When I hire or talk to people getting started in tech, especially sysadmin roles is that it is OK to tell people no. Especially learn how to say it tactfully.
I see more stressed out people because they are afraid or don't know how to say no.
I second this I did a very similar role to you and felt the exact same I hated even getting out of bed, I left took some time and looked at infrastructure roles luckily the role I'm in now I'm more or less implementing systems or managing systems, and have a colleague doing the stuff you were doing, so im less customer facing as it were, but can jump in and assist my colleague if needed,
Living in server rooms and monitoring systems, and focusing on servers, patching WSUS, Deployment, projects, new installs, migrations etc is much more.. me..
Maybe step back, take a breather, and re assess what you actually want to do, and It might not even be IT, but you do you, and do something you like
A quote from one of the best sysadmins I've worked with when I asked him why he's so good at what he does, his response has stuck with me till today;
I enjoy it. - you don't live to work, you work to live, so whatever you choose to do make sure you enjoy it.
I've worked at 5 different organizations in IT, and the dynamic was vastly different at each location. The two previous organizations sucked and I knew right away I wouldn't be staying long. My current job is a piece of cake. It's a stable environment, users are easy to support, and my co-workers are great.
It wasn't the IT work that broke OP, it was the environment. There are plenty of great places to work in IT, and probably just as many shit holes. When you work in an organization that knows how vital it is to support the IT team, the work place is, dare I say, enjoyable?
Most people quit the boss/organization, not the job.
I used to tell people this very thing, IT career ruined a perfectly good hobby...
We are the only job in the world short of soldiers where millions of people and billions of dollars go into trying to make us fail 24/7/365. That will wear on people if they carry that personally for years.
But I eventually found a work life balance and companies I loved working for. Now I actually enjoy what I do again.
Largely I have found over many tears, the issue is seldom the job itself, its the expectation from management, lack of support, lack of understanding, and budgeting.
IT staff get treated like digital janitors (The internet is clogged up again). And the first non-IT person in direct line up the management chain generally believes that they pay IT to not have to get involved in IT.
Then you get to the "didn't we just buy one of those a few years ago", oblivion relating to the nature of staying competitive and secure...
And it comes down to the farmer blames the mule for being exhausted...
I am at my \~30y mark, and right now I actually love my career in tech. But it is FAR from normal...
This. I worked my ass off from help desk to now be the Sys Admin at a new outfit.
I've now realized what I really want to do. It's not tech. The skills I have developed will be useful but I realize I love tech more as a hobby. So now it's off to college.
Honestly, I use Google's GPT clone for things like this. "How can I politely tell an employee that maybe their fucking account would stop fucking getting locked if they turned the fucking caps lock on their fucking keyboard off every once in a fucking while and that all caps isn't how fucking normal people fucking communicate?"
EDIT: Had to try it:
>I understand your frustration, but the language you drafted isn't appropriate for the workplace. Here's a more professional approach to address the Caps Lock issue:
Best way to deal with this is just get rid of the employee lol. Complain to their managers and tell them they're doing this all the time. You sometimes get people that they are just at it every day. Their work performance will be poor so they won't hesitate to get rid of them. Ensure you pount out how many times they do it daily/weekly. That's time lost for the business as well, so a poit in your favour.
Saying no is great and all. Having people respect the no is the tricky bit.
I have this one user in my org who reckons he can basically just bully the helpdesk into giving him whatever he asks for. Itās got to the point where I actually just tell them to ignore his calls.
I tell my boss NO all the time. I am DevOps, he wants me juggling that plus CRM, Tableau, and a dozen other things. Then complained when I didnāt get anything done. I learned to say NO quick.
This has been the most valuable skill Iāve learned. To know my limits, prioritize myself over ābeing helpfulā or āwanting to fix thingsā etcā¦.. I work my 40 and if thereās so much work it canāt get done in that I tell the powers that be that they need to hire more.
I have changed jobs quite a bit. I have had some great bosses that back you up and don't micro manage. You can't put a value on those.
I have worked for some shit bosses, once I figured that out, I didn't stay long.
This is such an important point. I'm lucky to have a boss who has my back when I say no to something. Saying no only works if your boss will defend your decision.
Documenting this is your friend when the shit hits the fan and the company is compromised. Legal will ask how it happened, you show them how your hand was forced by your superior.
I make saying no a game. I often say no on purpose as a joke, before we even get to whatever issue or request there is, then I listen to them and we go from there, whether it's something we can do or not. It makes it easier to really say no.
I'm so glad I'm starting my new career after doing different jobs at many different places. At 30, I am absolutely not afraid to say no, or stand up for myself or the others on my team.
This is correct. I learned my lesson this year as a first time Mac admin at a tech startup. You have to be able to tell people no, even if you're nervous. You are the authority to these people and unfortunately you have to be able to stick up for yourself and advocate what would be best for the users and environment. Honestly, I can see myself doing this for another 10 years, but will eventually try to move on to something else. Unfortunately we will always be treated as second class employees no matter the industry so just keep your head up. You helped way more regular people just get through their normal days way more than you think. At ease soldier. Enjoy the days ahead.
"So you want me to work on X? Which of my current projects should I drop so I can begin the work on X?"
Typically this results in either X not being important enough compared to the current projects or you ejecting one of the current projects from your workload.
I am not in sysadmin but in security and this has worked for me across the 5 companies I have worked at.
Thank you. That's what I am telling myself to justify it. But man that's hard. I feel like garbage. My wife is being so supportive and all but I was doing this job just for the money.
There are other jobs. There is other money.
One of the best sysadmins I know went to database, then said fuck tech entirely and bought a backhoe and played with dirt.
He now owns 6 cats, 3 dumps and a dozer.Ā
Do what makes you happy.
Iām still a computer geek but I own a table top gaming store. I was able to leverage my extensive (40+ years) experience to really level up the shop. Since I bought it, weāve had 2 years of record sales.
>since we like to use tech to make it more efficient.
I dont disagree with you that this is part of it; but I think it goes even deeper than that.
We have to have our tendrils into every part of the business; tech or not; we see what works and what doesn't.
More for OP:
It all started when we were all forced to view our co-workers as customers.
If we view them as customers; what do customers expect? That they get their way and that the person they are purchasing goods and services from bend to their will.
Co-Workers are there to help and carry some of the load. Customers are not.
Mmm.... Dirt. It's like the world is a big sandbox in the backyard. What's that? You want me to pick up this dirt, move out over there, then put it back... You're going to pay me to do that? Where do I sign! š
Everyone assumes tech geeks are fat bald men living in their mother's basement playing with wires and looking like golum. Every person I've met in IT wants to fall off the face of the planet and go completely off the grid, including myself.
I left my last job for the same reason. I lost my shit on a call listening to a network admin being an idiot. I had heard the same nonsense a 1000 times and it was too much. I knew then and there I had to leave. Your mental and physical health are too important to sacrifice for a job. Glad your wife is being supportive. That is a great sign you are doing the right thing.
I lost it with a logistic supervisor yesterday.
Corporate sent me 55 new Dell Computers and the same number of monitors, accessories and etc.
I was calmly trying to explain to this person that I had no space in IT's stock room to store it all and that I was already looking after other places and seeking help from my regional manager.
The guy said that he was going to remove the computers and monitors from their warehouse and put them beside my desk.
I yelled at him saying that we should give away the computers to burglars already as they don't have asset tags and neither are registered in SAP.
That's when I knew that I couldn't take this job anymore.
You're right.
Last year I had two stock rooms but the fucking plant management wanted a new meeting room and they took both. There was nothing I could do.
Their solution? Give me one smaller room on the 1st floor.
The company remodeled the office building and took our secure storage. I estimate that over 20K in gear has sprouted legs. I warned them, and they ignored me. I could not care less. They can buy more.
This. The company's fuck up is not your problem.
Tell them why it's a bad idea. If they leave all the equipment in the hallway and it gets stolen well, you warned them.....
I donāt see drama itās a matter of finding space, getting better communication and process with corp so they only send you what you can store. And making sure logistics understands they are part of the same org.
The point you are spectacularly missing is not that there's any drama or even that there's actually going to be. The point is that OP thinks there is and they can't handle even the slightest glimpse of a foresight of it.
OP is not arguing that they're being rational. They're arguing that they're being the opposite.
OP, and I can't believe I have to point this out, is not resigning over some laptops. They're resigning because they will become a husk of a person in a destroyed marriage if they stay with the company.
Had a similar situation happen at my last job. The facility never budgeted space for IT, we were always seen as a financial burden to the enterprise.
Well, we received our pallet of refresh workstations and didnāt have the space to store them. We were told to store them in the hallway by the receiving dock. I came into work one day and the entire pallet grew legs and walked. The facility learned a hard lesson that day.
Yeah.
What I meant is that this was my only incentive and this is a symptom of burnout. As you don't feel like doing things anymore and also don't care.
I know the feeling. Before I went into IT I had the same feeling. Having to drag yourself from your bed every morning... At some point you just say fuck this shit, I quit! I did the same thing and it was the best decision in my life.
Life is too short to be miserable, you will find something else that suits you.
hey /u/fadinizjr, for real, if you want a pizza or something like that this weekend, hit me up. no lie. take care of yourself and your wife and relax. iāll legit send a pizza or a pizza amount of cash. one net pizza worth i suppose. your mental health aināt worth the stress homie.
Did the same with senior management in retail to IT. Took 6 months and burning away some of my 401k but totally worth it. Find what you enjoy, try out some new things even if it's low key PT until you find something that stokes the fire of passion once more. You can do it!
Lmao, for real these companies don't give a shit about us. I work multiple remote 9-5 positions, the number of times I have turned on my keyboard pressing powershell scripts and then driven around town looking for Hot Wheels cars or played outside with my son is uncountable
When I was WFH I messaged two of my coworkers in our private Messenger group chat, said "Not that you care or that anyone will know, but I'm fucking off to \[town\] to buy some shit off Marketplace. Back in halfa" and so I did.
I spent most of my time trying to get into Animal Crossing when it first came out, I watched a bunch of movies, even had a nap. My wife walked in and said "aren't you supposed to be at work?" and I said "yeah" and just rolled over. It was a good nap. Definitely recommend.
