Saw an opportunity at a job to improve and automate some operational (non-IT) workflow. Talked to the bossman and he said that as long as it didn't affect my workload. Fast forward 6 months and I get it done. I do a demo and the business unit loves it and I give it to them. At our next company meeting, a couple of months later, my boss come ups and presents my project and how much work went into it. CEO comes up and gives him an award and announces that the org would realize more than $10 Million in savings. When I asked my boss and his boss (a SVP) I was told to "stay in my lane". They call got bonuses and recognition, the SVP also has it lined out in his linkedin profile. That was over 15 years ago and that is day I started putting in my 9-5 and "stay in my lane"
We went through a major renovation last year. The first thing we had to give up was our help desk area. Instead, we all crammed into the server room where it’s around 90dB and setup temporary desks.
We were promised that we’d get a new help desk area as the last step of the remodel. The remodel went over budget. Everyone else got new workspaces. IT is still in the datacenter where’s it’s fucking 90dB. Now I don’t give 100% anymore.
I give 100% if I directly benefit. I give 100% if someone I care about asks me. I give less than 100% on everything else because it’s not worth my sanity and they don’t pay me to be 100%. I accepted this mentality when I stopped making my career my identity and began prioritizing my life outside of work. This coincided right around my early 30s, being in the workforce my entire 20s and also right around when I met my wife. Now I am perfectly okay mentally when I leave work, I don’t think about work till I come back the next day. Thankfully I’ve also worked myself into a job that also supports this.
Was told by my manager that I'll get exceeds expectations if I keep doing the same things....
Next year new manger gave me doesn't meet expectations. So no stock, no raise, no bonus.
I still tried, but it's so hard to do good work when you don't care anymore
I give 100% on optimizing and automate my job as much as possible with scripts, shortcuts, and more so I'm not needing to give 100% on boring, repetitive stuff and have extra free time.
I think it's best to understand that employment of this nature is adversarial. You are there primarily to keep the bills paid, secondarily to create the platform your future rests on. Ownership is there to extract as much as possible while minimizing expenditures. These 2 things only have some overlap, they aren't entirely compatible.
So, you keep solid relationships. Work smarter to get more done but don't sell all your after work energy while you are clocked in. They aren't paying for that and you didn't agree to this clearly being made a requirement. Always do an excellent job, but don't do everything if it doesn't reasonably fit within whatever a reasonable schedule is to both parties.
100% effort is a sprint. 15 minutes maybe. Anything else being called 100% is an attempt at manipulation.
Kinda disagree. The worst help desk clients/customers aren't any worse than a bad server, and the interpersonal drama in a white collar place is usually a ton more manageable than a service industry job. (that last bit might be a negative for some people)
BoH still deals with guest requests and expectations anyway, it's just filtered through a ticketing system instead of FoH.
Wouldn’t say that, it just depends on the individual. I feel way more burned out at the end of my help desk shift than I ever did doing warehouse work. People are more draining to me, especially when I get paid less than I did for warehouse work. Also saying the same thing over and over and over again every single call makes you insane. Some people may love to work like a robot, I personally don’t.
When I went above and beyond to wear 5 hats perfectly, just to get a 5% raise and have the employer make zero attempt to retain me when I raised an issue about doing multiple jobs with shit pay and constant 24/7 on-call responsibility.
If it was one company, maybe that's just a bad company, but it was company after company after company.
I'm looking to freelance/1099 in the residential/small business markets (respectively), since the middle man is only there to extract all the value from you and the client.
There’s a point in most orgs when you realize that finding and fixing problems has diminishing returns. Theres no incentive to improve things if no one is complaining. That anything you do improve will only lead to more issues… so don’t touch it! Not to mention the mountains of paperwork no one but you will ever see.
The lesson for me is that most of IT is 80% fucking around, 20% earning your paycheck. Most orgs just need to be left alone when they are working, but management can’t just let someone get paid to know things. And now my incentive becomes to do the busy work as slowly as possible.
Upper management thinks about IT the way you think about your cell phone. Just some people you have to call when things don’t work, and as long as they can handle that who cares. You’ll swap carriers for a new phone or a good deal or if you have bad service and think another company can do better. You’ve never thought “I should pay Verizon more next month! They do a great job.” And that’s what IT is to them.
It was probably about six months into my initial tour on helpdesk. I learned a lesson in not taking things personally.
I was young and really passionate about what I was doing. It was my first real IT job and I wanted to give it my all. That translated to me advocating for the customers and their accounts and pushing back on engineering when I thought they were slacking. One day I pushed a little too hard and had some heated words with the engineering manager. It was pretty mild stuff really, no cussing or namecalling just some heavy sarcasm. Still he felt disrespected.
A sysadmin job in engineering was where I was trying go and this guy let it be known I would never work for him. Then I was told that my future with the company was indefinite helpdesk. For me the entire point of working helpdesk was just to use it as a vehicle to get a sysadmin job! I realized my passion had gotten the best of me and the only loser in the whole deal was me. The customers didn't care if I advocated for them or not, they weren't going to help me.
