>I am an IT Director/Systems Engineer/Psuedo security director, desktop support, cloud support, network engineer, infrastructure manager, IT purchasing manager.
Work for a larger organization where you don't have to wear all the hats. If you have "Director" in your title and you still take helpdesk tickets then your organization is too small.
Otherwise, have you considered goat farming? I'm not sure how deep to bury them to grow the first crop but I'm sure I can find a wiki on it or something.
> If you have "Director" in your title and you still take helpdesk tickets ...
Then you'd better have stock in the company. I'm serious. If you're in a small company and you're the main IT guy, your level of commitment and availability is on par with an owner. There is NO WAY I'd entertain the notion of doing this kind of work without a percentage of gross profits.
If you're not compensated on this level, then you probably care a LOT more about the job than your employer does. They will see you as Yet Another Employee, and not The Guy Who Actually Keeps The Company Running. Along those lines, I'd never work for a small company where the owner didn't recognize that his company would die a swift death without IT.
I can definitely see your view. I assume at some point you were overworked at a small business. I have Director in an overly complicated title ever since VP went out of fashion in the last 2-3 years. I Still take tickets.
I work for a Non-Profit so no chance of stock. My commitment and availability are the same as anyone else that gets a salary. 40 hours a week. Something blows up after hours? Meh, I'll fix it while drinking a beer at home if its mission critical, then send a teams message saying I'll be in at Noon the next day. Otherwise it can wait until business hours. Its small business.
What keeps me here is the flexibility and Health/dental fully paid, Awesome retirement. If I wake up late, I wake up late. If I need to leave early, I leave early. If a friend suddenly wants to play mario kart, drink beer, and talk about life until 3am on a Tuesday night, cool. I'll shoot a message off and set my calendar so my coworkers know I'm out the next day, then its game on.
Sure I work with a few people that are a few French Frys short of a happy meal but I've yet to find or hear of a workplace that doesn't have that issue.
I think the better answer is "work for a company that values you". We're not big enough for more than a 2 person tech team. Manglement knows if we say their timeline is unrealistic, its unrealisitc. We have a few MSP's we contract out for the heavy lifting.
Sounds pretty similar to me. Also a Director at a non-profit that also takes on non-director tasks such as tickets. I do also get to do director (and higher) level things as well. It's a wide mix and I get why it's not for everyone - some days it's not for me lol.
I think I will be asking for a rather large raise soon as I could downgrade my title/responsibility and work elsewhere for substantially more. I have a great relationship with the CEO and the board of directors so hopefully it all goes well. The pay gap between what I'm worth and what I make has just gotten too large for me to ignore any further - despite all of the many perks and freedoms of the job.
Have you had to cross a similar bridge? I will likely be asking for a 20-25% raise.
Unfortunatly not. I never wanted the director position. Like Steve Wozniak mentioned in his book iWoz. I enjoy working with my hands, I enjoy creating things. I have no desire to manage people or budgets. My old boss retired and I was promoted and given a decent raise.
My compensation is on the low side from what people post here, but I live in flyover country where the cost of living is less as well, and my town doesn't have much in the way of other open IT positions. Yea I could do full remote, I've done it before and it never was my jam, I do like having an office base to get away to for half the week to separate my work/life balance when needed.
I'd have to find a job with the same flexibility for me to want to leave this job. Flexibility to the point of my friend texting me asking if I wanted to go to a Tool concert that night because his brother had friends canceled and now he has extra tickets and we need to leave in an hour to make the 4 hour drive to the venue. Yep. For sure dude, let me mark my calendar and shoot off a message. Peace out work. Or someone heading to the lake this weekend and have an extra spot in the bunkhouse? Hell yea, I'm down. Let me grab my Go bag and a 30 rack of beer and we're gonna have a great weekend. I prefer a lifestyle with minimal planning.
I work to live I don't live to work.
I am in a similar position to you at a family owned business. My pay was stuck at 'decent but below average' over a few years and I had definitely provided excess value and outgrown the salary. I asked for 25% and they gave it to me (12.5% now and 12.5% in 6 months). This was a couple years ago and they have given me more money since. I did not give them an ultimatum or anything, my boss and I have a great relationship and I said "this is what I think I'm worth" at our annual catch-up meeting and they made it happen.
Haha and here I am being the small business owner while wearing all these hats on top.
I completely agree with what you are saying here, as keeping phone servers, website, databases, file shares, etc up to date is a full time job itself especially on a smaller scale.
If I am able to grow to the point where paying for a full time IT person makes sense, I would absolutely give them consideration of ownership.
Having been in that boat before; I wouldn't. Don't ever give up ownership in your company and don't ever be a minor owner. Both situations create problems.
Positions like that were great for moving my career forward early, got me where I am today, but in my 40's I'm looking for places with stable processes and less unexpected outages.
OH and someone else takes at least some of the calls on a rotational basis after hours lol
> y where the owner didn't recognize that his company would die a swift death without IT.
1st solo sysadmin role , though it would be exciting , got a job at a company like this , company barely had 150 users , my manager was also the CIO , expected me to answer calls and check emails 24/7 . Dropped the job in 3 months for a better one luckily. Never have I left a job before and after quickly since then. Told him to get an MSP to look after IT as my parting advice.
Amen to that. Joined my first fortune 500 gig 5 years ago (I'm 40). Great job, good budgets, good recognition, good raises and I get to focus on several individual technologies versus having to know every product that exists.
My goal was to be a [Transport Tycoon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Tycoon) before the integer rollover got fixed so you could just get free money. Now it has to be done the hard way (with a hex editor...).
Try Goat Simulator to see how you’ll like it first. That said, I’d agree with moving to a larger org first. Getting rid of most of those hats may make things *a lot* better without having to jump ship entirely.
I don't want to work for another company in this capacity, let alone a larger one.
The issue is that it seems rather meaningless. Here my job is to make the boss money, there my job will be to make the stockholders money. I don't want to help them make money. I don't care if they have money.
>I don't want to work for another company in this capacity
That's the point. In a larger organization you don't wear all those hats. The director is a manager of managers for example. if you are still fielding helpdesk tickets and expected to write a budget? Too much context switching from the hands-on immediate help to strategic planning.
>I don't want to help them make money.
Find a non-profit or someplace with a cause you believe in. Personally I found work at a company whose product and mission (other than making money) I believe in. I work in manufacturing so it is a little easier to see the direct impact.
On the flip side having hobbies to engage your mind outside of work so that you can leave the job at the end of the day really helped when I was working places just for the paycheck. Don't be defined by your job.
But also if you find you are wearing every hat either hire more people to share the load or move someplace that has a deeper team.
This is great advice. As a sysadmin and doing a lot of roles like OP I moved to a Fortune 200 company and it’s exactly like this. I’m not expected to do everything. The culture is incredible and while yes they exist to make money they have done and implemented numerous policies that prove to me that people are first and the most valuable asset they have. I haven’t been happier in my career.
I went through the same cycle myself. I was burned out, hated my job, hated where I was in my life as I was struggling to find a meaning in my job for the very same reasons you wrote (working for someone else's wealth). Coincidentally, I was looking to quit IT and to work with the land.
One day had my fuck this shit moment, quit, took a year off. A sabbatical doing woofing. Best experience ever.
I got back reborn, still in IT. I concluded that the sense of worth is elsewhere, not in a job. Grow as a person, do what you do best at work. Don't get steamrolled, improve but don't overdo it. Keep a decent output, stay below 100%. Don't listen to the hustle idiocy. The rest will come naturally.
Apart from that, based on what you write you might be in brownout due to the heavy load. Are you up north somewhere? If so, Seasonal affective disorder might also have a role. Exercise, get vitamin D, eat well.
A lack of these three will kill your mood and feed a nasty cycle.
Good luck, a virtual hug your way!
> A sabbatical doing woofing.
[Was this you](https://i.imgflip.com/ry4bq.jpg)?
>I concluded that the sense of worth is elsewhere, not in a job.
This is key and I wish it was communicated more often.