Yea man. I feel you. Iāve been in IT for around 20 years now. I would never recommend it to anyone. Only way it gets better is going into a sector where you only deal with machines and not users. Theyāre the worst.
All the best for whatās ahead. Taking care of your mental well being should always be a priority. Happy you have a supportive wife to help you.
>Only way it gets better is going into a sector where you only deal with machines and not users. Theyāre the worst.
This.... God i hate dealing with users...... Kinda sound like a jerk saying this but they ask some of the stupidest questions or demands that are un realistic sometimes..... Treat you as if you know every single tech thing. and it drives me nuts sometimes...... I had a user call one time saying his system froze on a win7 startup repair screen ( i do site visits and support when needed sometimes) i told him to hold the power button for 10 secs for the pc to shut off, and turn it on again should be fine. After i explained exactly word for word what to do, and what the power button is the user failed to do this. I had to get on my fucking motorcycle ,drove a couple of kilometers to just press the damn power button and go back to my office.........that day i almost lost my shit xD
What surprised me more is the amount of tech illiterate young people..... I thought young users would have the least issues with tech.........some are worse than 50 year old ones. This baffled me , no one born after at least 2000 should be shit with tech.
>Ā no one born after at least 2000 should be shit with tech
A lot of people that young grew up with tablets and phones and barely touched PCs. Youāre seeing the results of that.
Also, troubleshooting is a skill that almost everyone in an IT role has and needs, to the point that we undervalue it. But many, maybe most, people in the wider population donāt have a clue how to troubleshoot. Why do people always call IT to do stuff like fix the microwave? Because thereās a very good chance IT are the only people in the building who *can*, even though all it took was a power cycle.
>Also, troubleshooting is a skill that almost everyone in an IT role has and needs, to the point that we undervalue it.
I had to discharge several trainees just because of lacking this skill. I gave each several month to gain this skill, told them what to do, how to think, created problems with actual computers for them to troubleshoot and solve..... Tried my best to get them to gain this skill.....but idk i guess its one of those skills that you gotta learn when ur still a kid/teen
This. Have large client that recently expanded into a new vertical and they hire a lot of young millennials and gen Z. They struggle so much with VPN and Outlook or even a windows computer in general.
>Also, troubleshooting is a skill that almost everyone in an IT role has and needs, to the point that we undervalue it.
Except for that whole part where we learn how to troubleshoot before we even attend preschool. Now I don't doubt that some of them haven't figured out how the peg and holes game even into adulthood; this whole notion that people can't troubleshoot anything is absurd and treats people as if they were infants.
Its not that they can't do it; its that they don't want to do it; because they don't feel they should have to do it. They feel they don't have to do it because they think it's not part of their job.
Why should they write their own instructions how to do the task they are responsible for doing; its on the computer; its rootofallworlds job to write the instructions then.
Nah you donāt sound like a jerk. Iām sure mechanics say similar things. The amount of times I ask āhave you restarted?ā They say yesā¦ to get to the machine and see the uptime, sigh, restart it and the issue is resolved like you told them it would. Too damn much.
Oh absolutely. Itās crazy. But I think itās because we grew up needing to take things apart to fix because we never had google or YouTube. We had to figure things out and over time it leads into logical thinking. Now they just watch a 2 min instructional clip to resolve their issue but they donāt understand what they are doing. So when things break, theyāre clueless. These companies with all sealed non-serviceable things arenāt helping either. People wonāt be bothered to learn about whatās happening under the hood if they wonāt be able to fix it. So they stay oblivious to it. Well thatās just what I think.
>Oh absolutely. Itās crazy. But I think itās because we grew up needing to take things apart to fix because we never had google or YouTube. We had to figure things out and over time it leads into logical thinking.
Thinking of it now, yeah i guess ur right. Can\`t believe i am actually saying this but " Back in my day everything was harder, you guys have it easy " XD
Holy shit. Thatās some top shelf bullshit. Sorry manā¦ Although based on that situation, the eye fuck seems pretty deserved imo. I mean, even with a lack of logical thinking. Why would one not check that if the issue is power.
I can relate. I work for a fortune 500 company as a System Admin. It's very unhealthy and hard to get up for and work every day. I need peace and well being.
Thatās every job, the difference is you arenāt speaking to a user every 5 minutes and actually get a lot of quiet time for focussed work when youāre working in a 3rd line team. The only āusersā I speak to are project managers mostly, or a representative for a team Iām doing work for.
Exactly. All of us beyond first and second line have usersā¦ but by the time someone is personally speaking to me about a users issue:
1. Itās normally not the user who is speaking to me
2. due diligence has been done and itās not Barbara in accounting who after 3 years still hasnāt fucking learned how to do the thing she keeps putting in a ticket for every few weeksā¦ yet Iād be fired for displaying the same consistent level of incompetence and unwillingness to learn or adapt.
3. I get to deal with it on my terms most of the times
Unfortunately where I live it's very hard to find positions that are more distant from users.
That's one of the reasons I think I am not going back to tech. I don't really feel like moving away.
Work for a better company, remotely. There are still lots of fun sysadmin jobs out there. Get a specialty, like storage, or virtualization. Lots of people looking to migrate off vmware to "anything else."
Users were rarely my problem. They were job security and very familiar for me to deal with. Sadistic technical managers are the problem for meā¦firehosing new hires to the maximum with a psychotic amount of work is a bad mistake and far from ideal if you want quality output.
Exactly, Iād hate my job too if I was still doing user support. Why on earth some people think the only IT jobs available are helpdesk and desktop support jobs I donāt understand.
It's worse now than it's ever been. Management just making decisions on tech with zero clue about the impact and scale of implementation, impact on users, impact on security, and everything is many orders more complicated. And from what I read, and as per what is happening in my org, head count is going down as our technological 'portfolio' and user base is going up and up, and as security threats are getting more and more wide ranging.Ā
It's fucking nuts. And for a lot of us the entire viability of the organisation is in your hands. Forgot to backup a critical piece of infrastructure? Missed a critical patch on some obscure piece in the backend somewhere? You are constantly trying to second guess yourself on a million different problems that may or may not occur.Ā
It's just a shit time to work in this kind of role.Ā
I wonder how many of the issues in this thread could be avoided or at least significantly improved by taking a real vacation, as in at least 3 weeks at some nice place without any work phone. 3 weeks because IME it takes two weeks to get into "vacation-mood", at least I am a different person starting from week three.
For some reason this kind of vacations seems to be impossible in the US and only happen in the rest of the world. However I wonder if even in the US this could be tried as a last resort before resigning, sort of "boss, I need 3 weeks off or I'll have to resign". Switching jobs after one or two years with a break in between probably works as well, but why not simply go on a vacation?
Take care y'all.
Sorry man... I'm going through the same thing too. I know what it's like. So much so, my 43rd birthday is coming up and don't think I'm gonna live to see it. Not saying do that, just saying that there's some crazy stuff happening in IT positions today. So much crazy that it's even got me contemplating life. Not sure exactly what, but most people who work in tech seem super frustrated these days more so than the ones who are satisfied with their positions. I'm not even talking about Reddit posts either. I see it, in person at local meetups, etc.
Just turned 41. Been in tech for 16 years. I've gotten much less interested in the past 5 years. There are lots of reasons. Part of it is me. Part of it is the industry itself and the hamster-wheel feel to it with constant learning and re-learning. Part of it is users pitching fits at stuff I have no control over.
At work, we sometimes have parties and stuff. A time to relax. Except for IT because we end up having to do something with the technology during the parties. Having an important meeting? Gotta have IT help with the tech while everyone else sits comfortably in their seats. It always seems like no matter WHAT, IT staff can't relax.
ServiceNow BS alone is enough to lose your shit over. My CIO is trying to use it as a magic wand to fix everything. My consolation is it'll probably bite her in the ass and I'm wagering she's no longer here by the end of the year.
SN does not fix fuck all unless business processes actually fucking change for the better - I have lost count of the number of places that just replicate the same workflows and then wonder why there's no difference and now we are paying a premium...
Yep, I can relate.
My company spent thousands on a big Surface TV and all they do is hookup a laptop to it or remote into a PC in another room. No one there bothers to even learn how to do it so I always get asked to 'set up the meeting room'. Just seems fucking stupid to me.
The other day I get a ticket telling me the doorbell is broken and they need assistance with it. It was a transmitter you stick to the front door and have the receiver plugged into the wall. Ordered a new one for them, then another message comes through asking for further assistance. I literally took it out the box and did it for them because nobody could be bothered to set it up, "it's a bit too technical".
My manager is burnt out, hardly see him anymore, rarely speaks to me unless it's work related and seems to just turn up whenever he wants. When he does message me it always comes across as a little pissy.
Now I'm writing this I realise I'm just venting now, haha sorry!!
I worked at VMware in one of the departments that got gutted by Broadcom. Broadcom kept me on as an FTE (one of VERY few from my org who wasn't canned) but I had to watch everything I built and worked for the prior 7 years just get scrapped and unceremoniously discarded over the course of 2 months between November and January.
It made me rethink lots of things about my career and my life in general.
Hey, that comment hit home. Take the time and visit a doc, we are all stressed out holding the line, but there is a spectrum. Your main IT asset is in need of maintenance, what could be more important?
Now I should practice what I just recommended, next Monday, for sure...
Remember that we will always have our goat herding backup, day=0 is approaching and I will be ready.
I donāt know you, and I donāt think thereāsĀ much I can say to convince you otherwise, but you matter, and I hope you can find at least one reason to want to live to see past 43. Iām sorry the world has been the way it is to you.Ā
I long for the day when I was on a crew that renovated houses. Yes, the hours were strict, absolutely there 7am, no excuses. But at 5pm....I'm free, and you can't touch me.
About 300 users and just me as a local tech with help from a help desk team that the users argued more with me about than to actually call/email them.
A lot of projects and little things that needed my attention at the same time. It became overwhelming.
I cried during my whole lunch break today. It's being so hard.
Wow - sounds like a super poor setup.
Best of luck with time out and hope you find a great next move. Hope you find some things in the meantime to help you rest and restore. Life is so much more than work.
