Every Request Needs a Ticket? Understood.
A few years ago I was an I.T. Analyst for an aerospace company in Toronto. There were three sites, and one analyst for each site. I was barely able to keep up with the workload for my site but managed. One day I found out that one analyst had given a month notice and had already quit. The company did not replace him. I had to drive daily between cities to manage both sites. Shortly after, my boss was let go. And I was given a new boss who lived in another country.
The work piled up, and several employees at a time would have non-working computers because there was nobody to help them. I had to stop supporting projects that I was involved in with other managers, like getting 20 computers for the factory floor. This was definitely going to blow up, and I needed to cover myself. I had a talk with the GM and explained that I'd get walk-ups, phone calls, texts and emails because most of the employees refused to use the ticket system. I'd even have employees coming up when I was on a call and try talking in my ear. The GM decided that all requests must come in the form of a ticket.
I adopted a no ticket = no work policy and enforced it on all employees and managers. I also stopped answering texts and calls. I'd answer all email requests with “Please open a ticket.” Most managers refused, so I would just thank them for their time while they fumed off to file a complaint against me. A week went by with no copier on the main floor because everyone refused to open a ticket to request more ink. Everyone had to walk downstairs to make their copies. A week went by with several lathes in the factory not working because everyone refused to open a ticket. Several computer illiterate / lazy employees would now have to ask their coworkers for help because they refused to open a ticket, and now they're behind on their work. Sometimes a new employee would spend 2 or 3 days in the office with no laptop and no user account because the requests never came in the form of a ticket. Employees would go on business trips without laptops because they refused to open a ticket.
This went on for several months and I was able to partially manage both sites, but it was exhausting arguing with everyone every day. I'd get threatened by management all the time but nothing would ever come of it. I found out one day that the company wasn't planning on replacing the employee who quit, so I had enough. I spent a few weeks declining requests as usual, but when they came from a manager I'd add “and if you don't like it, then fire me. Request denied.” Eventually I decided my mental health was more valuable than the company, and when the last Analyst went on vacation I simply left my phone and laptop on my desk and stopped coming in for my shifts, 0 notice given.
A week later I get a call from HR, they found my wife's # as an emergency contact, and said I let them down and there was nobody to help. I replied with “Good, now you know how it feels”, and left it at that. Six months later the only analyst left tells me the company replaced my position with two, but they're still in rough shape. All they had to do was replace an employee.
tl;dr – Aerospace company doesn't replace IT staff when they quit, workload doubles, I get permission to decline requests that don't come in the form of a help desk ticket. Everyone refuses tickets, I refuse work, no work gets done.