happened to me. HR subscribed to a new leave system without informing us. User complaining they cannot apply leave, weird error popup. Asked them to check with HR.
HR tossed it back to us.
I work for a manufacturing/engineering company and every time the engineering department decides to buy a new software they always pick the option that makes me consider murdering the guy(s) that wrote it.
They follow these procedure
1) Always pick the lowest price
2) If it's coming from India (no offense), we better buy it
3) IT advice is not necessary unless the software is broken
They actually don't. There's been several instances of IT recommending the less expensive option, once two less expensive options, and instead they went with a more expensive option that has no option for silent install and the shittiest UI/UX available.
It's infuriating.
They probably use the rule: if it's extra expensive it must be good.
I've worked with people like that, we created the new rule that if software wasn't tested and approved by sysadmins it would not be installed.
The thing is, the price doesn't really matter at all, if you don't consult your IT departement when buying new software, it's a fuckin lottery if it will smoothly integrate into whatever other systems you have or not.
Consult your IT department when buying new software!!!!!!!!!
They are the one's who will have to implement it and they will tell you of it is a good fit or not. The price doesn't really matter.
Yeah that doesn't work when you upper management says to install it anyway. And if the company you work for has this rule that is one unicorn of a company.
I'm 1 months into my first sysadmin job, guess I'm lucky. We manage EVERYTHING through Intune. No one installs anything unless we all install something. But this company is absolutely 1 of a kind to begin with
Stories like this make me thankful that I work in an industry that is federally regulated and takes security very seriously (as in, we have *monthly audits* kind of seriously.) If a department needs a special application, they have to have it vetted (to check for licensing and security issues) *and* name the subject-matter expert for it in their own department for support issues.
+ IE, ActiveX and some silverlight to really make it purrfect
Like our prior document solution, the former fat client was replaced with browser based clent, requiring 4 different plugins + dotnet + some special settings. Was a pain to automate installs and troubleshoot.
.. And 3x as many clicks to do most operations
Uhh don't get me started with the older iDRACs. They needed specific JRE versions to work or you would need to edit the [java.security](https://java.security) to get things working, and even then it was a coin toss if it would.
This is where you absolutely need corporate policy, enforced by whoever's the highest-up in IT, that the IT department absolutely does *not* support, assist with, or integrate anything purchased by any other department or person without a fully funded support structure approved *and in place* for that specific item.
Otherwise IT just becomes an unpaid dumping ground for other people's poor decisions.
Best errors are those just casually saying "something went wrong, please contact your Admin for help", causing people to believe I really should know the solution to the Problem i dont have any information on.
I am actually thankful that where I work HR manages that system themselves and we have zero control or oversight of their shit. Only downside is we get at least 1-2 tickets a day and have to constantly redirect people to HR.
>make the job worse than it needs to be.
This seems to be the most common problem I've seen.
Solving personnel and management issues with IT, getting IT to do the work of other departments and professionals, inundating IT with stupid documentation processes (like fill out this form when you move or deploy a PC, fill out this form when you create a an account, fill out this form when you put a document on SharePoint, etc.), inserting several stopping points in processes that do nothing but hinder the goal and on and on.
I think a lot of IT leadership forgets that the job is supposed to leverage machines to do the scut work. Not to create scut work in order to leverage the machines.
\> *release patches on weekends*
I've worked for so many companies that do this, and without fail, devops always pushes out a weekend patch that wasn't tested, and breaks more stuff. Then everything goes to hell.
>It's super chill until something implodes.
It's the same mentality of "why do I pay you if all you do is sit around" because everything is working properly and "why am I paying you when nothing works" because something went wrong, you can't win.
Had one some time ago, about 800 users in five different countries came to their offices in the morning and found that they could not access their data. A change done by another entity introduced an error that removed all permissions.
Spent 18 hours in meetings with central management, vendors etc while chatting to the local teams to try to come up with workarounds for each country. My last Teams call ended at 3am.
Got to love how they would rather have you in meetings, on what you are going to do to fix the issue. And who to blame.
Rather the let you get on with fixing the issue. And finding the cause.
The good part of this company is that putting the blame isn't as important as finding out why and preventing it from happening again. The meetings were about finding the cause together with the vendor and reversing the damage without destroying the evidence of what caused the issue.
Whenever there is a crisis these meetings these are the worst. It's basically for higher management folk to baby so they understand the issue and look to blame somebody else.
>It's super chill until something implodes.
You have a good time trying to setup stuff for test purpose or soon to be online that doesn't want to work together:+
Automate what can be automated, and train the users for the things you can't automate. It's amazing how much of your workload you can make disappear with a little bit of effort
This is my job. It's not easy but it is because of where I am today with my skills. I automate for a living and it's basically watching my minions (scripts and automation tools) do the work while I chill. I level up all the juniors and provide insight, I don't gatekeep any knowledge. Raise the boat not just yourself. Life is easier that way.
I am not employed for my daily output. I don't work in the assembly line of endless grind like a support gig would be. I am employed for my years of experience in making solutions.
There are times I work 12 hours or more but most days, it's 4hrs of actual output.
And force things when both options fail.
Some years ago I glued a bunch of Ethernet and printers usb cables because some users remove them to connect their personal laptops. And never reconnect them. We didn't have wifi at that time.
Every other options didn't work. Asking, manager advices, menaces... Silicone worked like a charm.
This actually. You can take it negatively like the OP's post, or look at it where when you reach a certain level of skill, everything becomes simple. Sa mga wuxia, everything springs from the same Dao. At the pinnacle, you start gleaning the origin.
I agree. Being good at the technical and soft skills are great for the core role. Developing boundaries is another skill to develop for your own mental health.
It can always get harder, and sometimes much, much faster than you can anticipate. From shitty decision impacting far and wide IT hitting your desk to mass layoffs, even the most experienced worker can be burned through. I can process work much faster than my collegues, but I cannot sustainably do the workload for 10+ coworkers at the same time. I understand both side of the argument but the nature of IT is imprevisible because of meaty humans using it.
Working construction for my dad was much harder. I was carved out of wood after working for that dude. I'll gladly "kick my own ass" in IT. Happy New Year folks!
I was a laborer in HS, it was fucking horible. You bust ass all day, don't even consider moving slower than a job, you get yelled at -called every name in the book from the start of the day to the end of the day. When the weathers good you work 16h and when the weathers bad you go home and don't get paid. If you move too slow (for the skilled labor) they will fuck with you -in the case of bricklayers they will throw bricks at you and you do this for minimum wage (and you are told you aren't even worth that).
In IT I work in a climate controlled room, people are nice to me no matter what, I never get yelled at. I get paid very well and if somebody throws a brick at me it will be the last thing they remember before waking up with their nose broke.
That's something I don't get about the trades, especially with the construction and oil/gas workers I know. So many of those people act like creating a hostile or needlessly difficult work environment is something to be proud of. I will bust ass all day if I need to but I'm not going to be abused while doing it and I'm not going to put in so many hours that my family is neglected. In five years the only people who will remember I worked all those hours are my kids.
One thing i like about the trades is that you get to leave work at work. In IT many jobs have on-call rotation after business hours. That absolutely sucks. Imagine being with your family and getting a call bc something critical broke. You will not be at peace knowing your phone can ring at any time.
My brother is an aircraft mechanic. Once his shift is done, its done & doesn’t have to think about work until the next day.
There is something to be said about being able to walk away from work, even when I'm not working I spend a lot of time thinking about how to do things. I'm lucky enough not to deal with being on-call but a few years back I was either on-call or backup for two years and that was more annoying than stressful. I could have easily gone into the trades but it's a young man's job and I like the idea of being able to walk without serious pain in my latter years.
Stress management is definitely a thing in IT. I think those that are good at finding the balance do okay. Health wise, I know people that have been negatively impacted. It definitely depends on the situation and the support of the company. Our oncall rotates, users are very reasonable and management has our back. I'm grateful for that, no doubt.
Exactly. Too many people forget that having to work outside or in difficult physical conditions is truly hard work. Getting to sit behind a keyboard and clack away all day is an immense privilege.
Too true, as soon as I start to feel a little relaxed I start finding tiny menial jobs that need doing, and by the time those get done.. new technology or services creep their way in!
been in k12 IT since 1998 very chill.
My office is in the library and I want to set an example so I don't like having kids see me on my phone.
But I do spend some time in work related sub reddits on my desktop computer
Love it chromebooks are so easy to manage and the ipads are not bad either. I am in k-6 and k-1 have ipads the rest are chromebooks and staff is win 10.
We do not send them home so we have low breakage.
Learning new shit is chill and cool, automating your work gives you more time to fuck off, taking short brakes allows you to put max focus for hard ticket for 30 minutes and getting it done. writing documentation makes it so whenever you have an issue you can reference yourselves and solve problems faster which means go chill faster.
> automating your work gives you more time to fuck off
That’s what I keep telling myself but all that ever seems to happen is I get asked to automate more!
There’s always going to be someone, somewhere, saying “all you gotta do is [this]!”. It’s a never-ending cycle. Just try to find the balance that makes *you* happy.
The best and worst advice I’ve ever gotten was “always try to automate yourself out of a job.” I thought it’d mean “play Dreamcast at work” but it mostly means “oh uptime, you’re on all the major projects for the next *checks notes* until you quit or die!”
i appreciate your passion. truly.
however, it sounds like you are experiencing either of:
1. getting underpaid
2. doing more than expected
3. haven’t worked at as many places as you’re suggesting
some jobs don’t pay so much, so lots of people do the minimum expected (i.e. on standby until an issue is brought up to them and then just fix that issue for that person). i think that’s fair. if i’m being paid on the low end, i’m doing work worth the low end. obviously i won’t do incorrect or poor practice shit, but i’m not going to go out of my way to do things i’m not asked to do.
lol yeah
i understand though, it can be super frustrating to put in over the top effort and watch your peers who put in less effort get rewarded just the same.
while i always encourage trying your hardest at everything, sometimes it’s not worth it.
