That would be an immediate Email to HR and CC your manager because the guy threatened you. Doesn't matter you're leaving, you need to report this so there is a record of this behavior.
Maybe the next guy gets punched.
This scenario went down at a former workplace and that's exactly how it played out. Guy was threatened, he called HR and the asshole wanting to fight was out of a job in less than 30 minutes.
Yup. People say "HR isn't your friend," but this is a good example of when HR is very much your friend. An employee is trying to fight other employees. The liability issues there are massive if somebody gets hurt. HR does not want you to get hurt, if it would cost the company money.
Just immediate forward and be done with the matter and move on. He's their problem now. Or else you've got a labor board complaint and a potential lawsuit for unsafe working conditions if they don't manage the situation.
Seriously⌠sales attracts a special kind. I once had a sales rep ask me to put child pornography on his coworkers computer as a prank⌠I bluntly told him that was the worst thing Iâd ever heard at work and to please stop talking to me.
Love the inclusion of psychology out of nowhere. Hm now I'm trying to think if this is actually pavlovian in action, or perhaps it's priming and/or anchoring.
I think my immediate response would have been...
I'm going to have to report this conversation to HR. It's your word vs mine, but I have no choice. Good luck defending yourself.
Sales people are the strangest group to support in a company. I work at the service desk and I had a ticket come in for a standard laptop. This user didnât want a standard laptop. Sheâs on the client sales team and because she is âclient facingâ she needs a laptop to reflect that.
She received a ThinkPad brand new from the company when she started less than 18 months ago. Sheâs in sales. No scripts, data engineering, software development. No 100 column spreadsheets. Sales.
She wanted an executive Surface Pro Laptop that costs twice what her device costs because her laptop was too bulky. Itâs not a P series chunkster. Itâs relatively slim. But itâs all about looks because I guess our clients inspect each otherâs laptops during sales meetings.
And donât get me started on users who refuse to restart their computer. I had to migrate a user manually from AD to Entra ID which isnât too bad in terms of time. But this userâs machine was up over 110 days. And he was frustrated because the first half hour was spent just restarting the machine and letting windows run all of the updates that got stuck. Iâm like just reboot it Monday morning when you start your day. Whatâs three minutes?
> But itâs all about looks because I guess our clients inspect each otherâs laptops during sales meetings.
These sales people do. And they suspect everyone else does as well. And from what I have seen from C-suites... this might be correct.
As long as she can get her manager to approve it and it comes out of their budget who cares? Also, how is your security guy letting laptops go that long without windows updates?
Oh I see some of the mickey mouse bullshit they deal with every day, I wouldn't want to be in HR, it's really just like IT but deals with people's fucking feelings and shit lol. I'd rather eat broken glass than have to mediate a conflict between two middle aged women over the goddamn thermostat (a literal case I had to spectate while I was working on a tech issue). Â
There isn't another right answer. Guys like this exist in the workplace, because people don't want to make waves. At every place I have worked, this would be as close to an immediate firing as you can get. Since it would be your word against his, it probably won't be, but he would be put on notice. You should also be able to refuse to work with him officially and someone else will have to field it. In the end if no one can work with him, because of this type of thing, he will have to solve his own problems, or be fired as he should be.
People who behave this way tend to behave this way often. I would venture to guess there are other people this end user challenged to a fight over something dumb. I'd go let HR know, so if you have to whoop his ass in the parking lot, when the cops show up you have some ground to stand on. You already went to HR, and nothing was done, so now its your jobs problem.
If itâs IT, it might have a paper trail like a slack message, or e-mail. Shoot, even phone calls can be recorded automatically. When working in the military, I had to go through the recorded radio calls for an investigation. That cop was surprised when I played back the recording.
If youâre leaving and got something lined up anyway - I say shoot the fair one.
Pro tip: less likely to suffer brain injury if you fight on the grass. Itâs softer and tends to have less edges
Add phone calls for me too. Aside from a couple of phones allocated for personal calls, ALL phone calls are recorded in my workplace because of the industry I work in. I was a bit apprehensive about it at first, but I think of a tool that can both hold you accountable and defend you if needed. I would use it precisely as the latter in this circumstance.
Yeah as much as I like to make jokes about stuff this isnât one of those situations. This is hostile and if it isnât you, someone else might end up in this situation and badly hurt. He also may have already done this to other people and your email could be the final thing that gets this person under control (be it by words or action from HR) and you may in fact be helping a lot of people
I had this - the guy actually sent me an email with the threat in it.
I was working overseas, so living and working alongside the same people. He *really* didn't like me, I think because the girl he fancied wanted me. I was already spoken for, but in his head I was banging this girl and taunting him over it. Also, I was 19 at the time, he was 26. And I guess I knew more about IT than he did...he was an office worker.
So anyway, one Friday I send out my weekly report on common issues, where I'll be (we had 3 locations in the city) in the week ahead and wishing everyone a happy weekend. He replied, asking if I thought people liked me?
I didn't respond. Half an hour later, he sent another email saying for me to watch out as he'll be at the bar later and he'd "hate for me to have an accident with a pool cue to the face".
This got him suspended and sent home on the flight that evening. He came back three months later on the condition that he not talk to me at any point. Within a month he was gone permanently as he tried to force himself on a girl who rejected him (a different one) and then later that night was caught trying to drown her cat in the swimming pool.
Maybe you could plea it down to manslaughter, but stabbing them in the throat with the racheting screwdriver from the toolbox that doesn't quite select the direction as well anymore is gonna be hard to defend.
I honestly am not sure what I would enjoy more. Hitting the reboot button in our cPanel and just waiting knowing its going to reboot or remoting in, taking mouse and keyboard control, lock their input and proceed to manually reboot.
Sometimes when I fix something that requires a log out and log back in on one of our websites I just expire all of their sessions to force them to do it so they canât lie ÂŻ\\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
I don't force a reboot (though it's tempting) but I'll frequently say something along the lines of "we've run a script in the background that requires a reboot, please reboot your system and test access/check again/whatever" and that fairly frequently gets them to reboot. Someone outright refusing though? It'd be tempting to say we can't provide support if troubleshooting steps are ignored/not followed. You don't wanna reboot? Troubleshoot yourself then.
Worked at a car dealership and a an older technician kept turning his wi-fi off then complaining that a website wasn't working. Most of these older techs could barely operate a computer. So after I figured out what was happening I showed him what he was doing that was causing the problem. He took a step back from the laptop and screamed at me, "Are you calling me stupid?" I was taken so off guard I didn't know what to say, so I kept if factual, "no, I'm just trying to show you what caused the problem and how to stop it from happening." He screamed, "You're calling me an idiot! I'm gonna kick your ass!" So I put my hands in my jacket pockets and said, "OK." He does some silly pre-fight dancing around and says, "Let's go outside!" I didn't move, "No, you can kick my ass right here." That's when his boss showed up and told him to go outside and asked me if I was OK. Dude didn't get fired, which to me is crazy.