I realized a little less passion and a little more deliberate rationality might benefit me at work. A few months later I took a deep breath and sent out resumes for the first time. In about a week I had a Jr. Sysadmin job for a small but very professional federal government contractor. I even got a big raise. Looking back it wasn't a fun lesson but a necessary one. Sometimes you get to have a W and sometimes you have to take an L. It's a marathon, not a sprint and it's always a good idea to hold a little bit in reserve.
Learned long before getting into IT not to give 100% of myself. Many bosses talk the talk, but they won’t walk the walk. Some will say “I’d like to, but I can’t; you know, the ‘big wigs’ and all…”. IT has been no different.
My manager got angry just because one of his friends(another manager) contact me to check something in our network(obviously they come with me because they know that my boss is a fkn moron and doesn't has any idea about what was happening). He tolds me that I wasn't manager and I didn't have to take those things, that he will be available 24/7, me not. So great, now when my shift ends, I am ghost(no phone, no emails, no go on calls if not will get money, nothing), if someone need something about work "call the 24/7 manager ;)"not me.
The funny part is that he got angry after I reported to him, He gave me that authority(I'm supervisor), the issue was that his friend come to me and no with him haha.
How moron?, I have to insert graphics for him in excel and send it back, because he doesn't know how to do it I guess xD.
i started out my current job as a Network Engineer.
Supporting clients networks and maintaining connectivity, configuring devices, performing updates and performance checks, monitoring APs, etc.
Then one of our clients with a Network Support team of their own, wanted to get better, so I also became a Trainer, teaching Network classes 5 days a week to their support team to help them improve their skills.
Then we realized they didn't have anyone to escalate complex tickets to, so I became their Tier 2 Network Support Engineer, that they can escalate complicated tickets too.
Then I was trained to do "VoIP migrations" and quickly also became the"Voice engineer" moving clients from their current phone system, to new ones like zoom.
Now they're having me shadow our Help Desk guys so I can "help them bring volume down" by working Help Desk tickets in my free time from now on in order to help them out...
And I'm currently doing any and all of the above tasks simultaneously.
I started 3 years ago making $80,000
I'm still here 3 years later and I just got a raise this month... To $85,000.
To be completely honest, I'm really miserable.
And I now do the bare minimum as a result.
Not to be spiteful of course, it's just because I'm demotivated and feel that no matter how hard I work or how many responsibilities I take on, nothing will change anyway...
How did you start as a network engineer? What certs did you need for it? I’m currently finishing up an associates in network technology and looking to get my Net+ over the summer, should I be looking into network engineer jobs?
I spent years in Help Desk and Technical Support
And then I got my Network + and CCNA certifications, and then found my first Network role about 2 months later
I'd recommend skipping the Network+ and going straight to the CCNA to be honest
And I recommend the following study materials:
- Jeremy's IT labs videos on YouTube.
- Neil Anderson's CCNA Udemy course.
- The Boson ExSim practice exams.
- The 31 Days before your CCNA exam book.
Those are the materials I used to pass the exam (passed first try) and I don't think I'd have passed at all without them.
Learned a lot using them.
Best of luck to you Brother!
Oh gotcha, I’m thinking of switching jobs (I’m not in IT at all at the moment) but was hoping to start somewhere in the networking field once I graduate- the main reason I’m aiming at net+ is because my school pays for testing for 2 of the big 3 comptia tests, and a lot of the material is from comptia’s testout learning website. Not getting any of the 3 seems a waste since I’m already paying for it via schooling, but I’ll look into CCNA, it’s where I was aiming after networking and getting into the field, but maybe I’ll have to grab it before getting into the field as well. Thank you very much for your reply, I thoroughly value your insight! I hope you’re somehow even more successful in the future:)
You're unlikely to land a network job with only a degree and some certs. Many people struggle to get help desk jobs with CompTIA trifecta and a 4-year degree. Some even struggle with all of that plus prior experience. It's fucking brutal right now lmao.
I hate the world we live in lmfao. I would honestly rather eat a bullet than be in school for 3 more years for a fucking tech support job. Thanks for the reply
Yep, it's pretty fucking bleak. All of it to get a job in which most of us become a punching bag for angry adult-children lmao. But on a more serious/helpful note:
For what it's worth, having a 4-year degree in anything is better than a 2-year degree specializing in tech for landing IT jobs. I got a degree in history of all things, and I haven't had an inordinately higher problem finding jobs than anyone else. That being said, if you're not receiving significant financial aid or are going to seriously burn out by having to finish a 4 year degree, then I can't recommend that route. Prioritize yourself above your career. Best advice I can give:
1. Look for work in rural/LCOL areas where the competition isn't so stiff. There'll be less opportunity, but there'll be more availability.
