Toddlers In Tech Support

I’ve been at this job of tech support for about six to eight months now. My supervisor likes the numbers I put up, taking a lot of calls and closing a lot of tickets. I make the other Tier 1 techs look bad because of my metrics.

I get into work one day and my supervisor comes up to me and says he’s getting flack from upper management about all the unnecessary open tickets we have. He wants me to go through this list of over 100 tickets and call out to the customers and work them. He says that is my task for the day and to only take inbound calls when I’m finished with this list or if he asks me to help. Across the list are a lot of easy tickets — basically, ones you know are resolved, but you need the customer’s confirmation that the issue is resolved before you close the ticket.

I log into the ticket system and start opening up all the tickets on my list. This takes a little while, and then I start going through the tickets one by one. I call each store location and see whether the issue in the ticket has been resolved or not, and if it hasn’t been, I work with the customer.

I’ve been at the task for about half the day now and I’m close to finishing. Lunchtime comes around and a few of the Tier 1 techs leave to take their lunch. I finish up my work around the time the first group of Tier 1 techs returns from lunch.

All of a sudden, behind me, one of the more irritating people in our group (he’s loud and bossy and complains constantly to management) blurts out:

Coworker: “Who’s AM? Whose initials are AM? They closed a ticket I had opened. I was going to call the customer back after I finished lunch.”

Me: “That’s me. What’s the ticket number?”

Coworker: “Why did you close my ticket? I had it opened first. It was my ticket. I was going to call the customer.”

Me: “The only tickets I worked on were from the list given to me. If I closed a ticket you had grabbed, it was because I was working through the list our supervisor gave me.”

Coworker: “It was MY TICKET!”

[Coworker] is getting loud now and he’s starting to draw attention with his little temper tantrum. What this current situation has come down to is that this coworker grabbed a bunch of these easy tickets so he could pad his numbers; he wanted simple callback tickets where he could just ask the customer if the issue was resolved and then close the ticket. He’s mad because he can’t easily pad his metrics now.

Me: “I did the work I was told. Let it go. We’re working together here for the company.”

Coworker: “I had the ticket first! It was MY TICKET!”

I’ve finally had enough of his temper tantrums and I snap.

Me: “I don’t give a s*** if you grabbed the ticket. It was on my list. I went through this list as I was instructed and I worked on resolving issues for the company. I’m tired of listening to you whine. Shut up! No one wants to hear your baby temper tantrums anymore!”

Coworker: *Quietly, under his breath* “It was my ticket.”

Me: “Shut up. I don’t want to hear it anymore.”

Coworker: *Even more quietly, almost a whisper* “But it was my ticket.”

Me: “It wasn’t your ticket. It was a company ticket. The ticket was resolved and closed. Drop it.”

At least from that day out, my coworker hasn’t thrown his baby temper tantrums anymore.