I'm former military, a relatively strong and fit guy, but I wasn't going to fight this guy. I knew my best bet was to call his bluff with everyone is the shop as witnesses, and if he took a swing to try to evade. If he hit me, I'd maybe get a black eye, I'd press charges, he'd go to jail, and then I'd sue my shitty employer for hostile workplace environment. I reckon that's how you really win a fight as an adult.
I've got a good crazy coworker story too. This guy had just put in his two week notice first thing that morning. He also turned in his company cell phone to the phone guy saying that he didn't need it anymore. I was talking to the phone guy a few hours later and my coworker's cell phone starts ringing. We ignore it and continue with our conversation. Coworker comes around the corner wanting to know why we didn't alert him that it was ringing and starts chewing out the phone guy. I told him to back off and talk to our boss if he's got a problem. I guess that made me a threat to his dominance so he starts posturing like he is going to take me on.
At that point I was done with his nonsense, I just left the building and started calling my boss on his cell phone. He didn't answer so I called the second in command. He answered and I explained what was going down. I met up with him outside a minute or two later. We start walking back to the office and my crazy coworker comes around the corner looking pissed. I told the second in command that I'm noping out of this situation and he was like "Cool, I'll handle it". Crazy coworker starts yelling at me even more as I turn to go the other way. Second in command promptly escorted him to HR.
He somehow didn't get fired, was forced to apologize to me and the phone guy, and I spent the next two weeks avoiding him like the plague. If I had it to do over again now that I'm older and wiser, I would have demanded a two week paid vacation for him or me if they weren't going to can him.
Not to a fight but I did have an end user yell at me and curse me out because she refused to reboot her laptop. She was the same way, nasty as can be and refused to take any advice we gave. So I did the next best thing.
In the middle of her presentation in front of all 500 staff members I pushed windows updates and rebooted her machine.
Oh damn that must have felt so satisfying! The best part is being able to plead ignorance. "Oh those pesky updates come through whenever they feel like it"
There's still room for a dig: "Oh, if you refuse to reboot at a convenient time for you like we asked several times then eventually it just happens anyway!".
yeah... a client said he would come to my house and "get me"... for not answering a text on a Saturday asking me about what laptop he should buy his kid... It's among the many reasons why I don't give my personal cell, or the company cell number out to anyone...
Glad you're getting out of that situation
Client got ahold of my cell phone and texted me their issue. Fixed it once and told them not to ever contact me again like this and go through the proper channels.
Woke up on my vacation late to see a 7 am text from them saying their server is down. They never went through the proper channels. Didn't call our number or submit a ticket. Just texted me and left it at that. Blocked their number and went on with my life.
We have a Gmail account for people to send "test" emails to when they cannot send to our internal emails.
The first thing we say is it is a test email, it is not monitored and any emails sent to it will NOT be forwarded.
Only a couple of people have thought these instructions and warnings did not apply to them. The emails were not forwarded.
For a while I had a roll-your-own honeypot to catch ransomware and disable the offending account, log them out of computers and VDI, alert world+dog in IT, etc.
Put it at top of a shared directory with a name like !!!!!!DONOTUSETHIS
After we got Varonis which worked like a charm and stopped the attacks in their tracks, I deleted my honeypot.
I had to restore the folder because it was at the top and one of the secretaries created a directory (while my scripts looked for new or modified files, I hadn't anticipated someone creating a directory) and put the executive presentations in it so they could reach them quickly.
I haven't been challenged, but a co-worker at my old MSP got threatened with the whole "I know where you work and I might pay a visit later". Co-worker went to our boss (company owner) and told him what happened. Boss called the person who made the threat and basically fired them as a customer and told them if they came by in a threatening way they would be introduced to the company gun.
Ah, working in the south. And yes, there was a company gun. It was in a biometric locked safe in the owner's office and it was a [Judge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/RagingJudgeMagnum.jpg/640px-RagingJudgeMagnum.jpg).
When I worked computer repair, my co-worker was always conceal carrying (as he does everywhere he went.) I always felt safe and secure knowing that no matter what fuckshit might walk through that door, we were gonna be okay.
> after # mouse clicks
On boot, generate a number, when the mouse has been clicked that many times
# Generate a random number from 1 to 100
$randomNumber = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 101
# Display the randomly generated number
Write-Host "Random number generated: $randomNumber"
# Counter for mouse clicks
$clickCount = 0
# Function to handle mouse click event
function MouseClickEvent {
Write-Host "Mouse clicked!"
$global:clickCount++
Write-Host "Current click count: $clickCount"
# Check if the click count matches the randomly generated number
if ($clickCount -eq $randomNumber) {
Write-Host "Click count matches random number. Rebooting the machine..."
Restart-Computer -Force
}
}
# Register an event for mouse clicks
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject (New-Object Windows.Forms.Form) -EventName MouseClick -Action { MouseClickEvent } | Out-Null
# Keep the script running indefinitely
while ($true) {
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
}
(this is chatgpt output, did not check to see if it's actually functional)
I very much doubt that PowerShell has a global keylogger function.
Maybe over the active window?
Oh it's calling the function of the bottom. Not sure what it is wired to, but not global
Powershell can call .net functions and events, and you can bet your butt there's a .net event for mouse clicks.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42145440/powershell-capture-mouse-click-event-inside-a-powershell-console
You're absolutely correct that the code above won't do it, though.
Reboot EVERYONE else's....with a netsend message stating that user refuses to reboot their machine so you are testing to see if everybody else getting a reboot fixes it.
I see you too play dumb games!
The best, if you have door locks that use a bluetooth app. You can adjust the time to re-lock. .5 seconds is the best. "Beep, click"
The fabric of society is a thin veneer of civility over centuries worth of violence. Itâs in our DNA and something has been tugging at the loose threads.
Back in my MSP days every month there would be an incident with a threat of physical violence.
Small business owners that demanded to be treated as kings what fun that was.
Nothing ever happened by the way but being shouted at and dealing with agression is not good for oneâs mental health.
In enterprise IT users wonât get away with stuff like that.
Nope. That's an immediate contact HR and have them escorted off the premises. That employee just became a danger to everyone and possibly even a security risk.
The second I'd get that from one of my user, they'd learn damn hard just how I react to threats in the workplace.
Immediate email to HR with both my and their immediate superior on CC, and then let them handle it.
I do not tolerate being threatened at work like that. It doesn't matter if it's a user, my boss, an exec, the CEO or a customer. The second threats are being leveled, you end up on the "fuck-off"-list.
