So, I've been a lurker for a long moment, but today I am going to share.

I took over my department 10 months ago and have been finding fun little things like this, this story takes place December 14th, 2018. If you guys like it I will post more from the last 10 months. 

Cast (Names changed):

Me = TheStruggleIsALie (TSIAL) - your friendly Neighborhood SysAdmin

EndUser = Larry – The End User

L1Tech = Jason – My newest Level 1 Technician

L2Tech = Matt – My oldest, Level 2 Technician

DirIT = Ryan – Director of IT

DirOps = Greg – Director of Operations

OpsMan = Meg – Operational Manager for Larry’s Team

Morning:Phone Rings

Me: Thank you for contacting IT Support, this is TSIAL, how can I help you today?

EndUser: I put a ticket in, last Tuesday and it hasn’t been resolved. Can I get a status update and an ETA?

Me: Sure, do you know who picked up the ticket and the ticket number?

EndUser: I believe it was Jason (L1 Tech) and the number is 123456.

Me: Ah, that explains why it’s not complete and hasn’t been updated, Jason(L1 Tech) is out of the office on an emergency. But I will be glad to look at it for you. 

EndUser: That would be Great.

#123456
Excel Formula Not Working- Submitted by Larry the End User on 12-04-2018 at 3:14 PM
Attached is an excel spreadsheet, with notes on the formulas that need to be added to it and done. 
\\NetworkPath\To\The\Excel\Sheet

At this moment I arch an eyebrow and go look at the spreadsheet, where I find tons of notes and demands of how he wants this done. Confused, I take him off hold and continue our conversation. 

Me: Ummm, Mr. Larry (EndUser). I am not seeing any formulas not working in that spreadsheet, but more of a laundry list of formulas you want done and formatting you want done for this sheet? 

EndUser: Yes, that’s your job isn’t it? 

Me: Well, no. It’s not, we are here to support you doing your job. I am sorry but this isn’t something we handle.

EndUser: Well, that’s new. You guys have been doing this for a while now. 

Me: Please hold. 

I place him on a small hold and head over to My Level 2 Tech’s desk, Matt (L2 - Tech).

Me: Matt, do you have a moment?

L2Tech: Sure, what’s up?

Me: Do you know about Larry and his excel spreadsheets?

L2Tech: Ah, yeah, he sends those in for us to add formulas. Your predecessor is the one who started that. Trying to rebuild our rapport with various departments.

Me: Well, we are going to quit doing that, it’s part of their jobs to be able to use office products, it’s on their job description. 

L2Tech: Thank God, I’ve hated doing those and I am sure Jason(L1 Tech) will be happy. 

Back to the phone. 

Me: Hey, Mr. Larry (EndUser)?

EndUser: Yes?

Me: I am going to close that ticket, if you need help once you’ve actually put the formulas in and such I will be happ...

EndUser: This is ridiculous. 

Me: Well Sir, not real...

[Yelling] EndUser: I want to talk to your BOSS!

Me: Well, Sir. I report to the Director of Information Technology, I would recommend if you have an issue with my department’s performance, to notify your boss so tha..

CLICK

So, at this time I close the ticket and I continue to go about my day, filling in for Jason(L1) and working on my various projects.

Afternoon:

 I’ve almost forgotten about this, when my phone rings and it is, Ryan (DirIT) my Director. He asks me to come to the conference room at the operations building. We have a multi-site campus, so this is about 3 blocks away from where we hide in our magically IT land in the HQ building. I get in my car and I drive down and upon entering I see Ryan (DirIT) and Greg (DirOps - Director of Operations) and two other faces I’ve never seen before (OpsMan - Operational Manager and EndUser). 

DirOps: Ah, TSIAL, please sit down and join us. 

I take a seat and look quizzically at Ryan(DirIT), who gives me a helpless shrug. 

DirOps: TSIAL, I was speaking with Meg (OpsMan). He gestures to the middle-aged woman I’ve not met before Apparently, there is a breakdown in communication, and you are refusing to help one of her team members?