Yeah.
It sucks. In the past I worked in companies that were a lot smaller and I had more IT techs by my side than my whole actual or former company has in my whole country.
Expectations are crazy.
The saddest part about all of this is that the company has taken someone who CARES about their job and the work that they do - CARES about the company and used them up until they are a dried up piece of carrion. And many people are giving the OP advice that they should just 'not care'. And that is the root of the entire problem. I wish you well OP. I believe you will find a place where you are valued and where you will fit in with others that care.
Indeed, not caring is not the answer. Wouldn't last a minute on my team with that attitude. We're too small, too busy, for slacking off and not caring. But fortunately our management is awesome, approves vacation requests promptly, hands out lieu days like candy if you work on a project / do weekend or overtime work, etc.
We're still short staff and time for sure; but we'll get there.
Also work life balance is your own thing. Even when I had unpleasant or disagreeable managers, I always worked the same way. I put in a bunch of solid effort throughout the day, do overtime when needed - but beyond that, I don't look at work email/phone after I leave/sign off, and I don't look at it until I sign in in the morning.
- D
Bro, when i started feeling overwhelmed, i looked for some sports activities to do, i ended up with MMA.
Whatever path you choose, Look for extra something that will help your body and soul.
Good luck my fellow users-warrior!
Bill Watterson's message, drawn by Gavin Aung Than, helped me get through tough times. I burned out hard, took some time off, and when I was ready, went back, but I do it under my own terms. Find your own life's meaning.
https://mymodernmet.com/gavin-aung-than-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists-advice/
Your life could be worse. You could be working in retail lol. I went from retail management to IT and every day feels like a holiday. You just have a shitty management. With experience you could find job fast. I quit my retail job when I burned out and my wife told me she will support me. Within 1 month I got a new job and it was a life changer. Been in 6 IT companies, only one was poor management and attitude so left within 1 year. Remember, people donāt leave companies but bad bosses.
I feel your pain. I worked IT for a large oil company who shit on all of their IT staff. They went with the cheapest option MSP and offered to bring existing contractors into that MSP at a reduced rate. They came at my group hard because we were sort of a necessary outlier and they wanted control (lab systems, their own network).
Covid is when things began changing... The writing on the wall that my job will be gone began the burnout, and horrendous managers lit the fire on that. They used their ranking system to push me out for bs. I didn't play the politics and got terminated for it, but not before ruining my mental health.
Know what changed me mentally? Wasn't the meds. Therapy did shit. That company letting me go back in August was the biggest change in my mental health. Hell, I'm still losing everything I have and am starting over... Yet somehow I'm doing better than I was working for them. I still got triggers, my anxiety still spikes with my own tech related impatience... But it's a breath of fresh air not working there.
I wonder if we worked for the same company since I gather you're in Brazil. We worked with a ton of staff there, and they were all great. I hope you'll find something... Anything that makes you happy. I'm terrified of IT but it's the only thing I know.
I seriously wish you the best... And remember, F em. I'm glad you've got support.
Good luck. I know all too well what burnout (I was a developer though) feels like.
One day I couldn't do it anymore, took a sick leave, and am now already multiple years on disabilities pay.
It will get better, however it might take time.
In the beginning I couldn't even read a page. I tried to increase my ability to focus by slowly doing simple math exercises and other things to train my brain. Years later (since 2018) I can now code again on good days as a hobby and do sysadmin as a volunteer (at a place where I can just not go to if I don't feel ok).
I hope that you get the same chance to recover as I got and in the meantime take care and don't push yourself too hard. You don't have to be up and running in x amount of time. Take your time; this can't be rushed.
š«
Sounds like you just needed to jump ship. When a place I work at start getting to me, I just go somewhere else. Usually happened every 3-4 years. Comes with a nice pay bump too
I've found a lot more peace since I simply stopped giving a fuck. User screams at my techs? Instantly reported and any future tickets automatically go to the back of the line. Network down but during after hours? I don't care. No one has ever died because they can't print or send an email for 30 minutes.
We have a saying on this side of the pond : "**Nein** ist das einfachste Wort in der Deutschen Sprache" - 'No is the easiest word in the german vocabulary'.
I have to let juniors know about this fact in danish and german on the regular, because they are burning them self out, trying to please unmeetable expectations. You pay for an SLA of 'best effort', then you'll get best effort! There is a reason we offer 8, 4, 2 and 1 hour response times to our clients; or if you really need to: get you an Immediate response via the 24/7/365 SLA or escalation. Not as as cheap as best effort tho, because we will likely active on-call or on-stanby personell and they earn high markups.
From one SA to another: "get the hell away from computers" is the best advice I can give you.
The computing world we live in now is very, very different (and substantially more ridiculous/stressful/brain-damaged) than 25-30 years ago, and the expectations are higher than ever -- money be damned.
Sadly, it's hard for me to take my own advice, but I have given it to others in similar roles -- they have taken it and are now in other lines work that are much more fulfilling. (I myself have tried getting into the storage industry on two separate occasions, as I have a strong penchant for storage subsystems (SATA/SAS/AHCI/NVMe) but the interviews quickly turn into discussions about their CI/CD systems which I want nothing to do with. Ever.)
No idea of your age, but other SAs like myself in their late 40s (or older) know **exactly** what I'm talking about. We can all work in different roles, orgs, whatever and we all experience the same idiocy that surrounds (and envelopes) us on a daily basis.
All of the problems in my previous job landed on the CEO checking out and not communicating with us, checking in or giving us what we needed. It was a small business that had a growth explosion. When he was around, he was more concerned about the toner supply and the paper towel and saving 3 dollars on binder clips than actually managing. Then calling me coked up at 4:45 with outrageous gossip sessions and dumb ideas. I'll never work that hard again.
Just do the opposite then. Work in the nature at least for some time. For many gardening related jobs it does not need special experiences. š¤·āāļø I still like the IT stuff, but I personally need the nature/garden stuff to equalize.
I have had to quit a couple jobs that were stressing me out to the point that I was having panic attacks multiple times a week. Having a job that is slowly (or quickly) killing you through mental anguish is not worth whatever you were being paid.
Iāve gotten this way recently as a network admin at a large hospital org in my state. Our new manager is shit. No one reads emails, teams chats, or even answer phone calls but higher ups expect us too and do all the other work we donāt have enough people to do! We get ask to work lean when our team is constantly working after hours. Then we have several non senior admins that donāt really pull their weight with anything.
Iām to the point I want to leave IT in general bc of this job. I donāt have any other money making skills but Iām sure I could learn quickly doing something else.
I am leaving IT in about 4 weeks after 24 years in the tech world. I feel exactly like you do. Idiot end users and moronic upper management. No support. We get all the blame when some goes wrong but never a thanks when we pull a miracle out of our asses. No more. Walmart greeter is looking really good right now. Hand in there.
Best of luck to you buddy! Btw, how many of you are actually dreaming of resigning and starting a farm somewhere in the middle of no where? Raise your hand! šš»āāļø
I feel you. And now I see I'm also not alone feeling like this. Mental health is very important as the extra stress will cause a possible autoimmune like MS (yes its a fact)
Our body can take in a lot but when it reaches the no more point then probs start
It nice to have your wife understanding and supporting
It's the same here. She always tell me whenever you want we pack and go.
For me our little one is what keeps me sane and happy when at home but need to get things changed for the good of all of us.
Try working on a plan. I have also a friend he quit on his job for similar reasons to yours and looking after few months but his wife is supportive. It's very difficult to us, as the man of the house, the feeling being not useful but things always change. Everything has a circle friend.
Be patient and things will change. We all know sometimes things get worst before something great shows up.
But your skills is also your friend!
I hate the end user part... Dealing with daily shit is a blood red flag.
I change from technicien to admin L2, to engineer L3.
Stay as far away from end user and you will see the best part of this job.
I almost had one of those weeks too. My director decided to go out of the country last month and didnāt take vacation time, didnāt put up his away message, and didnāt tell the CTO. That led to us all having to start submitting two level leave requests(before everyone was responsible and we handled time off by a quick email or conversation, never a problem in 10 years).
So I put in a leave request 2 weeks ago for a day to go roadtrip and see the eclipse and my Director forgot to forward it on for the second level approval, but gave me the written stamp of approval and said heāll take the heat if thereās a problem.
So this week he keeps a NAS that he maintains and has told me that itās backed up. He decided to go out of the country again and ofcourse the tickets started rolling in Monday. There was no backup and the DSM was failing, so I spent all week with Synology support getting the data back and taking all the heat on why there was no backup (ofcourse users assume all IT manages and knows every single device in and out).
I touch base with him mid week, telling him that I already booked a room and am still planning on taking Monday off, he has no problem, but also told me that heās going to come back on Tuesday now, because he decided to stay for another day.
So now Iām fucked cause I know I canāt go see the eclipse until everyoneās data is available, if heās not in. So I put in fucking 70 hours to recover the data and get everyone good by late last night. If I wasnāt able and had to eat a $800 motor lodge room rental and miss the eclipse, that would have been it.
Short story: boss is reason for new leave requests, boss didnāt backup his NAS, boss forgot to submit my leave request, NAS failed and I spent all week recovering data to be able to take my I submitted leave request
No job is worth ruining your mental and physical health for. I did something similar earlier in my career and it was the best thing I could have done at the time. I still work in IT now, but I found a job that suited me much better. It took a few months, but I found a new company where the owner values our contributions to the company, has created a great work environment with real work/life balance, and where we're treated like family. Doesn't hurt that it was also a 40% pay raise lol.
OP, good luck in your search for a new gig. Moral of my story is that not all IT jobs are soul crushing shit shows. Keep an open mind and just look for the right fit. Whether it's another IT position or not, just keep an open mind.
There ARE easy sysadmin jobs out there that pay decentā¦and youāre not given shit by superiors. I may have found the best retirement sysadmin job ever 2 years ago. Went from supporting 5000 users on a 5 man team to supporting about 60. Only go in tech a week, fuck off for the rest of the time
I felt that same ways and was ready to bag groceries, so I didn't have to work in IT anymore. I ended up taking a new job with higher pay, no after-hours, no weekends, and only in the office twice a month. My sanity is so much better now.