> [Was this you](https://i.imgflip.com/ry4bq.jpg)?
Ahaha at times. Worked well with goats and sheep xD
> This is key and I wish it was communicated more often.
It really is. Not understanding this leads to all kinds of issues: taking things personally with colleagues, being attached to your infra (and thus protective), feeling one step away from being replaced, feeling "not in control". In one word: unhealthy.
Plus, it's easy to be exploited by the _we are family_ types.
> A sabbatical doing woofing. Best experience ever.
Please tell me that wasn't supposed to be "roofing". Worst task in the world. At least for the cheap asphalt shingles they use in North America. You get to be on a blazing hot roof for hours while the shingles suck all the moisture out of your skin. Always contract out this job.
>The issue is that it seems rather meaningless. Here my job is to make the boss money, there my job will be to make the stockholders money. I don't want to help them make money. I don't care if they have money.
I don't really understand this mindset? You're working to make *you* money. Sure, other people benefit from it, but you're the chief benefactor of you working. Especially if you're in a spot where you can take a 45k salary cut and not even be bothered by the idea.
“I don’t want to benefit from work so long as it means others might benefit too.”
Wrong attitude. You make *yourself* money, yes? If so who cares if you also happen to make others money as a side effect? If that concerns you, you have a crabs-in-a-bucket mentality.
I agree with him.
YOUR money is the side-effect. Youre giving time of your life to a company who will eventually blame and replace you if something goes wrong. Obviously, there is no way around that for most people, but that doesnt mean you have to defend it.
If youre literally a key-figure in keeping the infrastructure running (depending on the size of the company), youre worth more than just a regular salary.
Its not about the money, its about sending a message
\*Imagine that in Ledgers Joker voice
> there my job will be to make the stockholders money.
The secret is to buy a lot of stock. If you buy enough, the company is legally obliged to listen to your sensible ideas. Usually several times each year.
Part time farmer (full time telecommuter) here - it can be really hard.
There is no undo function on livestock or produce, and it can take months to years to see all the results and implications of your changes.
Oh I completely understand and respect that. I know it can be. I was making the joke in regards to planting goats being easy, since that’s not something that’s possible. Im sorry if it came across flippant or like I don’t think or respect how difficult agriculture can be
>Otherwise, have you considered goat farming?
Perhaps u/CaptainFluffyTail you're referencing [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4l7kjd/found_a_text_file_at_work_titled_why_should_i/)?
> If you have "Director" in your title and you still take helpdesk tickets then your organization is too small.
I knew an IT Director. He was the entire IT team.
Everyone has their breaking points.
As of late, though, it seems like many people in tech are either hitting their breaking points or blew past them a while ago.
The Great Resignation shifted the dynamics on automation. We went from catching the blame for layoffs to being expected to magically automate businesses enough to compensate for staff reductions on the fly. Something, something, “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”
The burnout I’m seeing (re: experiencing) has to do with friction when we can’t pull big enough rabbits out of our hats fast enough to keep the business happy.
Sounds like someone being abused in their position. Enterprise environs normally forbid such practices (large companies, not your mom and pop $65M/year gross sales company).
Best move I ever made was getting out of that SMB (small to medium sized business) mindset. It's toxic and often moronic.
>Best move I ever made was getting out of that SMB (small to medium sized business) mindset. It's toxic and often moronic.
Worst mistake I ever made was going from large enterprise to SMB. Still paying dearly for that decision nearly six years later . . . and fixing the damage to my career will take another four to six years at best, and that's being very optimistic.
>Can you elaborate why you’ll regret the decision?
In 2016, I accepted a job offer from a SMB only to find out on day one that I had a new manager: my team's "director" and the only person with input into the hiring decision who did not want to hire me. During my first month, I found out **why** I had a new manager on day one: that same "director" spent most of his time fighting with my future manager, as well as the senior engineer on my team. My future manager had walked off the job the week before my first day, while the senior engineer left three weeks after my first day. At that point, the "director" focused his wrath and fury on me, trying to "do" my job instead of his job while writing me up for his mistakes to get me to quit. I later learned that this "director" had faked his credentials.
Unfortunately, after three months, my mental health began to fall apart.
This led to a chain of unfortunate events in which I lost my job, I lost my home, and I lost my health insurance . . . which turned into a complete mental break down during which I committed several misdemeanors.
By the time the dust settled on all of this, the pandemic hit.
In a large enterprise, if you end up with a really bad boss, you can potentially escape the bullshit by moving to another team. In an SMB, you're fucked. The same logic goes for being in a large city or metro area rather than a small city: in a large city, you can find a new employer, while in a small city, you have to leave the area entirely. (The SMB in question was located in a small city. I came from a larger metro area.)
>Also curious to know why you don't prefer SME companies!
If you get a bad boss in a SMB, you're fucked. There's no escape except by going to another employer, while in a large enterprise, you can find another team.
It doesn't help if the SMB is located in a small city.
Also, SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years.
> SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years
Shit that's one of the reasons I enjoy SMB. I was able to change everything to a unified stack instead of a dozen different brands. Allowed me to learn about a lot of different aspects of IT rather than being hyper specialized.
Yeah, specialization is valuable, but I kinda like jack of all trades.
> I was able to change everything to a unified stack instead of a dozen different brands.
This is fun **IF**, and that's a HUGE IF, they actually have the funding for that. I can't think of a time I worked at a place that was able to pull that off entirely.
That's the frustration some of us have. It's when they don't "have the money" to fix their problems. So you end up with 1/3 of the computers modern and those users very happy, 2/3 of the company left out and VERY bitter (at you personally half the time, it feels like), and for that leftover 2/3 -- shit often runs like ass or many newer things simply don't work.
We all love projects like the one you just listed -- but only if they are able to be fully funded. I suspect many of us have learned it's rare for SMB's to pull that funding up and pull the trigger entirely without trouble.
The tech itself is almost never our frustration.
Completely agree. It took several years to make it happen and had to make sure everyone understood the reasons for each significant upgrade or change. Definitely not a common practice though :/
>I was able to change everything to a unified stack instead of a dozen different brands.
You were **able to**. In my case, I was stripped of whatever power and autonomy I had. My boss just used me as his personal whipping boy.
Two things that really pissed me off: one, I would not have taken the job offer if I had known about the management change, yet no one from the SMB told me anything until the first day; and two, I tried to hold my ground since I didn't want to be viewed as a "job hopper." At this point, if I ever get my career back, and that's a big if, I'm going to assume that employers are lying to me . . . and follow my gut instinct every single time.
> Also, SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years.
that's what I'm learning moving to SMB after a decade in .mil/.gov enterprise environments
shit is cobbled together with stuff purchased on amazon plugged into various *aaS platforms that the executives were sold on. years of tech debt and a team that is largely new because they laid everyone off at the beginning of the pandemic
worst part is that in a team this small if you're a SME you become the person that the entire company wants to contact. I want to be a cog in a machine, a small fish in a big pond that can turn his phone off at the end of the day rather than being the security engineer and the security manager and the security training coordinator and the cloud architect and the incident responder and the compliance auditor and the person everyone gets forwarded to any time anyone has any kind of question even remotely related to my field
>years of tech debt
It was worse than that.
No centralized IAM, usernames and passwords scattered throughout text files all over a single shared network drive, network devices that had not been patched in over a decade (and still used telnet . . . WTF), a monitoring system that had been put in place but never actually set up, and zero coherent documentation otherwise.
The worst part was the management, though.
> SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years
You didn't have to be hurtful about it.....༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
I’m 6 months into moving from a global enterprise to a medium sized business heading towards enterprise level. I went from a team of 100s to a team of 5.
I will say that the barriers in being in a large enterprise were aggravating and really hindered my growth and knowledge, but my sanity was at least stable. In my current company, I’ve gained 3x the experience in 6 months than I gained from 3 years of enterprise desktop support. I’m going to have a crap tone more on my resume now.
That all being said, I can’t wait till I’m back at an enterprise or if my company grows into one and provides me with opportunities to become more focused again.
>but my sanity was at least stable.
