I’m 26 and work in a small office where most of the staff is in their 40s to 60s. I’m not in IT and I’m not a tech wizard, I just know how to use basic programs without panicking.
Somehow that’s turned me into the unofficial “tech guy.” I never volunteered, but anytime someone’s email freezes, the printer jams, they can’t remember a password, or Zoom won’t load, it’s instantly my responsibility.
I’ve tried to be helpful, but it’s gotten ridiculous. I’ve been pulled out of meetings, interrupted on calls, and even bothered during lunch because someone “can’t find the PDF button again.”
Last week our actual IT guy was out sick, and my boss told me to “step in” and help people until he came back. I told him no, because I’m not trained for any of this and I have my own work to do.
He rolled his eyes and said, “You’re the youngest one here, this stuff should be easy for you.” I told him that being born after a certain year doesn’t automatically make me qualified to fix Outlook or whatever meltdown someone is having. A couple people laughed, but my boss didn’t think it was funny.
Now I’m “not a team player” and apparently “difficult” because everyone assumes it takes me two seconds to fix everything (it doesn’t), and I’m tired of being treated like IT just because I’m younger than them.
I really don’t think being 26 makes me the default tech department.
AITA?
>I’ve been pulled out of meetings, interrupted on calls, and even bothered during lunch
Obviously these are unacceptable and your colleagues need to recognise boundaries.
That being said I would suggest that, being valuable to your employer not just for the work you do yourself but for how you support colleagues too is not necessarily a bad thing.
I write this as someone who has done his fair share of rotating PDFs, extracting zip files etc for more senior colleagues.
As an IT person NTA. Every call I get is a big ?? and figuring it out while people stand around waiting is incredibly stressful. Expecting someone with no training and limited experience to be the in-house IT person is unfair. I would have suggest asking boss who you should call when you don’t have an answer and then always calling them. That would get the message across without coming across as unwilling.
thats a great idea! just kind of pretend like idk lol. and YES the standing over my shoulder is crazy, it would be fine if they were learning how to do it themselves for the future but thats not the case
NTA. What’s especially weird is that being born after a certain year should *disqualify* you from knowing how to fix Outlook and tons of other professional software, which has a totally different design idiom to any of the stuff that’s come about in the mobile-first era. Plus, I say this as a Windows 95 veteran who’s very comfortable with tech and quick to learn – Outlook was always the most baffling piece of software around.
ESH- Grasshopper.. let this old man man help you to not do shit.
Agree to do it and **do it wrong**.
Now you are still a team player, but no one will ask you to help when IT complains you screw shit up and it will take hours to fix.
I just deny being able to even spell IT. But weaponized incompetence is useful at times.
This is exactly how my sister ended up being a computer engineer.
Negotiate a raise.
This is how I became the office tech person. Once I showed them how much they were saving by not outsourcing, they increased my salary!
NTA. You should try bringing it up again with your boss. You could do it like this. “Hey (boss’s name) I want to discuss what my position at this company entails, because I’ve been asked to do work that frankly isn’t in my job description.” And really emphasize the fact it’s taking a toll on your assigned work. Bring up the fact that your coworkers feel the need to encroach on your personal time (during lunch). Point out that they have an IT person and if there’s an issue because they’re gone, then maybe they should employ more than one.
NTA.
There needs to be training regarding this kinda stuff. Meaning everyone should know basics. If they didn’t tell this responsibility in job description, you aren’t the one responsible.
Pulling out of meetings for 1 stuck paper is insane. Like imagine telling a client hey man sorry I’ve gotta go because printer jammed.
People in their 60’s have no excuse to not know office software any more or less than anyone else unless they never worked in an office, right?
I had this problem before at a retail store, and I shamed them into promotion after promotion because no one above shift lead knew how to use Excel, the thing they used to make schedules.
As a matter of “future-proofing” your career, it doesn’t hurt to lean into tech skills and pick that kind of thing up on the side wherever you can.
But, no you’re NTA for declining to be shoe-horned into a role you didn’t get hired for, especially when these dinguses are just making assumptions based on your age, rather than making the mental effort to learn something new themselves.
It’s honestly kind of a red flag when a company hires you for one role and then expects you to fill multiple roles with no change in pay/benefits.
Buuuut… A H or no, once you get the “not a team player” label, it’s time to touch up your resume and start looking for a way to jump ship.
NTA. I’ve been in the same situation. After a while I just started acting clueless like them. Mess with it and then be like “well I have no clue” lol.
I also always hit them with the “I don’t have the permissions to do this. You need someone in IT with a password.”
As someone in my mid-40s, we grew up with this tech even more so than you did, because “idiot proofed” phones and tablets weren’t a thing.
Someone in their 60s, if they were working office jobs, has had this tech most of their careers. They just remember what the save icon actually pictures.
NTA for not bowing to weaponized incompetence, but being right isn’t going to give you points with the manager. You’re going to need to figure out how to navigate office politics.