Spoiled Employee Demands A Silver Laptop And Gets What She Deserves But Not What She Wants

Listen, in this modern world, even the best among us get device-envy sometimes. We see the newer, prettier, faster thing and want it, even though what we’ve got is still working just fine.

OP worked in IT and was responsible for signing out laptops and replacing them as needed.

First time posting here, so apologies for any mistakes. This story dates back to about 9 years ago when I (31M at the time this took place) worked as a lead IT technician for a very large multinational company. It’s a bit long, so sorry about that.

The company had a range of different laptops available for employees to choose from that were classified by their size and weight (this is important later), including “standard laptops” (ie, a typical laptop with a 14″ screen) as well as “lightweight laptops” (smaller, thinner and with a 12.5″ screen – handy if you’re a frequent traveller).

Most of these laptops were pretty boring, grey, business devices, nothing special to look at.

They had a shiny new model, and of course, one employee just had to have it.

Anyway, one day the computer manufacturer introduced a new lightweight laptop model that was silver in colour and far more sleek and good-looking than the previous grey model.

We’d deployed a few of these around the building and soon got a visit from a lady who’d seen one of her colleagues with a shiny new silver laptop and had developed a severe case of shiny-device-envy.

I’ll call her Shiny Employee (SE) for the purpose of this story.

SE: “How do I go about getting one of those smaller laptops?”

Me: “Your current (standard) laptop isn’t due to be replaced yet, but you can request a change to a “lightweight laptop” on the IT website. Your manager will need to approve it however”

Now to be honest, I wasn’t a particular fan of people who waste the company’s money simply by wanting the latest shiny gadget – especially because it creates additional work for my team, and involves replacing equipment that is still perfectly functional and within warranty, but I behaved in a professional manner and simply toed the company line.

He gave her what was required and nothing more.

SE walked away, and the next day an approved request came through for a lightweight laptop. Fair enough. What she didn’t know was that company policy dictated that we only provided a brand-new laptop if we didn’t have usable second-hand laptops in stock (ie, those handed back to IT from people who’d left the company).

Being the good IT tech that I am, I scoured our return shelf and sure enough there was a used lightweight laptop in stock.

Unfortunately for this lady, it was last years’ grey model. But, rules are rules, so I asked one of my team to prep it for her. She’s then told that it’s ready and comes along to pick it up. She takes one look at it and promptly throws a tantrum.

SE: “This isn’t the one I wanted! I wanted the silver one!”

Me: “Sorry, company policy is that we can only order a new laptop if we don’t have usable second-hand ones in stock.”

SE: “But this is not the one I ordered!”

Me: “Yes it is, you ordered a lightweight laptop and this is exactly what we’ve set up for you” (I turn the laptop over and show her the company sticker confirming it to be the same classification of “lightweight laptop” as her request, and show her that it is physically smaller and lighter than her existing laptop).

SE: “No, I wanted a new silver one. This is unacceptable, I’m going to complain to your boss.”

His boss gave in but OP couldn’t let it go.

She stormed off in a huff and I could soon hear her complaining inside my boss’s office.

Unfortunately, although my boss knew I was just following process, he couldn’t handle all of the repeated moaning and soon folded and asked me to order a new device for her.

I wasn’t at all pleased at being overruled when I was simply applying company policy – particularly when it’s just a waste of money for an SE that wants the latest silver gadget, so cue malicious compliance time.

I could have just scoured our shelf of brand new laptops and dug out a new one for her (we installed dozens of laptops a week – it was a big company, so we always had plenty of new ones in stock), but I was told to *order* a new one, so that’s the process I’d follow.

Me: “OK, we can order a brand-new silver one for you, but you’ll need to raise another request ticket so we can order the laptop from it.”

I said this knowing full-well that this ticket would go to SE’s manager once again for approval – a manager who has a finite department budget.

Finally, someone else was on his side.

Sure enough, an hour later I get a phone call from SE’s manager:

Manager: “Why is SE ordering yet another laptop?”

Me: “She didn’t like the colour of the laptop we’d prepared for her, it was grey and she wanted a silver one.”

Manager: “How much is this going to cost me?”

Me: “Well, you’ll still be paying the monthly lease costs on SE’s original laptop as it wasn’t due for replacement, plus the lease costs of the lightweight laptop we prepared for her earlier, and there’ll also be the lease costs for this new laptop as well.”

Manager: “Oh hell no. I’m not paying for all that, I’ll reject this ticket and I’ll have a word with her.”

A short while later, SE returns.

She’s rather quiet and humble now after being chastised by her boss for trying to waste all his budget in the pursuit of having the latest shiny-silver gadget.

She quietly accepts the grey lightweight laptop we’d prepared earlier for her and then quickly departs.

I spend the rest of the day with a grin on my face.

What about Reddit? Let’s hear whose side they’re on this time.

The top comment comes up with another possible solution.

Or there’s this suggestion.

What’s wrong with pink?

What a fun little anecdote.

This person went on a funny little tangent.

I can just imagine the look on her face.

I imagine it made it all worth it.

Now that you’ve read that story, check out this one about a delivery driver who took a $400 grocery order back because she wasn’t given a tip.