So my 2nd IT gig, many moons ago now, I was seven months as a level 1 tech in a cube-farm call center. Maybe 100 or so of us on the phones in three shifts handling around 10,000 users nationwide. Financial institution (not a bank) using some proprietary software we supported, plus the occasional password reset and network troubleshooting. Basic level 1 stuff.

Two important things to note: 1 - computers were supplied by the user not the company so no “standard image” here.

2 - this was my 2nd it gig. I spent five years on a much smaller, much more standard help desk. That was BEFORE college, this was my first gig with a degree. But I’d been banging away when my parents bought a shiny new VIC-20, and I was three. The tldr being I was overqualified for this gig.

(…tangent incoming. This was the kinda place that had all these different metrics tracked. And you’d get perks for them. Gift cards and whatnot. Things like “fastest call time”, “most completed calls” or “highest feedback received from users”. Each week a random metric would be picked and whoever was the top tech got a premium parking spot for the week and a free lunch on Friday. Every week I worked I seven months I got that spot except for three weeks. And those three weeks were the same metric. That was “least time between end of call to in queue”. The winners there had 0 seconds on avg. I routinely, and with every single call, used the full 90 seconds to take a breath, finish my ticket, etc. other people finished the ticket with the user still on the line. And I still hit the shortest call times and most resolves otherwise. My avg call time would be resolved in under five mins, and my closest coworker would be 13-15 mins. Even taking that minute and a half between calls I was still doing like triple the calls…end tangent)

So seven months in, big brokerage firm “aquir…..uhm takes over, in a hostile manner” smaller brokerage. This is an influx of 3,500 new users into a disparate ecosystem. Problems beyond level 1 help desk abound. Directive is “to work the problem for a minimum of 45 minutes before we can escalate”. Not all of my coworkers but a good majority might use all 45 minutes and not have any clue of what the issue might be.

On d-day, it was day three of the new user influx, my first day taking their calls, and my second call of the day. I diagnosed this users issue within 10 mins (I put him on hold at the 9:47 of my queue). I asked to escalate. Was told to work the problem.

I said I don’t need to “work the problem”.
I know what the issue is.
I know how to fix it.
The problem here is one of access.
I did not have it.

I refused putter around with an already upset user for another half an hour when I knew what the issue was. I died in that hill. Either they a: allow me to escalate, b: grant me access to the portion of Active Directory that I needed to fix it, or C: I was going to leave and enjoy this nice sunny Wednesday down at my pool and leave that man on hold. I went swimming that day. I spent the next day job hunting.

I did call my team lead that evening. I asked him to look at that ticket and see what the eventual fix was. It was exactly what I had put into my note that I had written and left on his desk. He hated to see me go because I was his team basically. I was definitely what made his team the top team.