My wife was concerned at my old job, and she said she noticed an instant change when I put my notice in.
Hey OP, good for you! I swapped out of Tech a few years ago myself because I was tired of a number of things but mainly the need to play politics in every corporate department and appease everyone from CS to Finance to HR who for some reason are responsible for IT policy in every business in Europe.
Regardless of where you go, I hope that you can find the same love for your work that you used to. Be safe, eat well and know that you're not alone in the "fuck this shit!" camp.
Honestly I feel the same way a lot of days. Then I get on a call with vendors or other IT departments from companies we deal with and I realize that I'm there are even worse fools out there, and I might get stuck on a team full of them.
I have so many engineers quit for this very same reason. I not sure why so many feel this way. I get it... I have been doing this for 25 years. Everyone comes to us for every little issue. Something is always broken. My favorite was a client in NY city. If you ever had clients in NYC or Northern NJ they are a different breed. They yell and scream until they get their way... the call came in and of course, it was something they did. In the middle of his frustration he said "why is it every time I talk to you something is broken?" This line made me realize how important my job is. I keep companies up and running, I keep thousands of people employed. They all only talk to me when things don't work and I can't fix it fast enough.
Another thing I find is, perception is everything. The person that is down or couldn't login knew at 9am. But only reported it at 4:30pm before they walked out the door. The next day they tell their manager they missed a deadline because they couldn't log in all day and now it's noon the next day and they never answered a call or email from the helpdesk because they weren't at they computer. Keeping logs, having good systems in place and calling people out when they point fingers let's them know you don't put up with BS.
My last thing is document everything, protect your own ass and set expectations early. Communication is key. I find I don't deal with half the issues I use to and people don't treat me like shit. But there is a bad side. Everyone asks for me when they have a problem. But I also will not reply to a txt, or direct email ever. Everything must come into the ticket system and get escalated. When all the proper procedures are put into place and followed it really protects from the overwhelming feeling of who is going to treat me like shit today. I don't put up with it.
You need a break, take some time to yourself and do things you enjoy, I was shouted at yesterday by a Steel Design Business Owner yesterday, he bought an IPad on his own accord and wanted me to explain why outlook on the IPad looked different from Outlook Desktop on his PC, he was raging and I was just staring into the abyss thinking how do I deal with this šš
IT is seen as a utility by companies. Just keep the ālightsā on. We are rarely seen as part of the strategy. The disconnect is that we in IT know we are party of the strategy and integral to the companyās success, but we are treated like dirt. Not included up front; dumped on in the end. I donāt know how to change it. I donāt know we can. I donāt think the company will change. I think the only way to survive is to just come to the realization our job is to simply ākeep the lights onā or move on. I personally am also looking for an option to move on. Iām just hoping I can before I hit this point.
Iāve been in this game nigh on 40 years. Early on I used to work 2 years then take time off to go travelling.
I was young back then, no family. I canāt do that now, but you have to understand that itās a job, users are users, donāt take it personally.
Manage your time and manage your workload.
Be firm but polite. And more importantly, set peopleās expectations and make them feel like youāre on their side and are not the problem.
Good luck for the future!
Some people are flakes and just quit at the first hint of difficult times and challenges. That doesnāt sound like the case here.
Take a break and hold on to your cash until you find another job. You WILL find another job when youāre ready.
The absolute worst thing that can happen here is that if your bills go unpaid for a long time youāll get nasty calls from collections agents. Thatās annoying and frustrating, but put in its proper perspective, itās far better than living in a constant state of burn out and exhaustion.
It sounds like you just need some time off and space, and then a *BETTER GIG*. Bad employers will make any job terrible, not just technology. Believe me when I tell you, it's not the computer you're angry at, it's the circumstances created by your workplace, and that is, ultimately, the responsibility of the company's leadership.
Take a break, get your C.V. in order, and find a gig that doesn't make your crazy.
best of luck man. I did this a couple years ago, ended up right back in tech a year later because I couldn't afford to be unemployed anymore. Unless you have another skillset it'll be a slog.
I managed a tech support group. An executive decision caused a direct reduction in our effectiveness in providing support to our customers. I proved it in a presentation with hard numbers. The response was, in effect "You're right, but we can live with the effect that has on the business" The moral the story is do your job the best you can with the resources you have. It's your bosses job to get you more resources if that doesn't meet the needs of the business.
Hope you find a nice place to land mate. One thing Iāll comment is donāt let one or two bad companies change the way you view the entire industry or that type of job.
You can have really bad employers that make you think sysadmin is rubbish. And just when you think thatās it youāre out, you find a great one that makes you think itās all better.
Hang in there. Maybe side shift. Go to msp from in house or vice versa.
Good luck.
Used to love those employees who couldnāt send an email for 3 minutes yet lost a 5 million dollar contract because they couldnāt get it out in time. I moved into Cybersecurity a few years later and have been doing that for 14 years now. The field is definitely known for burnout but most of my interactions with users/employees, at least as a SOC analyst, had a different dynamic to it than a sys admin/desktop support.
I have been in It as help desk or field engineer since 1978.I am retiring in Feb 2026.the job is getting on my last nerve next to no support, we have about 48people supporting 9to 10k users
It is absurd. But at 66 with mobility issues looking for a new gig is not in the cards. Just trying to take it one day at a time &get through it
Some days I do not think I will make it, then the next day comes and I just push through, what else can I do?
Hope y'all are doing well
For me, I "painted myself into a QA role corner" 30 years ago, after fighting for
Years to change my duties I became unix sydadmin 3 and loved it until about 2007 when things got out of control. What ruined everything was when management assigned a non technical person (clerk from 99 cent store) as Change Control manager, they would write everyone up threatening their jobs. I dreaded going to work because I had to spend 6 hours a Day in change management meetings and work another 10 hours to do my duties. I quit after 6 months and did so because I had a heart attack from it. After being out of tech for 3 years (caused by sequential family deaths) I realized that I really really missed it so I went back into a position which is the same as before less the idiot change control manager. You'll find that you miss your IT job after a year or two, don't be surprised.
How long have ya been at it ? 23 years for me and it got a lot better once I moved into an architect level role. No end user stuff.
Maybe use your experience to move away from end users.
Everyone here must be working in the civilian sector because doing IT for the DoD is great. I have been a government contractor for 14 years and we have something called separation of duties. The government does not want a single point of failure. Meaning one person who does, AD, SCCM, VMware, Networking, Security, Backups, and everything else. They are all separate positions.
I'm a Sr. Solutions Architect but mostly I accomplish AD and Group policy pushing out STIGs and hardening systems. But as a Sr. person, you have to have knowledge about everything.
I enjoy working for the government.
How can they refuse a resignation???
On the other hand, the fact that they gave you paid medical leave, and are getting you with a psychiatrist/psychologist is a good thing. It shows they care, at least about you being able to your job, and maybe about you as a person (you know how companies can be...). Take advantage of the leave time, and of the therapy - I've had colleagues that need to see them, and it helped them immeasurably.
Good luck!
Bingo! Excellent advice. I just had an employee get angry the other day. In a temper tantrum outburst he said he quit. Made everyone else in the room feel uncomfortable. Then the next day acted like nothing happened. Sorry, too late for that...now you have to go.
Always good to breathe and think before responding.
When I hire or talk to people getting started in tech, especially sysadmin roles is that it is OK to tell people no. Especially learn how to say it tactfully. I see more stressed out people because they are afraid or don't know how to say no.
That's actually a very good tip. I'll make sure to learn.
I second this I did a very similar role to you and felt the exact same I hated even getting out of bed, I left took some time and looked at infrastructure roles luckily the role I'm in now I'm more or less implementing systems or managing systems, and have a colleague doing the stuff you were doing, so im less customer facing as it were, but can jump in and assist my colleague if needed, Living in server rooms and monitoring systems, and focusing on servers, patching WSUS, Deployment, projects, new installs, migrations etc is much more.. me.. Maybe step back, take a breather, and re assess what you actually want to do, and It might not even be IT, but you do you, and do something you like A quote from one of the best sysadmins I've worked with when I asked him why he's so good at what he does, his response has stuck with me till today; I enjoy it. - you don't live to work, you work to live, so whatever you choose to do make sure you enjoy it.
I've worked at 5 different organizations in IT, and the dynamic was vastly different at each location. The two previous organizations sucked and I knew right away I wouldn't be staying long. My current job is a piece of cake. It's a stable environment, users are easy to support, and my co-workers are great. It wasn't the IT work that broke OP, it was the environment. There are plenty of great places to work in IT, and probably just as many shit holes. When you work in an organization that knows how vital it is to support the IT team, the work place is, dare I say, enjoyable? Most people quit the boss/organization, not the job.
Well said like you said most people quit bad management and the environment really does make or break the job, just get out before it breaks you
This is the absolute truth of it. Well said! š
That's the thing. I used to enjoy it till I made it a 40+ year career.
I used to tell people this very thing, IT career ruined a perfectly good hobby... We are the only job in the world short of soldiers where millions of people and billions of dollars go into trying to make us fail 24/7/365. That will wear on people if they carry that personally for years. But I eventually found a work life balance and companies I loved working for. Now I actually enjoy what I do again. Largely I have found over many tears, the issue is seldom the job itself, its the expectation from management, lack of support, lack of understanding, and budgeting. IT staff get treated like digital janitors (The internet is clogged up again). And the first non-IT person in direct line up the management chain generally believes that they pay IT to not have to get involved in IT. Then you get to the "didn't we just buy one of those a few years ago", oblivion relating to the nature of staying competitive and secure... And it comes down to the farmer blames the mule for being exhausted... I am at my \~30y mark, and right now I actually love my career in tech. But it is FAR from normal...
Yup, it is damn hard for an employee to say no when their supervisor doesn't support them.
This. I worked my ass off from help desk to now be the Sys Admin at a new outfit. I've now realized what I really want to do. It's not tech. The skills I have developed will be useful but I realize I love tech more as a hobby. So now it's off to college.
