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One Terrible Job: IT Manager
editingwhiz writes "I suppose we've always suspected this to be true, but IT Manager's Journal reports that a recent email survey by the authors of a new book called 'Crap Jobs' says that IT managers have the U.K's third-worst job -- ranking just below phone sex operator (No. 1) and ferry cabin cleaner (No. 2). Hmmm. Do you agree?" (ITMJ, like Slashdot, is part of OSTG.) Maybe it's better in the U.S.?
Theme designer for the IT section of /.
Ugh...horrible...
I've had much shittier jobs than when I was an IT manager. Of course, I did quit that job.
I suppose the guy that wipes fecal matter off the walls in insane asylums ranks in at number 4...
So, careers involving handling sewage, manure or garbage are actually BETTER than being an IT manager?
One reason that I'm not in IT is beause of the people. People who whine over an IT management job. Are you kidding me?
1. They get paid a LOT more than minimum wage.
2. They usually get to work in a climate controlled office.
3. They usually get to sit down.
4. They generally don't have to punch a time clock.
These few things here make ANY IT job better than about 90% of the jobs on the planet. Quit whining and repeat after me, "I am not entitled to any particular kind of job."
I don't respond to AC's.
The respect of your coworkers is a big factor in how good your IT job is. I'm sure all IT workers (or former IT workers like me) would agree that the actual types of hardware or difficulty of the work isn't the biggest issue. As an integral part of the organization, sometimes IT workers don't get treated as well as they should.
(I had it pretty good... Only one or two people I didn't enjoy.)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
There ARE worse jobs out there. IT people just have more time to bitch about it. ;)
This tagline brought to you by 1500 monkeys in just under 17 years.
I don't know about the UK, but I am an IT Manager here in the states, and I couldn't agree more. I don't make much more than your typical blue-collar worker (please, no offense meant to anyone - I was blue collar up until about 6 years ago), yet I have to deal with phone calls at night, on the weekends, and when I am on vacation. I cannot get away from my job. Not to mention, there are plenty of people that work for me that can solve 99% of the problems that come across my desk, yet *I* am the one on everyone's speed dial. And if I find the mother-f***er that gave the entire company my cell phone #, they are dead!!
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
I heard a guy on the radio once who's job was to clean the cages of monkeys used in virus research. Get all the shit-flinging benefits of the insane asylum plus the chance of getting some rare, highly lethal disease. All this can be yours for $9.70/hr.
Is something going on?
If something were going on, /. wouldn't be mining the sister sites for "news" like this.
This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
IT managers get very little sympathy in terms of the basic creature comforts that they get. There's usually a lot of bling involved, and some aura of "respect" that comes with the title.
But the bad side...first and foremost, you're expected to be a miracle worker. Something borks, it's your fault. Nevermind any rhyme or reason why you couldn't have foreseen it coming. It's your fault. Worse yet, they want it fixed yesterday, if not sooner. Forget the impossibility of getting the parts until tomorrow -- it needs to be up and running NOW.
Some of the techs you manage will second-guess you. The rest of the company will second-guess everything you do. If things work, you're not doing your job (after all, there aren't any fires to put out). If things don't work, you're not doing your job because it was your job to keep things running and all that time, you were just sitting there doing nothing.
Some higher-up can't use e-mail? It's your neck on the line. Someone forgot to save their document and some tech you manage says it can't be recovered...so they report this to their superior and next thing you know, some VP wants to know why you're even there.
And those are only if you're a clueful manager. If you're clueless...well, you end up being promoted.
As a former manager in IT, I found that I was being trained to lie. Just like Scotty - Never tell them the truth!
Budget::
Them - cut your budget as much as possible.
New Manager - cuts as required.
Seasoned Manager - cuts Half or Less than what is required.
Them - cut your budget more.
New Manager - cant do that I already did.
Seasoned Manager - cuts Half of Less of what remaines that can be cut.
Them - cut your budget again.
Former new manager - I need a job, My position was cut.
Seasoned Manager - cuts Half or less of what still remains to be cut.
Lesson Learned? Dont cut it all at once.
Time Management::
Them - How much time is required?
New Manager - 2 weeks. (2xactual required)
Seasoned Manager - 2 months. (8x actual required
Them - We need it in half that time.
New Manager - Ends up working nights and weekends but demands cut in requirements.
Seasoned Manager - Resigns to half time but demands cut in requirements.
Them - We need these new requirements but it can be done with an additional 1/4 original time.
New Manager - What are you nuts?