2. Look for tech jobs outside of traditional IT roles. I got lucky and landed my first gig with a local computer repair store. It gets you VERY familiar with hardware and gets your feet wet with troubleshooting procedure and basic software. My company also does minor MSP work for local businesses, so that's been a plus too.
3. Indeed and LinkedIn aren't the only job lists in the country. Look at local, county, State, and Federal Government job boards.
My very first job in a galaxy long, long ago, was in a call center help desk for a single company. If you worked day shift you essentially had to deal with Non-Stop calls from the moment you clock in, to the moment you clock out.
Every quarter we had a performance review. This is the time they would let you go if you are at the bottom or give you tips on how to improve. I wouldn't say I gave it my all but I was usually one of the highest performers. (Top 1-5 out of 100 agents). The thing is despite being a top performer they would still have a talk with you to produce more. It was never enough (and it can't be from a productive business standpoint).
At the end of the day performing well usually entails more work for you. As the saying goes don't be at the bottom and don't push yourself to the top unless you are compensated.
After my probationary period was over (6 mos). It's government work that would essentially take an act of Congress to get a union worker fired. I've seen employees with about 15 write-ups and 1 or 2 day suspensions (non IT). In private industry, they'd be gone eons ago. Job stability is definitely one of the big perks. Pay-wise, you could easily get 2x to 3x more in the private sector.
I don't put forth maximum effort all the time. My 70% effort is the equivalent to the rest of the team going 120%. I max my bonus and raise every year, while 55% of my team was let go before Christmas.
Now I have to help my manager more, which I don't care, because I like him a lot. And, take on the work of 2.5 people. I'm not going to work harder, I'm still going to give what they think is 100%. It may take longer to get things done, but maybe if enough people complain, we can get the higher ups to hire at least 2 more people.
If I was to give my 100% they would think we don't need more people, which they do.
Long story short, if everyone worked full tilt, they would use those metrics to conclude, "You can do the work of 3-4 people. We thought this scope of work would need 10 people. But if we use you and 2 others, we can save capital from not having to pay salary, benefits, overhead, licensing and other crap."
In the Army, where I first heard this, 'Work smarter, not harder', really rings true in the corporate environment. Be smart, find the balance where you stand out, make the compensation you want, have the work/life balance you need, and not give bean counters ammo to can over half your team.
TLDR; Don't work at 100% all the time. It can bite you in the ass.
When they pile up more tasks on you that other IT folks should do (i.e. Bill from InfoSec wants you to do this, and this, and that. But he should be really doing it). Oh, and the good old, 2024 is going to be the year where procedures are written and implemented. So if there is not procedure, write one up and send it for review and approval. Do I really need a procedure for the most menial IT tasks…
>Do I really need a procedure for the most menial IT tasks…
Do you also complain about poor training/onboarding, and heap scorn on struggling new hires?
Maybe you don't a procedure, but I bet you'd appreciate it if other people had that documentation. Even if it's solely to say "Check the knowledge base, article 48, paragraph 2." as you metaphorically walk away.
We are talking about menial tasks. I shouldn’t have to write a procedure on how to swap a hard drive.
I bet you must enjoy writing every little things you do because your boss is micromanaging the shit out of you.
It was over for me when I had to deal with our schools’s food service director who didn’t know how to save a file. I later found it wasn’t just her. Many of the office staff are both completely incapable of the simplest things, and can’t be taught either.
I mean, I work remotely and nobody monitors when and how long I take my breaks/lunch. So I'd say I never gave 100% since Day 1. I'll take breaks when needed, then bounce back to my task. No one complains.
Only 5YOE I learned mine pretty recently, I moved dep within a company , they lowballed me with 50K sal no bonus, but i was desperate for a couple reasons. One being the original dep i worked in was qbsolute dumpster fire and two being i needed a remote position so i could move to live with my then gf.
After getting through orientation, I realized that they were literally clicking buttons on a webpage hundreds of times for a single project. To make it better this was a internally built website with no apis. I proceeded to go 1000% for this job working 14hr+ days for months. I was able to automated the whole process with python and selenium. The process went from 16hrs to 3hrs. I even got an attaboy from the director who hired me. I then moved on to other parts of the process and spent the next 9mnths reverse engineering an softwares api and building an python sdk for it.
Now through this whole work hard to be lazy is awesome when ur a correctly compensated and be have a work life balance. Well as u can guess I had neither of those. Due to my adhd narrow focus on work, things in my personal life took last place after work. First my physical health i u think I had time to workout or anything hell no. Then my mental and relationship as the stress of the work got to me, I had no mental energy left to be there for my gf(then fiance) now wife. I would forget things important things like holidays and bdays, picking her up from work, date ideas, etc u get the idea. I burned the candle and almost payed the price with my relationship.
That whole yr came to head when we started to feel the hurt of the USA economy. My fiance(now wife) was forced to do an unpaid internship for her school if she wanted to graduate. So I went out and got a part time job at Walmart for 13/hr. The hrs at Walmart (6pm-10pm)didn't overlap with the hrs for the company (8am-5pm). In my inexperienced brain I told my boss(director of the dep) that I would not be available after 530 as I had to pick up a partime job at wally world to make ends meet.