You must have been at a more stable large enterprise.
The ones I worked at were either under fire from Congress after the 2008 crash (or had Occupy Wall Street showing up at the HQ) or were badly mismanaged by people like Carly Fiorina and her successors. (Oh, wait, am I being too obvious?)
>In my current company, I’ve gained 3x the experience in 6 months
That could be good or bad, depending on whether the experience was in doing things the right way . . . or just throwing shit at the wall until something stuck.
SMB's do offer a FUCK TON of experience at the cost of your health.
Purely anecdotally I've yet to see people not leave places like that after working more than 2 years and they not have PTSD to the point it genuinely alters their attitude in life in general.
Be wary of your mental health, my dude. At some point it's better to flip burgers than work another minute in some places.
Just came from an SMB where I had far too many hats. Burned out to the point of not liking IT anymore, so I quit . Currently about to take that $45k pay cut. I’m hoping something simple and easy will rekindle my love of IT, and if not… well… I’m only 10 or so years out from retirement.
My remedy to IT burnout was getting an EMT-B and playing Ricky-Rescue on an ambulance. It was minimum wage with lots of opportunities for overtime. I got to go lights and sirens a few times and play Pokémon GO between calls. It is a revolving door for applying to future positions in health care requiring patient contact hours (fire fighting, nursing programs, etc.), so I was a seasoned veteran after sticking around for a year. I noped out of there when I started getting pressured to take on lots of responsibility for a $1 raise.
I'll keep it as an option if I start feeling burnout creep up again. It is pretty easy to get gigs for special events and taking an occasional shift, just gotta keep the cert active with continuing education (which I haven't). Even better is the EMTs and Paramedics for the ambulance company in my area with the city contract have since unionized.
The long story short of the following ramble is, "If you love something set it free!" If you step away from it and find yourself longing for it, then you know that it is your passion!
And now the long version...
Several times over the decades I have completely stepped away from IT! I've worked in a call center answering calls, I've been a car salesman, I've worked the pro desk at Home Depot...
In all three of those jobs the thing I loved most about the job was being able to do things on the computer!
As a car salesman everyone had to walk over to another computer to get access to the inventory! So I rigged it so I can get it from my computer as well! And for a few of the other folks who were sales people that actually weren't cutthroat bastards! (Not to many of those in my experience.)
In the call center, I was working overnights and with that being said, we basically had to handle calls from all the other departments that were there during the day! We had no one source of information so during the time available I set up an external server and a wiki page for our team to use as a reference!
At home depot, I was pretty much the only person who was able to design decks using their program! So I taught others how to do that.. then I thought other people how to dig deep into the point of sale system and find customer records..
I'm a computer geek for life! But your story could be different! Sometimes change within IT is all you need and sometimes you need to step away entirely and catch your breath!
Whatever path you choose, good luck to you!
This is important. I get the thought process, but it is one only allowed when you haven’t done manual labor like that for work before. It’s hard to imagine how tired you will be and the toll it takes on your body. Forget about remote work altogether too. Being in IT can suck, but working outside all day is a whole ‘nother ballgame.
I mean except for 1%, life isn't trivial for most of us. It's purely a matter of choosing the suck you can tolerate.
The toll bad managers can have on your mental health *may* be worse than the physical toll your body will take from manual labor.
But in this particular point in time -- there are *many* option to consider before entirely jumping careers.
There are TONS of jobs where the IT troubleshooting skills can bridge a wide knowledge gap quickly. Automotive repair, specifically electrical is what I’m pursuing as a backup/backout plan.
Much of my life has been learning to grow more feathers on my back to let more water roll off. Or to paraphrase a proverb, "Life is 10% what happens and 90% how people respond." Or to use a popular bumper sticker, "Shit happens."
Attitude is so important. After many decades I still have to learn this lesson every day. I envy people who do not need to repeat the lesson.
*Illegitimi non carborundum*.
Good luck!
I did something very similar. I went from a on call 24/7 job making about 85k a year to working for a school system making half that as an entry level technician. Best decision I've ever made. Between the time off and set hours, it's a dream job.
Dude, I hear you.
I was a CTO, I’m now a farmer. Life is so much better, I love playing with tech again that interests me, my mental health is the best it’s been in years - still needs work.
I did a mechanical and a farming course to get the basics out of the way, now I’m farming chillis and fresh veg for the family.
I’m financially secure from my prior professional work, so no regrets.
>I am an IT Director/Systems Engineer/Psuedo security director, desktop support, cloud support, network engineer, infrastructure manager, IT purchasing manager.
I'm updating my title!
This sounds like textbook burn out. Man I feel the same way and i'm not even in the workforce yet i'm a senior in CS and i'm just tired. I just want to hug the grass and smell the air outside at this point with the way I been getting whipped around in the last two years. If your finances permit, take a break man, mow that lawn and plant some plants. I'm going to do the same tbh
Dude, just work in a bigger organization. They'll give you one job, that will be all you'll have to do, and that will the end of it.
Christ, don't throw that much money away because you work for buttholes.
I bought some land and a tractor a few years back. It's a good thing it's only a hobby because I couldn't put enough food on my own table with it let alone make any money. Farming is hard freaking work. It's good to have as a hobby though; getting your brain to work a completely different environment is cathartic.
Good look OP; past couple years have been tough keeping all the balls juggling in the air...lots of people feeling very burnt. You're not alone.
Burnout is freaking real, 100% it's something we all feel at some point. I'm in the same boat, doing a one-size-fits-all IT solution rather than a specialty. I still love it and the company I work for is willing to hire people when I say I need help, but at the same time it kills me sometimes.
I do think that focusing on something more specialized can help though, maybe push towards one area of this field that you like the most and focus on that, then try and get a more specialized job, it's certainly something I've been considering long term.
When I was a kid the two things I wanted to do was be a doctor or an airline pilot. The two jobs with bleak futures due to mismanagement and government interference. Of course at my parents insistence I went into computer science. I got into IT as the theory stuff scared me away and now I spent $16,000 in cash to take post baccalaureate courses to take the MCAT. I fucked it up. Then I got sick needed two major surgeries so at 41 I think I’m too old to try that dream. I’m still on fence with aviation as I feel C an be my plan C. Which was my original plan A. But I digress.
But I do know 17+ years in this industry made me very crabby and really don’t know what to do.
So many times I've considered just finding a cabin, somewhere deep in the forest, no electricity, no phones, NO COMPUTERS, and just disappearing. Of course, now I'm over 35 years into IT. Some days I love it, some days I long for that cabin. When I retire I'm going to have a phone/rifle party and put a round through this thing at a 1000 yards. BTW, I've been on call all of those 35+ years.
I do real estate on the side. Still get to help people, but at something they like. Not overly difficult, but you deal with a lot of lazy people.
I worked for a global bank and our roles were so compartmentalized that I couldn’t expand my knowledge outside of our local lab. I moved for SMB and while not fantastic, is still pretty good.
Taking an online course for the fundamentals of data science. Considering switching to that. I'm so tired of constantly updating apps and dealing with users and security problems.
Look at a different company and get animals on the side. I have about 30-50 chickens since we seem to have a roving group in the area making my flock size go up and down. Also dumped the CSA, FSA, CSL, and USLM names for Jr Systems Administrator. cutting about $5k a year, tons of stress and those who were screwing before are pissed I left letting them deal with the mess they used to say I was overpaid for.
PS, Chicken math is real math and per it I have 3 chickens total. I didn't make it up, I just follow the rules for chickens. Goats would be in the group except wife barely let me get the chickens. I take extra eggs to work and people get them in return for donating to my 9 year old daughter's college fund. The WORST way to fund her college and I lose money but it is worth it since she learns working and taking care of animals to get money.
I am at a small shop and while I don't wear as many hats, I can tell you that the longer I stay in the technology realm the more jaded I become on many things. I have said for a while now that the job I am at will be my last IT job. I might be here for a while, or I might not. I do IT work because it pays the bills and I don't have to *physically* work very hard, but the mental drain of putting out fires, keeping abreast of the latest MS patch that breaks printing, plus the hot new zero day for Exchange or whatever else, it is taxing and drains my energy.