OpsMan: Nods Yes, Larry let me know this morning that <REPORT NAME> was late because he is having issues with his computer and that he spoke directly to TSIAL and he refused to help and closed out his ticket without a resolution, when he reopened his ticket, he says it was closed again. We needed <REPORT NAME> for planning by noon today and not having that, possible cost <LARGE NUMBER> of dollars in missed moves and loads. The rest of my team is working right now to minimize the damage.

DirIT: Stares at me waiting for my response

Me: I blink a few times, I am sure I have the deer in a headlight look in my face. Woah, woah. Let’s take a step back. The ticket was closed because, he was requesting my Department to perform his job duties. He sent in a Spreadsheet with information and instructions, telling us how to format everything and instructing us to do it. 

EndUser: Let’s out a deep frustrated sigh Yes, that’s your JOB.

DirIT: Wait... no it isn’t. Looks at Greg (DirOps)

DirOps: Looks at Meg(OpsMan)

OpsMan: Looks at Larry(EndUser)

Long akweird silence as everyone just looks at each other. Ryan (DirIT) open’s up his surface from his bag and starts to tap away at it, his face becomes increasingly annoyed. 

DirIT: Meg (OpsMan), how long has Larry (EndUser) been doing these reports?

OpsMan: Well, a few years. It’s his primary job tasking. He made a really solid spreadsheet, while doing his other job duties and I decided to task him with doing a major report that covers our whole team, it has sav... Oh...

DirIT: TSIAL, you can leave now.

I get up and show myself out. I drive back and explain what happened to my team, who all relay stories about how they have just been doing them, to help the end user out. About an hour later, I get the ticket in my queue for a termination for Larry the End User. 

TL;DR: We had a user whose main job it was to make fancy spreadsheets, he put the data in and was forwarding them to the Helpdesk to do the formulas and formatting. This has been going on for years apparently resulted in his termination.

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Edit: Thank you so much for the Gold! X3!! Wow!

Edit 2: Changed the names to Abbreviations for ease of reading and added them to dialogue to keep confusion down. Thanks for this suggestion!

Edit 3: Thank you so much for the Silver! x3!! Woah!

Edit 4: Formatting again for ease of reading. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Edit 5: WOW! Thank you for the Platinum! x3!! I can't tell you guys how happy it makes me that all of you are enjoying this story! I have been lurking for years, but my social anxiety always leaves me not wanting to make posts. So this, has been really amazing... Thank you guys!

Edit 6: Also much love the for Garlic Bread and Copper! <3

Update :

Went had lunch with a couple of guys I know down in operations and I think rather smoothly brought up Larry (EndUser). They were curious of what happened on myside of things, so I relayed the story to them, neither of them works in Meg’s (OpsMan) Team, but apparent she spoke with one of their Operational Team Mangers, so keep that in mind, but I have enough information to paint a picture for you. 

Please keep in mind that this is “Office Gossip” and I cannot confirm any of it! 

Apparently after I left the Operations building the meeting continued for a bit, before Larry (EndUser) and Meg (OpsMan) left and returned to their desks. Apparently, Larry (EndUser) had told one of his co-workers on his team, that he was going to be changing departments, since that guy in IT tried to get him fired today. Well shortly after that, Larry was called into another meeting, this time with Ryan(DirIT) and Jessica(DirHR). From my understanding, neither Meg(OpsMan) or Greg(DirOps) were invited. 

This caused Meg(OpsMan) to come over and talk to Jake (OpsMan2) the manger for one of my buddy’s teams. I guess Meg (OpsMan) told Jake (OpsMan2) that they had offered to provide Larry (EndUser) with both a basic and advanced excel workshop class a few cities over, on the company dime, he declined.

It was stressed to him, that he could continue in his current position if he just took the classes and without this training, he would no longer meet the position requirements for his position and would no longer be able to work as a Load Planner. Apparently, he took that as a transfer to another department... they both found this as rather funny. Jake (OpsMan2) used this as a teaching opportunity with his team on the importance of keeping up to date with technology. 

From here, Larry (EndUser) was terminated for time theft and misuse of company resources.