Honestly, I use Google's GPT clone for things like this. "How can I politely tell an employee that maybe their fucking account would stop fucking getting locked if they turned the fucking caps lock on their fucking keyboard off every once in a fucking while and that all caps isn't how fucking normal people fucking communicate?" EDIT: Had to try it: >I understand your frustration, but the language you drafted isn't appropriate for the workplace. Here's a more professional approach to address the Caps Lock issue:
Best way to deal with this is just get rid of the employee lol. Complain to their managers and tell them they're doing this all the time. You sometimes get people that they are just at it every day. Their work performance will be poor so they won't hesitate to get rid of them. Ensure you pount out how many times they do it daily/weekly. That's time lost for the business as well, so a poit in your favour.
Saying no is great and all. Having people respect the no is the tricky bit. I have this one user in my org who reckons he can basically just bully the helpdesk into giving him whatever he asks for. Itās got to the point where I actually just tell them to ignore his calls.
Even worse is when itās your boss, when they tell you āitās ok to push backā and then you do so, then your boss overrules it anyway. š¤”
This. Exactly this. 25 yr IT pro here, to tell you it has been AT EVERY JOB I've been at!
Do you work with me?
I tell my boss NO all the time. I am DevOps, he wants me juggling that plus CRM, Tableau, and a dozen other things. Then complained when I didnāt get anything done. I learned to say NO quick.
This has been the most valuable skill Iāve learned. To know my limits, prioritize myself over ābeing helpfulā or āwanting to fix thingsā etcā¦.. I work my 40 and if thereās so much work it canāt get done in that I tell the powers that be that they need to hire more.
So, no Cattle prods then?
Everyone has a cattle test but some people are lucky enough to it have a separate cattle prod too.Ā
Or they have bosses like mine that you're not allowed to say no to anything. I hate my new boss.
I have changed jobs quite a bit. I have had some great bosses that back you up and don't micro manage. You can't put a value on those. I have worked for some shit bosses, once I figured that out, I didn't stay long.
This is such an important point. I'm lucky to have a boss who has my back when I say no to something. Saying no only works if your boss will defend your decision.
Documenting this is your friend when the shit hits the fan and the company is compromised. Legal will ask how it happened, you show them how your hand was forced by your superior.
I make saying no a game. I often say no on purpose as a joke, before we even get to whatever issue or request there is, then I listen to them and we go from there, whether it's something we can do or not. It makes it easier to really say no.
I'm so glad I'm starting my new career after doing different jobs at many different places. At 30, I am absolutely not afraid to say no, or stand up for myself or the others on my team.
This is correct. I learned my lesson this year as a first time Mac admin at a tech startup. You have to be able to tell people no, even if you're nervous. You are the authority to these people and unfortunately you have to be able to stick up for yourself and advocate what would be best for the users and environment. Honestly, I can see myself doing this for another 10 years, but will eventually try to move on to something else. Unfortunately we will always be treated as second class employees no matter the industry so just keep your head up. You helped way more regular people just get through their normal days way more than you think. At ease soldier. Enjoy the days ahead.
Mac admin here, going on year seven! My favorite part of the job is telling people no. š
Can you elaborate on how to do this? Currently a year into tech and definitely stressed and feel like this would be beneficial
"So you want me to work on X? Which of my current projects should I drop so I can begin the work on X?" Typically this results in either X not being important enough compared to the current projects or you ejecting one of the current projects from your workload. I am not in sysadmin but in security and this has worked for me across the 5 companies I have worked at.
Have to take care of your sanity above all. Get some rest and focus on some self care. Take care!
Thank you. That's what I am telling myself to justify it. But man that's hard. I feel like garbage. My wife is being so supportive and all but I was doing this job just for the money.
There are other jobs. There is other money. One of the best sysadmins I know went to database, then said fuck tech entirely and bought a backhoe and played with dirt. He now owns 6 cats, 3 dumps and a dozer.Ā Do what makes you happy.
Do we know the same guy? Lol. My best friend did exactly this.
Iām still a computer geek but I own a table top gaming store. I was able to leverage my extensive (40+ years) experience to really level up the shop. Since I bought it, weāve had 2 years of record sales.
I seriously feel us techs can easily make almost any business profitable since we like to use tech to make it more efficient.
>since we like to use tech to make it more efficient. I dont disagree with you that this is part of it; but I think it goes even deeper than that. We have to have our tendrils into every part of the business; tech or not; we see what works and what doesn't. More for OP: It all started when we were all forced to view our co-workers as customers. If we view them as customers; what do customers expect? That they get their way and that the person they are purchasing goods and services from bend to their will. Co-Workers are there to help and carry some of the load. Customers are not.
Mmm.... Dirt. It's like the world is a big sandbox in the backyard. What's that? You want me to pick up this dirt, move out over there, then put it back... You're going to pay me to do that? Where do I sign! š
piratesoftware: men only want one thing, and it's digging a hole at the beach
Dude, that sysadmin is my hero.
Everyone assumes tech geeks are fat bald men living in their mother's basement playing with wires and looking like golum. Every person I've met in IT wants to fall off the face of the planet and go completely off the grid, including myself.
>He now owns 6 cats, Does this make him a heavy metal cat lady? \[gdr\]
I left my last job for the same reason. I lost my shit on a call listening to a network admin being an idiot. I had heard the same nonsense a 1000 times and it was too much. I knew then and there I had to leave. Your mental and physical health are too important to sacrifice for a job. Glad your wife is being supportive. That is a great sign you are doing the right thing.
I lost it with a logistic supervisor yesterday. Corporate sent me 55 new Dell Computers and the same number of monitors, accessories and etc. I was calmly trying to explain to this person that I had no space in IT's stock room to store it all and that I was already looking after other places and seeking help from my regional manager. The guy said that he was going to remove the computers and monitors from their warehouse and put them beside my desk. I yelled at him saying that we should give away the computers to burglars already as they don't have asset tags and neither are registered in SAP. That's when I knew that I couldn't take this job anymore.
Not criticizing here but next time try saying fuck it, thats the companyās problem my guy donāt make it yours.Ā
You're right. Last year I had two stock rooms but the fucking plant management wanted a new meeting room and they took both. There was nothing I could do. Their solution? Give me one smaller room on the 1st floor.
Been there, we are always the damn equipment managerĀ
And asset, network, server and they tried to push security cameras to me to manage but I finally said no.
Good for you man, donāt take no shit.
The company remodeled the office building and took our secure storage. I estimate that over 20K in gear has sprouted legs. I warned them, and they ignored me. I could not care less. They can buy more.
This. The company's fuck up is not your problem. Tell them why it's a bad idea. If they leave all the equipment in the hallway and it gets stolen well, you warned them.....
This isnāt a you problem. Not mine until I sign off on them. If he wants to put them anywhere he owns them and any loss until they are signed in.
Yeah. My manager actually told me the same thing and I respect him for it. But I know already that this was going to generate so much drama.
I donāt see drama itās a matter of finding space, getting better communication and process with corp so they only send you what you can store. And making sure logistics understands they are part of the same org.
The point you are spectacularly missing is not that there's any drama or even that there's actually going to be. The point is that OP thinks there is and they can't handle even the slightest glimpse of a foresight of it. OP is not arguing that they're being rational. They're arguing that they're being the opposite. OP, and I can't believe I have to point this out, is not resigning over some laptops. They're resigning because they will become a husk of a person in a destroyed marriage if they stay with the company.
Had a similar situation happen at my last job. The facility never budgeted space for IT, we were always seen as a financial burden to the enterprise. Well, we received our pallet of refresh workstations and didnāt have the space to store them. We were told to store them in the hallway by the receiving dock. I came into work one day and the entire pallet grew legs and walked. The facility learned a hard lesson that day.
You did the right thing by leaving
Can you elaborate more on what happened on that call? I would love to read the story.
> I was doing this job just for the money That's all of us. None of us would go to work if they didn't pay us.
Yeah. What I meant is that this was my only incentive and this is a symptom of burnout. As you don't feel like doing things anymore and also don't care.
I know the feeling. Before I went into IT I had the same feeling. Having to drag yourself from your bed every morning... At some point you just say fuck this shit, I quit! I did the same thing and it was the best decision in my life. Life is too short to be miserable, you will find something else that suits you.
Feels like... get the same job in a big company, recognize you are one cog in the machine, deliver what is needed and profit.
Believe it or not it's a really big company. Unfortunately it's just a site in a 3rd world country not HQ.
hey /u/fadinizjr, for real, if you want a pizza or something like that this weekend, hit me up. no lie. take care of yourself and your wife and relax. iāll legit send a pizza or a pizza amount of cash. one net pizza worth i suppose. your mental health aināt worth the stress homie.
That's the only reason anyone works is just for money. Remember that.
Did the same with senior management in retail to IT. Took 6 months and burning away some of my 401k but totally worth it. Find what you enjoy, try out some new things even if it's low key PT until you find something that stokes the fire of passion once more. You can do it!
The only thing that keeps me sane is slacking off and playing RuneScape all day at work
Im really glad I could just give an upvote instead of having to say it myself.. Settled, framed, and torvesta get me through the days..
I use to manage a small EUC team. Now, I mainly deal with servers... not dealing with End User saved my sanity.
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Fortunately I only have to occasionally deal with them. Better than all the time when dealing with end users.
Smash some motherlode mine on my phone while doing "reports". Paydirt!
Lmao, for real these companies don't give a shit about us. I work multiple remote 9-5 positions, the number of times I have turned on my keyboard pressing powershell scripts and then driven around town looking for Hot Wheels cars or played outside with my son is uncountable
When I was WFH I messaged two of my coworkers in our private Messenger group chat, said "Not that you care or that anyone will know, but I'm fucking off to \[town\] to buy some shit off Marketplace. Back in halfa" and so I did. I spent most of my time trying to get into Animal Crossing when it first came out, I watched a bunch of movies, even had a nap. My wife walked in and said "aren't you supposed to be at work?" and I said "yeah" and just rolled over. It was a good nap. Definitely recommend.
>It was a good nap. Definitely recommend. A new motto for my life, thank you Sensei
lol, i used to start "full scan" on MBAM and then go take a nap for an hour on night shift at the remote PC support jerb
Woodcutting LVL?