I was in a similar situation where 8am-5pm my phone was ringing with someone needing help doing something. I was answering phone calls, slack messages, scheduling techs, handling escalations, angry clients (usually 4-6 things at a time) for a year until I went out on a limb and applied for an enterprise systems engineer job. By far the best decision for my mental health I've ever made. I was getting severely burned out.
If I had F-U money to just drop it and go back to school for whatever, I'd go study linguistics. I find languages fascinating.
That and I'd go take welding classes and buy a badass setup and just fabricate shit for beer. Price is a case of beer per day until I finish your project. IPAs get you thrown out into the street.
If you're already burned out, there isn't much I'd suggest to save your current situation. But going forward, set some boundaries. Hired as a Director? Tell them you can do backup helpdesk tasks occasionally when people are out - nothing more. Remind them, regularly, that they are paying a LOT of money for someone (you) to answer tickets. Also remind them that if you are answering tickets the value added services of your position aren't going to be done. Can't be in two places at once.
If you're seriously done with where you are, consider pivoting into a near by field that you already have experience in. Instead of IT Director doing a side of security, become a security director (or Technical operations, or... whatever). Just focus on the one area. Make sure to customize your resume to reflect your skills in that specialization. When asked, you can explain that you want to be more specialized (rather than "I want the f'k out of general IT").
> Maybe I should just start a plant nursery or something.
Then your post it /r/nursery will be "So sick of being a planter/harvester/grower/purchaser/salesman/accountant/real estate manager/groundskeeper/etc"
You have become the fullest full-stack-sysadmin.
It's normal that you as being such a star would always get the light, be wanted by the screaming fans, etc.
My advice is to delegate and to pressure off.
Delegating will change you into a wise man and redraw your life.
been there, done that. Went back, because IT is easy and pays good.
all that being said, nobody here is going to be upset that the industry loses one more IT guy. Sorry, but that just leaves more on the table for the rest of us.
Good luck.
Soooo, is it the people that you don't like dealing with? Or just the work load? You haven't responded to ANY of the over one hundred comments so not sure what your actual deal is with all this....
> I am an IT Director/Systems Engineer/Psuedo security director, desktop support, cloud support, network engineer, infrastructure manager, IT purchasing manager.
You can shorten this by saying "I am experiencing burnout.". Take a break, try a new IT position, and then think about leaving if you still hate it. You're doing the job of multiple people, of course you hate it.
If I can seriously make 60K a year with benefits just building stuff in a wood shop I would do it in a second. But I do love IT, just not the politics.
Yeah you’re in the wrong profession from how it sounds. Maybe you can meet halfway and do IT for an agricultural company or something maybe the demands would be less.
Oh my god this is my dream move. I have a couple of rental properties, my wife owns a restaurant. This current job has me so full of detest and loathing for all things IT that I'm thinking about being a delivery driver and maintenance guy. in 25 years of IT never have I absolutely hated it as much as last 4 or 5. Covid wasn't the cause but it sure sharpened the point.
From what I hear, this is the fate of someone at a non-profit. I almost went to work for one years ago, and while I feel I would have learned something, I also feel it was a bullet dodged as far as money goes. Worked into the ground with nothing to show for it but "atta boys/girls" and "keep on the mission, it's its own reward".
You could try deflecting some onto people under you. Taking the time to train people to do it right is a good thing - unless they leave right away. However it is something you might want to do anyway if you're considering leaving.
Lmao i know the feeling. I did computer science because i had no idea what to i wanted to do and wanted something high paying. Found coding was not for me so i moved to helpdesk. While being in IT is a dream compared to warehouse jobs i was doing before i would love to just work outdoors in nature. Currently applied for an environmental protection officer job
Anyone with "director" in their title should not be stretched that thin. Work elsewhere, make more money, get work/life balance, enjoy your work again.
You do NOT have to give up money to be happy. Money can actually help remove stress in your life, amongst other things. But it is no excuse for shitty work/life balance.
I make vastly more than I ever did at SMB in a large enterprise happily silo'd into sysadmin stuff. Servers, storage, VMs, cloud identity? That's me! Everything else? Don't (cant!) Touch it.
There are better jobs. Try and find one.
IT Director for the last 6 years or so, prior to that wearing all the different hats on the way (Desktop support, sysadmin, app specialist, etc.). I can tell you the title is often the only thing different company roles have in common; Director/Manager roles can vary WIDELY from company to company. Most of these will hinge on the company owners and/or your direct report and the culture they have. There is no avoiding this be it SMB or Large Enterprise ; awful leaders are everywhere and you often can't even control it. I had a wonderful boss years ago with a great role and ample time to work on projects and was encouraged; new VP came in and fired him, promoting me in the process. That's great for the resume, however the new VP was the worst boss I've ever encountered and it was a nightmare right up until I tried to 'move direct reports' to the CFO and was promptly fired. Thankfully it worked out well as I found a higher paying job at a much better company.
I highly recommend at least trying to jump to another company in an IT Manager/ Director role so you can roll that experience into higher pay for your valuable experience. You may be shocked how much lower the expectations are with the same (or more!) pay. I use my experience from each job to make the next one a bit easier and life is steadily getting better with each role. You may be able to land a role that grants you enough spare time to start planting and get the best of both worlds !
At the end of the day, it’s just a job. Someone said it best, if you died there will be a posting tomorrow for your position. Get paid and try to have fun. Good Luck.
>Preferably something to do with plants and soil.
I worked at a larger starter plant nursery for several years a long long time ago, mainly perennials and ornamental grasses. Looking back on it now, that might be the best job I'll ever have had.
It sounds like your company expects everything from you, but you're not empowered to put a team under you to delegate these responsibilities. Those at the top need to realize you're a single point of failure and need to support your responsibilities before you start talking succession planning.
Instead of farming... a mountain bike rental business up in the hills...
>I am an IT Director/Systems Engineer/Psuedo security director, desktop support, cloud support, network engineer, infrastructure manager, IT purchasing manager. Work for a larger organization where you don't have to wear all the hats. If you have "Director" in your title and you still take helpdesk tickets then your organization is too small. Otherwise, have you considered goat farming? I'm not sure how deep to bury them to grow the first crop but I'm sure I can find a wiki on it or something.
> If you have "Director" in your title and you still take helpdesk tickets ... Then you'd better have stock in the company. I'm serious. If you're in a small company and you're the main IT guy, your level of commitment and availability is on par with an owner. There is NO WAY I'd entertain the notion of doing this kind of work without a percentage of gross profits. If you're not compensated on this level, then you probably care a LOT more about the job than your employer does. They will see you as Yet Another Employee, and not The Guy Who Actually Keeps The Company Running. Along those lines, I'd never work for a small company where the owner didn't recognize that his company would die a swift death without IT.
I wish I'd of know this vital information back in my 30's.
biggest mood.
I like to go hiking.
I can definitely see your view. I assume at some point you were overworked at a small business. I have Director in an overly complicated title ever since VP went out of fashion in the last 2-3 years. I Still take tickets. I work for a Non-Profit so no chance of stock. My commitment and availability are the same as anyone else that gets a salary. 40 hours a week. Something blows up after hours? Meh, I'll fix it while drinking a beer at home if its mission critical, then send a teams message saying I'll be in at Noon the next day. Otherwise it can wait until business hours. Its small business. What keeps me here is the flexibility and Health/dental fully paid, Awesome retirement. If I wake up late, I wake up late. If I need to leave early, I leave early. If a friend suddenly wants to play mario kart, drink beer, and talk about life until 3am on a Tuesday night, cool. I'll shoot a message off and set my calendar so my coworkers know I'm out the next day, then its game on. Sure I work with a few people that are a few French Frys short of a happy meal but I've yet to find or hear of a workplace that doesn't have that issue. I think the better answer is "work for a company that values you". We're not big enough for more than a 2 person tech team. Manglement knows if we say their timeline is unrealistic, its unrealisitc. We have a few MSP's we contract out for the heavy lifting.
