IT Employee Shows What It’s Like Dealing With “Helpless” Co-worker Who Calls Him Every Day

If you've ever worked in an IT or computer Help Desk position, you probably aren't shocked by the utter lack of wherewithal some folks have with computer systems.

And a recent TikTok uploaded to the @dailypodclips3 account encapsulates this struggle.

In the video, an organization's IT worker recorded a conversation he had with a "helpless" employee he says calls his desk every single day with an issue.

"We all have these coworkers," a text overlay in the video reads, followed by a facepalm emoji. A secondary overlay states, most likely sarcastically: "I love IT."

The TikToker and tech department employee begins his video by answering a phone call from one of his coworkers seeking assistance.

"Hello," he says at the top of the video after tapping on his phone to answer the call.

She replies with a single word: "Help."

"With what?" he says back.

"Can you come down?" she immediately responds.

Before agreeing, he first asks her to try and explain the issue. "Well what's going on?"

"I don't know I think my computer froze," she tells him before chuckling.

"Just restart it," he tells her, seemingly surprised she hadn't attempted to do that yet.

But, according to the co-worker, this wasn't an option for her. "I can't. I tried doing everything ... but it won't let me — it froze."

Again, sounding shocked that she didn't consider a hard reset, he proposes that as a possible solution. "You can just hold the power button?"

The employee acquiesces that she hadn't considered that as an option. "OK, I'll do that."

Next, he carefully explains to her how one goes about powering down a computer. "Hold it for like — it's gonna take like 30 seconds."

"OK, bye," she tells him.

"All right," he says, ending the call by tapping a button on his office phone. Following this, he explains that the woman who was just on the phone is a repeat offender.

"That lady calls every single day. Problems that aren't problems, makes me go downst– oh my Lord. I. Love. Her."

He adds in a caption for the video, "We all have that helpless coworker. But she keeps me busy."

His video plays out like a real life version of IT Crowd's running gag when someone from the office phones the computer tech department. Characters in the series in a variety of different scenes, when answering the phone, promptly asks whoever is giving them a ring: "Hello IT — have you tried turning it off and on again?"

And while comedy is usually rooted in truth, have you ever wondered why turning a machine off and on again usually works? Latitude IT shared why this is the case in an article about this simple but stupid fix.

According to the outlet: "When you turn off a device, it effectively shuts down all running programs and processes, allowing the system to 'reset.' Turning the device back on then launches the system with a clean slate, which can resolve any issues that were causing it to malfunction previously."

So what does a "clean slate" in computer terms? This basically means that it rids the device of any "stuck processes."

Since computer programs are humming along in an operating system simultaneously and one of them gets "stuck" then this will lead to a sort of traffic jam scenario.

This jam slowly begins to affect other processes that are running in the computer's operating system. Ultimately, this contributes to a "total system failure."

When you restart a device, this gives these computer processes a fresh start.

That's because the stuck processes have been effectively eliminated. The highway of processes has been wiped clean and there's a new batch of traffic coming through — and none of them are experiencing engine failure.

Well, that is, until you're working and another stuck process occurs.

Force quitting a program or finding whatever's associated with that stuck process and stopping the activity on that is another way to try and rectify the situation.

However, this doesn't always work. Which is power the "turn it off and turn it on again" solution will usually do the trick that other fixes cannot.

TikTokers who responded to @dailypodclips3's video posted a variety of comments pertaining to this potential issue. One person quipped that the woman was his "job security."

Someone else joked: "Started the call like she was in a hostage situation."

And then there were IT professionals who seemed all too familiar with these types of co-workers. "'Help' 'No, explain first.' My favorite users."

Someone else mockingly remarked: "'No one showed me how to submit a ticket.'"

Another lamented employees who don't use IT help ticketing systems: "'Ma’am please put in a ticket for this.'"

For someone else, the reason behind these issues with some coworkers is that they put in absolutely no effort to become proficient in the technology they use on a daily basis: "I get that tech can be finicky but some people make ZERO attempts to learn it 😭😭 I work with someone just like that."

Have you ever worked at a job and encountered someone who showed zero initiative to try and learn a core skill that would aid them in becoming a more independent employee?