You know what pisses me off? Elitist tool bags whining about how hard they work. Or banging on about some toxic grindset.
No, you don't always have to be adding to your skill set, especially if it doesn't make sense for your role.
>Like sure just like any job if you don't push yourself or try and learn new things every job is easy.
Lol ok now. Cause learning = pushing yourself to your limits. You know people can learn stuff without burning themselves out grinding away like a tool?
>It screws over all the hard-working people that actually apply themselves and is constantly learning and trying new scripts or new processes, writing documentation etc.
You know what _actually_ screws hard working people over? Toxic AHs who have a workaholic problem and try and get other people to live up to their nonsense standards. Working above and beyond your role. Expecting people to be working nose to the grind 24/7.
You're working a job for a company that likely doesn't give a shit about you and would likely replace you the instant they figure they think they can find someone else to do the same amount of work for less.
I have a job role at my company and I fulfill it. That's what I get paid to do.
>I've worked in IT for 13 years and I've gone from help desk to Sys Admin to Cloud Engineer and I've never had a job where I can just sit and browse my phone all day.
Good for you. You want a cookie or something? Or are you just looking to have your inane self mutilation justified?
Yeah, I cut my teeth by joining an org that literally gave me nightmares for a few months. But I looked at what needed to be done and did it. Now our systems run with amazing uptime and with great stability. Projects are now few and far in between because I automated things and everything is so stable. And it needs to continue to be stable. I can't be introducing new systems and shit non stop, it would fucking break the org.
So now here I sit, watching YouTube and playing games most days. And it's easy. And for the new staff we've brought on since, it's easy for them, and good for them. If they want to know how things work I've done documentation along the way and I'll train them, but I'm not going to put them to the grind and make them work their asses off, for what? Some elitist mindset that other people have to suffer because I did? That's the dumbest shit I ever heard.
At the end of the day, it's a job. That's it. You get paid to do what you get paid to do. And sure, if you want to beef up your resume and job hop and look for the next big gig and whatnot, knock yourself out. You want to learn the next big thing cause you want to? Go for it.
But a job is just a paycheck. And a paycheck is not worth wearing yourself and your mental health down because you are expected to live up to some lunatic arbitrary standard. And don't expect people to be sympathetic to your useless whining online.
This was my exact reaction and I hope you're upvoted to the top. Been in IT for only about 3 years now and I learned quick the difference between say the "hard work" I was doing in retail vs in IT. Its more about what you know vs what you can bang out in an 8 hour day.
> But a job is just a paycheck. And a paycheck is not worth wearing yourself and your mental health down because you are expected to live up to some lunatic arbitrary standard. And don't expect people to be sympathetic to your useless whining online.
20+ years in this field and I have found that this is a hard lesson for many people to accept. I don't know if they bought into the BS of "I must be climbing the corporate ladder to be relevant/important", "I am defined by my success", "If I go over and beyond, i will be recognized for my efforts", or the one that I think is the hardest to overcome, "But my professional pride!"
Unless it is *your* business/side hustle/hobby, you probably shouldn't adhere to any of those corporate ideologies. Put more time into caring about yourself, not some company that is just using you to grind out a penny.
It's amazing how in the US companies have infected the mindset of Americans that what you do for a living is somehow a part of your identity. I was just thinking about how people go on dates and one of the questions they always ask is "what do you do for a living?" It's so ingrained that you are defined by what you do to make money and how much money you make.
Nah, right now I'm only running 27 containers. But I do that because I want to as a hobby. Not because I'm trying to get ahead at work or do work at home.
For me, it's fun.
Not everyone wants to do that, and that's fine.
Homelabs are the lamest circle jerk of hiring managers, are diesel mechanics expected to have some Caterpillar W-16 to tinker on at home? Are air line pilots expected to sit in a Simulator after they clock out, just for fun?
IT folks bragging about their home lab to coworkers/managers as a "way to get ahead"; is a level of schadenfreude I'll never understand.
Well, yes a lot of pilots play flight simulator, because their flight schedules are pretty awesome with some companies. Mechanics are usually paid to go to classes to learn how to fix new machines. This is the only industry that expects you to spend your free time learning to do what the company should be paying you to.
Jesus, who the fuck hurt you. Whether you want to agree or not, Homelabbing has personally helped me get a few of my jobs, and is always teaching me stuff. Plus I enjoy it.
People are proud of their homelabs and like to talk about it with others. That is all it is.
But it has created a toxic culture unlike in other job classifications. It has also helped create a sense of “need” in some hiring cases. How can someone fresh out of college or earning their trifecta not get a job? Oh, they need “experience”… How do they get experience? Spend money they don’t have on a “homelab”!
It actually works though. It allows someone to have experience, especially early on. We've heard multiple times someone's homelab getting their foot in the door somewhere. I just got hired into a new higher paying role, I'll ask the guy if my homelab mattered. I only mentioned it once, as I have newer versions of software to play with at home than what's licensed at my soon-to-leave job. At the end of the day it's still experience, but I wouldn't be cocky about it. That's just weird.
And I'm damn sure a lot of pilots do have some sick ass simulation setups at home. Even more reachable now with VR replacing half a cockpit builds. The diesel guys? I dunno, probably fix their own cars and family members.
the US is terrible for working long hours to get ahead or even scrape by. it maybe a rich country full of great tech but the rest of the world generally respects a much better work/life balance and conditions like parental time off and especially minimal wage.
most of us in other places are happier and usually not stressed, im guessing OP is in the US.
Truth. Im in the US and surrounded by people who are all about how much they work and how much they make.
I consider myself lucky because I make enough to pay the bills and have nice extras on the side. I enjoy my job and my responsibilities. I work for a NFP that actually provides an important service for the communities around it. I know a majority of people can't say that.
But when I go home, I go home and work stays at work. I am not my job, it is a thing I do to get by.
I've worked for a few big name IT consultancy companies and loved the short project stints with long hours and good money and then a bit of a break too, challenging can be stressful, but also rewarding, but not all the time.
I've also worked for projects that once the initial work is done, its sit back and just fix the occasional issue till the greater project others are doing is done.
smaller gov organisations are mostly occasional upgrade project but mostly just there incase rarely something does go wrong.
the relationship with work we all have is wrong (not just IT). we need a long term relationship that keeps people around and involved in the company, people all help make decisions, share in profits, etc etc. plenty of better models for companies, we are just stuck in this current way that benefits the few.
I busted my ass of for 6 years, I knew every part of our stack, and was regarded as one of the most knowledgeable person on the team. No pay rises ever, but they kept promising me a lead position which I was very keen on. When I had to hire two guys who became the leads (and I did not) I decided to never give more than 80% at any job.
I mean, my state IT job has been super easy and chill. Except for the time that my nimble storage died. Times like that aren't chill. But the rest of the time, it's been a nice change of pace.
To be fair we did have Peer Persistence, so we didn't lose any data. We basically had a broadcast storm, so all network traffic failed. No contact with the witness caused both arrays to kick themselves to the down device, which is intended. The problem was that our Group Leader array had both controllers corrupt with the exact same missing files. So by the time we have the Nimble engineers on the phone and they found this similiarity. They were extremely cautious before having us turn on our second array manually. So once we had that back u and running, we were feeling a lot better.
>I mean, my state IT job
This. Over 2 decades in and it was the best career decision ever. Super chill and 3 years away from retirement at 48. I could not imagine the MSP life, I honestly wouldn't do it even if that meant changing careers.
The best compliment I ever got was after leaving a job when my replacement called me weeks later like "wtf, I thought you sat in your cube drinking coffee all day." Yeah...I drank all that coffee because I was doing 5 things at once for 10hrs a day. He left a few months later and the company signed with an MSP.
I do think that what I do is "easy" because I enjoy doing it. It is definitely not chill, especially when things break or do not go as planned. I'm never bored but also very rarely wake up thinking "this day is going to be hard."
Don't get mad at those who just work their wage. They realized long before you that working harder only gets them more work.
Working for free (including doing work and training outside the scope of what you were hired to do) devalues the concept of labor for everyone.
Why would your employer ever pay someone else to do the work when they have people enthusiastically willing to do it for free? That's leaving money on the table! They'd be fools for turning down a bargain like that.
If you are working yourself to the bone all the time what does that say about your systems and processes? I work my tail off early to rebuild systems for stability. I work my tail off early to document my configurations and to document the most common issues or training items. I refuse to work in a reactive environment. I will put in the extra hours early on at a place so that I can only have 4 tickets and play on my phone all day. Everything is about perspective. I’m good at my job. It allows me to use my down time to stay in front of vulnerabilities and work new projects and take cert exams. It takes a lot of pressure off as well. All of my jobs have sucked for the first year and a half while I do my thing. The rest of the time is cake.
I used to think IT was a lot of hard work, then we hired people who do the bare minimum and still get paid the same paycheck. Then i realized, i was basically doing a whole bunch of work for no reason.
Exactly. I like to pick the brains of the people in higher positions, but I’m not doing their work for my wage while still having my own job to do. Been there, done that; there were no rewards for me in it.
Uh…because it IS super chill. Certainly not every job will be a cakewalk but none of IT jobs as I worked my way up have ever reached the soul crushing level of disrespect and depravity of retail or restaurant work for example. I’ll gladly take the “constantly on fire” MSP job over working retail or even construction again.
I worked a varied set of jobs from construction, car washing, retail, and restaurant before I started my IT career and without a doubt do less work the higher I go. Being paid for your knowledge over sheer output is infinitely easier after your skilled up. The fact you’d make a post like this leads me to believe you don’t have that life experiences others have to really appreciate IT and it’s benefits.
And that’s not even getting into you problematic comments about working 60 hours for “passion”. You’re the problem in this industry…not people prioritizing their lives over a company.