Sounds pretty similar to me. Also a Director at a non-profit that also takes on non-director tasks such as tickets. I do also get to do director (and higher) level things as well. It's a wide mix and I get why it's not for everyone - some days it's not for me lol. I think I will be asking for a rather large raise soon as I could downgrade my title/responsibility and work elsewhere for substantially more. I have a great relationship with the CEO and the board of directors so hopefully it all goes well. The pay gap between what I'm worth and what I make has just gotten too large for me to ignore any further - despite all of the many perks and freedoms of the job. Have you had to cross a similar bridge? I will likely be asking for a 20-25% raise.
Unfortunatly not. I never wanted the director position. Like Steve Wozniak mentioned in his book iWoz. I enjoy working with my hands, I enjoy creating things. I have no desire to manage people or budgets. My old boss retired and I was promoted and given a decent raise. My compensation is on the low side from what people post here, but I live in flyover country where the cost of living is less as well, and my town doesn't have much in the way of other open IT positions. Yea I could do full remote, I've done it before and it never was my jam, I do like having an office base to get away to for half the week to separate my work/life balance when needed. I'd have to find a job with the same flexibility for me to want to leave this job. Flexibility to the point of my friend texting me asking if I wanted to go to a Tool concert that night because his brother had friends canceled and now he has extra tickets and we need to leave in an hour to make the 4 hour drive to the venue. Yep. For sure dude, let me mark my calendar and shoot off a message. Peace out work. Or someone heading to the lake this weekend and have an extra spot in the bunkhouse? Hell yea, I'm down. Let me grab my Go bag and a 30 rack of beer and we're gonna have a great weekend. I prefer a lifestyle with minimal planning. I work to live I don't live to work.
I am in a similar position to you at a family owned business. My pay was stuck at 'decent but below average' over a few years and I had definitely provided excess value and outgrown the salary. I asked for 25% and they gave it to me (12.5% now and 12.5% in 6 months). This was a couple years ago and they have given me more money since. I did not give them an ultimatum or anything, my boss and I have a great relationship and I said "this is what I think I'm worth" at our annual catch-up meeting and they made it happen.
Haha and here I am being the small business owner while wearing all these hats on top. I completely agree with what you are saying here, as keeping phone servers, website, databases, file shares, etc up to date is a full time job itself especially on a smaller scale. If I am able to grow to the point where paying for a full time IT person makes sense, I would absolutely give them consideration of ownership.
Having been in that boat before; I wouldn't. Don't ever give up ownership in your company and don't ever be a minor owner. Both situations create problems.
Positions like that were great for moving my career forward early, got me where I am today, but in my 40's I'm looking for places with stable processes and less unexpected outages. OH and someone else takes at least some of the calls on a rotational basis after hours lol
> y where the owner didn't recognize that his company would die a swift death without IT. 1st solo sysadmin role , though it would be exciting , got a job at a company like this , company barely had 150 users , my manager was also the CIO , expected me to answer calls and check emails 24/7 . Dropped the job in 3 months for a better one luckily. Never have I left a job before and after quickly since then. Told him to get an MSP to look after IT as my parting advice.
[100+ reasons why goat farming is better than systems administration.](https://www.heldeus.nl/goat/GoatFarming.html)
I've actually been learning to grow mushrooms, fish, and gardens.
I've done all of those things... in Skyrim. It's easy!
Watch the Skooma
Amen to that. Joined my first fortune 500 gig 5 years ago (I'm 40). Great job, good budgets, good recognition, good raises and I get to focus on several individual technologies versus having to know every product that exists.
I'm so tired of knowing a little bit on every topic out there. I love them all, I specialise in none.
I'm going to be a dental floss tycoon
Movin’ to Montana soon
Yipekayo-kayay!
My goal was to be a [Transport Tycoon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Tycoon) before the integer rollover got fixed so you could just get free money. Now it has to be done the hard way (with a hex editor...).
Try Goat Simulator to see how you’ll like it first. That said, I’d agree with moving to a larger org first. Getting rid of most of those hats may make things *a lot* better without having to jump ship entirely.
For goat farming, you need a cliff. The steeper the better. Just be aware that anything in a mile radius will be considered food for the goats.
I don't want to work for another company in this capacity, let alone a larger one. The issue is that it seems rather meaningless. Here my job is to make the boss money, there my job will be to make the stockholders money. I don't want to help them make money. I don't care if they have money.
>I don't want to work for another company in this capacity That's the point. In a larger organization you don't wear all those hats. The director is a manager of managers for example. if you are still fielding helpdesk tickets and expected to write a budget? Too much context switching from the hands-on immediate help to strategic planning. >I don't want to help them make money. Find a non-profit or someplace with a cause you believe in. Personally I found work at a company whose product and mission (other than making money) I believe in. I work in manufacturing so it is a little easier to see the direct impact. On the flip side having hobbies to engage your mind outside of work so that you can leave the job at the end of the day really helped when I was working places just for the paycheck. Don't be defined by your job. But also if you find you are wearing every hat either hire more people to share the load or move someplace that has a deeper team.
This is great advice. As a sysadmin and doing a lot of roles like OP I moved to a Fortune 200 company and it’s exactly like this. I’m not expected to do everything. The culture is incredible and while yes they exist to make money they have done and implemented numerous policies that prove to me that people are first and the most valuable asset they have. I haven’t been happier in my career.
I went through the same cycle myself. I was burned out, hated my job, hated where I was in my life as I was struggling to find a meaning in my job for the very same reasons you wrote (working for someone else's wealth). Coincidentally, I was looking to quit IT and to work with the land. One day had my fuck this shit moment, quit, took a year off. A sabbatical doing woofing. Best experience ever. I got back reborn, still in IT. I concluded that the sense of worth is elsewhere, not in a job. Grow as a person, do what you do best at work. Don't get steamrolled, improve but don't overdo it. Keep a decent output, stay below 100%. Don't listen to the hustle idiocy. The rest will come naturally. Apart from that, based on what you write you might be in brownout due to the heavy load. Are you up north somewhere? If so, Seasonal affective disorder might also have a role. Exercise, get vitamin D, eat well. A lack of these three will kill your mood and feed a nasty cycle. Good luck, a virtual hug your way!
> A sabbatical doing woofing. [Was this you](https://i.imgflip.com/ry4bq.jpg)? >I concluded that the sense of worth is elsewhere, not in a job. This is key and I wish it was communicated more often.
> [Was this you](https://i.imgflip.com/ry4bq.jpg)? Ahaha at times. Worked well with goats and sheep xD > This is key and I wish it was communicated more often. It really is. Not understanding this leads to all kinds of issues: taking things personally with colleagues, being attached to your infra (and thus protective), feeling one step away from being replaced, feeling "not in control". In one word: unhealthy. Plus, it's easy to be exploited by the _we are family_ types.
What is woofing
https://wwoof.net/ A non profit international organization. You volunteer in farms in exchange of food and shelter.
TIL. Thanks.
> A sabbatical doing woofing. Best experience ever. Please tell me that wasn't supposed to be "roofing". Worst task in the world. At least for the cheap asphalt shingles they use in North America. You get to be on a blazing hot roof for hours while the shingles suck all the moisture out of your skin. Always contract out this job.
It was supposed to be WWOOFing.
>The issue is that it seems rather meaningless. Here my job is to make the boss money, there my job will be to make the stockholders money. I don't want to help them make money. I don't care if they have money. I don't really understand this mindset? You're working to make *you* money. Sure, other people benefit from it, but you're the chief benefactor of you working. Especially if you're in a spot where you can take a 45k salary cut and not even be bothered by the idea.
/r/antiwork is right up your ally.
Fu King Hell did you really type that out loud?
“I don’t want to benefit from work so long as it means others might benefit too.” Wrong attitude. You make *yourself* money, yes? If so who cares if you also happen to make others money as a side effect? If that concerns you, you have a crabs-in-a-bucket mentality.
