We all know that every job comes with a bunch of jokes that might or might not be funny (even when you understand them).

The helpdesk is not an exception, and that’s why one day our manager felt it necessary to tell us this.

Manager: “If a customer is complaining that he is not able to log in, please don’t joke that he is fired. There are a lot of people being laid off recently; you might be on point.”

When I was fresh out of college, I landed an amazing international internship in France. I should have noticed the red flags that my boss was going to be a nightmare when he lost my paperwork for getting my visa, but I was too excited and left anyway.

When I got there, I wasn’t doing design work like I’d been told; I was managing their Facebook page. About a month in, I noticed that my boss would forget things — like when I had meetings with the French government about my visa or what he’d initially wanted posted — and blame me for his bad memory.

Once, he even threw pens and books all over the office, saying he was going to “call the government and give them a piece of his mind”.

I began to think that maybe this was going to be harder than I thought. It was only August, and I wasn’t sure I could make it to Christmas.

The final strike was after he tried to get me and another intern to sleep with him. He started massaging my shoulders at work, claiming I “looked tense.” I knew he was kind of a creep, but this was too much.

I called my school and family and tried to figure out the best way to leave — since he had a history of having a temper. I told my boss that my dad was sick and left two days later, but not before he called me and my school to try and tell them what a “s***ty girl” I was.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson about following my instincts. It hasn’t failed me since!

A long time ago, I was ten years old, and it was the Sunday before a school trip to the other side of the country. It was around 8:00 pm, and I was so excited that I decided to do a somersault on a very old couch.

As you can guess, it was a very bad idea, as I was somehow able to get the braces on my teeth stuck in the fabric. My parents were able to free me, but unfortunately, not without breaking my braces.

I was crying my heart out. It wasn’t out of pain — I’m pretty sure I was fine — but because I realised I would miss the school trip.

I don’t remember if my parents first tried to call a dentist, but even if it was the case, they were unsuccessful; we were living in the remote countryside. So, ultimately, they called my school teacher, who was the school director, too, and was probably already under a lot of stress because of the school trip.

It happened to be a good decision because he was able to put my parents in touch with a dentist a few towns away who agreed to take us as an emergency — on a Sunday evening around 10:00 pm for a “non-medical” emergency.

Thanks to this school teacher and this dentist, I was able to take my school trip against all odds.

A customer comes in with his prepaid phone back when cell phones are still relatively new.

Customer: “I want to put some credit on my phone. I can’t figure it out.”

Me: “Can you show me where you’re having problems?”

Customer: “Well, I’ve put some money in it, but it’s not doing anything.”

Me: “Did you use Amex to upload the credit? Sometimes Amex can take a while.”

Customer: “What? No. I used cash.”

He thought that he was supposed to put the money inside the phone. I took the back lid off the phone et voilà, €50 tucked in there.

A few years ago, I worked in internal support for a big company. Every first of August and first of September, it was the same ritual of customers forgetting their passwords over the holidays.

Me: “Okay, I’ve reset your password. Please connect with [temporary password].”

Customer: *Quite condescendingly* “It doesn’t work!”

Me: “Okay, can you read me the error message?”

Customer: “‘Your password has expired and must be changed.'”

Me: “Press ‘okay’ and enter a new password.”

Customer: *Borderline hysterical* “It still doesn’t work!”

Me: “Can you read me the error message?”

Customer: “‘Your password has been successfully updated.'”

Me: “…”