It was well past midnight when the helpdesk phone lit up with a peculiar call that would soon become the legend of the night shift. The caller, who identified themselves as a loyal employee named Gary, was clearly distressed. “My monitor is way too bright,” he explained with urgency, “and it’s ruining my gaming experience.”
The confusion was immediate, since it was 3 AM and the company helpdesk was only open for urgent issues, usually related to servers or software crashes. I asked Gary if he was at the office. “No, I’m at home,” he said. “Can you help me dim it?”
The request was unconventional enough to make me chuckle, but being the professional I tried to guide him calmly through some troubleshooting steps. “Have you tried adjusting the brightness through the monitor’s physical buttons?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I pressed all those buttons, but it didn’t help. It’s like the screen is glowing like the sun.”
Curious, I asked him what type of monitor it was and if he had checked the software brightness settings. Things got stranger when Gary said he wasn’t using a computer at all; instead, it turned out he was staring at his smart TV that was connected to his gaming console — and he thought it was his work monitor.
Turns out Gary was a remote worker who sometimes played video games after work, but tonight he was having trouble falling asleep and wanted a dimmer display. Unfortunately, the IT helpdesk wasn’t the place to send his request, especially at 3 AM. I gently explained that this was beyond IT support and maybe he could check the TV’s picture settings or use a screen-dimming app designed for gaming.
Gary thanked me and admitted he probably should have called a gaming forum instead. Before hanging up, he added, “You’re the most patient IT support person I’ve ever talked to at this hour. Maybe you should add ‘gaming light dimmer’ to your resume.”
Some calls you expect, others you never see coming. That night, the brightness of Gary’s “monitor” was the brightest story the helpdesk had seen in months.