IT worker told to stop wasting time helping their coworkers, IT tickets get out of control when all the small problems are no longer getting fixed: 'Everyone was quietly enjoying the fact that Boss's ridiculous policy had backfired spectacularly'

When you work in IT, your entire job is kinda sorta helping people—in one way or another. There are bigger issues and smaller issues, but if you ignore the smaller issues, there are always going to be more big issues down the line and possibly even outright catastrophes. 

Nipping problems in the bud is definitely the best way to deal with them. Ignoring the problem and letting it grow out of control is always just going to mean more issues down the line. 

When it comes to a workplace environment, problems mean a loss of efficiency and productivity, even if it's just Jan in HR who doesn't know how to turn her computer off and on or how to connect her computer to the wifi, every minute that she's struggling to get that issue sorted is time and money that the company is losing. Maybe she'd just be playing Candy Crush on her phone during that time anyway—but you get the picture.

So, when this boss ordered this IT worker to stop helping his coworkers, he opened up Pandora's can of worms that would cause knock-on effects that would cause them to regret their commands.