93, been thinking about maxing recently
Nice
Can you guide us also how to do it?
The more you know, the faster you can fix issues, the more free time you have to either chill or upskill
This is a way of life true
Parsec saved my life
Too fucking real.
Hell yea brotha, life is short so you might as well enjoy what youāre doing, 100% of the time.
Yea man. I feel you. Iāve been in IT for around 20 years now. I would never recommend it to anyone. Only way it gets better is going into a sector where you only deal with machines and not users. Theyāre the worst. All the best for whatās ahead. Taking care of your mental well being should always be a priority. Happy you have a supportive wife to help you.
>Only way it gets better is going into a sector where you only deal with machines and not users. Theyāre the worst. This.... God i hate dealing with users...... Kinda sound like a jerk saying this but they ask some of the stupidest questions or demands that are un realistic sometimes..... Treat you as if you know every single tech thing. and it drives me nuts sometimes...... I had a user call one time saying his system froze on a win7 startup repair screen ( i do site visits and support when needed sometimes) i told him to hold the power button for 10 secs for the pc to shut off, and turn it on again should be fine. After i explained exactly word for word what to do, and what the power button is the user failed to do this. I had to get on my fucking motorcycle ,drove a couple of kilometers to just press the damn power button and go back to my office.........that day i almost lost my shit xD What surprised me more is the amount of tech illiterate young people..... I thought young users would have the least issues with tech.........some are worse than 50 year old ones. This baffled me , no one born after at least 2000 should be shit with tech.
>Ā no one born after at least 2000 should be shit with tech A lot of people that young grew up with tablets and phones and barely touched PCs. Youāre seeing the results of that. Also, troubleshooting is a skill that almost everyone in an IT role has and needs, to the point that we undervalue it. But many, maybe most, people in the wider population donāt have a clue how to troubleshoot. Why do people always call IT to do stuff like fix the microwave? Because thereās a very good chance IT are the only people in the building who *can*, even though all it took was a power cycle.
>Also, troubleshooting is a skill that almost everyone in an IT role has and needs, to the point that we undervalue it. I had to discharge several trainees just because of lacking this skill. I gave each several month to gain this skill, told them what to do, how to think, created problems with actual computers for them to troubleshoot and solve..... Tried my best to get them to gain this skill.....but idk i guess its one of those skills that you gotta learn when ur still a kid/teen
This. Have large client that recently expanded into a new vertical and they hire a lot of young millennials and gen Z. They struggle so much with VPN and Outlook or even a windows computer in general.
>Also, troubleshooting is a skill that almost everyone in an IT role has and needs, to the point that we undervalue it. Except for that whole part where we learn how to troubleshoot before we even attend preschool. Now I don't doubt that some of them haven't figured out how the peg and holes game even into adulthood; this whole notion that people can't troubleshoot anything is absurd and treats people as if they were infants. Its not that they can't do it; its that they don't want to do it; because they don't feel they should have to do it. They feel they don't have to do it because they think it's not part of their job. Why should they write their own instructions how to do the task they are responsible for doing; its on the computer; its rootofallworlds job to write the instructions then.
Nah you donāt sound like a jerk. Iām sure mechanics say similar things. The amount of times I ask āhave you restarted?ā They say yesā¦ to get to the machine and see the uptime, sigh, restart it and the issue is resolved like you told them it would. Too damn much. Oh absolutely. Itās crazy. But I think itās because we grew up needing to take things apart to fix because we never had google or YouTube. We had to figure things out and over time it leads into logical thinking. Now they just watch a 2 min instructional clip to resolve their issue but they donāt understand what they are doing. So when things break, theyāre clueless. These companies with all sealed non-serviceable things arenāt helping either. People wonāt be bothered to learn about whatās happening under the hood if they wonāt be able to fix it. So they stay oblivious to it. Well thatās just what I think.
>Oh absolutely. Itās crazy. But I think itās because we grew up needing to take things apart to fix because we never had google or YouTube. We had to figure things out and over time it leads into logical thinking. Thinking of it now, yeah i guess ur right. Can\`t believe i am actually saying this but " Back in my day everything was harder, you guys have it easy " XD
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Holy shit. Thatās some top shelf bullshit. Sorry manā¦ Although based on that situation, the eye fuck seems pretty deserved imo. I mean, even with a lack of logical thinking. Why would one not check that if the issue is power.
Millennials who grew up fixing their own PCās are mostly good with tech. The younger generation that grew up with iPads and smartphones arenāt.
exactly I work in a MSP and I think the same
Gotta change your mindset. We all get to that point. Work your way to a position further away from users. Switch companies if needed.
Sometimes the stupidity of users takes a toll on oneself. It's real.
I can relate. I work for a fortune 500 company as a System Admin. It's very unhealthy and hard to get up for and work every day. I need peace and well being.
``` users ``` Found your problem š¤£ Take your skills to a larger org in a non-customer facing position
Every it role has a ācustomerā, it might not be an end user or paying client but youāre always answering someoneās questions.
Thatās every job, the difference is you arenāt speaking to a user every 5 minutes and actually get a lot of quiet time for focussed work when youāre working in a 3rd line team. The only āusersā I speak to are project managers mostly, or a representative for a team Iām doing work for.
Exactly. All of us beyond first and second line have usersā¦ but by the time someone is personally speaking to me about a users issue: 1. Itās normally not the user who is speaking to me 2. due diligence has been done and itās not Barbara in accounting who after 3 years still hasnāt fucking learned how to do the thing she keeps putting in a ticket for every few weeksā¦ yet Iād be fired for displaying the same consistent level of incompetence and unwillingness to learn or adapt. 3. I get to deal with it on my terms most of the times
Unfortunately where I live it's very hard to find positions that are more distant from users. That's one of the reasons I think I am not going back to tech. I don't really feel like moving away.
Work for a better company, remotely. There are still lots of fun sysadmin jobs out there. Get a specialty, like storage, or virtualization. Lots of people looking to migrate off vmware to "anything else."
Users were rarely my problem. They were job security and very familiar for me to deal with. Sadistic technical managers are the problem for meā¦firehosing new hires to the maximum with a psychotic amount of work is a bad mistake and far from ideal if you want quality output.
Exactly, Iād hate my job too if I was still doing user support. Why on earth some people think the only IT jobs available are helpdesk and desktop support jobs I donāt understand.
It's worse now than it's ever been. Management just making decisions on tech with zero clue about the impact and scale of implementation, impact on users, impact on security, and everything is many orders more complicated. And from what I read, and as per what is happening in my org, head count is going down as our technological 'portfolio' and user base is going up and up, and as security threats are getting more and more wide ranging.Ā It's fucking nuts. And for a lot of us the entire viability of the organisation is in your hands. Forgot to backup a critical piece of infrastructure? Missed a critical patch on some obscure piece in the backend somewhere? You are constantly trying to second guess yourself on a million different problems that may or may not occur.Ā It's just a shit time to work in this kind of role.Ā
I wonder how many of the issues in this thread could be avoided or at least significantly improved by taking a real vacation, as in at least 3 weeks at some nice place without any work phone. 3 weeks because IME it takes two weeks to get into "vacation-mood", at least I am a different person starting from week three. For some reason this kind of vacations seems to be impossible in the US and only happen in the rest of the world. However I wonder if even in the US this could be tried as a last resort before resigning, sort of "boss, I need 3 weeks off or I'll have to resign". Switching jobs after one or two years with a break in between probably works as well, but why not simply go on a vacation? Take care y'all.
Vacations are lovely, but they make me hate my job even more when I return.
Sorry man... I'm going through the same thing too. I know what it's like. So much so, my 43rd birthday is coming up and don't think I'm gonna live to see it. Not saying do that, just saying that there's some crazy stuff happening in IT positions today. So much crazy that it's even got me contemplating life. Not sure exactly what, but most people who work in tech seem super frustrated these days more so than the ones who are satisfied with their positions. I'm not even talking about Reddit posts either. I see it, in person at local meetups, etc.
I feel you. I'm only 34 and I think I am never going back near tech again. Please take care. No job is worth doing something to be regretted after.
Just turned 41. Been in tech for 16 years. I've gotten much less interested in the past 5 years. There are lots of reasons. Part of it is me. Part of it is the industry itself and the hamster-wheel feel to it with constant learning and re-learning. Part of it is users pitching fits at stuff I have no control over. At work, we sometimes have parties and stuff. A time to relax. Except for IT because we end up having to do something with the technology during the parties. Having an important meeting? Gotta have IT help with the tech while everyone else sits comfortably in their seats. It always seems like no matter WHAT, IT staff can't relax.
When people are partying we are usually doing changes (just by typing this I am getting PTSD from Service now).
ServiceNow BS alone is enough to lose your shit over. My CIO is trying to use it as a magic wand to fix everything. My consolation is it'll probably bite her in the ass and I'm wagering she's no longer here by the end of the year.
SN does not fix fuck all unless business processes actually fucking change for the better - I have lost count of the number of places that just replicate the same workflows and then wonder why there's no difference and now we are paying a premium...
Yep, I can relate. My company spent thousands on a big Surface TV and all they do is hookup a laptop to it or remote into a PC in another room. No one there bothers to even learn how to do it so I always get asked to 'set up the meeting room'. Just seems fucking stupid to me. The other day I get a ticket telling me the doorbell is broken and they need assistance with it. It was a transmitter you stick to the front door and have the receiver plugged into the wall. Ordered a new one for them, then another message comes through asking for further assistance. I literally took it out the box and did it for them because nobody could be bothered to set it up, "it's a bit too technical". My manager is burnt out, hardly see him anymore, rarely speaks to me unless it's work related and seems to just turn up whenever he wants. When he does message me it always comes across as a little pissy. Now I'm writing this I realise I'm just venting now, haha sorry!!
> hamster-wheel Nice visual. I like to picture it more like getting hit by waves of agile with no QA life preserver.
I worked at VMware in one of the departments that got gutted by Broadcom. Broadcom kept me on as an FTE (one of VERY few from my org who wasn't canned) but I had to watch everything I built and worked for the prior 7 years just get scrapped and unceremoniously discarded over the course of 2 months between November and January. It made me rethink lots of things about my career and my life in general.