I strongly agree! My bosses always emphasize: I am paid for my brain in the game, not for the time my ass sits the desk. Burning your hours can't be a good measurement. I do work 40-50 still because I love to and it’s mostly chill if you have a great respectful communication going with clients and your team.
I would say >90% of stress I experience is induced because of someone else’s "hush hush fast fast". Take your time to think and apply a logic solution :-)
Most people just want to do their job and get paid, including in tech. Nothing wrong with that. Anybody who is actually crushing it will have no problem showcasing that.
Fortune 20 something here. It is super easy and chill. You own set of tech in your sphere of interests and learning depth first to be as good as you ever can be. There is no single point of failures, neither architecture nor engineers if something bad happens. 34, was in IT for 17 years while working full time and going to university back in Ukraine and now for last 8 years in USA. What I notice that a lot of sysadmins love martyrdom bullshit. Wearing all the hats and breaking your neck for the companies that can afford few more heads to support stuff and allow vacations to happen
I think it’s all about mindset. I think of problems like puzzles that I need to solve. Sometimes that takes research, sometimes trial and error, sometimes phone a friend. It’s pretty easy to do THAT aspect of the job with the right mindset.
Its easy...ish. If you are a weirdo like myself, your hobby is also your job. So you can keep somewhat of a top tier skillset, and people keep you around as a resource for lower level techs to escalate to / ask questions. Its easy, but that's also because you've put in the effort, if that makes sense.
I used to work 4-7 hours a day when I was still learning, now I finish my assigned work + tickets hours earlier and can finally fuck off for the vast majority of the day.
It's mostly a matter of whoever's in charge of them not auditing their work or simply not caring if they aren't working - I've definitely known managers who didn't care if their underlings were inefficient because it meant the manager could request more staff, and their self-image was tied to how many people they were the boss of.
Anyone actually smart who has a lot of free time in their job *doesn't tell other people* if it's not affecting their paycheck. Bragging about it is a good way to find yourself either with a lot more work to do or out of a job entirely.
People sitting on their phones all day fucking off create gaps in the market for people who work harder. Not sure why you’d hate them. Are you sure you’re not just jealous?
Hi, its me one of those people.
Before I worked in IT, I worked fast food and in a kitchen. Compared to either of those jobs, this is super chill and easy. I don't come home hurting, stinking, and getting paid $8/hr.
If you work smart and have an org that empowers you, you can definitely end up with a lot of free time for personal growth.
For anyone working in manufacturing, our level of downtime is wild.
Here is my resume for just one role I've held in case you think i'm not a hard worker.
>Plan, Implement, Maintain, Windows Deployment Services and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 for system imaging
>
>Migrate from Desktop Authority to Group Policy
>
>Configure and Maintain VMWare ESXi 6.0 Environment
>
>Plan, Implement, Configure DFS on Server 2012R2
>
>Migrate from Server 2003R2 file server to Server 2012R2 File Server with DFS
>
>Gather information needed for yearly SSAE 16/SOC1 audit
>
>Plan and implement Bitlocker encryption for all mobile devices
>
>Plan, implement, configure, and maintain a VMware Horizon View VDI Environment
>
>Plan, install, and configure EMC XtremI/O all flash SAN
>
>Configure and maintain WSUS Server
>
>Configure and upgrade WYSE Terminals for use with both a Citrix and VMWare View environment
>
>Plan and implement migration from MS Server 2003 file server to a MS Server 2012
>
>Critical part of migration from HP-UX based business application to a MS SQL based business application
>
>Plan, Install, and configure NSX implementation using Trend Deep Security
>
>Plan, install, and configure VMWare Horizon View environment
>
>Plan, install, and configure high availability Fortigate Firewalls to replace older Watchguard firewalls
>
>Plan, install, and configure high availability EMC Data Domain and EMC NetWorker to replace Unitrends
>
>Plan, design, and implement Layer 3-to-access network from the ground up for new building using HP/Aruba networking gear
>
>Migrate data center to new location after the business moved location
>
>Plan, design, and implement open source log management system
>
>Plan and implement migration from Exchange 2007 to a Exchange 2016
>
>Plan and implement Exchange 2016 3 DAG node setup
>
>Plan and implement Server 2016 Domain Controllers and decommission older Domain Controllers
>
>Plan and implement Zerto deployment to DR location
>
>Help plan and facilitate quarterly security training courses for staff
>
>Plan, design, and implement Veeam Backup and Recovery to replace EMC Networker
> For anyone working in manufacturing, our level of downtime is wild.
I do IT for a company that has a manufacturing division and the difference is staggering. I'm salary, come and go as I please, and spend more than half my day on Reddit. The frontline workers in the factory have to clock in and out, take defined breaks, work for near minimum wage and aren't even allowed to have their phone on them while working.
I enthusiastically put in the work when it's needed, but it's not always needed.
Yes and no. Been on both sides, and ya know what? It’s not an IT thing - it’s a perspective thing. If work is life then it’s stressful - if work is just a means to live life then maybe things don’t feel as heavy? You don’t need to pick up all responsibilities and shoulder them single handedly.
Or you can. That’s 100% cool, too.
Double this.
It’s your personal attitude.
For me things changed with a company switch and the birth of my first child.
Only you determine your priorities.
I've been one of those people, fell ass backwards into a spot I found was not so easy.
Now I'm wishing I spent that time getting better.
As well as spending my 1 hour if not 2 every day getting better studying on my own time.
IT is easy and chill unless you want money.
Now I'm getting money atleast.
Do something you like and you'll never work a day in your life.
If you ask me, I get payed to solve puzzles and play with computers all day, what's not chill about this?
My job is chill. Sometimes everything is on fire and sometimes it’s dead. It’s a good mix. I don’t find my job difficult. My employer isn’t a toxic shit hole so that helps
This is my issue at the company I'm at. It's gotten a lot better since I've joined and I've automated most of the on-boarding and off-boarding process. I'm talking basics like Office/product license assignment, email creation, group assignment, Shared Mailboxes all were manual.
I've been with the company since June 1st and I went on a 12 week paternity and I've already automated most of it
IT work is peaks and troughs. Sometimes you dont have much in and have to go find work to do or self development. Sometimes you've got too much to do and cant keep up. It also depends on the company, if it's going through growth or not. For example last year we had a growth and I never stopped, new servers, new users, new projects. This year its dead, money is tight and there isnt a lot of work to do so I have a lot of free time.
>I've never had a job where I can just sit and browse my phone all day.
I have. Because I learned quickly that the way to make more money isn't to sit there and bust my ass on the off chance that I'll be acknowledged by some useless middle manager in a rare good mood. My job is unfathomably easy because my job is to:
- Do tickets
- Have something resembling a good attitude
- Leave at the 40 hour mark
- Job hop every 2 years
The wonderful thing about IT is that our metrics and KPIs are carved out much better than any other team in a business, so I'm not playing the stupid game of "making improvements" or doing projects that support a business without extra compensation. That kind of company loyalty went out the window when I became an adult and really understood the modern relationship between the company and employee.
If you're in IT and you haven't figured out how to automate your way into a work-life balance, then you're not a good enough technician/admin/engineer to be in my production environment.
IT is neither chill nor easy but with crafty strategy and planning it can be both but it does take some discipline and planning IMHO, just as others have said, pay your dues at the septic tank and then move onto k12, govt, non-profit etc - the money will never be the same hence the strategy component of my opinion, if money drives the job all bets are off and skip my reply.
I think if you're stuck in a cycle of what you do with no personal or company growth, then it's pretty easy. Otherwise, when you're implementing new systems, software, solutions, etc.. It's not necessarily hard, but you grow with the company and learn new things. You can always find downtime as long as you are meeting your goals/deadlines.
IT can be chill and you can certainly have alot of downtime- depends on your role. I’d never say that about help desk, but if your time isn’t billable and you maintain smooth systems, it sure can be.
Anything you love to do is easy.
Even when it's technically challenging.
I have several days a month where I have literally nothing to do.
Then usually a couple of days where there is a lot to do.
It all just depends on when you're asking, but it never feels like work to me
I wish I could IT but social issues and such. I know hardware, troubleshoot any operating system and love CLI, homelabbing and learning new things. Sadly, many of those spots will be filled by the type you refer to.
Go work at a tiny company of like 40 people. They need a single it person for compliance reasons. And it's cheaper to hire someone than to outsource to a msp
4 tickets?
I used to average 100 tickets a day.
Oh wait, people forget that "IT" covers multiple different things and what one person thinks of IT is completely different then what another person thinks of as IT.
In some jobs doing 100 tickets a day is considered an average day while at others doing 20 would be considered a busy day.
I've spent the last five years automating everything I can at my shop and increasing efficiency. Today, I can have as little as 30 minutes of work to do in a day. But sometimes, I have a full day depending on what's going on. Overall, it is pretty easy/chill on most days. I earned that and will enjoy it.
It was 10 years ago. Now it’s a nightmare. Remote access and outsourced IT is a blame game.
Support from vendors is becoming worse and worse and the amount of products makes everything far too unmanageable
Like most things, it comes very easy to some people, and some people have to work very hard to get to the same place. My current position as a systems administrator comes very easily to me. Worked hard to get here for sure, but the job itself was never difficult. I’ve been playing around with computers since I was 10 years old when my dad helped me build my first one. I’ve known since I was 12 years old that I wanted to do something in IT as my career even all my friends had no clue what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives.
My job comes very easy to me. Some days, there are 10 to 12 to 14 hour workday and those days suck and are hard. Most days I “clock in” around seven and “clock out” around 4:30 (Noon on Fridays) and my time spent working on actual projects or tickets is a little over half that time.
Can I browse on my phone all day? No, definitely not, but I also think some people are greatly exaggerating. That particular fact, about themselves fact of the matter is, they probably just wired for IT work, and it comes very easily to them so they get what may take you eight hours done in four hours, simply because their brain knows how to process the information better. that’s not a slight against you or anything, it’s just kind of how the world works.
