The Mythical Office 'IT Person': When Confidence Collides with Reality in Tech Support
Picture this: it’s another busy day in the digital trenches of tech support. You’re on the phone, walking someone through a printer issue. You brace yourself—printers, after all, are notorious for transforming ordinary office workers into would-be computer whizzes or, more commonly, into panic-stricken button mashers. But today’s caller? Oh, today’s caller is special.
“Don’t worry, I know how to do everything with these printers!” he boasts. “I could just about take them apart and put them back together again, except that’s your job. I’m the IT person here!”
(Narrator’s voice: He was definitely not the IT person there.)
What unfolds next is a scene that every tech support veteran will recognize. Five minutes later, our “IT person” is stumped by the simplest of tasks: printing a test page directly from the printer. As the original poster, u/Roguefem-76, recounts, she had to explain this supposedly basic operation to the self-proclaimed expert. Just another day in tech support, right?
The Tale of the Accidental IT Guru
If you’ve ever worked in or with a small business, you probably know that the title of “IT person” can be…well, nebulous. As u/Shandrakorthe1st points out, being “the IT person” often just means being the most computer-savvy person on staff—which, depending on the office, might mean you once successfully attached a file to an email, or, as one school’s aptitude test required, could “format a floppy disk.” (A feat that, thirty years ago, launched one commenter’s spouse into an illustrious career as the school’s official IT Coordinator. Move over, Silicon Valley.)
This low bar for tech expertise is both a blessing and a curse for real IT professionals. As u/rezwrrd explains, many small businesses have a “Computer Guy” at each location: some genuinely helpful, others more interested in bragging about their prowess than actually solving problems. The helpful ones are a godsend—collaborative, competent, and ego-free. But the others? Well, they’re the stars of stories like this one.
The Dunning-Kruger Printer Tango
There’s a special kind of comedy in watching someone’s bravado dissolve into confusion. Our intrepid “IT person” was quick to declare mastery over all things printer, but the moment he was asked to do something as unglamorous as print a test page from the device itself, the façade crumbled.
As u/Fine-Key4594 observes, there’s often a gulf between self-perceived and actual ability—a classic case of the Dunning-Kruger effect. “I love how some people truly overestimate their ability and then can’t perform the task you want them to, even though they declared they could,” they note. It’s an experience that resonates with anyone who’s ever had to patiently explain to someone why holding down the “Go” button for five seconds isn’t exactly hacking the Pentagon.
Of course, to be fair, some printers do hide the test print function in labyrinthine menus. But more often than not, the problem isn’t the technology—it’s the overconfidence.
The Humble Brag (and the Not-So-Humble Threat)
This overconfidence can sometimes morph into something more problematic. u/InsGesichtNicht, who works for a Managed Service Provider (MSP), recounts dealing with an in-house “IT person” who, whenever there’s a hiccup (even unrelated to the MSP), threatens to drop their contract: “I can do it myself.” Spoiler: she cannot.
This kind of posturing isn’t uncommon. As u/3lm1Ster dryly puts it, “I could easily do your job! But I am too valuable in my current position to leave.” It’s the tech world’s version of “I could have gone pro, but my knee gave out.”
The Community’s Greatest Hits
The Reddit thread is a goldmine of similar war stories and gallows humor:
- u/PeorgieTirebiter recalls a “recognized computer professional in the state of Alaska!” who sent a ranting email devoid of technical detail—only to have his manager apologize on his behalf when the reply was read by someone else. Proof that a title doesn’t always mean competence.
- u/Simlish lampoons the self-declared experts with a deadpan rundown: “I have a lot of experience with the whole computer thing. You know, emails, sending emails, receiving emails, deleting emails…” You get the idea.
- u/Geminii27 points out that sometimes the “IT” label is just a way to make someone feel important, or a polite way to keep the boss’s nephew out of trouble (and out of the mail room).
And then there are the stories that veer into the absurd. u/thevoidhearsyou relays a friend’s experience where a caller, asked to print a test page, claims the printer “exploded”—resulting in ink and toner everywhere, and even a hazmat call. (Pro tip: Don’t try this at home.)
Why We Love (and Loathe) the Office IT Hero
At the end of the day, these tales are funny because they’re so universal. Every office has a “tech person,” and sometimes that person’s real skill is just being one step ahead of everyone else—or at least sounding like they are. But as u/Roguefem-76 [OP] clarifies, in this case, our hero wasn’t even that: “This was a guy working in a department store. He was definitely not any form of IT person.”
So, why does this dynamic persist? Maybe it’s a mix of necessity, ego, and the ever-widening gap between what technology can do and what the average user understands. And as long as offices have printers, there will always be stories like this—where confidence meets reality, and tech support gets to save the day (while quietly cackling inside).
Have your own “fake IT hero” story? Share it in the comments! After all, misery—and laughter—love company.
Original Reddit Post: Just another day in tech support