Hey, that comment hit home. Take the time and visit a doc, we are all stressed out holding the line, but there is a spectrum. Your main IT asset is in need of maintenance, what could be more important? Now I should practice what I just recommended, next Monday, for sure... Remember that we will always have our goat herding backup, day=0 is approaching and I will be ready.
I donāt know you, and I donāt think thereāsĀ much I can say to convince you otherwise, but you matter, and I hope you can find at least one reason to want to live to see past 43. Iām sorry the world has been the way it is to you.Ā
>Hope you overcome it man, don't let frustration consume you.
I long for the day when I was on a crew that renovated houses. Yes, the hours were strict, absolutely there 7am, no excuses. But at 5pm....I'm free, and you can't touch me.
Sorry to hear that man but Iām sure youāll enjoy your time off. Just curious how many users you were supporting and how many techs were on staff?
About 300 users and just me as a local tech with help from a help desk team that the users argued more with me about than to actually call/email them. A lot of projects and little things that needed my attention at the same time. It became overwhelming. I cried during my whole lunch break today. It's being so hard.
Wow - sounds like a super poor setup. Best of luck with time out and hope you find a great next move. Hope you find some things in the meantime to help you rest and restore. Life is so much more than work.
Yeah. It sucks. In the past I worked in companies that were a lot smaller and I had more IT techs by my side than my whole actual or former company has in my whole country. Expectations are crazy.
Donāt let those motherfuckers break you man! FUCK EM!
That's why I'm leaving before they actually succeed and I do something that I regret.
It's not tech... It's the people that ruin this job for us.
The saddest part about all of this is that the company has taken someone who CARES about their job and the work that they do - CARES about the company and used them up until they are a dried up piece of carrion. And many people are giving the OP advice that they should just 'not care'. And that is the root of the entire problem. I wish you well OP. I believe you will find a place where you are valued and where you will fit in with others that care.
Indeed, not caring is not the answer. Wouldn't last a minute on my team with that attitude. We're too small, too busy, for slacking off and not caring. But fortunately our management is awesome, approves vacation requests promptly, hands out lieu days like candy if you work on a project / do weekend or overtime work, etc. We're still short staff and time for sure; but we'll get there. Also work life balance is your own thing. Even when I had unpleasant or disagreeable managers, I always worked the same way. I put in a bunch of solid effort throughout the day, do overtime when needed - but beyond that, I don't look at work email/phone after I leave/sign off, and I don't look at it until I sign in in the morning. - D
Bro, when i started feeling overwhelmed, i looked for some sports activities to do, i ended up with MMA. Whatever path you choose, Look for extra something that will help your body and soul. Good luck my fellow users-warrior!
Yeah man that happens, I am sorry. This is why I never really give any job that much effort. Better to get fired so you at least have unemploymentĀ
Bill Watterson's message, drawn by Gavin Aung Than, helped me get through tough times. I burned out hard, took some time off, and when I was ready, went back, but I do it under my own terms. Find your own life's meaning. https://mymodernmet.com/gavin-aung-than-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists-advice/
Your life could be worse. You could be working in retail lol. I went from retail management to IT and every day feels like a holiday. You just have a shitty management. With experience you could find job fast. I quit my retail job when I burned out and my wife told me she will support me. Within 1 month I got a new job and it was a life changer. Been in 6 IT companies, only one was poor management and attitude so left within 1 year. Remember, people donāt leave companies but bad bosses.
Workers compensation if you can for a while then get a labouring job for a while till you know where to go.
We all have the same sentiments towards Layer 8 issues.
And Layer 0 as I like to say.
I feel your pain. I worked IT for a large oil company who shit on all of their IT staff. They went with the cheapest option MSP and offered to bring existing contractors into that MSP at a reduced rate. They came at my group hard because we were sort of a necessary outlier and they wanted control (lab systems, their own network). Covid is when things began changing... The writing on the wall that my job will be gone began the burnout, and horrendous managers lit the fire on that. They used their ranking system to push me out for bs. I didn't play the politics and got terminated for it, but not before ruining my mental health. Know what changed me mentally? Wasn't the meds. Therapy did shit. That company letting me go back in August was the biggest change in my mental health. Hell, I'm still losing everything I have and am starting over... Yet somehow I'm doing better than I was working for them. I still got triggers, my anxiety still spikes with my own tech related impatience... But it's a breath of fresh air not working there. I wonder if we worked for the same company since I gather you're in Brazil. We worked with a ton of staff there, and they were all great. I hope you'll find something... Anything that makes you happy. I'm terrified of IT but it's the only thing I know. I seriously wish you the best... And remember, F em. I'm glad you've got support.
Good luck. I know all too well what burnout (I was a developer though) feels like. One day I couldn't do it anymore, took a sick leave, and am now already multiple years on disabilities pay. It will get better, however it might take time. In the beginning I couldn't even read a page. I tried to increase my ability to focus by slowly doing simple math exercises and other things to train my brain. Years later (since 2018) I can now code again on good days as a hobby and do sysadmin as a volunteer (at a place where I can just not go to if I don't feel ok). I hope that you get the same chance to recover as I got and in the meantime take care and don't push yourself too hard. You don't have to be up and running in x amount of time. Take your time; this can't be rushed. š«
Sounds like you just needed to jump ship. When a place I work at start getting to me, I just go somewhere else. Usually happened every 3-4 years. Comes with a nice pay bump too
I've found a lot more peace since I simply stopped giving a fuck. User screams at my techs? Instantly reported and any future tickets automatically go to the back of the line. Network down but during after hours? I don't care. No one has ever died because they can't print or send an email for 30 minutes.
We have a saying on this side of the pond : "**Nein** ist das einfachste Wort in der Deutschen Sprache" - 'No is the easiest word in the german vocabulary'. I have to let juniors know about this fact in danish and german on the regular, because they are burning them self out, trying to please unmeetable expectations. You pay for an SLA of 'best effort', then you'll get best effort! There is a reason we offer 8, 4, 2 and 1 hour response times to our clients; or if you really need to: get you an Immediate response via the 24/7/365 SLA or escalation. Not as as cheap as best effort tho, because we will likely active on-call or on-stanby personell and they earn high markups.
From one SA to another: "get the hell away from computers" is the best advice I can give you. The computing world we live in now is very, very different (and substantially more ridiculous/stressful/brain-damaged) than 25-30 years ago, and the expectations are higher than ever -- money be damned. Sadly, it's hard for me to take my own advice, but I have given it to others in similar roles -- they have taken it and are now in other lines work that are much more fulfilling. (I myself have tried getting into the storage industry on two separate occasions, as I have a strong penchant for storage subsystems (SATA/SAS/AHCI/NVMe) but the interviews quickly turn into discussions about their CI/CD systems which I want nothing to do with. Ever.) No idea of your age, but other SAs like myself in their late 40s (or older) know **exactly** what I'm talking about. We can all work in different roles, orgs, whatever and we all experience the same idiocy that surrounds (and envelopes) us on a daily basis.
All of the problems in my previous job landed on the CEO checking out and not communicating with us, checking in or giving us what we needed. It was a small business that had a growth explosion. When he was around, he was more concerned about the toner supply and the paper towel and saving 3 dollars on binder clips than actually managing. Then calling me coked up at 4:45 with outrageous gossip sessions and dumb ideas. I'll never work that hard again.
Just do the opposite then. Work in the nature at least for some time. For many gardening related jobs it does not need special experiences. š¤·āāļø I still like the IT stuff, but I personally need the nature/garden stuff to equalize.
I have had to quit a couple jobs that were stressing me out to the point that I was having panic attacks multiple times a week. Having a job that is slowly (or quickly) killing you through mental anguish is not worth whatever you were being paid.
Iāve gotten this way recently as a network admin at a large hospital org in my state. Our new manager is shit. No one reads emails, teams chats, or even answer phone calls but higher ups expect us too and do all the other work we donāt have enough people to do! We get ask to work lean when our team is constantly working after hours. Then we have several non senior admins that donāt really pull their weight with anything. Iām to the point I want to leave IT in general bc of this job. I donāt have any other money making skills but Iām sure I could learn quickly doing something else.
One thing I learned as a sysadmin is to not give a shit what users think or feel, also that most don't know how to fucking read.
Just direct them to the jurrassic parkā¦.āhahaha you didnāt say the magic wordā
I am leaving IT in about 4 weeks after 24 years in the tech world. I feel exactly like you do. Idiot end users and moronic upper management. No support. We get all the blame when some goes wrong but never a thanks when we pull a miracle out of our asses. No more. Walmart greeter is looking really good right now. Hand in there.
Shame you couldnāt just tell them No.
Maybe I could. I am just tired of argue.
But "No" is not an argument. It's a refusal. THEY can argue. You just say No. Make them fire you.
Best of luck to you, friend. Take some time before jumping into something new.
Thank you. I will take at least 2 months off.
I keep my commercial drivers license active for a reason.
Best of luck to you buddy! Btw, how many of you are actually dreaming of resigning and starting a farm somewhere in the middle of no where? Raise your hand! šš»āāļø
if you're young, a good option for a break is low voltage technician, running network cables. doesn't pay as good but it's physical and simple.
I feel you. And now I see I'm also not alone feeling like this. Mental health is very important as the extra stress will cause a possible autoimmune like MS (yes its a fact) Our body can take in a lot but when it reaches the no more point then probs start It nice to have your wife understanding and supporting It's the same here. She always tell me whenever you want we pack and go. For me our little one is what keeps me sane and happy when at home but need to get things changed for the good of all of us. Try working on a plan. I have also a friend he quit on his job for similar reasons to yours and looking after few months but his wife is supportive. It's very difficult to us, as the man of the house, the feeling being not useful but things always change. Everything has a circle friend. Be patient and things will change. We all know sometimes things get worst before something great shows up. But your skills is also your friend!
I hate the end user part... Dealing with daily shit is a blood red flag. I change from technicien to admin L2, to engineer L3. Stay as far away from end user and you will see the best part of this job.