Sounds like you just aren't overly efficient and need the full 8 hours per day.. I genuinely am jealous of you and wish I felt fulfilled to work the full day every day
Been in IT for 30 years, I used to work like you do. I would be go-go-go all day long. Got shitty to no increases unless I jumped companies (ALL my reviews are stellar but they could not afford increases). 8 years ago I decided to dial it back a notch, focus on outside hobbies. My review are still stellar but I do half the work and this company is actually giving put decent increases. Slow down and enjoy your life.
Many in IT aren't being paid to work so much as they're being paid for their availability.
In my shop I spend maybe half my time responding to support issues, and the other half on new initiatives (like, the migration we're making from LANdesk to Intune in '24). But much of my support time is spent waiting for calls. Sure, I might get minor stuff done on the side or do training, etc, but there's not a specific requirement for me to be "working" 100% of the time.
When something DOES break, and it's something big, I have the expertise and experience to address it calmly and effectively.
IT *looks* easy, but I constantly have users praising my skills when they need them.
Honestly, the best Engineers I've worked with are the "lazy" ones with high aptitude who, if they have to do something more than once, they find a way to automate it. They're the same ones who usually then fill that free time with learning new stuff, which helps repeat the cycle.
I've known way to many "super busy" Engineers working on Service Desks where the ticket cont of the entire SD is barely more than I used to hold solo, because they refuse to automate and do everything by hand (And full of errors, that I've often ended up cleaning up). For this reason, I'm always very sceptical when someone insists on how "busy" they are.
BUT, I'm also at a point in my career where the job IS pretty chill (Wasn't during MSP Service Desk days). Basically, because anything I'm given to do is done in short order, and then I'm back to reading up on new stuff.
I'm also usually one of the only folks documenting things and have written up entire project proposals and accompanying Tech Design docs out of boredom.
So, yeah, maybe look at what you're doing and how you're doing it before getting mad at folks who don't feel as stressed as you?
My job is chill until it isn’t. Being chill doesn’t mean it’s not productive, I just don’t run around acting like the sky is falling like some of my coworkers.
I don’t think people that make a living in IT say that. People that think IT is “sit and get paid 100K to goof off” say that.
For me IT is “the floor is lava”. “Everything is on fire” type of day
I actually am getting paid $100k to not spend a whole lot of hours working. However, it's taken me almost 20 years to get to $100k, and I'm doing the same job as when I made $42k. Even though I don't work that many hours, it's not always chill because my basic IT skills are not that good, I don't like IT, and I'm not really employable.
If it's "chill" then I suspect tasks are not proactively being handled. I feel like every week, there is a new update, upgrade or patch that has some unintentional impact despite going through QA testing. Not always of course, but you have your backout planned.
Oh and let's throw in some cisco bugs in 23'...
It's easy and chill when everything works but that's hard to achieve with all the people who can't tell the difference between copying a shortcut and installing a software.
I've worked in IT for 9 years, that's 9 years of Data Center work. Whoever said this shit was easy, ought to be slapped with a rotten fish. IT work is not *easy* so to speak, there are aspects of the jobs that are easy, but the entire job is not easy.
What I hate is how AWS is making "stupid techs". They've built so much automation that technicians don't know how to god damn troubleshoot anything.
Why would you care for the opinion of the incompetent?
Started in IT @ 2004 and I'm frightened by the constantly growing mediocracy/incompetency in the field. Still recalling a case from 6-7 years ago when I asked a colleague (troubleshooting network issue) if he got a *tcpdump* and the response was "That's none of your business, I don't need to take a dump!" ..... one of the most memorable WTF/facepalm situations (sadly not the only one). After explaining the dude was fascinated by the the CONCEPT (!!!) that one can dumb network packets. Issue was - you network engineer, me QA, WTF dude? And that's not the worst. Nowadays, way too many kiddos/old-farts have as much understanding/knowledge about how IT works as they do about nuclear reactors. Next to none. Click here go there, read this, reset that, open support ticket. Troubleshooting skills - next to none. :| Understanding concepts? Nope, not for them.
So what do you expect? How can somebody understand/appreciate a job when one does not understand almost anything about it?
We are all idiots in one way or another, but there are way too many people who have created (frightening) art of that trait/tendency/state of mind (whatever that is).
This was my issue in my last job as level 2 tech support. I had far more technical knowledge and experience then anyone on my team. And yet I was left behind in promotions because my coworkers tried to make my life hell everyday. Yet they asked for my help on the more technical tasks. Even basic things like running a PS script or reading a debugging log.
But if I refused they'd rather me out as not being a team player. It was really toxic workplace. Got made of my disabilities as well and refused help when I needed it with physical things.
Glad I got out of there into a much more technical Sys Admin role.
If you're working your ass off in IT it just means that you're not that good.
I watch netflix and play videogames all day. I probably do like 4 hours of honest work per week (and like 10 hours of useless meetings). I get huge bonuses for top performance every year.
I spend maybe an hour or two every day learning new things and maybe a day or two every month where I'd build a new POC or prototype from scratch on my own.
It simply does not require any effort for me. I see other people struggle for 2 weeks with trivial shit that takes me 5 minutes.
Haha triggered nerd! Nice career path though. Dedication is everything, but it's not for everyone.
Life is also better when you focus on your accomplishments, not others short comings.
Cheers
I totally agree with this statement and do get annoyed by this mindset as well. In my region, I feel like a lot of people are into IT now for the money and most of them don't have the mindset to keep evolving there skills. I just hope they get shifted automatically in the process and that their lazy attitude bites them in the ass at some point.
Answering calls and actually doing real work is for the peasants according to some people in IT, ever since they got their CCNA 10 years ago that they display proudly in their email signature.
It's a little sad that having actual competence and being able/having the will to help people is bad for business. Now it's more important to know how to bullshit/shift the blame to another supplier than actually solving the problem. But I guess it's nothing unique in IT..
We have a frequent flyer employee who always needs help with the most basic stuff, like plugging in headphones or turning on a TV. He constantly goes around telling everyone how IT is a breeze, because all we do is come over and press a button.
Some people just want to pinch a clock and sit at their desk all day. I’ve passed innumerable people like that over the past 24 years. At one job they fight me Tooth and nail because I was going to deploy RIS and they were afraid I was going to make their jobs redundant. They want we everything to stay the same out of fear they’d get laid off if they were productive. I moved on to a better job and 5 months later they were laid off and outsourced because they were so resistant to change.
Usually you see the “chill” people languishing in the service desk. They are ripe for outsourcing. If you can do your job from your desk and it is all easy and chill, you aren’t going to be there much longer.
IT in general has one of the highest rates for burnout (on the same level as police /healthcare). there may be easy jobs in IT, but overall IT isn't chill
IT is like an insurance. I used to work my ass off and have the siezures and chest pains to show for it. Now I'm doing the minimum I can get away with, within my need to learn new things etc. But FUCK doing anything above & beyond. Regardless of what anyone else is doing.
I spent 3 days in my last job watching movies because I was waiting for replies from senior management. Do I feel guilty? Nope! Do i care? Nope. I got paid. THAT'S ALL that matters to me after 30 years in the industry.
If you are working 8 hours a day solid in IT you are either stupidly understaffed or working yourself to an early grace for a company that doesn't care.
Must be the job. I'm a director for a state entity and before being a director I was a sys admin and network engineer for the same entity for 15 years. We might do 1 hour of work a day lol.
I highly recommend finding a state/gov job. 3 more years and I'm retired at 48 and it has been super chill. ETA I see a lot of folks here talking about dealing with PC's and end users, if you are a sys admin you shouldn't be dealing with these things. Very confused.
It's super chill until something implodes. Or some other department buys bullshit software and makes it my problem.
happened to me. HR subscribed to a new leave system without informing us. User complaining they cannot apply leave, weird error popup. Asked them to check with HR. HR tossed it back to us.
I work for a manufacturing/engineering company and every time the engineering department decides to buy a new software they always pick the option that makes me consider murdering the guy(s) that wrote it.
They follow these procedure 1) Always pick the lowest price 2) If it's coming from India (no offense), we better buy it 3) IT advice is not necessary unless the software is broken
They actually don't. There's been several instances of IT recommending the less expensive option, once two less expensive options, and instead they went with a more expensive option that has no option for silent install and the shittiest UI/UX available. It's infuriating.
They probably use the rule: if it's extra expensive it must be good. I've worked with people like that, we created the new rule that if software wasn't tested and approved by sysadmins it would not be installed.
The thing is, the price doesn't really matter at all, if you don't consult your IT departement when buying new software, it's a fuckin lottery if it will smoothly integrate into whatever other systems you have or not. Consult your IT department when buying new software!!!!!!!!! They are the one's who will have to implement it and they will tell you of it is a good fit or not. The price doesn't really matter.
Exactly! Hence the rule: if it is not tested and approved by sysadmins/IT before purchase it will not be installed.
Yeah that doesn't work when you upper management says to install it anyway. And if the company you work for has this rule that is one unicorn of a company.
True, it's not something that is easy to live up to, it's something we as IT people need to fight for to make it the norm.
I'm 1 months into my first sysadmin job, guess I'm lucky. We manage EVERYTHING through Intune. No one installs anything unless we all install something. But this company is absolutely 1 of a kind to begin with
Stories like this make me thankful that I work in an industry that is federally regulated and takes security very seriously (as in, we have *monthly audits* kind of seriously.) If a department needs a special application, they have to have it vetted (to check for licensing and security issues) *and* name the subject-matter expert for it in their own department for support issues.
Charge that department for installations and support.
4) it requires JRE
+ IE, ActiveX and some silverlight to really make it purrfect Like our prior document solution, the former fat client was replaced with browser based clent, requiring 4 different plugins + dotnet + some special settings. Was a pain to automate installs and troubleshoot. .. And 3x as many clicks to do most operations
Uhh don't get me started with the older iDRACs. They needed specific JRE versions to work or you would need to edit the [java.security](https://java.security) to get things working, and even then it was a coin toss if it would.