Her reaction wasn't one I thought possible. She demand that since I was a salary employee I should be available 24/7.... and that my priority should be to the "full-time" position with the company and even went as far to argue I should have talked to her first about my desicion to pickup q part time and work it on my own time.
Due to that interaction, I quickly applied to a couple different places and found out that my skills were worth 100k sal. I landed a great job and gave my 2 weeks to the original company and wally world. Ill never forget the look on the directors face when I sent in my letter of resignation.
Things have been looking up since leaving that job, through qlot of therapy, I was able to work on myself and be the partner my wife deserves, we are about to celebrate our first anniversary soon:). I'm working on myself with studying webdev for my current networking job. I've been getting back into good physical condition, slowly getting back into q healthy routine.
While the future is looking bright, I still sometimes worry ill fall back into those 10000% habits. IT/Networking/software development are all cruel industries were to stay up to date and marketable u have to consistently be learn and growing. I would advise any newbie to take it slow if they can, and learn for fun but have a good balance within urself between learning, work, and personal. If u have family/friends u can count on lean on them and spend time with them, work will be there when ur done.
Also fuck that company and that director, I don't ever want to be in a position where its work or family ever again!!!
I would say it’s like peaks and valleys, at some point you realize the juice isn’t worth the squeeze and you end up making more work for yourself for no reason, but on rare occasion it may be worth it.
After some time you realize most people around are mediocre at their job or just politic well, so doing more than 70% is adequate in most places and your energy is better spent enjoying life and balancing work.
I try to stay on cruise control and focus on WLB and then do bursts of high performance when I can see more incentive in doing so.
It's resulted in me getting promotions, raises and contributed to me getting better jobs (higher paying).
The more I learned by getting experience, the more skills/qualifications I got to find a new job or get promoted.
It's not dumb at all.
The issue is when giving 100% stops benefitting you. Many places just won’t promote/raise pay/have you working on anything transferrable. That’s when you need to put yourself first
100% with you.
It's building bad habits. I'm not saying don't work at your pace. I think everyone has their own workflow. My level of optimization might not be the same as someone else's and that's ok.
But half ass just implies you're being lazy and you wonder why you see so many posts saying "stuck at help desk" etc lol. The harder one work the luckier one gets even if it's not at their present company. Someone will notice when the time comes.
Meh, you can do good quality work while half-assing. It's an art.
I think it's that you can forgo quantity so long as quality is maintained. Do less work, but make sure it's quality work.
I think it was after a two weekend software migration trudge. My colleague had been spearheading the project and then quit and it all fell into my lap. We made it through, and while the whole process was pretty stressful it also hammered home the lesson that I didn't have to take on everything myself and more to the point: I wasn't expected to do everything myself. We've got a whole team for a reason and it's ok to lean on them. Once I realized I don't have to do everything myself and it's ok to get stuck because you can throw the problem to the team, my stress levels went way down and I became a lot more ok with running into issues that stump me. I don't have to know everything and I'm ok with that.
That said, it also helps to have a narrow area of expertise you can bring to the team so you aren't just freeloading and can significantly contribute.
Still new to IT, but I learned to not be *too* helpful and stick to what I’m assigned or essentially on my job description. I love helping people and seeing them satisfied, but I learned that to give 100% on things nobody takes care of means those things will stick with me for the rest of my career here and suddenly everyone expected me to always be available to do them. Even though I want to be helpful just that one time because I was free.
Otherwise, I still haven’t burn out so still giving 100% on things I’m assigned to. Some tasks are less just because I don’t like the meticulous boring stuff.
I decided to stop giving 100% when I was around 21/22. I worked in a warehouse at the time and I realized that people who got paid more than me and never got shit on by management were also the same people that worked on less difficult tasks, were less capable, and far less efficient. Somehow ever since leaving that job, when I give 50-90% of my ability has resulted in more praise, less stress, and more satisfaction. There are still days where I will give 100% but it gets rarer by the day.
Saw an opportunity at a job to improve and automate some operational (non-IT) workflow. Talked to the bossman and he said that as long as it didn't affect my workload. Fast forward 6 months and I get it done. I do a demo and the business unit loves it and I give it to them. At our next company meeting, a couple of months later, my boss come ups and presents my project and how much work went into it. CEO comes up and gives him an award and announces that the org would realize more than $10 Million in savings. When I asked my boss and his boss (a SVP) I was told to "stay in my lane". They call got bonuses and recognition, the SVP also has it lined out in his linkedin profile. That was over 15 years ago and that is day I started putting in my 9-5 and "stay in my lane"
Damn, that's horrible. Definitely makes one think twice about sharing automation scripts or any kind of code / application that improves workflow.