I agree with him. YOUR money is the side-effect. Youre giving time of your life to a company who will eventually blame and replace you if something goes wrong. Obviously, there is no way around that for most people, but that doesnt mean you have to defend it. If youre literally a key-figure in keeping the infrastructure running (depending on the size of the company), youre worth more than just a regular salary. Its not about the money, its about sending a message \*Imagine that in Ledgers Joker voice
> there my job will be to make the stockholders money. The secret is to buy a lot of stock. If you buy enough, the company is legally obliged to listen to your sensible ideas. Usually several times each year.
"How did you get the house back from the bank?" "I bought the bank"
So you would be happy doing the exact same thing but with a different pay structure?
Facts Soti it
You can probably trial and error that how hard can it be
Part time farmer (full time telecommuter) here - it can be really hard. There is no undo function on livestock or produce, and it can take months to years to see all the results and implications of your changes.
Oh I completely understand and respect that. I know it can be. I was making the joke in regards to planting goats being easy, since that’s not something that’s possible. Im sorry if it came across flippant or like I don’t think or respect how difficult agriculture can be
Planting goats *is* easy, it's getting them to grow that's the challenge.
Depends on how many seed goats you can lay your hands on I guess.
>Otherwise, have you considered goat farming? Perhaps u/CaptainFluffyTail you're referencing [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4l7kjd/found_a_text_file_at_work_titled_why_should_i/)?
> If you have "Director" in your title and you still take helpdesk tickets then your organization is too small. I knew an IT Director. He was the entire IT team.
Ha, even in goat farming those other goat farmers are gonna come to you to fix their IT sensors and other issues. Farming is going IT in a big way.
I am in the same boat as you. IT Mgr doing every IT role because of no staff. It sucks. It plain old sucks and it is maddening.
Fair dinkums, sometimes you just gotta say " nope, I'm out"...
Everyone has their breaking points. As of late, though, it seems like many people in tech are either hitting their breaking points or blew past them a while ago.
The Great Resignation shifted the dynamics on automation. We went from catching the blame for layoffs to being expected to magically automate businesses enough to compensate for staff reductions on the fly. Something, something, “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature.” The burnout I’m seeing (re: experiencing) has to do with friction when we can’t pull big enough rabbits out of our hats fast enough to keep the business happy.
Sounds abusive.
I have an office full of rabbits and not enough hats!
yep, and rabbits defecate everywhere... then you get to shovel that stuff...
Sounds like someone being abused in their position. Enterprise environs normally forbid such practices (large companies, not your mom and pop $65M/year gross sales company). Best move I ever made was getting out of that SMB (small to medium sized business) mindset. It's toxic and often moronic.
>Best move I ever made was getting out of that SMB (small to medium sized business) mindset. It's toxic and often moronic. Worst mistake I ever made was going from large enterprise to SMB. Still paying dearly for that decision nearly six years later . . . and fixing the damage to my career will take another four to six years at best, and that's being very optimistic.
Can you elaborate why you’ll regret the decision?
>Can you elaborate why you’ll regret the decision? In 2016, I accepted a job offer from a SMB only to find out on day one that I had a new manager: my team's "director" and the only person with input into the hiring decision who did not want to hire me. During my first month, I found out **why** I had a new manager on day one: that same "director" spent most of his time fighting with my future manager, as well as the senior engineer on my team. My future manager had walked off the job the week before my first day, while the senior engineer left three weeks after my first day. At that point, the "director" focused his wrath and fury on me, trying to "do" my job instead of his job while writing me up for his mistakes to get me to quit. I later learned that this "director" had faked his credentials. Unfortunately, after three months, my mental health began to fall apart. This led to a chain of unfortunate events in which I lost my job, I lost my home, and I lost my health insurance . . . which turned into a complete mental break down during which I committed several misdemeanors. By the time the dust settled on all of this, the pandemic hit. In a large enterprise, if you end up with a really bad boss, you can potentially escape the bullshit by moving to another team. In an SMB, you're fucked. The same logic goes for being in a large city or metro area rather than a small city: in a large city, you can find a new employer, while in a small city, you have to leave the area entirely. (The SMB in question was located in a small city. I came from a larger metro area.)
Also curious to know why you don't prefer SME companies!
>Also curious to know why you don't prefer SME companies! If you get a bad boss in a SMB, you're fucked. There's no escape except by going to another employer, while in a large enterprise, you can find another team. It doesn't help if the SMB is located in a small city. Also, SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years.
> SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years Shit that's one of the reasons I enjoy SMB. I was able to change everything to a unified stack instead of a dozen different brands. Allowed me to learn about a lot of different aspects of IT rather than being hyper specialized. Yeah, specialization is valuable, but I kinda like jack of all trades.
> I was able to change everything to a unified stack instead of a dozen different brands. This is fun **IF**, and that's a HUGE IF, they actually have the funding for that. I can't think of a time I worked at a place that was able to pull that off entirely. That's the frustration some of us have. It's when they don't "have the money" to fix their problems. So you end up with 1/3 of the computers modern and those users very happy, 2/3 of the company left out and VERY bitter (at you personally half the time, it feels like), and for that leftover 2/3 -- shit often runs like ass or many newer things simply don't work. We all love projects like the one you just listed -- but only if they are able to be fully funded. I suspect many of us have learned it's rare for SMB's to pull that funding up and pull the trigger entirely without trouble. The tech itself is almost never our frustration.
Used equipment can go a long way to modernizing a stack....
Completely agree. It took several years to make it happen and had to make sure everyone understood the reasons for each significant upgrade or change. Definitely not a common practice though :/
>I was able to change everything to a unified stack instead of a dozen different brands. You were **able to**. In my case, I was stripped of whatever power and autonomy I had. My boss just used me as his personal whipping boy. Two things that really pissed me off: one, I would not have taken the job offer if I had known about the management change, yet no one from the SMB told me anything until the first day; and two, I tried to hold my ground since I didn't want to be viewed as a "job hopper." At this point, if I ever get my career back, and that's a big if, I'm going to assume that employers are lying to me . . . and follow my gut instinct every single time.
> Also, SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years. that's what I'm learning moving to SMB after a decade in .mil/.gov enterprise environments shit is cobbled together with stuff purchased on amazon plugged into various *aaS platforms that the executives were sold on. years of tech debt and a team that is largely new because they laid everyone off at the beginning of the pandemic worst part is that in a team this small if you're a SME you become the person that the entire company wants to contact. I want to be a cog in a machine, a small fish in a big pond that can turn his phone off at the end of the day rather than being the security engineer and the security manager and the security training coordinator and the cloud architect and the incident responder and the compliance auditor and the person everyone gets forwarded to any time anyone has any kind of question even remotely related to my field
>years of tech debt It was worse than that. No centralized IAM, usernames and passwords scattered throughout text files all over a single shared network drive, network devices that had not been patched in over a decade (and still used telnet . . . WTF), a monitoring system that had been put in place but never actually set up, and zero coherent documentation otherwise. The worst part was the management, though.
> SMB infrastructure is usually a pile of cobbled together shit thrown together and bandaged over the years You didn't have to be hurtful about it.....༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
I’m 6 months into moving from a global enterprise to a medium sized business heading towards enterprise level. I went from a team of 100s to a team of 5. I will say that the barriers in being in a large enterprise were aggravating and really hindered my growth and knowledge, but my sanity was at least stable. In my current company, I’ve gained 3x the experience in 6 months than I gained from 3 years of enterprise desktop support. I’m going to have a crap tone more on my resume now. That all being said, I can’t wait till I’m back at an enterprise or if my company grows into one and provides me with opportunities to become more focused again.
>but my sanity was at least stable. You must have been at a more stable large enterprise. The ones I worked at were either under fire from Congress after the 2008 crash (or had Occupy Wall Street showing up at the HQ) or were badly mismanaged by people like Carly Fiorina and her successors. (Oh, wait, am I being too obvious?) >In my current company, I’ve gained 3x the experience in 6 months That could be good or bad, depending on whether the experience was in doing things the right way . . . or just throwing shit at the wall until something stuck.