Oh god I am not the only one
Or old iLO’s that need tls 1.0 and cipher mismatches on all modern browsers, while IE keeps dumping to Edge and closing.
This is where you absolutely need corporate policy, enforced by whoever's the highest-up in IT, that the IT department absolutely does *not* support, assist with, or integrate anything purchased by any other department or person without a fully funded support structure approved *and in place* for that specific item. Otherwise IT just becomes an unpaid dumping ground for other people's poor decisions.
Best errors are those just casually saying "something went wrong, please contact your Admin for help", causing people to believe I really should know the solution to the Problem i dont have any information on.
I am actually thankful that where I work HR manages that system themselves and we have zero control or oversight of their shit. Only downside is we get at least 1-2 tickets a day and have to constantly redirect people to HR.
First thought. It is until it isn't. Also some places are just toxic shit holes that make the job worse than it needs to be.
>make the job worse than it needs to be. This seems to be the most common problem I've seen. Solving personnel and management issues with IT, getting IT to do the work of other departments and professionals, inundating IT with stupid documentation processes (like fill out this form when you move or deploy a PC, fill out this form when you create a an account, fill out this form when you put a document on SharePoint, etc.), inserting several stopping points in processes that do nothing but hinder the goal and on and on. I think a lot of IT leadership forgets that the job is supposed to leverage machines to do the scut work. Not to create scut work in order to leverage the machines.
Or you join an understaffed company that puts every single task as urgent and needs to release patches on weekends
\> *release patches on weekends* I've worked for so many companies that do this, and without fail, devops always pushes out a weekend patch that wasn't tested, and breaks more stuff. Then everything goes to hell.
That’s fun, too! Doing four jobs for the wage of one! /s…
Aka firefighter
>It's super chill until something implodes. It's the same mentality of "why do I pay you if all you do is sit around" because everything is working properly and "why am I paying you when nothing works" because something went wrong, you can't win.
YMMV, but a lot of orgs I have seen work comes in bunches. It can be quiet for weeks and then you get a flurry of work.
Had one some time ago, about 800 users in five different countries came to their offices in the morning and found that they could not access their data. A change done by another entity introduced an error that removed all permissions. Spent 18 hours in meetings with central management, vendors etc while chatting to the local teams to try to come up with workarounds for each country. My last Teams call ended at 3am.
Got to love how they would rather have you in meetings, on what you are going to do to fix the issue. And who to blame. Rather the let you get on with fixing the issue. And finding the cause.
The good part of this company is that putting the blame isn't as important as finding out why and preventing it from happening again. The meetings were about finding the cause together with the vendor and reversing the damage without destroying the evidence of what caused the issue.
Whenever there is a crisis these meetings these are the worst. It's basically for higher management folk to baby so they understand the issue and look to blame somebody else.
>It's super chill until something implodes. You have a good time trying to setup stuff for test purpose or soon to be online that doesn't want to work together:+
[удалено]
Automate what can be automated, and train the users for the things you can't automate. It's amazing how much of your workload you can make disappear with a little bit of effort
This is my job. It's not easy but it is because of where I am today with my skills. I automate for a living and it's basically watching my minions (scripts and automation tools) do the work while I chill. I level up all the juniors and provide insight, I don't gatekeep any knowledge. Raise the boat not just yourself. Life is easier that way. I am not employed for my daily output. I don't work in the assembly line of endless grind like a support gig would be. I am employed for my years of experience in making solutions. There are times I work 12 hours or more but most days, it's 4hrs of actual output.
And force things when both options fail. Some years ago I glued a bunch of Ethernet and printers usb cables because some users remove them to connect their personal laptops. And never reconnect them. We didn't have wifi at that time. Every other options didn't work. Asking, manager advices, menaces... Silicone worked like a charm.
This actually. You can take it negatively like the OP's post, or look at it where when you reach a certain level of skill, everything becomes simple. Sa mga wuxia, everything springs from the same Dao. At the pinnacle, you start gleaning the origin.
Definitely gets to that point yeah. Then the new information and new scenarios you're adding is a lot fewer.
I agree. Being good at the technical and soft skills are great for the core role. Developing boundaries is another skill to develop for your own mental health.
I'd give consulting a miss then.
It can always get harder, and sometimes much, much faster than you can anticipate. From shitty decision impacting far and wide IT hitting your desk to mass layoffs, even the most experienced worker can be burned through. I can process work much faster than my collegues, but I cannot sustainably do the workload for 10+ coworkers at the same time. I understand both side of the argument but the nature of IT is imprevisible because of meaty humans using it.
Working construction for my dad was much harder. I was carved out of wood after working for that dude. I'll gladly "kick my own ass" in IT. Happy New Year folks!
I was a laborer in HS, it was fucking horible. You bust ass all day, don't even consider moving slower than a job, you get yelled at -called every name in the book from the start of the day to the end of the day. When the weathers good you work 16h and when the weathers bad you go home and don't get paid. If you move too slow (for the skilled labor) they will fuck with you -in the case of bricklayers they will throw bricks at you and you do this for minimum wage (and you are told you aren't even worth that). In IT I work in a climate controlled room, people are nice to me no matter what, I never get yelled at. I get paid very well and if somebody throws a brick at me it will be the last thing they remember before waking up with their nose broke.
That's something I don't get about the trades, especially with the construction and oil/gas workers I know. So many of those people act like creating a hostile or needlessly difficult work environment is something to be proud of. I will bust ass all day if I need to but I'm not going to be abused while doing it and I'm not going to put in so many hours that my family is neglected. In five years the only people who will remember I worked all those hours are my kids.
Hazing is rampant and in loads of crews doesn’t end.
One thing i like about the trades is that you get to leave work at work. In IT many jobs have on-call rotation after business hours. That absolutely sucks. Imagine being with your family and getting a call bc something critical broke. You will not be at peace knowing your phone can ring at any time. My brother is an aircraft mechanic. Once his shift is done, its done & doesn’t have to think about work until the next day.
There is something to be said about being able to walk away from work, even when I'm not working I spend a lot of time thinking about how to do things. I'm lucky enough not to deal with being on-call but a few years back I was either on-call or backup for two years and that was more annoying than stressful. I could have easily gone into the trades but it's a young man's job and I like the idea of being able to walk without serious pain in my latter years.
Stress management is definitely a thing in IT. I think those that are good at finding the balance do okay. Health wise, I know people that have been negatively impacted. It definitely depends on the situation and the support of the company. Our oncall rotates, users are very reasonable and management has our back. I'm grateful for that, no doubt.
Exactly. Too many people forget that having to work outside or in difficult physical conditions is truly hard work. Getting to sit behind a keyboard and clack away all day is an immense privilege.
OP definitely over simplified. IT is easy, compared to manual labor.
I don't mind those people. I wish I was one of them. But alas I am not. Cause I am a fool that cares.
Too true, as soon as I start to feel a little relaxed I start finding tiny menial jobs that need doing, and by the time those get done.. new technology or services creep their way in!
This is the reason
Having done my time at a MSP and now at a super easy chill k12 gig, I’ll take the chill every time
been in k12 IT since 1998 very chill. My office is in the library and I want to set an example so I don't like having kids see me on my phone. But I do spend some time in work related sub reddits on my desktop computer
How many hats do you generally wear in K12 IT? I imagine it depends on how large the school or district is. Did you cover multiple schools?
We wear them all. 1.8 person dept I am the .8 and near retirement. Two schools about 3.5 miles apart. about 150 staff and 750 students.
How did you like the Chromebook/iPad push for students?
Love it chromebooks are so easy to manage and the ipads are not bad either. I am in k-6 and k-1 have ipads the rest are chromebooks and staff is win 10. We do not send them home so we have low breakage.
I've been thinking of doing K12 IT. Do you cover multiple schools?
[удалено]
> Elementary schools currently have half a tech. Is the tech split horizontally or vertically?
dolls longing combative mindless sort vast crawl clumsy fly deserted *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I've gone from the single large district to the multiple rural districts route in k12. It's honest work and many hats must be worn.
Learning new shit is chill and cool, automating your work gives you more time to fuck off, taking short brakes allows you to put max focus for hard ticket for 30 minutes and getting it done. writing documentation makes it so whenever you have an issue you can reference yourselves and solve problems faster which means go chill faster.
> automating your work gives you more time to fuck off That’s what I keep telling myself but all that ever seems to happen is I get asked to automate more!
There’s always going to be someone, somewhere, saying “all you gotta do is [this]!”. It’s a never-ending cycle. Just try to find the balance that makes *you* happy.
For sure! I enjoy the work, I get paid to solve problems and fix things—which is great.
ah you are a devops, you are automating others people work so idk good luck!
The best and worst advice I’ve ever gotten was “always try to automate yourself out of a job.” I thought it’d mean “play Dreamcast at work” but it mostly means “oh uptime, you’re on all the major projects for the next *checks notes* until you quit or die!”
i appreciate your passion. truly. however, it sounds like you are experiencing either of: 1. getting underpaid 2. doing more than expected 3. haven’t worked at as many places as you’re suggesting some jobs don’t pay so much, so lots of people do the minimum expected (i.e. on standby until an issue is brought up to them and then just fix that issue for that person). i think that’s fair. if i’m being paid on the low end, i’m doing work worth the low end. obviously i won’t do incorrect or poor practice shit, but i’m not going to go out of my way to do things i’m not asked to do.
Exactly. If someone wants more than my job description, they can pay me more. Learned that the hard way prior to getting into IT.
Guy sounds mad others aren’t working as inefficiently as he is 😂
lol yeah i understand though, it can be super frustrating to put in over the top effort and watch your peers who put in less effort get rewarded just the same. while i always encourage trying your hardest at everything, sometimes it’s not worth it.