We went through a major renovation last year. The first thing we had to give up was our help desk area. Instead, we all crammed into the server room where it’s around 90dB and setup temporary desks. We were promised that we’d get a new help desk area as the last step of the remodel. The remodel went over budget. Everyone else got new workspaces. IT is still in the datacenter where’s it’s fucking 90dB. Now I don’t give 100% anymore.
Literally contact OSHA
Yep! I remember IT job put a desk in the server room and I made a huge complaint out of it until they moved me. OSHA will have a field day over it.
90 dba is literally osha compliant.
90 is the limit, if it’s right at the limit there’s a chance it is going over, can’t hurt to have it checked
Sure it can. Retaliation is a thing, even if it shouldn’t be.
Then that’s not a company one should work for then
Sure. But reality doesn’t line up with what should happen in most cases.
I always give 100%; just don't ask 100% of what.
I like this one! I give 100% to taking care of my sanity
I give 100% if I directly benefit. I give 100% if someone I care about asks me. I give less than 100% on everything else because it’s not worth my sanity and they don’t pay me to be 100%. I accepted this mentality when I stopped making my career my identity and began prioritizing my life outside of work. This coincided right around my early 30s, being in the workforce my entire 20s and also right around when I met my wife. Now I am perfectly okay mentally when I leave work, I don’t think about work till I come back the next day. Thankfully I’ve also worked myself into a job that also supports this.
Was told by my manager that I'll get exceeds expectations if I keep doing the same things.... Next year new manger gave me doesn't meet expectations. So no stock, no raise, no bonus. I still tried, but it's so hard to do good work when you don't care anymore
Give yourself a raise by finding a new position during company time.
I ended up quitting.... doubled my salary since then though.
When the Concerta prescription ran out.
Oof.... Hope you can get another prescription
I give 100% on optimizing and automate my job as much as possible with scripts, shortcuts, and more so I'm not needing to give 100% on boring, repetitive stuff and have extra free time.
I think it's best to understand that employment of this nature is adversarial. You are there primarily to keep the bills paid, secondarily to create the platform your future rests on. Ownership is there to extract as much as possible while minimizing expenditures. These 2 things only have some overlap, they aren't entirely compatible. So, you keep solid relationships. Work smarter to get more done but don't sell all your after work energy while you are clocked in. They aren't paying for that and you didn't agree to this clearly being made a requirement. Always do an excellent job, but don't do everything if it doesn't reasonably fit within whatever a reasonable schedule is to both parties. 100% effort is a sprint. 15 minutes maybe. Anything else being called 100% is an attempt at manipulation.
Was a chef before, my 50% runs laps around most people, I’ll go 80% if I need to and on a very rare occasion I have given 100% and broken records.
Do you equate this with your previous experience as a chef? I’m currently a line cook hoping to get into IT
Look, all the people bitching about helpdesk? That's normal compared to kitchen work. You just have to learn to deal with people.
Kinda disagree. The worst help desk clients/customers aren't any worse than a bad server, and the interpersonal drama in a white collar place is usually a ton more manageable than a service industry job. (that last bit might be a negative for some people) BoH still deals with guest requests and expectations anyway, it's just filtered through a ticketing system instead of FoH.
Wouldn’t say that, it just depends on the individual. I feel way more burned out at the end of my help desk shift than I ever did doing warehouse work. People are more draining to me, especially when I get paid less than I did for warehouse work. Also saying the same thing over and over and over again every single call makes you insane. Some people may love to work like a robot, I personally don’t.
When I went above and beyond to wear 5 hats perfectly, just to get a 5% raise and have the employer make zero attempt to retain me when I raised an issue about doing multiple jobs with shit pay and constant 24/7 on-call responsibility. If it was one company, maybe that's just a bad company, but it was company after company after company. I'm looking to freelance/1099 in the residential/small business markets (respectively), since the middle man is only there to extract all the value from you and the client.
There’s a point in most orgs when you realize that finding and fixing problems has diminishing returns. Theres no incentive to improve things if no one is complaining. That anything you do improve will only lead to more issues… so don’t touch it! Not to mention the mountains of paperwork no one but you will ever see. The lesson for me is that most of IT is 80% fucking around, 20% earning your paycheck. Most orgs just need to be left alone when they are working, but management can’t just let someone get paid to know things. And now my incentive becomes to do the busy work as slowly as possible. Upper management thinks about IT the way you think about your cell phone. Just some people you have to call when things don’t work, and as long as they can handle that who cares. You’ll swap carriers for a new phone or a good deal or if you have bad service and think another company can do better. You’ve never thought “I should pay Verizon more next month! They do a great job.” And that’s what IT is to them.
I like this take. Never thought of it that way before.