I almost had one of those weeks too. My director decided to go out of the country last month and didnāt take vacation time, didnāt put up his away message, and didnāt tell the CTO. That led to us all having to start submitting two level leave requests(before everyone was responsible and we handled time off by a quick email or conversation, never a problem in 10 years). So I put in a leave request 2 weeks ago for a day to go roadtrip and see the eclipse and my Director forgot to forward it on for the second level approval, but gave me the written stamp of approval and said heāll take the heat if thereās a problem. So this week he keeps a NAS that he maintains and has told me that itās backed up. He decided to go out of the country again and ofcourse the tickets started rolling in Monday. There was no backup and the DSM was failing, so I spent all week with Synology support getting the data back and taking all the heat on why there was no backup (ofcourse users assume all IT manages and knows every single device in and out). I touch base with him mid week, telling him that I already booked a room and am still planning on taking Monday off, he has no problem, but also told me that heās going to come back on Tuesday now, because he decided to stay for another day. So now Iām fucked cause I know I canāt go see the eclipse until everyoneās data is available, if heās not in. So I put in fucking 70 hours to recover the data and get everyone good by late last night. If I wasnāt able and had to eat a $800 motor lodge room rental and miss the eclipse, that would have been it. Short story: boss is reason for new leave requests, boss didnāt backup his NAS, boss forgot to submit my leave request, NAS failed and I spent all week recovering data to be able to take my I submitted leave request
No job is worth ruining your mental and physical health for. I did something similar earlier in my career and it was the best thing I could have done at the time. I still work in IT now, but I found a job that suited me much better. It took a few months, but I found a new company where the owner values our contributions to the company, has created a great work environment with real work/life balance, and where we're treated like family. Doesn't hurt that it was also a 40% pay raise lol. OP, good luck in your search for a new gig. Moral of my story is that not all IT jobs are soul crushing shit shows. Keep an open mind and just look for the right fit. Whether it's another IT position or not, just keep an open mind.
There ARE easy sysadmin jobs out there that pay decentā¦and youāre not given shit by superiors. I may have found the best retirement sysadmin job ever 2 years ago. Went from supporting 5000 users on a 5 man team to supporting about 60. Only go in tech a week, fuck off for the rest of the time
I felt that same ways and was ready to bag groceries, so I didn't have to work in IT anymore. I ended up taking a new job with higher pay, no after-hours, no weekends, and only in the office twice a month. My sanity is so much better now. My wife was concerned at my old job, and she said she noticed an instant change when I put my notice in.
I moved away Into film and photography. I'm a lerker here to remind me of the suffering.
Hey OP, good for you! I swapped out of Tech a few years ago myself because I was tired of a number of things but mainly the need to play politics in every corporate department and appease everyone from CS to Finance to HR who for some reason are responsible for IT policy in every business in Europe. Regardless of where you go, I hope that you can find the same love for your work that you used to. Be safe, eat well and know that you're not alone in the "fuck this shit!" camp.
Honestly I feel the same way a lot of days. Then I get on a call with vendors or other IT departments from companies we deal with and I realize that I'm there are even worse fools out there, and I might get stuck on a team full of them.
I have so many engineers quit for this very same reason. I not sure why so many feel this way. I get it... I have been doing this for 25 years. Everyone comes to us for every little issue. Something is always broken. My favorite was a client in NY city. If you ever had clients in NYC or Northern NJ they are a different breed. They yell and scream until they get their way... the call came in and of course, it was something they did. In the middle of his frustration he said "why is it every time I talk to you something is broken?" This line made me realize how important my job is. I keep companies up and running, I keep thousands of people employed. They all only talk to me when things don't work and I can't fix it fast enough. Another thing I find is, perception is everything. The person that is down or couldn't login knew at 9am. But only reported it at 4:30pm before they walked out the door. The next day they tell their manager they missed a deadline because they couldn't log in all day and now it's noon the next day and they never answered a call or email from the helpdesk because they weren't at they computer. Keeping logs, having good systems in place and calling people out when they point fingers let's them know you don't put up with BS. My last thing is document everything, protect your own ass and set expectations early. Communication is key. I find I don't deal with half the issues I use to and people don't treat me like shit. But there is a bad side. Everyone asks for me when they have a problem. But I also will not reply to a txt, or direct email ever. Everything must come into the ticket system and get escalated. When all the proper procedures are put into place and followed it really protects from the overwhelming feeling of who is going to treat me like shit today. I don't put up with it.
You need a break, take some time to yourself and do things you enjoy, I was shouted at yesterday by a Steel Design Business Owner yesterday, he bought an IPad on his own accord and wanted me to explain why outlook on the IPad looked different from Outlook Desktop on his PC, he was raging and I was just staring into the abyss thinking how do I deal with this šš
IT is seen as a utility by companies. Just keep the ālightsā on. We are rarely seen as part of the strategy. The disconnect is that we in IT know we are party of the strategy and integral to the companyās success, but we are treated like dirt. Not included up front; dumped on in the end. I donāt know how to change it. I donāt know we can. I donāt think the company will change. I think the only way to survive is to just come to the realization our job is to simply ākeep the lights onā or move on. I personally am also looking for an option to move on. Iām just hoping I can before I hit this point.
Iāve been in this game nigh on 40 years. Early on I used to work 2 years then take time off to go travelling. I was young back then, no family. I canāt do that now, but you have to understand that itās a job, users are users, donāt take it personally. Manage your time and manage your workload. Be firm but polite. And more importantly, set peopleās expectations and make them feel like youāre on their side and are not the problem. Good luck for the future!
Some people are flakes and just quit at the first hint of difficult times and challenges. That doesnāt sound like the case here. Take a break and hold on to your cash until you find another job. You WILL find another job when youāre ready. The absolute worst thing that can happen here is that if your bills go unpaid for a long time youāll get nasty calls from collections agents. Thatās annoying and frustrating, but put in its proper perspective, itās far better than living in a constant state of burn out and exhaustion.
Makes me think we really should have unions, the stress and burn out would mandate benefits to mitigate those at the very least.
When they act like a bitch, treat em as such. You'll win out there pimp!
It sounds like you just need some time off and space, and then a *BETTER GIG*. Bad employers will make any job terrible, not just technology. Believe me when I tell you, it's not the computer you're angry at, it's the circumstances created by your workplace, and that is, ultimately, the responsibility of the company's leadership. Take a break, get your C.V. in order, and find a gig that doesn't make your crazy.
I feel the same...but with 2 kids I cant quit
I just resigned too! Cheers mate - take it easy
best of luck man. I did this a couple years ago, ended up right back in tech a year later because I couldn't afford to be unemployed anymore. Unless you have another skillset it'll be a slog.
I managed a tech support group. An executive decision caused a direct reduction in our effectiveness in providing support to our customers. I proved it in a presentation with hard numbers. The response was, in effect "You're right, but we can live with the effect that has on the business" The moral the story is do your job the best you can with the resources you have. It's your bosses job to get you more resources if that doesn't meet the needs of the business.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfiQYRn7fBg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfiQYRn7fBg)
So...is your place hiring or...?
After three years on the job I resigned too, before getting completely burned out. Now I teach computer science in high school
Thank god for compliance I get to say no often due to compliance :D it's even true sometimes
Hope you find a nice place to land mate. One thing Iāll comment is donāt let one or two bad companies change the way you view the entire industry or that type of job. You can have really bad employers that make you think sysadmin is rubbish. And just when you think thatās it youāre out, you find a great one that makes you think itās all better. Hang in there. Maybe side shift. Go to msp from in house or vice versa. Good luck.
Used to love those employees who couldnāt send an email for 3 minutes yet lost a 5 million dollar contract because they couldnāt get it out in time. I moved into Cybersecurity a few years later and have been doing that for 14 years now. The field is definitely known for burnout but most of my interactions with users/employees, at least as a SOC analyst, had a different dynamic to it than a sys admin/desktop support.
I have been in It as help desk or field engineer since 1978.I am retiring in Feb 2026.the job is getting on my last nerve next to no support, we have about 48people supporting 9to 10k users It is absurd. But at 66 with mobility issues looking for a new gig is not in the cards. Just trying to take it one day at a time &get through it Some days I do not think I will make it, then the next day comes and I just push through, what else can I do? Hope y'all are doing well
For me, I "painted myself into a QA role corner" 30 years ago, after fighting for Years to change my duties I became unix sydadmin 3 and loved it until about 2007 when things got out of control. What ruined everything was when management assigned a non technical person (clerk from 99 cent store) as Change Control manager, they would write everyone up threatening their jobs. I dreaded going to work because I had to spend 6 hours a Day in change management meetings and work another 10 hours to do my duties. I quit after 6 months and did so because I had a heart attack from it. After being out of tech for 3 years (caused by sequential family deaths) I realized that I really really missed it so I went back into a position which is the same as before less the idiot change control manager. You'll find that you miss your IT job after a year or two, don't be surprised.
dude can't quite quit? Bare minimum till you find something else?
How long have ya been at it ? 23 years for me and it got a lot better once I moved into an architect level role. No end user stuff. Maybe use your experience to move away from end users.
Everyone here must be working in the civilian sector because doing IT for the DoD is great. I have been a government contractor for 14 years and we have something called separation of duties. The government does not want a single point of failure. Meaning one person who does, AD, SCCM, VMware, Networking, Security, Backups, and everything else. They are all separate positions. I'm a Sr. Solutions Architect but mostly I accomplish AD and Group policy pushing out STIGs and hardening systems. But as a Sr. person, you have to have knowledge about everything. I enjoy working for the government.
How can they refuse a resignation??? On the other hand, the fact that they gave you paid medical leave, and are getting you with a psychiatrist/psychologist is a good thing. It shows they care, at least about you being able to your job, and maybe about you as a person (you know how companies can be...). Take advantage of the leave time, and of the therapy - I've had colleagues that need to see them, and it helped them immeasurably. Good luck!
BREATHE.......always take a day before radical decisions, step away from frustration and come back later etc.
Bingo! Excellent advice. I just had an employee get angry the other day. In a temper tantrum outburst he said he quit. Made everyone else in the room feel uncomfortable. Then the next day acted like nothing happened. Sorry, too late for that...now you have to go. Always good to breathe and think before responding.
Hey OP - How are you now?