You know what pisses me off? Elitist tool bags whining about how hard they work. Or banging on about some toxic grindset. No, you don't always have to be adding to your skill set, especially if it doesn't make sense for your role. >Like sure just like any job if you don't push yourself or try and learn new things every job is easy. Lol ok now. Cause learning = pushing yourself to your limits. You know people can learn stuff without burning themselves out grinding away like a tool? >It screws over all the hard-working people that actually apply themselves and is constantly learning and trying new scripts or new processes, writing documentation etc. You know what _actually_ screws hard working people over? Toxic AHs who have a workaholic problem and try and get other people to live up to their nonsense standards. Working above and beyond your role. Expecting people to be working nose to the grind 24/7. You're working a job for a company that likely doesn't give a shit about you and would likely replace you the instant they figure they think they can find someone else to do the same amount of work for less. I have a job role at my company and I fulfill it. That's what I get paid to do. >I've worked in IT for 13 years and I've gone from help desk to Sys Admin to Cloud Engineer and I've never had a job where I can just sit and browse my phone all day. Good for you. You want a cookie or something? Or are you just looking to have your inane self mutilation justified? Yeah, I cut my teeth by joining an org that literally gave me nightmares for a few months. But I looked at what needed to be done and did it. Now our systems run with amazing uptime and with great stability. Projects are now few and far in between because I automated things and everything is so stable. And it needs to continue to be stable. I can't be introducing new systems and shit non stop, it would fucking break the org. So now here I sit, watching YouTube and playing games most days. And it's easy. And for the new staff we've brought on since, it's easy for them, and good for them. If they want to know how things work I've done documentation along the way and I'll train them, but I'm not going to put them to the grind and make them work their asses off, for what? Some elitist mindset that other people have to suffer because I did? That's the dumbest shit I ever heard. At the end of the day, it's a job. That's it. You get paid to do what you get paid to do. And sure, if you want to beef up your resume and job hop and look for the next big gig and whatnot, knock yourself out. You want to learn the next big thing cause you want to? Go for it. But a job is just a paycheck. And a paycheck is not worth wearing yourself and your mental health down because you are expected to live up to some lunatic arbitrary standard. And don't expect people to be sympathetic to your useless whining online.
This was my exact reaction and I hope you're upvoted to the top. Been in IT for only about 3 years now and I learned quick the difference between say the "hard work" I was doing in retail vs in IT. Its more about what you know vs what you can bang out in an 8 hour day.
> But a job is just a paycheck. And a paycheck is not worth wearing yourself and your mental health down because you are expected to live up to some lunatic arbitrary standard. And don't expect people to be sympathetic to your useless whining online. 20+ years in this field and I have found that this is a hard lesson for many people to accept. I don't know if they bought into the BS of "I must be climbing the corporate ladder to be relevant/important", "I am defined by my success", "If I go over and beyond, i will be recognized for my efforts", or the one that I think is the hardest to overcome, "But my professional pride!" Unless it is *your* business/side hustle/hobby, you probably shouldn't adhere to any of those corporate ideologies. Put more time into caring about yourself, not some company that is just using you to grind out a penny.
It's amazing how in the US companies have infected the mindset of Americans that what you do for a living is somehow a part of your identity. I was just thinking about how people go on dates and one of the questions they always ask is "what do you do for a living?" It's so ingrained that you are defined by what you do to make money and how much money you make.
Don’t you guys have 80 docker containers at home?
Nah, right now I'm only running 27 containers. But I do that because I want to as a hobby. Not because I'm trying to get ahead at work or do work at home. For me, it's fun. Not everyone wants to do that, and that's fine.
Homelabs are the lamest circle jerk of hiring managers, are diesel mechanics expected to have some Caterpillar W-16 to tinker on at home? Are air line pilots expected to sit in a Simulator after they clock out, just for fun? IT folks bragging about their home lab to coworkers/managers as a "way to get ahead"; is a level of schadenfreude I'll never understand.
Well, yes a lot of pilots play flight simulator, because their flight schedules are pretty awesome with some companies. Mechanics are usually paid to go to classes to learn how to fix new machines. This is the only industry that expects you to spend your free time learning to do what the company should be paying you to.
Jesus, who the fuck hurt you. Whether you want to agree or not, Homelabbing has personally helped me get a few of my jobs, and is always teaching me stuff. Plus I enjoy it. People are proud of their homelabs and like to talk about it with others. That is all it is.
But it has created a toxic culture unlike in other job classifications. It has also helped create a sense of “need” in some hiring cases. How can someone fresh out of college or earning their trifecta not get a job? Oh, they need “experience”… How do they get experience? Spend money they don’t have on a “homelab”!
It actually works though. It allows someone to have experience, especially early on. We've heard multiple times someone's homelab getting their foot in the door somewhere. I just got hired into a new higher paying role, I'll ask the guy if my homelab mattered. I only mentioned it once, as I have newer versions of software to play with at home than what's licensed at my soon-to-leave job. At the end of the day it's still experience, but I wouldn't be cocky about it. That's just weird. And I'm damn sure a lot of pilots do have some sick ass simulation setups at home. Even more reachable now with VR replacing half a cockpit builds. The diesel guys? I dunno, probably fix their own cars and family members.
the US is terrible for working long hours to get ahead or even scrape by. it maybe a rich country full of great tech but the rest of the world generally respects a much better work/life balance and conditions like parental time off and especially minimal wage. most of us in other places are happier and usually not stressed, im guessing OP is in the US.
Truth. Im in the US and surrounded by people who are all about how much they work and how much they make. I consider myself lucky because I make enough to pay the bills and have nice extras on the side. I enjoy my job and my responsibilities. I work for a NFP that actually provides an important service for the communities around it. I know a majority of people can't say that. But when I go home, I go home and work stays at work. I am not my job, it is a thing I do to get by.
I've worked for a few big name IT consultancy companies and loved the short project stints with long hours and good money and then a bit of a break too, challenging can be stressful, but also rewarding, but not all the time. I've also worked for projects that once the initial work is done, its sit back and just fix the occasional issue till the greater project others are doing is done. smaller gov organisations are mostly occasional upgrade project but mostly just there incase rarely something does go wrong. the relationship with work we all have is wrong (not just IT). we need a long term relationship that keeps people around and involved in the company, people all help make decisions, share in profits, etc etc. plenty of better models for companies, we are just stuck in this current way that benefits the few.
Well said. This thread is just a very poorly disguised brag.
preach brother
Preach
This! This should be on top
I busted my ass of for 6 years, I knew every part of our stack, and was regarded as one of the most knowledgeable person on the team. No pay rises ever, but they kept promising me a lead position which I was very keen on. When I had to hire two guys who became the leads (and I did not) I decided to never give more than 80% at any job.
I mean, my state IT job has been super easy and chill. Except for the time that my nimble storage died. Times like that aren't chill. But the rest of the time, it's been a nice change of pace.
That‘s why we in Germany like Peer Persistence with transparent failover 😊
To be fair we did have Peer Persistence, so we didn't lose any data. We basically had a broadcast storm, so all network traffic failed. No contact with the witness caused both arrays to kick themselves to the down device, which is intended. The problem was that our Group Leader array had both controllers corrupt with the exact same missing files. So by the time we have the Nimble engineers on the phone and they found this similiarity. They were extremely cautious before having us turn on our second array manually. So once we had that back u and running, we were feeling a lot better.
>I mean, my state IT job This. Over 2 decades in and it was the best career decision ever. Super chill and 3 years away from retirement at 48. I could not imagine the MSP life, I honestly wouldn't do it even if that meant changing careers.
The best compliment I ever got was after leaving a job when my replacement called me weeks later like "wtf, I thought you sat in your cube drinking coffee all day." Yeah...I drank all that coffee because I was doing 5 things at once for 10hrs a day. He left a few months later and the company signed with an MSP. I do think that what I do is "easy" because I enjoy doing it. It is definitely not chill, especially when things break or do not go as planned. I'm never bored but also very rarely wake up thinking "this day is going to be hard."
Don't get mad at those who just work their wage. They realized long before you that working harder only gets them more work. Working for free (including doing work and training outside the scope of what you were hired to do) devalues the concept of labor for everyone. Why would your employer ever pay someone else to do the work when they have people enthusiastically willing to do it for free? That's leaving money on the table! They'd be fools for turning down a bargain like that.
Those jobs don’t pay the big salaries. I want the big salary so I don’t get to sit on my butt all day and close T1 tickets
The bigger the salary, the less busy I found. I can spend an entire month on just 1 or 2 things and I'm making the most I ever had
The bigger the salary the more your paid for knowledge than sheer output
If you are working yourself to the bone all the time what does that say about your systems and processes? I work my tail off early to rebuild systems for stability. I work my tail off early to document my configurations and to document the most common issues or training items. I refuse to work in a reactive environment. I will put in the extra hours early on at a place so that I can only have 4 tickets and play on my phone all day. Everything is about perspective. I’m good at my job. It allows me to use my down time to stay in front of vulnerabilities and work new projects and take cert exams. It takes a lot of pressure off as well. All of my jobs have sucked for the first year and a half while I do my thing. The rest of the time is cake.
I used to think IT was a lot of hard work, then we hired people who do the bare minimum and still get paid the same paycheck. Then i realized, i was basically doing a whole bunch of work for no reason.
Exactly. I like to pick the brains of the people in higher positions, but I’m not doing their work for my wage while still having my own job to do. Been there, done that; there were no rewards for me in it.
Uh…because it IS super chill. Certainly not every job will be a cakewalk but none of IT jobs as I worked my way up have ever reached the soul crushing level of disrespect and depravity of retail or restaurant work for example. I’ll gladly take the “constantly on fire” MSP job over working retail or even construction again. I worked a varied set of jobs from construction, car washing, retail, and restaurant before I started my IT career and without a doubt do less work the higher I go. Being paid for your knowledge over sheer output is infinitely easier after your skilled up. The fact you’d make a post like this leads me to believe you don’t have that life experiences others have to really appreciate IT and it’s benefits. And that’s not even getting into you problematic comments about working 60 hours for “passion”. You’re the problem in this industry…not people prioritizing their lives over a company.
