What should have been a simple matter of using a PC at work today and changing my password (we are required to change passwords every 90 days) turned out to feel more like slaying a dragon when it was all said and done!

None of the “normal” things were working for changing my password today. I could not get in with my current password. I pretended I forgot my password, and none of my security question answers were working, so no luck there (it was probably a case-sensitive thing or some shit).  I went to my immediate supervisor, and she wasn’t able to help me, either. She suggested I call the hotline and go from there.

So I did. Yay, a rare chance to sit on my ass at work! I don’t get too many chances to sit on my ass at work – my job is typically a “stand up all day and move around” kind of job, with the levels of physical labor ranging from minimal to…moderately strenuous –  with a majority of my work performed in a non-climate controlled environment. Even when I get a rare chance to work out in the air-conditioned areas, as my luck would usually have it, the A/C probably won’t be working. You might have an HVAC problem at your workplace if you know the repairman on a first name basis, but I digress! Today, thankfully, my levels of physical labor were pretty minimal (even when I wasn’t sitting on my ass talking to people on the phone).

I called the hotline, and was told that I had to get a “manager” to call tech support. The guy I spoke with wouldn’t even give me a direct phone number to do this, he instead told me that we should have this number at the workplace.

All righty! Thanks for nothing, mister!

So I went to my supervisor’s supervisor. Keep in mind this is a person I NEVER want to speak to about anything! I told her I was having trouble resetting my password, yada yada, and that she had to call tech support on MY behalf. I was horrified! I really wanted to take care of this myself. So I got to sit on my ass a little more on a comfy chair in her office while she was on the phone. She waited on hold for a bit, and finally got someone on the phone.

Turns out the person she spoke with was able to explain to her how she could slay this “dragon.” She was able to get a temporary password for me, so I could log back in and immediately change it. I was also able to clear out the old security questions and enter new ones. I wrote down EVERYTHING AND took a photo of it on my phone. Taking a picture of this info with the phone was her idea…I’m not going to keep this stuff on my phone, but it will get recorded and stored somewhere safe.

But there was more! Turns out my lowly request for assistance would wind up HELPING EVERYONE ELSE! She was now able to help other employees she had not been able to help previously. Another employee put in her request for a new password three days ago and she was still waiting to find out how to reset it.

I’m not sure exactly how all of this shook out. Maybe she just talked to the “right” IT person who actually knew how to do their job? Maybe it was me talking to someone unhelpful in IT earlier and reporting back that managers have to make the calls on the employees’ behalf? I honestly don’t know. But she was ecstatic that she now knew how to solve this problem. And had I not come to her with this request, she’d still be scratching her head and hoping that us lowly employees would QUIT COMING INTO HER OFFICE AND ASKING HER TO DO THINGS AND STUFF! JK, JK!

I humbly said “Hey, I do what I can!”