So we hired this new intern a couple of weeks ago. Let us call him Kyle. Kyle is a nice guy, super eager to please, and apparently possesses a level of confidence in his cable management skills that is bordering on delusional. Most of the time he just handles basic password resets and "my mouse is double clicking" tickets, which he does fine. But yesterday I made the mistake of leaving him alone near the server room while I went to grab a much needed caffeine fix.

I was gone for maybe ten minutes. I was just walking back to my desk when my phone started blowing up with Slack notifications. Then the shouting started from the sales floor because their CRM went dark. I ran to the server room and found Kyle standing there with a handful of Cat6 cables and a very proud expression on his face. He looked at me and said hey man I noticed these wires were looking a bit cluttered so I decided to unplug them and reroute them through the side panels so it looks more professional for when the CTO visits next week.

I literally felt my soul leave my body for a second. He had unplugged the main switch that handles the entire east wing of the office without labeling a single thing or checking if there was active traffic. He just saw "messy wires" and decided to fix the aesthetic. It took me and the senior admin two hours to get everything back to normal and verify that we had not fried anything or caused a massive data loop. Kyle spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at his desk looking like a kicked puppy while I explained the concept of "if it is plugged in and working do not touch it".

The best part was when he asked if I still wanted him to finish the cable ties. I told him he is banned from entering any room that contains a blinking light for the next month. I swear some people think IT is just about making things look pretty like a pinterest board instead of actually keeping the business running. At least the CTO did not walk in while Kyle was standing there holding the lifeblood of the company in his sweaty hands.

TL;DR: New intern decided the server room cables looked messy and unplugged the main switch to "reroute" them for better aesthetics. Entire office went down and it took two hours to fix his professional cable management.