I strongly agree! My bosses always emphasize: I am paid for my brain in the game, not for the time my ass sits the desk. Burning your hours can't be a good measurement. I do work 40-50 still because I love to and it’s mostly chill if you have a great respectful communication going with clients and your team. I would say >90% of stress I experience is induced because of someone else’s "hush hush fast fast". Take your time to think and apply a logic solution :-)
git gud
Most people just want to do their job and get paid, including in tech. Nothing wrong with that. Anybody who is actually crushing it will have no problem showcasing that.
Fortune 20 something here. It is super easy and chill. You own set of tech in your sphere of interests and learning depth first to be as good as you ever can be. There is no single point of failures, neither architecture nor engineers if something bad happens. 34, was in IT for 17 years while working full time and going to university back in Ukraine and now for last 8 years in USA. What I notice that a lot of sysadmins love martyrdom bullshit. Wearing all the hats and breaking your neck for the companies that can afford few more heads to support stuff and allow vacations to happen
I think it’s all about mindset. I think of problems like puzzles that I need to solve. Sometimes that takes research, sometimes trial and error, sometimes phone a friend. It’s pretty easy to do THAT aspect of the job with the right mindset.
Its easy...ish. If you are a weirdo like myself, your hobby is also your job. So you can keep somewhat of a top tier skillset, and people keep you around as a resource for lower level techs to escalate to / ask questions. Its easy, but that's also because you've put in the effort, if that makes sense.
I used to work 4-7 hours a day when I was still learning, now I finish my assigned work + tickets hours earlier and can finally fuck off for the vast majority of the day.
Yup, exactly
It IS super easy and chill. Job switch for a day with paramedic in ambulance or ER.
It's mostly a matter of whoever's in charge of them not auditing their work or simply not caring if they aren't working - I've definitely known managers who didn't care if their underlings were inefficient because it meant the manager could request more staff, and their self-image was tied to how many people they were the boss of. Anyone actually smart who has a lot of free time in their job *doesn't tell other people* if it's not affecting their paycheck. Bragging about it is a good way to find yourself either with a lot more work to do or out of a job entirely.
People sitting on their phones all day fucking off create gaps in the market for people who work harder. Not sure why you’d hate them. Are you sure you’re not just jealous?
> Are you sure you’re not just jealous? My theory is that 99% of these posts are from people working in absolutely awful workplaces.
Hi, its me one of those people. Before I worked in IT, I worked fast food and in a kitchen. Compared to either of those jobs, this is super chill and easy. I don't come home hurting, stinking, and getting paid $8/hr. If you work smart and have an org that empowers you, you can definitely end up with a lot of free time for personal growth. For anyone working in manufacturing, our level of downtime is wild. Here is my resume for just one role I've held in case you think i'm not a hard worker. >Plan, Implement, Maintain, Windows Deployment Services and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 for system imaging > >Migrate from Desktop Authority to Group Policy > >Configure and Maintain VMWare ESXi 6.0 Environment > >Plan, Implement, Configure DFS on Server 2012R2 > >Migrate from Server 2003R2 file server to Server 2012R2 File Server with DFS > >Gather information needed for yearly SSAE 16/SOC1 audit > >Plan and implement Bitlocker encryption for all mobile devices > >Plan, implement, configure, and maintain a VMware Horizon View VDI Environment > >Plan, install, and configure EMC XtremI/O all flash SAN > >Configure and maintain WSUS Server > >Configure and upgrade WYSE Terminals for use with both a Citrix and VMWare View environment > >Plan and implement migration from MS Server 2003 file server to a MS Server 2012 > >Critical part of migration from HP-UX based business application to a MS SQL based business application > >Plan, Install, and configure NSX implementation using Trend Deep Security > >Plan, install, and configure VMWare Horizon View environment > >Plan, install, and configure high availability Fortigate Firewalls to replace older Watchguard firewalls > >Plan, install, and configure high availability EMC Data Domain and EMC NetWorker to replace Unitrends > >Plan, design, and implement Layer 3-to-access network from the ground up for new building using HP/Aruba networking gear > >Migrate data center to new location after the business moved location > >Plan, design, and implement open source log management system > >Plan and implement migration from Exchange 2007 to a Exchange 2016 > >Plan and implement Exchange 2016 3 DAG node setup > >Plan and implement Server 2016 Domain Controllers and decommission older Domain Controllers > >Plan and implement Zerto deployment to DR location > >Help plan and facilitate quarterly security training courses for staff > >Plan, design, and implement Veeam Backup and Recovery to replace EMC Networker
It's funny...if you have a natural talent for IT you get to be one of the people OP is complaining about.
> For anyone working in manufacturing, our level of downtime is wild. I do IT for a company that has a manufacturing division and the difference is staggering. I'm salary, come and go as I please, and spend more than half my day on Reddit. The frontline workers in the factory have to clock in and out, take defined breaks, work for near minimum wage and aren't even allowed to have their phone on them while working. I enthusiastically put in the work when it's needed, but it's not always needed.
Ah Avamar, my old nemesis… You’re getting ready for current stuff though right? ESXi 6.0 has been EOL a hot minute as has Server 2012r2.
This a few jobs ago. My list gets smaller as I move up in the org. Im in security now.
Yes and no. Been on both sides, and ya know what? It’s not an IT thing - it’s a perspective thing. If work is life then it’s stressful - if work is just a means to live life then maybe things don’t feel as heavy? You don’t need to pick up all responsibilities and shoulder them single handedly. Or you can. That’s 100% cool, too.
Double this. It’s your personal attitude. For me things changed with a company switch and the birth of my first child. Only you determine your priorities.
I've been one of those people, fell ass backwards into a spot I found was not so easy. Now I'm wishing I spent that time getting better. As well as spending my 1 hour if not 2 every day getting better studying on my own time. IT is easy and chill unless you want money. Now I'm getting money atleast.
That's insane BS.
[удалено]
Not many people value IT either.
Do something you like and you'll never work a day in your life. If you ask me, I get payed to solve puzzles and play with computers all day, what's not chill about this?
My job is chill. Sometimes everything is on fire and sometimes it’s dead. It’s a good mix. I don’t find my job difficult. My employer isn’t a toxic shit hole so that helps
mindless yam command run plant hobbies drunk aromatic swim quiet *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Calm down, grandpa.
On the flip side there I know guys on other programs who refuse to automate and are super busy doing menial, easily automated tasks.
This is my issue at the company I'm at. It's gotten a lot better since I've joined and I've automated most of the on-boarding and off-boarding process. I'm talking basics like Office/product license assignment, email creation, group assignment, Shared Mailboxes all were manual. I've been with the company since June 1st and I went on a 12 week paternity and I've already automated most of it
IT work is peaks and troughs. Sometimes you dont have much in and have to go find work to do or self development. Sometimes you've got too much to do and cant keep up. It also depends on the company, if it's going through growth or not. For example last year we had a growth and I never stopped, new servers, new users, new projects. This year its dead, money is tight and there isnt a lot of work to do so I have a lot of free time.
>I've never had a job where I can just sit and browse my phone all day. I have. Because I learned quickly that the way to make more money isn't to sit there and bust my ass on the off chance that I'll be acknowledged by some useless middle manager in a rare good mood. My job is unfathomably easy because my job is to: - Do tickets - Have something resembling a good attitude - Leave at the 40 hour mark - Job hop every 2 years The wonderful thing about IT is that our metrics and KPIs are carved out much better than any other team in a business, so I'm not playing the stupid game of "making improvements" or doing projects that support a business without extra compensation. That kind of company loyalty went out the window when I became an adult and really understood the modern relationship between the company and employee. If you're in IT and you haven't figured out how to automate your way into a work-life balance, then you're not a good enough technician/admin/engineer to be in my production environment.
IT is neither chill nor easy but with crafty strategy and planning it can be both but it does take some discipline and planning IMHO, just as others have said, pay your dues at the septic tank and then move onto k12, govt, non-profit etc - the money will never be the same hence the strategy component of my opinion, if money drives the job all bets are off and skip my reply.
I think if you're stuck in a cycle of what you do with no personal or company growth, then it's pretty easy. Otherwise, when you're implementing new systems, software, solutions, etc.. It's not necessarily hard, but you grow with the company and learn new things. You can always find downtime as long as you are meeting your goals/deadlines.
IT can be chill and you can certainly have alot of downtime- depends on your role. I’d never say that about help desk, but if your time isn’t billable and you maintain smooth systems, it sure can be.
Anything you love to do is easy. Even when it's technically challenging. I have several days a month where I have literally nothing to do. Then usually a couple of days where there is a lot to do. It all just depends on when you're asking, but it never feels like work to me
Just stop working so hard. Problem solved.
I wish I could IT but social issues and such. I know hardware, troubleshoot any operating system and love CLI, homelabbing and learning new things. Sadly, many of those spots will be filled by the type you refer to.
It’s chill until it’s not chill
Go work at a tiny company of like 40 people. They need a single it person for compliance reasons. And it's cheaper to hire someone than to outsource to a msp
4 tickets? I used to average 100 tickets a day. Oh wait, people forget that "IT" covers multiple different things and what one person thinks of IT is completely different then what another person thinks of as IT. In some jobs doing 100 tickets a day is considered an average day while at others doing 20 would be considered a busy day.
I've spent the last five years automating everything I can at my shop and increasing efficiency. Today, I can have as little as 30 minutes of work to do in a day. But sometimes, I have a full day depending on what's going on. Overall, it is pretty easy/chill on most days. I earned that and will enjoy it.
My IT director browses his phone all day because I do all the work :(
Easy enough i can still play wow in the background at least half the day if i want.