Seasoned Manager - We can do it but it will be a miracle.
Them - Congratulations project is complete on schedule.
New Manager - standard pay check. Was done in 75% time estimate. (1.5wk)
Seasoned Manager - BONUS. completed in record time. (75% time estimate =6wk)
Lesson - lie about time to complete.
was my first job: cleaning out the incinerator at an animal disease laboratory...sometimes they shut off the gas before the rabid dog carcasses were completely burnt. After that, even my job as an operator at the student services counter for my university's computer center seemed like a real move up in the world. How many days a week can you constantly deal with the software problems of people who should never have been given anything more complicated than a bottle of beer and still think you have a great job?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Oh there's tons of others, but I'm lazy, perhaps if I'm bored I'll come back later and document them all.
One of the biggest mistake that IT manager make is to assume that their job is 100% technical. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Their job is to ensure that their users are adequately cared for (training, hand holding etc) and perform their business can funtion. As IT managers tend to be more tuned into technology than people, they will find it especially difficult dealing with people. Stop the whining (your linux box is not going to crash if you're not at the kb 24x7) and get talking to people/users/luser etc.
My advice - go out into the world of hourly wage/no benefits/first time you are late you are fired...and then come back and tell me if IT is so bad.
The cycle that the job requires as far as time input can also be stressful at times. One week you replace a couple monitors and make a printer recommendation and the next week 100 new computers show up that need imaged and deployed in a short period of time.
All in all though, if I had to choose I would keep my current job over a lot of other jobs out there. I have time to work on training, work with a pretty nice team and have a somewhat flexible work schedule.
Anyway, IT Managers don't have the worst IT jobs as far as I'm concerned. Try any kind of phone tech support and you would beg for an IT Manager position. I used to do phone support and I wouldn't go back to that unless I had no other choice.
Nah they're just better whiners. :-)
My Weblog
Yeah.. as a server jockey it ain't fun.. but then I look at my manager.. making decent money.. having to put up with demanding executives with unrealistic time frames and demands... I can understand why he is disinterested in my career.. my needs.. he's resigned to just doing his job.. getting the freaking work done any way possible.
I understand this now after 3 or 4 years of wondering why no one listens... it's cause and effect.. someone somewhere is here for a little time and wants their piece of the world to shine.. enter the shining monkey (the manager) and his shining monkey team (the IT folks).
Don't delude yourself that another job would be any different. What it comes down to is that jobs in North America suck when it comes to considering quality of life. Other countries have it better in personal respects.. but wealth is less of a concern there. Which makes you wonder why more billionaires than ever are coming out of North America... someone has it right!
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
The results are a BOFH trick. You see, it is in the interests of U.K. IT managers to make everyone believe no one is interested in their jobs.
By keeping up this illusion, their vast network of power and influence can be maintained and competition can be eliminated.
M
The last place I worked the president of the company came steaming down the hall and started screaming...I mean red-faced screaming...at the poor lady at the IT desk. In an exhibition of pure gonads, she calmly took his laptop and dumped it in her trash can. I was fully prepared to quit before I would fire her but he never said another word about it.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
None of the turn-key solution providers were local. To make matters worse, one management team member had heard that a potential competitor had a solution in place that was almost one-third of what I was suggesting. It was an impossible job to convince these people that the cash I was suggesting to be spent would be worthwhile.
I resisted what they were offering, but coded a report generator for them in access after which I resigned the job, telling my manager that my office environment had deteriorated so much to the point that it had become a "pioson" to ambitions of a young man like me.
Whenever viruses were lurking arround the web, I could hardly sleep - fearing that I would find chaos at the office. I could have got a heart attack!
In my expereince, clueleass managers, often owners or representatives of the owners are a very big pain. All they are interested in is the bottom line. The IT manager's job is not easy depending on the environment.
I do not believe that it is the third worst job as the report seems to suggest. There are nurses who MUST be prepared for death every day. In my present job as a day-trader, Linux is not supported, so I am still stuck with Windows, adding to my previously accumulated "stress".
No of course I don't agree with this article, I love my job.
BTW, did I ever tell you that one of my coworkers (who I don't get along with) audits the logs of all employee posts to websites?
Michael, is that you?
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
;i believe this chap has a far worse job than any listed here... but you be the judge. er, moderator.
;treehead
"If any part Linux was stolen, then Windows was the biggest heist in history."
In the case of my organization, the worst part of my boss' job is that IT is one of the few parts of the business upper management doesn't understand.