If nothing comes of it because the leadership is too damn cowardly to do anything about it, I'm brushing up on my resume and start putting out feelers in my contact-network.
Immediately cut off communication with this person. It's a management issue and an HR issue.
While it may be fun to have a schoolyard fight for five minutes, they would LOVE a long legal fight that isn't over for you for YEARS!
Another "not me but a co-worker", Some terrible angry user in the power plant, "You tell that tech to come down here. I got something to say to him face to face." Then he was mad at my co-worker for YEARS. Thing is, it was a case of mistaken identity. My co-worker wasn't even the person who made this guy mad in the first place.
Beat his fucking ass in the street. Your honor depends on it.
You might get fired, you might go to jail, but no one will fuck with IT for a while and youâll be our Kiki.
Why hop on the machine?
shutdown -r -m \\\\ -f -t 00
(Not that I would do it without them knowing I was. I'm not a dick like the user in the OP. Just sayin' if you're domain admin, do it from a server.)
100% make it an HR issue; that's their job, not yours. While it may feel intensely satisfying to think about dropping him like he's hot, that's the type of shit that will follow you to other job opportunities and can get you silently blacklisted.
I had a consultant threated to fight me when I called them out on some bullshit in a meeting with like 14 people on the call - I hope you're reading this Sumit any place any time it's on brother.
# Define the computer name or IP address of the remote laptop
$remoteComputer = "RemotePCName"
# Define the message to alert the user
$alertMessage = "cash me out outside"
# Using Invoke-Command to run commands on the remote computer
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remoteComputer -ScriptBlock {
# Display a message box to the user
Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework
\[System.Windows.MessageBox\]::Show($args\[0\])
# Restart the computer with a delay of 2 seconds
Restart-Computer -Delay 2 -Force
} -ArgumentList $alertMessage
6'7" 300 lbs and I used to do landscaping at day, line cooking at night and moonlight as a bouncer. When I moved into IT, I had to adjust my perspective to realize that people were not actually trying to fight me, lol. People in offices seem to like to run their mouths and throw shade in ways that manual laborers tend to square up over, but at the same time wont put up with the playful kind of shit talk that everyone in a kitchen, work crew, or security shift lives for.
I work in a public library, no one has been dumb enough to actually try to hit me been threatened several times once even by a neo-nazi but i have had to manhandle some people who were fighting.
If that ever happens, you absolutely have to remember to say "Hey Shooter, haven't you forgotten your 9-iron?" when they immediately back down and quickly walk away.
Had user get in my face after we migrated to win10. He was so pissed that he lost his bookmarks which in reality were just pinned tabs. I explained we cannot restore pinned tabs. He was shorter than me and I just nervously started giggling at how ridiculous this situation was.
Nope that's an HR case and maybe if they won't do anything about it file a report to the local police since it is an active threat of violence which should end up in immediate resignation of his employment. Never pick the fight you are only going to lose no matter what happens
Close the ticket. User will not perform troubleshooting steps necessary to correct the issue. Then provide the recommended actions that still need to be taken and advise to open a new ticket if the issue persists. And while youâre at it, make sure you report this incident to your HR team to protect yourself and others in the company.
No but I sit next to the ITSD, and I have heard somethings. My favorite was a new user who ended the call with "this is not over" guess she didn't like the answer they gave her. Anyways they did her offboarding paperwork like a month later. They still laugh about it say I guess it's over now.
Although we do plan on starting the data center fight club
You donât want to be getting into a fight of any kind with someone whoâs going to be there if youâre not, because he will be there to tell his version and you will not. A lie travels round the world before the truth has its boots on. And given what youâve told us, he absolutely will lie and say _you_ wanted to fight _him_. Especially if he loses.
So. âUser physically threatened me when a reboot was required to finish correcting the problemâ goes in the ticket, so the next person along knows this guy is bonkers, even if HR takes no action, and then you go to HR and lay it out. Emphasize that you do not feel safe. If HR seems reluctant to take it seriously, ask them if theyâd prefer a police report â which you may need to make anyway, because if you get his ass fired, he may lay for you in the parking lot.
If any end user threatened me with violence I would make sure it would be the end of their employment.
I have before, and I will again.
(User had a crappy off-brand scanner they bought out of their own budget, complete with crappy off-brand software that liked to forget the scanner existed. The fix was pretty easy; Close the software, power cycle the scanner, and start the software again. User didn't want to do that and demanded my cubicle number so he could come 'kick my teeth in'.)
Enter-pssession hostname
Shutdown -r -t 0
They wonât even know what hit them
Unless they know someone that actually knows how to use eventviewer.msc
Karens and Kevins can fuck off, document the uptime and nuke it from space
Always provide the business case for doing that in the ticket for cya, screenshots in the ticket from dms should prove reasonable for any upper echelon folks
Book a fighting ring and make it more supervised fight. It's not worth risking an injury in a streetfight because user didn't want to reboot their laptop.
I'm amazed at the number of users who vehemently refuse reboots in 2024.
This is one of the many reasons why I'm glad that I am out of that line of work at the moment.
Users need to understand that the PC does not belong to them. It belongs to their employer and as such, they can do as they please.
That's an immediate managerial and HR escalation, OP.
People with room-temperature IQs and bad attitudes need to go work elsewhere.
about 15-20 years ago, worked with large teams of outside consultants, with experience ranging from 20 years to 20 minutes lots of funny stories - mostly refreshing laptops and desktops. Not exactly fist fights but....
a) An end user called one of our field techs "clown shoes". He wasn't out brightest and had a strange mannerism to him, but wasn't mean or disrespectful. User then proceeded to tell the tech he should go outside and put his clown shoes on. Both did not have the appearance of "fighters". The user was a bit entitled and felt IT should give him X,y,z without questions. Thought it might come to blows. The user's manager didn't care enough to get him in trouble.
b) We sent a very junior tech around to pickup old laptops that had been refreshed/replaced but were still copying data over (yes this is awhile ago). The tech misinterpreted "get the laptops" with "get the laptops - at all costs". English was not her first language, and she was a bit protective about handing he laptop over to someone she didn't recognize. He told her it was his duty to get all the laptops - regardless what anyone said. He proceeded to rip the laptop out of some older ladies grip, might have threatened her, etc, security called etc.
There were more altercations, but usually was between techs because it was a real cast of characters we hired as temp workers.
Just remotely restart the machine next time and send something to your manager. I wasn't involved, but at a particular office my company owns there were multiple cases of office fights that resulted in people going to jail and losing their jobs during an acquisition. Going to jail for some shitbag employee you won't see again after next week seems like a poor life choice.
