Rushing into Chaos

It is holiday-time and systems that rely on human-beings are under stress, with the deficiencies of those systems designed to supplement human-beings also being exposed. 

Two issues, alike to an extent but in different academic organisations, have occurred during this holiday season and these have revolved around passwords. With a lack of IT Support during this period, comes chaos. I am sure that the issues experienced are SYSTEMATIC and are no doubt affecting many users at these institutions. Bu what is the real problem?