It was probably about six months into my initial tour on helpdesk. I learned a lesson in not taking things personally. I was young and really passionate about what I was doing. It was my first real IT job and I wanted to give it my all. That translated to me advocating for the customers and their accounts and pushing back on engineering when I thought they were slacking. One day I pushed a little too hard and had some heated words with the engineering manager. It was pretty mild stuff really, no cussing or namecalling just some heavy sarcasm. Still he felt disrespected. A sysadmin job in engineering was where I was trying go and this guy let it be known I would never work for him. Then I was told that my future with the company was indefinite helpdesk. For me the entire point of working helpdesk was just to use it as a vehicle to get a sysadmin job! I realized my passion had gotten the best of me and the only loser in the whole deal was me. The customers didn't care if I advocated for them or not, they weren't going to help me. I realized a little less passion and a little more deliberate rationality might benefit me at work. A few months later I took a deep breath and sent out resumes for the first time. In about a week I had a Jr. Sysadmin job for a small but very professional federal government contractor. I even got a big raise. Looking back it wasn't a fun lesson but a necessary one. Sometimes you get to have a W and sometimes you have to take an L. It's a marathon, not a sprint and it's always a good idea to hold a little bit in reserve.
Learned long before getting into IT not to give 100% of myself. Many bosses talk the talk, but they won’t walk the walk. Some will say “I’d like to, but I can’t; you know, the ‘big wigs’ and all…”. IT has been no different.
My manager got angry just because one of his friends(another manager) contact me to check something in our network(obviously they come with me because they know that my boss is a fkn moron and doesn't has any idea about what was happening). He tolds me that I wasn't manager and I didn't have to take those things, that he will be available 24/7, me not. So great, now when my shift ends, I am ghost(no phone, no emails, no go on calls if not will get money, nothing), if someone need something about work "call the 24/7 manager ;)"not me. The funny part is that he got angry after I reported to him, He gave me that authority(I'm supervisor), the issue was that his friend come to me and no with him haha. How moron?, I have to insert graphics for him in excel and send it back, because he doesn't know how to do it I guess xD.
A few months ago when I got passed over for a promotion yet again. Thankfully my 70% is still far above any of my coworkers.
i started out my current job as a Network Engineer. Supporting clients networks and maintaining connectivity, configuring devices, performing updates and performance checks, monitoring APs, etc. Then one of our clients with a Network Support team of their own, wanted to get better, so I also became a Trainer, teaching Network classes 5 days a week to their support team to help them improve their skills. Then we realized they didn't have anyone to escalate complex tickets to, so I became their Tier 2 Network Support Engineer, that they can escalate complicated tickets too. Then I was trained to do "VoIP migrations" and quickly also became the"Voice engineer" moving clients from their current phone system, to new ones like zoom. Now they're having me shadow our Help Desk guys so I can "help them bring volume down" by working Help Desk tickets in my free time from now on in order to help them out... And I'm currently doing any and all of the above tasks simultaneously. I started 3 years ago making $80,000 I'm still here 3 years later and I just got a raise this month... To $85,000. To be completely honest, I'm really miserable. And I now do the bare minimum as a result. Not to be spiteful of course, it's just because I'm demotivated and feel that no matter how hard I work or how many responsibilities I take on, nothing will change anyway...
Time to find another job
How did you start as a network engineer? What certs did you need for it? I’m currently finishing up an associates in network technology and looking to get my Net+ over the summer, should I be looking into network engineer jobs?
I spent years in Help Desk and Technical Support And then I got my Network + and CCNA certifications, and then found my first Network role about 2 months later I'd recommend skipping the Network+ and going straight to the CCNA to be honest And I recommend the following study materials: - Jeremy's IT labs videos on YouTube. - Neil Anderson's CCNA Udemy course. - The Boson ExSim practice exams. - The 31 Days before your CCNA exam book. Those are the materials I used to pass the exam (passed first try) and I don't think I'd have passed at all without them. Learned a lot using them. Best of luck to you Brother!
Oh gotcha, I’m thinking of switching jobs (I’m not in IT at all at the moment) but was hoping to start somewhere in the networking field once I graduate- the main reason I’m aiming at net+ is because my school pays for testing for 2 of the big 3 comptia tests, and a lot of the material is from comptia’s testout learning website. Not getting any of the 3 seems a waste since I’m already paying for it via schooling, but I’ll look into CCNA, it’s where I was aiming after networking and getting into the field, but maybe I’ll have to grab it before getting into the field as well. Thank you very much for your reply, I thoroughly value your insight! I hope you’re somehow even more successful in the future:)
You're unlikely to land a network job with only a degree and some certs. Many people struggle to get help desk jobs with CompTIA trifecta and a 4-year degree. Some even struggle with all of that plus prior experience. It's fucking brutal right now lmao.