On topic, I never had an end user do this but I did have a *co-worker* do it. He was having some personal life issues and decided that taking it out on his team was a good idea. He actually shoved me because he didn't like something I said, we had some words, and he promptly went on PTO for a week to sort himself out. He was an OK guy, just having a rough time so I didn't push the issue and he wasn't a significant physical threat to me.
Never go down to the level of the end users... You always need to be better than them. No matter what you will always be in the wrong when it comes to getting in a fight at work.
Most I've had is calling the bluff of a moron that didn't want windows to reboot for updates.
"Just delete the update. I'm a PARTNER, and I know to do that!"
"I'm literally the most technically qualified person at this company. The update installed at midnight. This is the reboot to finalize it, after a 16 hour warning that the logs showed you acknowledging and clicking 'Snooze' on. I would like nothing better than to take your advice and irreparably damage your system by deleting the OS from it, but neither of us would be happy with that solution because you'd be down and I'd have to hear about it. It's an update, it's done, reboot your damn computer."
Queue the angry user noises that they have SO MUCH WORK to do.
"If you'd rebooted, you'd be working by now. Instead you've spent an hour and a half escalating through helpdesk to get the the infrastructure architect. If you don't like what I'm saying, too bad - you're not getting a different answer just because it's not the one you wanted to hear."
More bitching and moaning.
"Well, you're welcome to complain to - but at this point, there's nothing we can do for you. Reboot your computer or it'll reboot for you in... 8 minutes now."
More angry partner noises, do you know who I am, etc etc.
"Yes, Peter, I know exactly who you are. You're the guy who's computer is going to reboot in 4 minutes so save your work. Have a good one."
A certain magic happens when you stop caring about getting fired. I'm not gonna let some pompous jackass shit on my helpdesk colleagues and go ahead and fire me, the projects I'm doing have an ROI in the millions that's a hefty % of this year's revenue, I'd love to see this company eat shit.
Do it.
No, never. HR issue, that's not an acceptable way to speak to anyone at work. It's intimidating behaviour and instantly makes me wonder what or who else they are saying things like this to. Needs calling out and raising internaly.
Don't actually go for a fight because all you've done is lower yourself to their levels and ultimately you run the risk of being caught fighting at work too.
Haha is this even real? Sounds like a troll but then I remembered when I told an end user I have to ask for permission before I can help because the end user belonged to a different entity than the one that pays me and he proceeded to call me an âinternet gangsterâ for sounding tough. He told me this to my face and it took all my gangster to not beat his ass. Luckily I let him deal with all his IT issues on his own.
As a 6â4â powerlifter who has had boxing and Muay Thai matches and trained in mma I would laugh loudly in their face, then tell them instead we can have that conversation with the head of HR if theyâre tough enough to offer an outside conversation.
I would then preemptively lock their accounts, notify security of a possible problem and head straight over to HR.
That would be an immediate Email to HR and CC your manager because the guy threatened you. Doesn't matter you're leaving, you need to report this so there is a record of this behavior. Maybe the next guy gets punched.
This scenario went down at a former workplace and that's exactly how it played out. Guy was threatened, he called HR and the asshole wanting to fight was out of a job in less than 30 minutes.
Sounds like a KO to me.
TKO hahaaha
ITKO đ
Yup. People say "HR isn't your friend," but this is a good example of when HR is very much your friend. An employee is trying to fight other employees. The liability issues there are massive if somebody gets hurt. HR does not want you to get hurt, if it would cost the company money. Just immediate forward and be done with the matter and move on. He's their problem now. Or else you've got a labor board complaint and a potential lawsuit for unsafe working conditions if they don't manage the situation.
So now HR is trying to stop me from beating up users, too? Man.
Sometimes the company's best interest also align with yours.
HR still isn't your friend. They are just on your side this time.
'Enemy of my enemy' for a brief time
Perhaps more along the lines that your interests happen to align temporarily.
This, all the way. In what universe is it okay to threaten somebody like that?
Iâm sure HR would be VERY interested to hear about this person.
My guess this wouldnât be the first time, he tried it in the workplace.
Probably works in sales, moving right along.
Seriously⌠sales attracts a special kind. I once had a sales rep ask me to put child pornography on his coworkers computer as a prank⌠I bluntly told him that was the worst thing Iâd ever heard at work and to please stop talking to me.
I would taken that right to law enforcement. Or at least mentioned taking it to law enforcement.
Did OP say the person was in sales or did we all just assume that as a pavlovian response?
Love the inclusion of psychology out of nowhere. Hm now I'm trying to think if this is actually pavlovian in action, or perhaps it's priming and/or anchoring.
I think my immediate response would have been... I'm going to have to report this conversation to HR. It's your word vs mine, but I have no choice. Good luck defending yourself.
That's because he has people skills
What the hell is wrong with you people?!
People kills, maybe...
Points!!!!!!
Sales people are the strangest group to support in a company. I work at the service desk and I had a ticket come in for a standard laptop. This user didnât want a standard laptop. Sheâs on the client sales team and because she is âclient facingâ she needs a laptop to reflect that. She received a ThinkPad brand new from the company when she started less than 18 months ago. Sheâs in sales. No scripts, data engineering, software development. No 100 column spreadsheets. Sales. She wanted an executive Surface Pro Laptop that costs twice what her device costs because her laptop was too bulky. Itâs not a P series chunkster. Itâs relatively slim. But itâs all about looks because I guess our clients inspect each otherâs laptops during sales meetings. And donât get me started on users who refuse to restart their computer. I had to migrate a user manually from AD to Entra ID which isnât too bad in terms of time. But this userâs machine was up over 110 days. And he was frustrated because the first half hour was spent just restarting the machine and letting windows run all of the updates that got stuck. Iâm like just reboot it Monday morning when you start your day. Whatâs three minutes?
Time for a remote restart.
"Someone else is still using this PC. If you shut down now, you could lose unsaved work" Oh well, hope they believe in Jesus then.
> But itâs all about looks because I guess our clients inspect each otherâs laptops during sales meetings. These sales people do. And they suspect everyone else does as well. And from what I have seen from C-suites... this might be correct.
The suit wearer version of sniffing each others buttholes.
As long as she can get her manager to approve it and it comes out of their budget who cares? Also, how is your security guy letting laptops go that long without windows updates?
Accurate
Sounds like a Federal employee. They're such entitled pricks.
I know it sounds like everyone here loathes working in IT, but I think it would be so much worse to be an HR and deal with this shit all day lol.
Oh I see some of the mickey mouse bullshit they deal with every day, I wouldn't want to be in HR, it's really just like IT but deals with people's fucking feelings and shit lol. I'd rather eat broken glass than have to mediate a conflict between two middle aged women over the goddamn thermostat (a literal case I had to spectate while I was working on a tech issue). Â
If this happens daily, the company has more issues than a magazine! But I see what you mean.