Our president is qualified to perform maybe 80% of all the jobs in the company, but none of the jobs in IT. He can micromanage most other departments, but with IT he just has to (1) trust and (2) pay.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Holy crap people, has anyone ever been a dishwasher before? That's a crappy job if i've ever had one.
Minimum wage, and slave work. The last 2 dishwashing jobs i've had i lost half my fingerprints and went nearly crazy from being isolated 8 hours a day by the roar of the machine.
Once i had to clean out a fridge that had been on and broken for at least a week. 3 huge turkeys had expanded and escaped from their packaging, leaking blood and oily skin all over. And then there was the fish. I vomited. The mask helped some but sometimes it would come around the seal on my face and the stench would come through.
And you have to do whatever the surly chef tells you to.
This survey backs the general view in both the UK and US that *certain* IT professionals are self pitying loners without much appreciation or knowledge of how the rest of the world works, or lives. The survey in this case can be considered a pulse of the disatisfaction these malcontents have with there personal life, and in order to avoid taking responsibility reflect that unhappiness by resenting their job and various authority figures. Most of these guys (and they are mostly guys) voluntarily put in more time than is asked of them, even counting time surfing the web or playing quake as time that they were "forced" to work. They remember the one 80 hour week as their weekly average work week. Compared to many other jobs; IT management positions are well paid, safe, clean, have regular hours, vacation, (health insurance in the US), and on average is more secure against layoff. Not perfectly so, but very much on the better end of the scale. We've all seen this phenom. The good news is that as this type of job become more of a commodity - through better tools and spread of knowledge - the people in these positions will largely be chosen, among other things, their attitude. So I expect job satisfaction will self regulate to a certain degree.
IMO, the worst aspect of IT is the baseless politics. Everywhere are factions of people who think their tools are the best or that the latest fad is perfect for the new long-term project. No one seems to understand why all their fancy layers of abstraction are actually detrimental to resolving problems (J2EE enterprise beans for a teeny weeny website?). Oh, and we must use CVS for commercial software development...oops, now where did that symbolic link go...oh, now the high lords of software fashion will allow us to use Subversion...version 1.0...oh yippee just kill me now. God forbid we pay for VC after spending $150K for an enterprise web server.
And to have to try to manage all of this... No wonder I left.
-- "Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!" - Moe Szyslak
Try working a job like construction, back breaking physical labor, dangerous work enviroment, and you can wake up one day and find out the company went bust and you don't get paid, or the construction industry is slowing down, and theres no work period.
Nice troll, but during two of the last four years of national economic prosperity, I did work construction to pay the bills between sweet IT contracting jobs (short and paid well, but you can't get by with $5k/6mos).
"Backbreaking" work gets far easier after two weeks of it, and you look about a million times better than you ever have in your life (except for the ragged bleeding hands and forearms).
Job security? The entire duration of my "prolonged sebatical", I saw a few dozen newspaper ads per week for skilled carpenters, tileworkers, and just about every construction related job you could think of (not even counting the ones that require guild membership like plumbers and electricians). At the same time, I responded to all (up-to-)three IT jobs posted per week, each of which had several hundred applicant against whom this 10-year firmware engineer got to compete for the honor of maintaining a cheesy corporate webpage.
Pay? Okay, I get paid a little more per hour than I did doing construction, assuming a 40-hour work week. And any IT guy knows how often we put in 40 hour weeks.
Shit. Why the hell did I get back into IT?
actor in Clerks? Nah.
"Have you ever wondered how much the average jizz-mopper makes per hour?"
"The jizz-mopper's job is to clean off the glass after each guy shoots a load. I don't know if you noticed, but cum leaves streaks if you don't clean it right away."
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
Well it was part of my job description, it paid really well and it was quite easy. The trick is not to be a mopper but rather a high powered hoser.
Just get a presure washer and spray away, then that stuff don't streak.
I just want to know then, where the IT managers that work for a waste collection agencies fall in the grand scheme of things...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I used to have 200K salary, 10 people under me and 2 mil / year budget. But I also had my ass chewed every day, blood pressure, divorce and lots of extra weight.
I found courage to quit and went back to coding. Today I work 40 hours a week, 10 months a year, do what I want and lost 50 pounds.
I always enjoyed it, mostly because senior executives and department heads trust me to have their data safe.
Right now, I'm IT manager for a small artisanal paper mill, which is a really filthy place to work in the first place but the people are extremely nice.