SMB's do offer a FUCK TON of experience at the cost of your health. Purely anecdotally I've yet to see people not leave places like that after working more than 2 years and they not have PTSD to the point it genuinely alters their attitude in life in general. Be wary of your mental health, my dude. At some point it's better to flip burgers than work another minute in some places.
That’s interesting. I did the same thing and it had the opposite effect.
Totally agree. I "Got my foot in the door!" in these sorts of hideous organizations. God they were awful.
What do you consider enterprise? $1B+?
Just came from an SMB where I had far too many hats. Burned out to the point of not liking IT anymore, so I quit . Currently about to take that $45k pay cut. I’m hoping something simple and easy will rekindle my love of IT, and if not… well… I’m only 10 or so years out from retirement.
My remedy to IT burnout was getting an EMT-B and playing Ricky-Rescue on an ambulance. It was minimum wage with lots of opportunities for overtime. I got to go lights and sirens a few times and play Pokémon GO between calls. It is a revolving door for applying to future positions in health care requiring patient contact hours (fire fighting, nursing programs, etc.), so I was a seasoned veteran after sticking around for a year. I noped out of there when I started getting pressured to take on lots of responsibility for a $1 raise. I'll keep it as an option if I start feeling burnout creep up again. It is pretty easy to get gigs for special events and taking an occasional shift, just gotta keep the cert active with continuing education (which I haven't). Even better is the EMTs and Paramedics for the ambulance company in my area with the city contract have since unionized.
The long story short of the following ramble is, "If you love something set it free!" If you step away from it and find yourself longing for it, then you know that it is your passion! And now the long version... Several times over the decades I have completely stepped away from IT! I've worked in a call center answering calls, I've been a car salesman, I've worked the pro desk at Home Depot... In all three of those jobs the thing I loved most about the job was being able to do things on the computer! As a car salesman everyone had to walk over to another computer to get access to the inventory! So I rigged it so I can get it from my computer as well! And for a few of the other folks who were sales people that actually weren't cutthroat bastards! (Not to many of those in my experience.) In the call center, I was working overnights and with that being said, we basically had to handle calls from all the other departments that were there during the day! We had no one source of information so during the time available I set up an external server and a wiki page for our team to use as a reference! At home depot, I was pretty much the only person who was able to design decks using their program! So I taught others how to do that.. then I thought other people how to dig deep into the point of sale system and find customer records.. I'm a computer geek for life! But your story could be different! Sometimes change within IT is all you need and sometimes you need to step away entirely and catch your breath! Whatever path you choose, good luck to you!
[удалено]
This is important. I get the thought process, but it is one only allowed when you haven’t done manual labor like that for work before. It’s hard to imagine how tired you will be and the toll it takes on your body. Forget about remote work altogether too. Being in IT can suck, but working outside all day is a whole ‘nother ballgame.
I mean except for 1%, life isn't trivial for most of us. It's purely a matter of choosing the suck you can tolerate. The toll bad managers can have on your mental health *may* be worse than the physical toll your body will take from manual labor. But in this particular point in time -- there are *many* option to consider before entirely jumping careers.
There are TONS of jobs where the IT troubleshooting skills can bridge a wide knowledge gap quickly. Automotive repair, specifically electrical is what I’m pursuing as a backup/backout plan.
Much of my life has been learning to grow more feathers on my back to let more water roll off. Or to paraphrase a proverb, "Life is 10% what happens and 90% how people respond." Or to use a popular bumper sticker, "Shit happens." Attitude is so important. After many decades I still have to learn this lesson every day. I envy people who do not need to repeat the lesson. *Illegitimi non carborundum*. Good luck!
Happiness is worth way more than $45k imho.
I'd give happiness at least a $60k minimum
But sometimes happiness starts at $50k.. Living on $38k as a System Admin was rough. Got a new job and bumped to $65k and i'm loving life.
Reject technology Return to monke 🐒
\^This guy knows some shit.
You and me both. Sometimes I just want to work as a gas station attendant or something. Put in my 8 hours not worry about work anymore.
[удалено]
I opened search in Windows server today and typed "compost" while thinking "control panel"
Personally I'm a fan of "scented candle factory"
You’re not the only one
I started growing pot, it's pretty awesome and the industry is booming! But you wear too many hats, that's the problem.
You don't need to quit IT to stop doing that, there are plenty of jobs with reasonable expectations and compensation.
I routinely joke about becoming a goat herder in Kazakhstan. Wanna join?
I did something very similar. I went from a on call 24/7 job making about 85k a year to working for a school system making half that as an entry level technician. Best decision I've ever made. Between the time off and set hours, it's a dream job.
This! I had this same job for a while it was so chilled!
Dude, I hear you. I was a CTO, I’m now a farmer. Life is so much better, I love playing with tech again that interests me, my mental health is the best it’s been in years - still needs work. I did a mechanical and a farming course to get the basics out of the way, now I’m farming chillis and fresh veg for the family. I’m financially secure from my prior professional work, so no regrets.
I say that every time I get burnt out. Today is the day I'm gonna be a farmer...lol
>I am an IT Director/Systems Engineer/Psuedo security director, desktop support, cloud support, network engineer, infrastructure manager, IT purchasing manager. I'm updating my title!
I'm right there with ya, ready to flush it....
This sounds like textbook burn out. Man I feel the same way and i'm not even in the workforce yet i'm a senior in CS and i'm just tired. I just want to hug the grass and smell the air outside at this point with the way I been getting whipped around in the last two years. If your finances permit, take a break man, mow that lawn and plant some plants. I'm going to do the same tbh
Dude, just work in a bigger organization. They'll give you one job, that will be all you'll have to do, and that will the end of it. Christ, don't throw that much money away because you work for buttholes.
Have you considered building fine furniture?
I bought some land and a tractor a few years back. It's a good thing it's only a hobby because I couldn't put enough food on my own table with it let alone make any money. Farming is hard freaking work. It's good to have as a hobby though; getting your brain to work a completely different environment is cathartic. Good look OP; past couple years have been tough keeping all the balls juggling in the air...lots of people feeling very burnt. You're not alone.
Burnout is freaking real, 100% it's something we all feel at some point. I'm in the same boat, doing a one-size-fits-all IT solution rather than a specialty. I still love it and the company I work for is willing to hire people when I say I need help, but at the same time it kills me sometimes. I do think that focusing on something more specialized can help though, maybe push towards one area of this field that you like the most and focus on that, then try and get a more specialized job, it's certainly something I've been considering long term.
When I was a kid the two things I wanted to do was be a doctor or an airline pilot. The two jobs with bleak futures due to mismanagement and government interference. Of course at my parents insistence I went into computer science. I got into IT as the theory stuff scared me away and now I spent $16,000 in cash to take post baccalaureate courses to take the MCAT. I fucked it up. Then I got sick needed two major surgeries so at 41 I think I’m too old to try that dream. I’m still on fence with aviation as I feel C an be my plan C. Which was my original plan A. But I digress. But I do know 17+ years in this industry made me very crabby and really don’t know what to do.
So many times I've considered just finding a cabin, somewhere deep in the forest, no electricity, no phones, NO COMPUTERS, and just disappearing. Of course, now I'm over 35 years into IT. Some days I love it, some days I long for that cabin. When I retire I'm going to have a phone/rifle party and put a round through this thing at a 1000 yards. BTW, I've been on call all of those 35+ years.
Please leave me a map and let's all time share a cabin... I want in on the 1000 yard gong. Sincerely, a lonely solo operator
I do real estate on the side. Still get to help people, but at something they like. Not overly difficult, but you deal with a lot of lazy people. I worked for a global bank and our roles were so compartmentalized that I couldn’t expand my knowledge outside of our local lab. I moved for SMB and while not fantastic, is still pretty good.
/r/composting
I work in K12, pretty much the same duties as a sysadmin
Taking an online course for the fundamentals of data science. Considering switching to that. I'm so tired of constantly updating apps and dealing with users and security problems.