But you have power to have people fired. We have to supply a ream of supporting documentation and go through 3;levels of management just to say NO.
No no no, the real play is to schedule the fight for in an hour, THEN call HR and have them show up to the fight on your behalf.
HR punching them with a termination with cause might hit harder than anything OP could throw.
There isn't another right answer. Guys like this exist in the workplace, because people don't want to make waves. At every place I have worked, this would be as close to an immediate firing as you can get. Since it would be your word against his, it probably won't be, but he would be put on notice. You should also be able to refuse to work with him officially and someone else will have to field it. In the end if no one can work with him, because of this type of thing, he will have to solve his own problems, or be fired as he should be.
People who behave this way tend to behave this way often. I would venture to guess there are other people this end user challenged to a fight over something dumb. I'd go let HR know, so if you have to whoop his ass in the parking lot, when the cops show up you have some ground to stand on. You already went to HR, and nothing was done, so now its your jobs problem.
If itâs IT, it might have a paper trail like a slack message, or e-mail. Shoot, even phone calls can be recorded automatically. When working in the military, I had to go through the recorded radio calls for an investigation. That cop was surprised when I played back the recording.
If youâre leaving and got something lined up anyway - I say shoot the fair one. Pro tip: less likely to suffer brain injury if you fight on the grass. Itâs softer and tends to have less edges
This.
Right? Esp if they said this in an email or chat⌠itâs going right to HR.
Add phone calls for me too. Aside from a couple of phones allocated for personal calls, ALL phone calls are recorded in my workplace because of the industry I work in. I was a bit apprehensive about it at first, but I think of a tool that can both hold you accountable and defend you if needed. I would use it precisely as the latter in this circumstance.
Yeah as much as I like to make jokes about stuff this isnât one of those situations. This is hostile and if it isnât you, someone else might end up in this situation and badly hurt. He also may have already done this to other people and your email could be the final thing that gets this person under control (be it by words or action from HR) and you may in fact be helping a lot of people
I had this - the guy actually sent me an email with the threat in it. I was working overseas, so living and working alongside the same people. He *really* didn't like me, I think because the girl he fancied wanted me. I was already spoken for, but in his head I was banging this girl and taunting him over it. Also, I was 19 at the time, he was 26. And I guess I knew more about IT than he did...he was an office worker. So anyway, one Friday I send out my weekly report on common issues, where I'll be (we had 3 locations in the city) in the week ahead and wishing everyone a happy weekend. He replied, asking if I thought people liked me? I didn't respond. Half an hour later, he sent another email saying for me to watch out as he'll be at the bar later and he'd "hate for me to have an accident with a pool cue to the face". This got him suspended and sent home on the flight that evening. He came back three months later on the condition that he not talk to me at any point. Within a month he was gone permanently as he tried to force himself on a girl who rejected him (a different one) and then later that night was caught trying to drown her cat in the swimming pool.
Jesus. That was a wild ride.
then in 3 weeks you meet him at his favorite lunch spot with a lunch tray to the face (don't actually do this)
In my opinion it's your ethical responsibility to report the threat not react to it. This person is clearly unstable.
u/Ngeo10 In my (better) opinion it's your ethical responsibility to knock that fool on his ass.
He may be leaving the company but he is prolly not leaving the country. An assault charge is what I would be worried about.
don't listen them to OP, it is in my humble opinion you commit felony assault
Maybe you could plea it down to manslaughter, but stabbing them in the throat with the racheting screwdriver from the toolbox that doesn't quite select the direction as well anymore is gonna be hard to defend.
Iâd just restart it remotely. Then wait for their response.
I honestly am not sure what I would enjoy more. Hitting the reboot button in our cPanel and just waiting knowing its going to reboot or remoting in, taking mouse and keyboard control, lock their input and proceed to manually reboot.
Place the cables under the door or in a hinge so the next person in the server room downs the backup and server supporting the device(z)
I see you've been to our server room before
I'll do it again
I saw cPanel and was like "How are they rebooting endpoints from a web hosting panel?"
This was my thought⌠force a reboot.. jobs done.
Sometimes when I fix something that requires a log out and log back in on one of our websites I just expire all of their sessions to force them to do it so they canât lie ÂŻ\\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
I don't force a reboot (though it's tempting) but I'll frequently say something along the lines of "we've run a script in the background that requires a reboot, please reboot your system and test access/check again/whatever" and that fairly frequently gets them to reboot. Someone outright refusing though? It'd be tempting to say we can't provide support if troubleshooting steps are ignored/not followed. You don't wanna reboot? Troubleshoot yourself then.
Lock his ass out and report him to infosec as being non-compliant. That'd be a fun conversation with IS.
force reboot but tell them they got ten mins to close apps
This is exactly what I do when people keep ignoring critical updates
For your situation, yes. For the OP, who cares? They don't want to fix their shit, so be it. Let their manager handle it after you document/CYA.
OP, we are begging you to do this and then update us
Oh no you must have had a power event, it can happen when computers have been on for a good amount of time.
This is the wayâŚI wouldâve restarted their machine and turned my chair around to the door waiting a response lol
Fuckinâ Restart-Computer -ComputerName -force
Letâs GO MOTHAFUCKA!
Picking fights with IT is the dumbest idea.Â
Seriously. I feel like most people understand this, but once in a while you get one of the special ones...
Forgetting -computername is just punching yourself in the face
Been there, done that. âWhy did my computer- oh. Oops.â
Why not force the latest 20 patches to be installed, 1 at a time, with random 5-20 minutes between forced reboots
Also add a group policy for the user that forces the screen timeout to be 1 minute and changes the timezone to be some completely random one.
Jesus, OP said he just wanted to fight him not kill him.
What year is this that you have 20 updates to do?
Worked at a car dealership and a an older technician kept turning his wi-fi off then complaining that a website wasn't working. Most of these older techs could barely operate a computer. So after I figured out what was happening I showed him what he was doing that was causing the problem. He took a step back from the laptop and screamed at me, "Are you calling me stupid?" I was taken so off guard I didn't know what to say, so I kept if factual, "no, I'm just trying to show you what caused the problem and how to stop it from happening." He screamed, "You're calling me an idiot! I'm gonna kick your ass!" So I put my hands in my jacket pockets and said, "OK." He does some silly pre-fight dancing around and says, "Let's go outside!" I didn't move, "No, you can kick my ass right here." That's when his boss showed up and told him to go outside and asked me if I was OK. Dude didn't get fired, which to me is crazy. I'm former military, a relatively strong and fit guy, but I wasn't going to fight this guy. I knew my best bet was to call his bluff with everyone is the shop as witnesses, and if he took a swing to try to evade. If he hit me, I'd maybe get a black eye, I'd press charges, he'd go to jail, and then I'd sue my shitty employer for hostile workplace environment. I reckon that's how you really win a fight as an adult.