So nice (the manager is delightfully cynical) that I don't mind when the boss asks me to help them make some hand-made paper, which involves putting on big boots, a thick apron (because you stand in a big puddle of water laced with paper pulp) and you pull out from a 500 liter vat of pulp a paper mold that weights about 30 kg, drain it on your shoes, then flip the whole heavy shebang without the slightest tremor or vibration, lest the extremely wet paper sheet falls downm with a really shitty sound (come to think of it, drained pulp must have the same consistency as wet shit - at least, it doesn't smell).
When you're done with a pile of about 40 sheets, you then have to run the pile through the 100 ton press, which has to be applied extremely gently (it takes about 5 minutes to have the press travel about 30 centimeters).
And finally, you take the sheets one by one and hang them to dry.
Two weeks ago today one of the sales force brings in his laptop on a sales meeting day, as previously arranged with me, but instead of giving it directly to me decides to get his mail instead. By the way, did I mention he was bringing it to me to clean the worms and trojans he had picked up from the illegal (in our company) internet connection he decided he had to put on it and use... Yes you guessed it he infected half the machines in the building... All were running McAfee and up to date, but they got it anyway. Once in the network came to a screaming halt with worms, trojans, viruses, spyware, addware, etc...
...so how do the Darwin awards work...
I think I also forgot to mention that particular Monday was day one for month end closing to start... and it also happens to have been year end too.
Those of you who know what the last two weeks were like for me, need no further explanation. Those of you who haven't yet experienced it, well I don't want to scare you. Did I mention yet that I am the only Canadian IT for my company and our 350 or so users... Well let me say that my daughter did the "Daddy, I love you, I thought I had forgotten what you looked like..." speach for me.
Well the best part is that I got hauled into HR last Friday afternoon at 3:45, just as I was about to go out for some lunch (four hours overdue without any breaks since 8 am). The head of HR then informs me that I am scaring the (L)users... the "L" is no longer silent when I think it. Yes you read it right, I am being hauled onto the carpet for scaring the users.
So I ask what is it I am doing that scares them? It turns out that after doing an inventory in the morning of the printing supplies and finding that one of my brain damaged users couldn't read the description on the box, or the labels on the shelf, or event the huge sign that says "If you don't know, ask!" They had opened most of the toner cartridge boxes, pulled the toners out of the bags, and removed the tapes to try them all in their printer... They then tossed the ones that didn't fit back in "a" box and randomly put them on the stock shelf. Before cleaning this up I spent a couple of minutes developing new strings of creative language to explain the origins of the unknown user, and possibly how they deserved to win a Darwin Award. Well I guess I was overheard.
When I get out of the HR office I decided to go home for the weekend... I have had enough and don't want to scare anyone...
So here I sit, tomorrow I return to work after the long weekend, today being Thanksgiving up here, and I am trying to think of how to respond to this unsettling news.
I would appreciate any comments you might suggest...
Last Wednesday (October 6th), after faithfully serving the company I worked at doing software development (on an internally used software package that helped to run the business, no less) for 8 years, I got canned - out of the blue, no warning, no nothing. One minute, I was helping a co-worker with a problem in the software (bugs, gotta love 'em!), when I get a page to go to my supervisors office. I finish up what I am doing...
In my supervisor's office is my supe, and the manager of programming (long to explain, but I *wasn't* on the programming team). This guy is known for wanting new things in the package I was working on, generally difficult (but not impossible) to implement enhancements to make your skin crawl - so my first thought was "now what?". I didn't mind doing these additions; job security, ya know. Little did I know what was coming next...
"cr0sh - we've decided to cancel development on your project, and we won't be needing your services any longer"
GULP
My head was swimming, I was thinking "what am I going to tell my wife?", "how am I going to pay my mortgage", and "WTF - doesn't the past 8 years count for ANYTHING?"...
Apparently not - especially not in a "right-to-work" state. The thing that really galled me is that my supervisor didn't even know, and he is a VP in the company: they went behind and above him to fire me. He had no chance to make a case for me and my project, nor alert me to allow me to make a case for myself and the project. One minute I was working, next minute I am being shown the door (well, actually they were kind and let me pack up my desk - they were also kind enough to cut me a check for the three days I was there along with vacation pay, and some severance pay).
In the end, I am getting the last laugh: By Friday I had another job, and it is looking like by November or so I will be making what I was making there, possibly more. Plus, it is at a smaller company run by an entrepreneur who works hard to succeed in her niche, which involves the methodology of six sigma. Its a good thing to have friends and be able to network!
