These Are The Night(Shifts) You’d Rather Forget

(I work in an after-hours team, covering the night shift. We work hard, as we cover lots of clients, but management often forgets we exist. It’s about three am when I get this call.)

Me: “Welcome to [Company] after-hours IT service desk. How can I help you?”

Caller: “Hi, I’m from [Other Company]. I need a password reset on my login, please?”

Me: “Okay, I’ll see if I can help you with that, ma’am. You said [Other Company?]”

Caller: “Yes, at [Major City].”

Me: “Bear with me a moment. I just need to look up some information.”

(I’m puzzled – we don’t do work for that company, and never have. I start looking up my intranet information and emails, finding nothing.)

Me: “I’m not sure what’s going on here. I don’t have any information for [Other Company]. Are you sure you called the right number?”

Caller: “I’m fairly sure. Look, it doesn’t matter. I can get it done later, I’ll call back. Thanks.”

(I finish the call, mystified. I look through the info again and can’t find anything, and neither can my colleagues. We write it off as a wrong number until about half an hour later:)

Me: “Welcome to [Company] after-hours IT service desk. How can I help you?”

Manager: *obviously irate* “You! Did you take a call from someone from [Other Company]?”

Me: “Er, yes. But—”

Manager: “Well, you’ve just lost us their contract! You lazy after-hours people, you just don’t do any work! I want your name!”

Me: “I’m [My Name]. I beg your pardon, who is this?”

Manager: “I’m [High-Level Manager who has a reputation for being an a**hole]. I’ve got your name. Now explain to me why you didn’t help that user!”

Me: “Because she’s not one of our customers? I have no information on that company as a client, and we haven’t been informed of any new onboarding.”

Manager: “Don’t give me that bulls***! You lot were trained!”

Me: *confused* “Er… no, we weren’t… When was this?”

Manager: “Last week! You were trained in three batches. I met every trainee at every session myself!”

(I have a pretty distinctive appearance at the moment: my hair is dyed fire-engine red. It’s allowable under dress code, as long as it’s kept neat.)

Me: “I assure you, I wasn’t. Did you talk to a woman with bright red hair?”

Manager: *obviously put off by the question* “No! That wouldn’t be allowed under dress code.”

Me: “The reason I ask is because I have bright red hair, and if you don’t remember it, you probably didn’t meet me.”

Manager: *sounding confused and less angry* “I don’t remember everyone I meet… You should have got the emails…”

Me: “I assure you it’s pretty distinctive. Maybe the day team was trained, but we weren’t? I don’t have any emails about [Other Company] as a client.”

Manager: *all steam gone* “Maybe. Right. Um. Well, I’ll look into this.” *hangs up*

(It turned out that he had completely forgotten to even talk to our team leader about Other Company as a client, and he definitely hadn’t set up training, access, and information for our desk. We got a rushed, slipshod training, and a shared account that we could only use half the time. We never got an apology.)