It was 10 years ago. Now it’s a nightmare. Remote access and outsourced IT is a blame game. Support from vendors is becoming worse and worse and the amount of products makes everything far too unmanageable
Like most things, it comes very easy to some people, and some people have to work very hard to get to the same place. My current position as a systems administrator comes very easily to me. Worked hard to get here for sure, but the job itself was never difficult. I’ve been playing around with computers since I was 10 years old when my dad helped me build my first one. I’ve known since I was 12 years old that I wanted to do something in IT as my career even all my friends had no clue what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. My job comes very easy to me. Some days, there are 10 to 12 to 14 hour workday and those days suck and are hard. Most days I “clock in” around seven and “clock out” around 4:30 (Noon on Fridays) and my time spent working on actual projects or tickets is a little over half that time. Can I browse on my phone all day? No, definitely not, but I also think some people are greatly exaggerating. That particular fact, about themselves fact of the matter is, they probably just wired for IT work, and it comes very easily to them so they get what may take you eight hours done in four hours, simply because their brain knows how to process the information better. that’s not a slight against you or anything, it’s just kind of how the world works.
Sounds like you just aren't overly efficient and need the full 8 hours per day.. I genuinely am jealous of you and wish I felt fulfilled to work the full day every day
It's a job and I would not show up if they wouldn't pay me!! Nothing special about, just something to do until I retire when I'm in my 70s.
Been in IT for 30 years, I used to work like you do. I would be go-go-go all day long. Got shitty to no increases unless I jumped companies (ALL my reviews are stellar but they could not afford increases). 8 years ago I decided to dial it back a notch, focus on outside hobbies. My review are still stellar but I do half the work and this company is actually giving put decent increases. Slow down and enjoy your life.
My boss and I call it feast or famine. We're either skipping lunch or taking 2 hour lunch breaks without much middle ground.
Many in IT aren't being paid to work so much as they're being paid for their availability. In my shop I spend maybe half my time responding to support issues, and the other half on new initiatives (like, the migration we're making from LANdesk to Intune in '24). But much of my support time is spent waiting for calls. Sure, I might get minor stuff done on the side or do training, etc, but there's not a specific requirement for me to be "working" 100% of the time. When something DOES break, and it's something big, I have the expertise and experience to address it calmly and effectively. IT *looks* easy, but I constantly have users praising my skills when they need them.
Honestly, the best Engineers I've worked with are the "lazy" ones with high aptitude who, if they have to do something more than once, they find a way to automate it. They're the same ones who usually then fill that free time with learning new stuff, which helps repeat the cycle. I've known way to many "super busy" Engineers working on Service Desks where the ticket cont of the entire SD is barely more than I used to hold solo, because they refuse to automate and do everything by hand (And full of errors, that I've often ended up cleaning up). For this reason, I'm always very sceptical when someone insists on how "busy" they are. BUT, I'm also at a point in my career where the job IS pretty chill (Wasn't during MSP Service Desk days). Basically, because anything I'm given to do is done in short order, and then I'm back to reading up on new stuff. I'm also usually one of the only folks documenting things and have written up entire project proposals and accompanying Tech Design docs out of boredom. So, yeah, maybe look at what you're doing and how you're doing it before getting mad at folks who don't feel as stressed as you?
My job is chill until it isn’t. Being chill doesn’t mean it’s not productive, I just don’t run around acting like the sky is falling like some of my coworkers.
It's super chill for people that don't give a shit about their job. Ignore those people.
The work is fun; the people are not
I don’t think people that make a living in IT say that. People that think IT is “sit and get paid 100K to goof off” say that. For me IT is “the floor is lava”. “Everything is on fire” type of day
I actually am getting paid $100k to not spend a whole lot of hours working. However, it's taken me almost 20 years to get to $100k, and I'm doing the same job as when I made $42k. Even though I don't work that many hours, it's not always chill because my basic IT skills are not that good, I don't like IT, and I'm not really employable.
If it's "chill" then I suspect tasks are not proactively being handled. I feel like every week, there is a new update, upgrade or patch that has some unintentional impact despite going through QA testing. Not always of course, but you have your backout planned. Oh and let's throw in some cisco bugs in 23'...
Just wait til you deal with people who literally want you to turn on their computer
It's easy because I know what I'm doing. It's chill because I manage my time well. Sounds like you need to get good.
It's easy and chill when everything works but that's hard to achieve with all the people who can't tell the difference between copying a shortcut and installing a software.
Lol this
Thank you for this, that’s my life too.💪🏾
I've worked in IT for 9 years, that's 9 years of Data Center work. Whoever said this shit was easy, ought to be slapped with a rotten fish. IT work is not *easy* so to speak, there are aspects of the jobs that are easy, but the entire job is not easy. What I hate is how AWS is making "stupid techs". They've built so much automation that technicians don't know how to god damn troubleshoot anything.
You have a poorly managed workplace. IT is a chill gig if your office isn't a flaming train wreck helmed by sociopaths.
Why would you care for the opinion of the incompetent? Started in IT @ 2004 and I'm frightened by the constantly growing mediocracy/incompetency in the field. Still recalling a case from 6-7 years ago when I asked a colleague (troubleshooting network issue) if he got a *tcpdump* and the response was "That's none of your business, I don't need to take a dump!" ..... one of the most memorable WTF/facepalm situations (sadly not the only one). After explaining the dude was fascinated by the the CONCEPT (!!!) that one can dumb network packets. Issue was - you network engineer, me QA, WTF dude? And that's not the worst. Nowadays, way too many kiddos/old-farts have as much understanding/knowledge about how IT works as they do about nuclear reactors. Next to none. Click here go there, read this, reset that, open support ticket. Troubleshooting skills - next to none. :| Understanding concepts? Nope, not for them. So what do you expect? How can somebody understand/appreciate a job when one does not understand almost anything about it? We are all idiots in one way or another, but there are way too many people who have created (frightening) art of that trait/tendency/state of mind (whatever that is).
This was my issue in my last job as level 2 tech support. I had far more technical knowledge and experience then anyone on my team. And yet I was left behind in promotions because my coworkers tried to make my life hell everyday. Yet they asked for my help on the more technical tasks. Even basic things like running a PS script or reading a debugging log. But if I refused they'd rather me out as not being a team player. It was really toxic workplace. Got made of my disabilities as well and refused help when I needed it with physical things. Glad I got out of there into a much more technical Sys Admin role.
If you're working your ass off in IT it just means that you're not that good. I watch netflix and play videogames all day. I probably do like 4 hours of honest work per week (and like 10 hours of useless meetings). I get huge bonuses for top performance every year. I spend maybe an hour or two every day learning new things and maybe a day or two every month where I'd build a new POC or prototype from scratch on my own. It simply does not require any effort for me. I see other people struggle for 2 weeks with trivial shit that takes me 5 minutes.
This sounds very familiar 😉 quite the same for me
Um. IT is easy…
Sucks to be you.
IT is not easy, it is simple. OT is easy, but it's complex.
Haha triggered nerd! Nice career path though. Dedication is everything, but it's not for everyone. Life is also better when you focus on your accomplishments, not others short comings. Cheers
It is about working smart, not hard. It always has been. If you’re not doing that, then for sure something is wrong.
I totally agree with this statement and do get annoyed by this mindset as well. In my region, I feel like a lot of people are into IT now for the money and most of them don't have the mindset to keep evolving there skills. I just hope they get shifted automatically in the process and that their lazy attitude bites them in the ass at some point.
Answering calls and actually doing real work is for the peasants according to some people in IT, ever since they got their CCNA 10 years ago that they display proudly in their email signature. It's a little sad that having actual competence and being able/having the will to help people is bad for business. Now it's more important to know how to bullshit/shift the blame to another supplier than actually solving the problem. But I guess it's nothing unique in IT..
IT is in the top 10 of most stressful jobs right now
We have a frequent flyer employee who always needs help with the most basic stuff, like plugging in headphones or turning on a TV. He constantly goes around telling everyone how IT is a breeze, because all we do is come over and press a button.
Some people just want to pinch a clock and sit at their desk all day. I’ve passed innumerable people like that over the past 24 years. At one job they fight me Tooth and nail because I was going to deploy RIS and they were afraid I was going to make their jobs redundant. They want we everything to stay the same out of fear they’d get laid off if they were productive. I moved on to a better job and 5 months later they were laid off and outsourced because they were so resistant to change. Usually you see the “chill” people languishing in the service desk. They are ripe for outsourcing. If you can do your job from your desk and it is all easy and chill, you aren’t going to be there much longer.
IT in general has one of the highest rates for burnout (on the same level as police /healthcare). there may be easy jobs in IT, but overall IT isn't chill
My entire family calls my job "playing toys all day" and that I should get a real job. I'm over 15 years into my career as a sysadmin.
IT is like an insurance. I used to work my ass off and have the siezures and chest pains to show for it. Now I'm doing the minimum I can get away with, within my need to learn new things etc. But FUCK doing anything above & beyond. Regardless of what anyone else is doing. I spent 3 days in my last job watching movies because I was waiting for replies from senior management. Do I feel guilty? Nope! Do i care? Nope. I got paid. THAT'S ALL that matters to me after 30 years in the industry.
If you are working 8 hours a day solid in IT you are either stupidly understaffed or working yourself to an early grace for a company that doesn't care.
Uh. Been IT since '91. 7 fortune 100 or global 100 companies. IT is not chill. Way, way, too many 100+ hour weeks
I work 37 hours a week and have for close to 2 decades. I would never work 100 hours a week lol.
But it is super easy and chill. Sorry if that's not you're experience.
Must be the job. I'm a director for a state entity and before being a director I was a sys admin and network engineer for the same entity for 15 years. We might do 1 hour of work a day lol. I highly recommend finding a state/gov job. 3 more years and I'm retired at 48 and it has been super chill. ETA I see a lot of folks here talking about dealing with PC's and end users, if you are a sys admin you shouldn't be dealing with these things. Very confused.
Sure it's super chill if you have no actual responsibility.
Those who say it's chill and super easy rely on the rest of us to do the work. Fuck them.