I quickly landed back on my feet thanks to several friends, my skillset, my resume, and the faith of another small company to take a chance on me. I plan to put everything I have into this new oppourtunity.
To my former employer:
You threw away a very valuable employee. Yeah, on the bottom line the software I developed may have looked like an expense, but I bet it saved you more money over the years than you spent on it. Good luck with whatever you do to the software, but I can guarantee that if you try to move to another system, it won't be half of what you had, and will probably cost twice as much or more to implement!
So, to all of you out there in a similar IT situation bitching about your job: be thankful you have a job - one day, it may not be there, and dinner will be dollar store macaroni and cheese meals.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I have several lawyer friends. They live the death march every day, unless they work for themselves. Those that work for themselves don't make so much money, but they make their own hours. Those that work for law firms DON'T get to see the money they bill for. They work on salary. If they don't put in 70 hour weeks, they'll never make partner, or they'll just be let go sooner or later. None of them have made partner (at which point they'll stop associating with the likes of IT maggots like myself), but once they do they'll be so brainwashed that this behavior will seem normal, and they will perpetrate it on the next generation. Of my 3 lawyer friends, one has already quit to enter law enforcement. He'd rather carry a badge and be shot at than continue the law job.
Manual labourers send their children to school and push them so they can become highly paid respected professionals. Their children feel bound to their highly paid jobs and yearn for a less sedentary lifestyle. Both types of job have their advantages and disadvantages.
Highly paid is only better than low paid if you don't end up spending half your wealth traveling across the city to get to work, and on expensive suites, computer equipment etc., don't end up having a heart attack because you work stupid hours and can't find time to get proper excercise etc. etc.
What you can and can't live with when it comes to work is a very personal thing and looking at someone else's life and wishing it was yours is a stupid morose waste of time.
Life is a tradeoff. People don't pay you for work because it is fulfilling or good for you. You're trading your time and effort for that pay check. If you're in the process of making a choice as to where you're headed spend some time thinking about what you're going to do with 40 years of your life and make sure you can live with it. If you've already made those decisions and aren't happy find a way to change if you can - no one else is going to do it for you. But always realize that no matter what job you have, sometimes it will be WORK.
Whatever you're doing if you truely think its the worst job in the world, go out and find another one (preferably before dumping your current one). Nothing is worth the depression - life's too short, and will only get shorter if you're constantly stressed.
Finally if you can't change what you're doing - either due to circumstance or because you don't have the heart to (because you're making good money or whatever else) find a way to come to terms with that part of your life, and find fulfilment elsewhere.
Oh yeah...and go watch Office Space.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Oh, and now I get to hang out with my sewer and trash collecting friends...
./.
No. Lawyers, like bankers, only *appear* to be working from 9 to 5. Law firms are allowed to demand that their employees work in excess of 100 hours a week without extra pay. There's actually a provision in the labour laws specifically for lawyers and doctors and a few other professions. A little while ago, some numbnuts tried to add IT/programming to that list too but failed. The article was on
What you're thinking of is a private practice, which is much like conslutting for IT guys. Nice work if you can get it.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Unless your a doctor of such. In the UK/EU there is a MAXIMUM working week of 48 hours. If you sign a contract that says you will work more (this is legal) then it's your own bloody problem. I refused to sign the last contract that said this. If necessary (and it sometimes is) I will work more than this (I've worked 100 hour weeks when the need arose) but I WILL NOT SIGN AWAY MY RIGHTS.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
The thing about being a real manager is that you are suppossed to be in control.
I know a lot of supervisor/admin jobs have "Manager" in the title but actually have nothing to do with management - perhaps these are the guys who are whinging?
However as far as real IT managers are concerned. You are in charge, you make the decisions, you manage your bosses expectations. If your workplace is shitty then its your own fault!
Do something about it or leave!
Old COBOL programmers never die. They just code in C.
I've witnessed this phenomenon myself as a neurodiverse tech employee with fellow neurodiverse coworkers; there was an abnormally high incidence of left-handedness in that department, not to mention ADD, Asperger's Syndrome, and who knows what other interesting "diasabilities" and "disorders". Of course, it was the POSITIVE aspects of those disorders that let them excel at what they were asked to do... most of the time. The company's solution to the relatively minor challenges was to hire a former high school teacher as the department manager! Not surprisingly, he tried to manage the department's employees just as though they were a bunch of rowdy 15-year-olds, which never worked all that well.
The first thing I did after being hired as IT Manager was change my title. Problem solved.
(I'm only half kidding. It does affect mindset!)