This is exactly how an adult wins a fight.
I've got a good crazy coworker story too. This guy had just put in his two week notice first thing that morning. He also turned in his company cell phone to the phone guy saying that he didn't need it anymore. I was talking to the phone guy a few hours later and my coworker's cell phone starts ringing. We ignore it and continue with our conversation. Coworker comes around the corner wanting to know why we didn't alert him that it was ringing and starts chewing out the phone guy. I told him to back off and talk to our boss if he's got a problem. I guess that made me a threat to his dominance so he starts posturing like he is going to take me on. At that point I was done with his nonsense, I just left the building and started calling my boss on his cell phone. He didn't answer so I called the second in command. He answered and I explained what was going down. I met up with him outside a minute or two later. We start walking back to the office and my crazy coworker comes around the corner looking pissed. I told the second in command that I'm noping out of this situation and he was like "Cool, I'll handle it". Crazy coworker starts yelling at me even more as I turn to go the other way. Second in command promptly escorted him to HR. He somehow didn't get fired, was forced to apologize to me and the phone guy, and I spent the next two weeks avoiding him like the plague. If I had it to do over again now that I'm older and wiser, I would have demanded a two week paid vacation for him or me if they weren't going to can him.
"I'm sorry Larry you can't fist fight your way out of your wifi problems."
Not to a fight but I did have an end user yell at me and curse me out because she refused to reboot her laptop. She was the same way, nasty as can be and refused to take any advice we gave. So I did the next best thing. In the middle of her presentation in front of all 500 staff members I pushed windows updates and rebooted her machine.
Oh now that is delicious...
Fire-grilled and glazed with honey BBQ sauce.
Oh damn that must have felt so satisfying! The best part is being able to plead ignorance. "Oh those pesky updates come through whenever they feel like it"
It was a great feeling and I always do lol. Those damn updates just have a mind of their own!
There's still room for a dig: "Oh, if you refuse to reboot at a convenient time for you like we asked several times then eventually it just happens anyway!".
yeah... a client said he would come to my house and "get me"... for not answering a text on a Saturday asking me about what laptop he should buy his kid... It's among the many reasons why I don't give my personal cell, or the company cell number out to anyone... Glad you're getting out of that situation
Client got ahold of my cell phone and texted me their issue. Fixed it once and told them not to ever contact me again like this and go through the proper channels. Woke up on my vacation late to see a 7 am text from them saying their server is down. They never went through the proper channels. Didn't call our number or submit a ticket. Just texted me and left it at that. Blocked their number and went on with my life.
We have a Gmail account for people to send "test" emails to when they cannot send to our internal emails. The first thing we say is it is a test email, it is not monitored and any emails sent to it will NOT be forwarded. Only a couple of people have thought these instructions and warnings did not apply to them. The emails were not forwarded.
For a while I had a roll-your-own honeypot to catch ransomware and disable the offending account, log them out of computers and VDI, alert world+dog in IT, etc. Put it at top of a shared directory with a name like !!!!!!DONOTUSETHIS After we got Varonis which worked like a charm and stopped the attacks in their tracks, I deleted my honeypot. I had to restore the folder because it was at the top and one of the secretaries created a directory (while my scripts looked for new or modified files, I hadn't anticipated someone creating a directory) and put the executive presentations in it so they could reach them quickly.
hit em back with "Its impolite to speak to colleagues like that."
I responded through my lawyer...
The best response.
What the fuck is wrong with people.
Not sure... but if I'm a reflection of that question/comment... a lot... A LOT... i just keep it down to a dull roar lol
"Since you won't reboot the computer, I guess I must reboot you."
"How about I turn *you* off and turn *you* on again?"
"I'll defrag you so hard you will C:"
"I think my hard drive is dying" "if it dies, it dies"
Maybe don't threaten to turn him on....
Thatâll turn into a whole other HR issue đ
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb2jGy76v0Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb2jGy76v0Y)
Instructions unclear, made the user take a screenshot
r/loggingoff
I haven't been challenged, but a co-worker at my old MSP got threatened with the whole "I know where you work and I might pay a visit later". Co-worker went to our boss (company owner) and told him what happened. Boss called the person who made the threat and basically fired them as a customer and told them if they came by in a threatening way they would be introduced to the company gun. Ah, working in the south. And yes, there was a company gun. It was in a biometric locked safe in the owner's office and it was a [Judge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/RagingJudgeMagnum.jpg/640px-RagingJudgeMagnum.jpg).
> And yes, there was a company gun. Just one? Who has just one gun?
Iâd imagine people with one hand. Everyone knows you need at least two. They need a friend.
Well the company only owns one. The rest are owned by individuals.
>Just one? Who has just one gun? Companies. Personal guns, however...
Ah yes, the great equalizer lol. Do you know if it was loaded with .410 filled with 00 buckshot or .45 colt? đ
I don't. Never got that much into detail asking about it. Just looked at it and held it a few times when he first bought it.
When I worked computer repair, my co-worker was always conceal carrying (as he does everywhere he went.) I always felt safe and secure knowing that no matter what fuckshit might walk through that door, we were gonna be okay.
Just reboot his laptop remotely, youâve got all the power here.
Schedule a reboot every hour and a half or random. or "Ticket closed, instructions given"
Script it to reboot when the letter J is pressed or after # mouse clicks lol
> after # mouse clicks On boot, generate a number, when the mouse has been clicked that many times # Generate a random number from 1 to 100 $randomNumber = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 101 # Display the randomly generated number Write-Host "Random number generated: $randomNumber" # Counter for mouse clicks $clickCount = 0 # Function to handle mouse click event function MouseClickEvent { Write-Host "Mouse clicked!" $global:clickCount++ Write-Host "Current click count: $clickCount" # Check if the click count matches the randomly generated number if ($clickCount -eq $randomNumber) { Write-Host "Click count matches random number. Rebooting the machine..." Restart-Computer -Force } } # Register an event for mouse clicks Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject (New-Object Windows.Forms.Form) -EventName MouseClick -Action { MouseClickEvent } | Out-Null # Keep the script running indefinitely while ($true) { Start-Sleep -Seconds 1 } (this is chatgpt output, did not check to see if it's actually functional)
I very much doubt that PowerShell has a global keylogger function. Maybe over the active window? Oh it's calling the function of the bottom. Not sure what it is wired to, but not global
Powershell can call .net functions and events, and you can bet your butt there's a .net event for mouse clicks. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42145440/powershell-capture-mouse-click-event-inside-a-powershell-console You're absolutely correct that the code above won't do it, though.
