You open a program for work… and suddenly it doesn’t work.
So you tell your supervisor.
They tell you to call the help desk.
You call the help desk… they can’t help.
They tell you to submit a ticket.
You go to submit a ticket… but first you have to create an account.
To create the account, you have to link your work ID.
To link your work ID, you need your phone for a code.
Then it makes you create a new password (not your usual one, obviously).
Then you have to verify your email.
You wait… finally get it… click the link…
…and it makes you log in again.
And grab your phone again. Another code.
Finally—you’re in.
Now you fill out the ticket, using that random username you were given on day one and told never to lose.
You submit it.
It says: “Pending supervisor approval.”
Your supervisor calls:
“Why did you submit this?”
So now you explain everything…
and walk them through it… step by step… because they don’t understand any of it.
They approve it.
You get an email:
“This will take up to 4 days.”
You need it done tomorrow.
So now you ask who to escalate to.
Your supervisor asks their boss.
Their boss asks someone else.
Eventually, a VP gets involved.
They tell you to contact a guy—Mr. Patel.
You call Mr. Patel.
He asks a million questions.
Eventually he realizes:
“This broke after a Windows update.”
So now he has to talk to his boss.
Meanwhile, your boss keeps asking:
“What’s taking so long?”
You explain… again.
You go to lunch.
Come back—Mr. Patel messaged you 5 minutes after you left:
“Call me.”
You call him. Voicemail.
He calls you back an hour later (because he was “in a meeting”).
He says:
“You need a new computer. That’ll take 5 days.”
Your boss’s boss is now on your case because only you can do this one task.
You ask if there’s another way.
“No.”
Now your supervisor tells their boss, who tells their boss…
and suddenly the VP calls you directly.
You explain everything again (for the 4th time).
He makes one phone call.
Suddenly—you have admin access.
You fix the issue in 5 minutes.
It’s now 6 PM.
You spent all day waiting, escalating, and explaining…
…and the thing you fixed?
Didn’t even matter—because the other team never showed up anyway.
Oh god, I might be starting a job in IT for a major government service. How screwed am I?
Oh beyond, but it's going to be completely out of your control.
Funding never being available, requests taking forever to get approved that people forget you even asked, and nobody taking ownership of anything and stuff just gets passed around until people stop talking about it.
Oh and this super important project that somehow affects the smallest workgroup in the building? Drop everything! You need to get this done NOW! And then that workgroup comes in after it's done and they tell you thanks but they didn't need the project done for another 2 months. Oh and in 2 months that project you got finished needs to be moved to a completely different location now and it's due tomorrow.
But everyone is mostly chill and for 90% of the job it's not stressful. Pay and benefits are...average, but you get bank holidays off now.
Frankly, stuff like this is not usually that common.
There is a truism about life, though, that is especially true in the corporate world: You think up an idea and it sounds easy peasey. When you actually try to implement that idea, you tend to run into a number of things you didn't initially think about.
There is often some separatism and administration overhead that can be annoying to deal with, but it's a crapshoot as to any particular organization will be moderately annoying vs. extremely annoying.
There is shit in almost every job. So do what you like, you might as well.
That said: When I was young, I thought if I read the employee manual well and followed all the rules, that was the way to advance. But in reality, it's about people. Figure out what things are done "by the book" and what things are done........not by the book. Don't stick your neck out, but try to help others with things you can help with, and learn who can help you. Beware those that seek credit or seek to get others in trouble, and pay attention to who has favour with the C Suite. It takes time, but just realize that politics happens everywhere - humans gonna human.
Also, document document document. Someone asks you to do something wrong? "Hey, sending this email jsut to confirm you wanted me to do X" - keep a paper (electronic or written) trail. Don't be paranoid, but keep track of things so you have a record of who told you when. Then when shit hits the fan, you can help redirect it away from you.