to coordinate with front line staff.
avantat74@reddit
That network admin sounds bad ass 😉
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
;-)
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
He's my boss, and he's the main reason I still work there.
theolentangy@reddit
Still sane exile?
prive8@reddit
fuckin kace ammirite?
MoneyTreeFiddy@reddit
Was it electric? Users think everything with a plug is IT's job.
adudeguyman@reddit
Are you saying you don't get tickets because the bathrooms need more toilet paper lol
MoneyTreeFiddy@reddit
Toilets can get "plugged", so ... sometimes!
SysAdmin907@reddit
You got that right! Circuit breaker blows in a warehouse? Better call IT! Light bulb quits working? Better call IT! Power outage for the entire company? Better call IT! Sorry, we're not sparkys (electricians). Though I can do some, I'm not a licensed electrician.
RcNorth@reddit
Maybe it’s time to ask HR if they will cover the costs for you to get your Electrical Ticket.
mafiaknight@reddit
How much is the raise for that?
Nothing?
Oh, well we're terribly busy here. It'll be quite a while before I'll have time for that course...
Starfury_42@reddit
Co-worker got a call at the helpdesk - the garbage can in the office was full. He opens/closes an IT ticket for the call and being nice creates one for facilities to empty the can.
He got a negative review on the IT ticket because they took "too long" to empty the garbage.
Starfury_42@reddit
Co-worker got a call at the helpdesk - the garbage can in the office was full. He opens/closes an IT ticket for the call and being nice creates one for facilities to empty the can.
He got a negative review on the IT ticket because they took "too long" to empty the garbage.
rabidWeevil@reddit
That actually makes sense, our warehouse forklift is electric and 75% of our Networking department is Forklift Certified.
Seriously though? We are and always have been pulling double duty as facilities maintenance here at my company. It's cool though, it makes for a change of pace every now and then.
_mughi_@reddit
speaking of IT and forklifts.. There was recently a major outage at work (packet storm several switches down took out one of the core switches..) thankfully, I'm not in networking and it wasn't my problem to solve or figure out how that could have even been allowed to happen. .. anyhow, while watching the P1 ticket so I could tell my users when things were back up, I saw that one of the affected systems was the forklifts for one of the manufacturing areas. Apparently they are all network linked and tracked, and require a network connection to turn them on normally (there is a manual start process they had to use).
all that to say, I had no idea prior to seeing that ticket that forklifts could require a network connection to function :)
GrumpyOldGeezer_4711@reddit
This whole internet-of-things/connected 24/7 (with or without a 911) is going a bit too far in my opinion. But then again, I’m old and jaded…
Nu-Hir@reddit
Honestly, having the Forklifts with network access is great for incident reports. Trying to track down who was driving a lift using grainy video is never fun.
No-Yak-4360@reddit
The lights where electric and on at the wrong time, surely a buggy light controller.
ChickenNuggetSmth@reddit
I think non-electric lights on cars have been very rare for quite a while
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Good point, I should refer it to building services if it's gas. They handle the generators.
bv915@reddit
Wow, your users understand humor? I'm jealous.
DoubleOwl7777@reddit
HAHAHAHA ok this is legit funny, id find out who created the chatroom in the first place, and if it wasnt the CEO or the CEO's lapdog id just delete it for my own sanity.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Yeah, it's sadly too politically expensive to delete. It's sometimes useful when dealing with outages and quick diagnostics across multiple employees, but the signal-to-noise ratio is _bad_.
If it were up to me, I'd remove it.
DoubleOwl7777@reddit
oof, if it was electrical i could design you a filter, with some coils and capacitors depending on the signal you have, but here i cannot.
GAELICATSOUL@reddit
New person at company: 'So you guys probably aren't the right guys to ask for this, but you seem geat at networking so can you tell me who I do need?'
robsterva@reddit
Shut that shit down before it bites you. Stand up a temporary chat room for outages (and shut it down as soon as you can). This is just asking for trouble.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Eh, it's fine. Doesn't scale obviously, but for our size it's not been a problem. Real issues get converted to tickets anyways.
I'd still love to shut it down, but its not my call.
AngryCod@reddit
Wait, someone else created an IT chatroom and you just sort of adopted it as an out-of-band ticket creation mechanism? And you still have to remind people not to use it to create tickets? Why wouldn't you just close it?
Users will go out of the their way (OUT. OF. THEIR. WAY.) to use anything other than the approved, published ticket creation methods.
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
Because of who made it and who's in it, it'd be politically expensive to remove. Also we've found it to be useful for outages since we can quickly poll stakeholders.
Nonetheless, I agree. If it were up to me I'd shut it down.
HoochieKoochieMan@reddit
Reminds me of the only good line from Avatar 2: "If you can't get out of it, get into it."
HurryAcceptable9242@reddit
Thanks for the laugh this morning!
StuBidasol@reddit
Good job spreading humor to the often maddening IT job.
SysAdmin907@reddit
It warmed my heart this morning of your redirecting this non-issue. Thank you for the read! :)
saisans@reddit
I'm going to hate myself for this, but I do have to ask if anyone tried turning it off and then turning it back on again?
dlongwing@reddit (OP)
HAHA
pagso3000@reddit
this might have made my day. i have something similar from a previous colleague in the sense of making senseless tickets. The department head made a policy that any time we had to leave our IT office we had to make a ticket for it if one was not already made by the user. (Because what other reason would we have for leaving our office than to help a user...) So he got petty and made tickets every time he went to refill his coffee and every time he left needed to use the bathroom. The department head sadly either didnt notice or didnt care because we never heard anything from this, so he decided to stop bothering with it after a few weeks because it was taking up a decent amount of his time.
anubisviech@reddit
What a lovely way to end my monday reading this.
courier31@reddit
Thats great.