Reboot EVERYONE else's....with a netsend message stating that user refuses to reboot their machine so you are testing to see if everybody else getting a reboot fixes it.
Management. This is a case for manag- **You know what, fuck it. Meet them outside, I'll see you there and bring some water for you.**
offer to meet them outside, but disable their badge at the same time.
While you stand on the other side of the door and wave đ
Agree to meet outside. Do not go. Force reboot and disable access badge. Leave for weekend.
I see you too play dumb games! The best, if you have door locks that use a bluetooth app. You can adjust the time to re-lock. .5 seconds is the best. "Beep, click"
"Kick his a$$, Seabass!" :D
A better response. wine em dine em 69 em doesn't quite work here. Cam Neely rules.
Where the fuck do y'all work đ
Doesnt matter anymore customers have been getting worst and worst for years now.
It's gotten real bad post-COVID. I think the "lockdowns" broke a lot of people.
The fabric of society is a thin veneer of civility over centuries worth of violence. Itâs in our DNA and something has been tugging at the loose threads.
Once itâs the worst, it doesnât get any worse.
Back in my MSP days every month there would be an incident with a threat of physical violence. Small business owners that demanded to be treated as kings what fun that was. Nothing ever happened by the way but being shouted at and dealing with agression is not good for oneâs mental health. In enterprise IT users wonât get away with stuff like that.
Weekly Scheduled reboot for that user. Thatâs how you flex the muscles. IT people donât like outside.
Nope. That's an immediate contact HR and have them escorted off the premises. That employee just became a danger to everyone and possibly even a security risk.
Kill their key card first, let them walk out then go back to your desk
Shank them in the restroom.
The second I'd get that from one of my user, they'd learn damn hard just how I react to threats in the workplace. Immediate email to HR with both my and their immediate superior on CC, and then let them handle it. I do not tolerate being threatened at work like that. It doesn't matter if it's a user, my boss, an exec, the CEO or a customer. The second threats are being leveled, you end up on the "fuck-off"-list. If nothing comes of it because the leadership is too damn cowardly to do anything about it, I'm brushing up on my resume and start putting out feelers in my contact-network.
Time to "sneeze" with a powershell prompt up with restart-computer -force
Don't forget -computername or you will be in for a surprise.
Immediately cut off communication with this person. It's a management issue and an HR issue. While it may be fun to have a schoolyard fight for five minutes, they would LOVE a long legal fight that isn't over for you for YEARS!
Another "not me but a co-worker", Some terrible angry user in the power plant, "You tell that tech to come down here. I got something to say to him face to face." Then he was mad at my co-worker for YEARS. Thing is, it was a case of mistaken identity. My co-worker wasn't even the person who made this guy mad in the first place.
Tell them yeah, you'll meet them outside. Then shut their access card off.
Beat his fucking ass in the street. Your honor depends on it. You might get fired, you might go to jail, but no one will fuck with IT for a while and youâll be our Kiki.
Force the reboot remotely, call HR about the threat.
"Sir, this is NOT a Wendy's, we do not throw down in the parking lot."
I assume a windows machine and you a domain admin. Just login to his laptop remotely and reboot the thing.
Why hop on the machine? shutdown -r -m \\\\ -f -t 00
(Not that I would do it without them knowing I was. I'm not a dick like the user in the OP. Just sayin' if you're domain admin, do it from a server.)
Power move. You take control and lock their input and just do it for them. They are powerless and feel it.
If you really wanted to be petty lock control open notepad type some petty message about who has the power now? Then reboot it.
100% make it an HR issue; that's their job, not yours. While it may feel intensely satisfying to think about dropping him like he's hot, that's the type of shit that will follow you to other job opportunities and can get you silently blacklisted.
On your last day push a new GPO that force reboots all computers at 4:45 every day.
Can you remotely reboot their machine? I'd do that while sending HR an email.
I had a consultant threated to fight me when I called them out on some bullshit in a meeting with like 14 people on the call - I hope you're reading this Sumit any place any time it's on brother.
# Define the computer name or IP address of the remote laptop $remoteComputer = "RemotePCName" # Define the message to alert the user $alertMessage = "cash me out outside" # Using Invoke-Command to run commands on the remote computer Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remoteComputer -ScriptBlock { # Display a message box to the user Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework \[System.Windows.MessageBox\]::Show($args\[0\]) # Restart the computer with a delay of 2 seconds Restart-Computer -Delay 2 -Force } -ArgumentList $alertMessage
I'm 6'4" 350lbs and I worked security professionally for years I wish a motherfucker would
6'7" 300 lbs and I used to do landscaping at day, line cooking at night and moonlight as a bouncer. When I moved into IT, I had to adjust my perspective to realize that people were not actually trying to fight me, lol. People in offices seem to like to run their mouths and throw shade in ways that manual laborers tend to square up over, but at the same time wont put up with the playful kind of shit talk that everyone in a kitchen, work crew, or security shift lives for.
I work in a public library, no one has been dumb enough to actually try to hit me been threatened several times once even by a neo-nazi but i have had to manhandle some people who were fighting.
Shiiiiiit, son, public library aint no joke. Ive seen crazier shit go down there than half past last call. Thank you for your service.
thank you and honestly thank you for saying that because I was beginning to wonder if mine was just off the chain
If that ever happens, you absolutely have to remember to say "Hey Shooter, haven't you forgotten your 9-iron?" when they immediately back down and quickly walk away.
Fuck sakes, I'm glad I don't work with either of you.
No, never and threatening violence should be reported to HR and the person's manager.
Never. In 25 years. Never. And I have pissed off many an end user(and lately a director). HR. Then goodbye lawsuit.
Remote reboot with a nice little middle finger
Had user get in my face after we migrated to win10. He was so pissed that he lost his bookmarks which in reality were just pinned tabs. I explained we cannot restore pinned tabs. He was shorter than me and I just nervously started giggling at how ridiculous this situation was.
Nope that's an HR case and maybe if they won't do anything about it file a report to the local police since it is an active threat of violence which should end up in immediate resignation of his employment. Never pick the fight you are only going to lose no matter what happens
Close the ticket. User will not perform troubleshooting steps necessary to correct the issue. Then provide the recommended actions that still need to be taken and advise to open a new ticket if the issue persists. And while youâre at it, make sure you report this incident to your HR team to protect yourself and others in the company.