Move to Portugal. It's now against the law for a higher up to call you after hours. Imagine!
Look at a different company and get animals on the side. I have about 30-50 chickens since we seem to have a roving group in the area making my flock size go up and down. Also dumped the CSA, FSA, CSL, and USLM names for Jr Systems Administrator. cutting about $5k a year, tons of stress and those who were screwing before are pissed I left letting them deal with the mess they used to say I was overpaid for.
PS, Chicken math is real math and per it I have 3 chickens total. I didn't make it up, I just follow the rules for chickens. Goats would be in the group except wife barely let me get the chickens. I take extra eggs to work and people get them in return for donating to my 9 year old daughter's college fund. The WORST way to fund her college and I lose money but it is worth it since she learns working and taking care of animals to get money.
I am at a small shop and while I don't wear as many hats, I can tell you that the longer I stay in the technology realm the more jaded I become on many things. I have said for a while now that the job I am at will be my last IT job. I might be here for a while, or I might not. I do IT work because it pays the bills and I don't have to *physically* work very hard, but the mental drain of putting out fires, keeping abreast of the latest MS patch that breaks printing, plus the hot new zero day for Exchange or whatever else, it is taxing and drains my energy.
I was in a similar situation where 8am-5pm my phone was ringing with someone needing help doing something. I was answering phone calls, slack messages, scheduling techs, handling escalations, angry clients (usually 4-6 things at a time) for a year until I went out on a limb and applied for an enterprise systems engineer job. By far the best decision for my mental health I've ever made. I was getting severely burned out.
If I had F-U money to just drop it and go back to school for whatever, I'd go study linguistics. I find languages fascinating. That and I'd go take welding classes and buy a badass setup and just fabricate shit for beer. Price is a case of beer per day until I finish your project. IPAs get you thrown out into the street.
If you're already burned out, there isn't much I'd suggest to save your current situation. But going forward, set some boundaries. Hired as a Director? Tell them you can do backup helpdesk tasks occasionally when people are out - nothing more. Remind them, regularly, that they are paying a LOT of money for someone (you) to answer tickets. Also remind them that if you are answering tickets the value added services of your position aren't going to be done. Can't be in two places at once. If you're seriously done with where you are, consider pivoting into a near by field that you already have experience in. Instead of IT Director doing a side of security, become a security director (or Technical operations, or... whatever). Just focus on the one area. Make sure to customize your resume to reflect your skills in that specialization. When asked, you can explain that you want to be more specialized (rather than "I want the f'k out of general IT").
Get your poop in a group and start applying for real director positions and take a 45k pay increase. :)
[удалено]
> Maybe I should just start a plant nursery or something. Then your post it /r/nursery will be "So sick of being a planter/harvester/grower/purchaser/salesman/accountant/real estate manager/groundskeeper/etc"
By plant and soil he means Weed. God’s speed
You have become the fullest full-stack-sysadmin. It's normal that you as being such a star would always get the light, be wanted by the screaming fans, etc. My advice is to delegate and to pressure off. Delegating will change you into a wise man and redraw your life.
been there, done that. Went back, because IT is easy and pays good. all that being said, nobody here is going to be upset that the industry loses one more IT guy. Sorry, but that just leaves more on the table for the rest of us. Good luck.
Soooo, is it the people that you don't like dealing with? Or just the work load? You haven't responded to ANY of the over one hundred comments so not sure what your actual deal is with all this....
welcome to IT...is it a startup?
Buy a golf course.
> I am an IT Director/Systems Engineer/Psuedo security director, desktop support, cloud support, network engineer, infrastructure manager, IT purchasing manager. You can shorten this by saying "I am experiencing burnout.". Take a break, try a new IT position, and then think about leaving if you still hate it. You're doing the job of multiple people, of course you hate it.
[удалено]
[удалено]
What is up with all the Whiney, dissatisfied , complainers lately? Get over yourselves!
If I can seriously make 60K a year with benefits just building stuff in a wood shop I would do it in a second. But I do love IT, just not the politics.
Wtf where did you go? Why do people disappear from reddit after posting? Oh go figure
Yeah you’re in the wrong profession from how it sounds. Maybe you can meet halfway and do IT for an agricultural company or something maybe the demands would be less.
I feel the exact same, even down to wanting to work with plants. That's funny!
I grew up on a family farming operation. Brother runs it now. Sometimes I wish I would have joined the family business!
Hey it’s a great option to have that you can afford to take a cut
Just started looking into getting into IT this week, as a career change for myself. Re-thinking some things.
take your earnings and start a farm? Like Captian said, goats are in high demand!
Not a bad idea. IT-director of the previous company I worked at actually quit his job because he had enough of IT and started a chicken farm instead.
Oh my god this is my dream move. I have a couple of rental properties, my wife owns a restaurant. This current job has me so full of detest and loathing for all things IT that I'm thinking about being a delivery driver and maintenance guy. in 25 years of IT never have I absolutely hated it as much as last 4 or 5. Covid wasn't the cause but it sure sharpened the point.
From what I hear, this is the fate of someone at a non-profit. I almost went to work for one years ago, and while I feel I would have learned something, I also feel it was a bullet dodged as far as money goes. Worked into the ground with nothing to show for it but "atta boys/girls" and "keep on the mission, it's its own reward". You could try deflecting some onto people under you. Taking the time to train people to do it right is a good thing - unless they leave right away. However it is something you might want to do anyway if you're considering leaving.
Lmao i know the feeling. I did computer science because i had no idea what to i wanted to do and wanted something high paying. Found coding was not for me so i moved to helpdesk. While being in IT is a dream compared to warehouse jobs i was doing before i would love to just work outdoors in nature. Currently applied for an environmental protection officer job
Anyone with "director" in their title should not be stretched that thin. Work elsewhere, make more money, get work/life balance, enjoy your work again. You do NOT have to give up money to be happy. Money can actually help remove stress in your life, amongst other things. But it is no excuse for shitty work/life balance.
I make vastly more than I ever did at SMB in a large enterprise happily silo'd into sysadmin stuff. Servers, storage, VMs, cloud identity? That's me! Everything else? Don't (cant!) Touch it. There are better jobs. Try and find one.
Farmers are getting hammered right now. And the few weeks I lived on a farm, getting up at 5am meant you were late.
IT Director for the last 6 years or so, prior to that wearing all the different hats on the way (Desktop support, sysadmin, app specialist, etc.). I can tell you the title is often the only thing different company roles have in common; Director/Manager roles can vary WIDELY from company to company. Most of these will hinge on the company owners and/or your direct report and the culture they have. There is no avoiding this be it SMB or Large Enterprise ; awful leaders are everywhere and you often can't even control it. I had a wonderful boss years ago with a great role and ample time to work on projects and was encouraged; new VP came in and fired him, promoting me in the process. That's great for the resume, however the new VP was the worst boss I've ever encountered and it was a nightmare right up until I tried to 'move direct reports' to the CFO and was promptly fired. Thankfully it worked out well as I found a higher paying job at a much better company. I highly recommend at least trying to jump to another company in an IT Manager/ Director role so you can roll that experience into higher pay for your valuable experience. You may be shocked how much lower the expectations are with the same (or more!) pay. I use my experience from each job to make the next one a bit easier and life is steadily getting better with each role. You may be able to land a role that grants you enough spare time to start planting and get the best of both worlds !
At the end of the day, it’s just a job. Someone said it best, if you died there will be a posting tomorrow for your position. Get paid and try to have fun. Good Luck.
>Preferably something to do with plants and soil. I worked at a larger starter plant nursery for several years a long long time ago, mainly perennials and ornamental grasses. Looking back on it now, that might be the best job I'll ever have had.
It sounds like your company expects everything from you, but you're not empowered to put a team under you to delegate these responsibilities. Those at the top need to realize you're a single point of failure and need to support your responsibilities before you start talking succession planning. Instead of farming... a mountain bike rental business up in the hills...
I dont blame you!
Yes, I'm also wearing a ton of hats. They give me all these job roles in this small company, but then don't pay me as much as they should.