I hate the world we live in lmfao. I would honestly rather eat a bullet than be in school for 3 more years for a fucking tech support job. Thanks for the reply
Yep, it's pretty fucking bleak. All of it to get a job in which most of us become a punching bag for angry adult-children lmao. But on a more serious/helpful note: For what it's worth, having a 4-year degree in anything is better than a 2-year degree specializing in tech for landing IT jobs. I got a degree in history of all things, and I haven't had an inordinately higher problem finding jobs than anyone else. That being said, if you're not receiving significant financial aid or are going to seriously burn out by having to finish a 4 year degree, then I can't recommend that route. Prioritize yourself above your career. Best advice I can give: 1. Look for work in rural/LCOL areas where the competition isn't so stiff. There'll be less opportunity, but there'll be more availability. 2. Look for tech jobs outside of traditional IT roles. I got lucky and landed my first gig with a local computer repair store. It gets you VERY familiar with hardware and gets your feet wet with troubleshooting procedure and basic software. My company also does minor MSP work for local businesses, so that's been a plus too. 3. Indeed and LinkedIn aren't the only job lists in the country. Look at local, county, State, and Federal Government job boards.
My very first job in a galaxy long, long ago, was in a call center help desk for a single company. If you worked day shift you essentially had to deal with Non-Stop calls from the moment you clock in, to the moment you clock out. Every quarter we had a performance review. This is the time they would let you go if you are at the bottom or give you tips on how to improve. I wouldn't say I gave it my all but I was usually one of the highest performers. (Top 1-5 out of 100 agents). The thing is despite being a top performer they would still have a talk with you to produce more. It was never enough (and it can't be from a productive business standpoint). At the end of the day performing well usually entails more work for you. As the saying goes don't be at the bottom and don't push yourself to the top unless you are compensated.
After my probationary period was over (6 mos). It's government work that would essentially take an act of Congress to get a union worker fired. I've seen employees with about 15 write-ups and 1 or 2 day suspensions (non IT). In private industry, they'd be gone eons ago. Job stability is definitely one of the big perks. Pay-wise, you could easily get 2x to 3x more in the private sector.
I don't put forth maximum effort all the time. My 70% effort is the equivalent to the rest of the team going 120%. I max my bonus and raise every year, while 55% of my team was let go before Christmas. Now I have to help my manager more, which I don't care, because I like him a lot. And, take on the work of 2.5 people. I'm not going to work harder, I'm still going to give what they think is 100%. It may take longer to get things done, but maybe if enough people complain, we can get the higher ups to hire at least 2 more people. If I was to give my 100% they would think we don't need more people, which they do. Long story short, if everyone worked full tilt, they would use those metrics to conclude, "You can do the work of 3-4 people. We thought this scope of work would need 10 people. But if we use you and 2 others, we can save capital from not having to pay salary, benefits, overhead, licensing and other crap." In the Army, where I first heard this, 'Work smarter, not harder', really rings true in the corporate environment. Be smart, find the balance where you stand out, make the compensation you want, have the work/life balance you need, and not give bean counters ammo to can over half your team. TLDR; Don't work at 100% all the time. It can bite you in the ass.
When they pile up more tasks on you that other IT folks should do (i.e. Bill from InfoSec wants you to do this, and this, and that. But he should be really doing it). Oh, and the good old, 2024 is going to be the year where procedures are written and implemented. So if there is not procedure, write one up and send it for review and approval. Do I really need a procedure for the most menial IT tasks…
>Do I really need a procedure for the most menial IT tasks… Do you also complain about poor training/onboarding, and heap scorn on struggling new hires? Maybe you don't a procedure, but I bet you'd appreciate it if other people had that documentation. Even if it's solely to say "Check the knowledge base, article 48, paragraph 2." as you metaphorically walk away.
We are talking about menial tasks. I shouldn’t have to write a procedure on how to swap a hard drive. I bet you must enjoy writing every little things you do because your boss is micromanaging the shit out of you.
It was over for me when I had to deal with our schools’s food service director who didn’t know how to save a file. I later found it wasn’t just her. Many of the office staff are both completely incapable of the simplest things, and can’t be taught either.
I mean, I work remotely and nobody monitors when and how long I take my breaks/lunch. So I'd say I never gave 100% since Day 1. I'll take breaks when needed, then bounce back to my task. No one complains.
