This pilot fish (IT guy) at a retailer manages a consulting call center that takes all of the help-desk calls and escalates them on-site as needed.

"One day, I noticed a new issue entered into the ticketing system by a help desk employee," fish says. "The description was 'HR employee called because her computer is on fire.'"

There's no other detail on the trouble ticket -- and no one has bothered to call fish to inform her about this emergency.

Fortunately, fish knows the HR employee works right across the hall from the IT office, so she runs over to find out what's going on.

"Turns out her new LCD monitor was smoking, and she called the help desk to ask them what to do," says fish.

"I don't know what was worse -- that HR didn't come right to me to get help, or that the help desk didn't raise an alarm immediately!"

Looks like helpdesks have not improved much over the years ............