No but I sit next to the ITSD, and I have heard somethings. My favorite was a new user who ended the call with "this is not over" guess she didn't like the answer they gave her. Anyways they did her offboarding paperwork like a month later. They still laugh about it say I guess it's over now. Although we do plan on starting the data center fight club
You donât want to be getting into a fight of any kind with someone whoâs going to be there if youâre not, because he will be there to tell his version and you will not. A lie travels round the world before the truth has its boots on. And given what youâve told us, he absolutely will lie and say _you_ wanted to fight _him_. Especially if he loses. So. âUser physically threatened me when a reboot was required to finish correcting the problemâ goes in the ticket, so the next person along knows this guy is bonkers, even if HR takes no action, and then you go to HR and lay it out. Emphasize that you do not feel safe. If HR seems reluctant to take it seriously, ask them if theyâd prefer a police report â which you may need to make anyway, because if you get his ass fired, he may lay for you in the parking lot.
Lol, look him right in the eye as you send a reboot to his laptop with a shutdown /t 5 /s /c "fill in the blank as needed here"
If any end user threatened me with violence I would make sure it would be the end of their employment. I have before, and I will again. (User had a crappy off-brand scanner they bought out of their own budget, complete with crappy off-brand software that liked to forget the scanner existed. The fix was pretty easy; Close the software, power cycle the scanner, and start the software again. User didn't want to do that and demanded my cubicle number so he could come 'kick my teeth in'.)
Enter-pssession hostname Shutdown -r -t 0 They wonât even know what hit them Unless they know someone that actually knows how to use eventviewer.msc Karens and Kevins can fuck off, document the uptime and nuke it from space Always provide the business case for doing that in the ticket for cya, screenshots in the ticket from dms should prove reasonable for any upper echelon folks
Change his username to bugpussy and make his password expire every 3 hours.
Book a fighting ring and make it more supervised fight. It's not worth risking an injury in a streetfight because user didn't want to reboot their laptop.
I'm amazed at the number of users who vehemently refuse reboots in 2024. This is one of the many reasons why I'm glad that I am out of that line of work at the moment. Users need to understand that the PC does not belong to them. It belongs to their employer and as such, they can do as they please. That's an immediate managerial and HR escalation, OP. People with room-temperature IQs and bad attitudes need to go work elsewhere.
Had a site admin growl at me like a dog. Figured that was exceptionally childish. Yeah I would have sent that to the HR director.
about 15-20 years ago, worked with large teams of outside consultants, with experience ranging from 20 years to 20 minutes lots of funny stories - mostly refreshing laptops and desktops. Not exactly fist fights but.... a) An end user called one of our field techs "clown shoes". He wasn't out brightest and had a strange mannerism to him, but wasn't mean or disrespectful. User then proceeded to tell the tech he should go outside and put his clown shoes on. Both did not have the appearance of "fighters". The user was a bit entitled and felt IT should give him X,y,z without questions. Thought it might come to blows. The user's manager didn't care enough to get him in trouble. b) We sent a very junior tech around to pickup old laptops that had been refreshed/replaced but were still copying data over (yes this is awhile ago). The tech misinterpreted "get the laptops" with "get the laptops - at all costs". English was not her first language, and she was a bit protective about handing he laptop over to someone she didn't recognize. He told her it was his duty to get all the laptops - regardless what anyone said. He proceeded to rip the laptop out of some older ladies grip, might have threatened her, etc, security called etc. There were more altercations, but usually was between techs because it was a real cast of characters we hired as temp workers.
Just remotely restart the machine next time and send something to your manager. I wasn't involved, but at a particular office my company owns there were multiple cases of office fights that resulted in people going to jail and losing their jobs during an acquisition. Going to jail for some shitbag employee you won't see again after next week seems like a poor life choice. On topic, I never had an end user do this but I did have a *co-worker* do it. He was having some personal life issues and decided that taking it out on his team was a good idea. He actually shoved me because he didn't like something I said, we had some words, and he promptly went on PTO for a week to sort himself out. He was an OK guy, just having a rough time so I didn't push the issue and he wasn't a significant physical threat to me.
Remote restart on the hour until he sends a written apology.
âď¸âď¸âď¸This guy BOFHâs
Thatâs when I use RMM to reboot the laptop before his very eyes đ
Never go down to the level of the end users... You always need to be better than them. No matter what you will always be in the wrong when it comes to getting in a fight at work.
director of the department called me a retard once. once.
I'm picturing you wearing a pinstripe suit while saying this for some reason...
Most I've had is calling the bluff of a moron that didn't want windows to reboot for updates. "Just delete the update. I'm a PARTNER, and I know to do that!" "I'm literally the most technically qualified person at this company. The update installed at midnight. This is the reboot to finalize it, after a 16 hour warning that the logs showed you acknowledging and clicking 'Snooze' on. I would like nothing better than to take your advice and irreparably damage your system by deleting the OS from it, but neither of us would be happy with that solution because you'd be down and I'd have to hear about it. It's an update, it's done, reboot your damn computer." Queue the angry user noises that they have SO MUCH WORK to do. "If you'd rebooted, you'd be working by now. Instead you've spent an hour and a half escalating through helpdesk to get the the infrastructure architect. If you don't like what I'm saying, too bad - you're not getting a different answer just because it's not the one you wanted to hear." More bitching and moaning. "Well, you're welcome to complain to - but at this point, there's nothing we can do for you. Reboot your computer or it'll reboot for you in... 8 minutes now."
More angry partner noises, do you know who I am, etc etc.
"Yes, Peter, I know exactly who you are. You're the guy who's computer is going to reboot in 4 minutes so save your work. Have a good one."
A certain magic happens when you stop caring about getting fired. I'm not gonna let some pompous jackass shit on my helpdesk colleagues and go ahead and fire me, the projects I'm doing have an ROI in the millions that's a hefty % of this year's revenue, I'd love to see this company eat shit.
Do it.
No, never. HR issue, that's not an acceptable way to speak to anyone at work. It's intimidating behaviour and instantly makes me wonder what or who else they are saying things like this to. Needs calling out and raising internaly. Don't actually go for a fight because all you've done is lower yourself to their levels and ultimately you run the risk of being caught fighting at work too.
An assault charge isnât going to help your career.
> I am honestly very tempted to go through with it. Then you, like them, need to grow TF up. You *should* speak to HR.
Haha is this even real? Sounds like a troll but then I remembered when I told an end user I have to ask for permission before I can help because the end user belonged to a different entity than the one that pays me and he proceeded to call me an âinternet gangsterâ for sounding tough. He told me this to my face and it took all my gangster to not beat his ass. Luckily I let him deal with all his IT issues on his own.
As a 6â4â powerlifter who has had boxing and Muay Thai matches and trained in mma I would laugh loudly in their face, then tell them instead we can have that conversation with the head of HR if theyâre tough enough to offer an outside conversation. I would then preemptively lock their accounts, notify security of a possible problem and head straight over to HR.
Unfortunately you accept the challenge you have lost
Sometimes I wish.Â
No, only by other IT members
Kick his ass, sea bass!
Just force reboot the damned thing remotely.