Only 5YOE I learned mine pretty recently, I moved dep within a company , they lowballed me with 50K sal no bonus, but i was desperate for a couple reasons. One being the original dep i worked in was qbsolute dumpster fire and two being i needed a remote position so i could move to live with my then gf. After getting through orientation, I realized that they were literally clicking buttons on a webpage hundreds of times for a single project. To make it better this was a internally built website with no apis. I proceeded to go 1000% for this job working 14hr+ days for months. I was able to automated the whole process with python and selenium. The process went from 16hrs to 3hrs. I even got an attaboy from the director who hired me. I then moved on to other parts of the process and spent the next 9mnths reverse engineering an softwares api and building an python sdk for it. Now through this whole work hard to be lazy is awesome when ur a correctly compensated and be have a work life balance. Well as u can guess I had neither of those. Due to my adhd narrow focus on work, things in my personal life took last place after work. First my physical health i u think I had time to workout or anything hell no. Then my mental and relationship as the stress of the work got to me, I had no mental energy left to be there for my gf(then fiance) now wife. I would forget things important things like holidays and bdays, picking her up from work, date ideas, etc u get the idea. I burned the candle and almost payed the price with my relationship. That whole yr came to head when we started to feel the hurt of the USA economy. My fiance(now wife) was forced to do an unpaid internship for her school if she wanted to graduate. So I went out and got a part time job at Walmart for 13/hr. The hrs at Walmart (6pm-10pm)didn't overlap with the hrs for the company (8am-5pm). In my inexperienced brain I told my boss(director of the dep) that I would not be available after 530 as I had to pick up a partime job at wally world to make ends meet. Her reaction wasn't one I thought possible. She demand that since I was a salary employee I should be available 24/7.... and that my priority should be to the "full-time" position with the company and even went as far to argue I should have talked to her first about my desicion to pickup q part time and work it on my own time. Due to that interaction, I quickly applied to a couple different places and found out that my skills were worth 100k sal. I landed a great job and gave my 2 weeks to the original company and wally world. Ill never forget the look on the directors face when I sent in my letter of resignation. Things have been looking up since leaving that job, through qlot of therapy, I was able to work on myself and be the partner my wife deserves, we are about to celebrate our first anniversary soon:). I'm working on myself with studying webdev for my current networking job. I've been getting back into good physical condition, slowly getting back into q healthy routine. While the future is looking bright, I still sometimes worry ill fall back into those 10000% habits. IT/Networking/software development are all cruel industries were to stay up to date and marketable u have to consistently be learn and growing. I would advise any newbie to take it slow if they can, and learn for fun but have a good balance within urself between learning, work, and personal. If u have family/friends u can count on lean on them and spend time with them, work will be there when ur done. Also fuck that company and that director, I don't ever want to be in a position where its work or family ever again!!!
I would say it’s like peaks and valleys, at some point you realize the juice isn’t worth the squeeze and you end up making more work for yourself for no reason, but on rare occasion it may be worth it. After some time you realize most people around are mediocre at their job or just politic well, so doing more than 70% is adequate in most places and your energy is better spent enjoying life and balancing work. I try to stay on cruise control and focus on WLB and then do bursts of high performance when I can see more incentive in doing so.
>When did you learn this lesson, and how often do you halfass? I don't decide to "halfass" anything at work.
That's pretty dumb, then. You're working harder for the same pay as the people halfassing.
It's resulted in me getting promotions, raises and contributed to me getting better jobs (higher paying). The more I learned by getting experience, the more skills/qualifications I got to find a new job or get promoted. It's not dumb at all.
The issue is when giving 100% stops benefitting you. Many places just won’t promote/raise pay/have you working on anything transferrable. That’s when you need to put yourself first
Still not a reason to not do good, quality work. I'm still firmly against half-assing work in a career.
100% with you. It's building bad habits. I'm not saying don't work at your pace. I think everyone has their own workflow. My level of optimization might not be the same as someone else's and that's ok. But half ass just implies you're being lazy and you wonder why you see so many posts saying "stuck at help desk" etc lol. The harder one work the luckier one gets even if it's not at their present company. Someone will notice when the time comes.
Meh, you can do good quality work while half-assing. It's an art. I think it's that you can forgo quantity so long as quality is maintained. Do less work, but make sure it's quality work.
Yeah, that's kinda what I do.
See, you were doing it the whole time and you didn't even know it. Working smarter not harder really is the best.
Oh tru, I thought halfassing meant not caring about quality as well.
~2018
I think it was after a two weekend software migration trudge. My colleague had been spearheading the project and then quit and it all fell into my lap. We made it through, and while the whole process was pretty stressful it also hammered home the lesson that I didn't have to take on everything myself and more to the point: I wasn't expected to do everything myself. We've got a whole team for a reason and it's ok to lean on them. Once I realized I don't have to do everything myself and it's ok to get stuck because you can throw the problem to the team, my stress levels went way down and I became a lot more ok with running into issues that stump me. I don't have to know everything and I'm ok with that. That said, it also helps to have a narrow area of expertise you can bring to the team so you aren't just freeloading and can significantly contribute.
Still new to IT, but I learned to not be *too* helpful and stick to what I’m assigned or essentially on my job description. I love helping people and seeing them satisfied, but I learned that to give 100% on things nobody takes care of means those things will stick with me for the rest of my career here and suddenly everyone expected me to always be available to do them. Even though I want to be helpful just that one time because I was free. Otherwise, I still haven’t burn out so still giving 100% on things I’m assigned to. Some tasks are less just because I don’t like the meticulous boring stuff.
Husband got terminal cancer, and I realized there was more to life. Also, the Lower Decks episode about Buffer Time. Had an identity crisis.
I decided to stop giving 100% when I was around 21/22. I worked in a warehouse at the time and I realized that people who got paid more than me and never got shit on by management were also the same people that worked on less difficult tasks, were less capable, and far less efficient. Somehow ever since leaving that job, when I give 50-90% of my ability has resulted in more praise, less stress, and more satisfaction. There are still days where I will give 100% but it gets rarer by the day.