Slashdot Mirror
How Do You Deal w/ User Induced Stress?
Anonymous asks: "I've worked as a Network/System Administrator at a small company for two years now. It's my nature to remain calm and collected while trying to accommodate everyone, even when having a particularly stressful day. After two years though, I've recently found myself being stressed all the time and my calm, cool exterior is starting to show some cracks. How do Slashdot readers cope with the stress induced by a highly demanding job and being stalked by users asking for the same thing over and over (i.e. password resets, login problems, how do you...)?"
Stupidity Induced Beatings.
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Feel powerful and revel in the knowledge that you hold the fate of the company in your hands, holder, purveyor and wielder of technology.
And now, for a sig that's a complete copout.
In today's economy everyone is working to the point where they don't even know what stress is anymore. There is no "normal days" to remind us what work was supposed to be like.
...Insanity Later.
I'd love to know.
I am the very model of a modern major general!
Simple... shoot 'em.
DiscDividers tabbed plastic CD dividers: divider cards f
A Handgun and a lot of ammo' :-) SWAT will get me eventually but I'll take a good few users down first!!
/. readers are from England ummm for them I'd suggest harsh words or possibly an airgun LOL!
Oh I forgot, some
---START SIG It is better to know that you have lost than to NOT know that you have won! ---END SIG
Extreme cynicism....
The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!
in your office with a big-ass Nerf gun.
How about psdoom, or perhaps just some good ol' fragging in general. Also helps to get with coworkers who deal with the same lusers and comiserate. And, if you got a really bigtime luser with a decent attitude, you can always start the practical jokes. Although, if you follow this route, be sure that all will be taken in jest, and be open to some retaliation....
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
...Lots of it. Won't make the problem go away but it'll make you feel better for a while. Job security isn't guaranteed though.
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
for those that wont learn, there's the traditional blunt object treatment. Myself, i prefer knives; i figure if they're that stupid then just injuring them isnt that useful; may as well remove them from the gene pool entirely. A beaten user will make noise and otherwise stay annoying, a dead one can be sold to the feed mill.
More seriously, unless you're helpdesk tech or otherwise being paid for kindergarten-grade kindness, DONT BE SO KIND. The second time someone asks you the same question, require they write down the answer, and explain that you havent the time to waste on things they should have learned by now.
Know you're not alone. Read the BOFH stories and alt.sysadmin.recovery; and know your pain is shared.
I've recently installed a Wiki for our staff, and if I get a question more than once, I add a little How-To for that subject to the Wiki. Now the first question I ask people is if they've checked the Wiki... it's amazing how people have sort of embraced it and are populating it themselves.
The best way not to be annoyed by users is, um, not to be annoyed by users:
1) Make a form for everything; web form, paper form, whatever.
2) Take away all admin rights. This keeps them from annoying you with things they fscked up. If they need anything important, see #1.
3) Don't do "training". If they can't figure out how to do their jobs, what the hell are you teaching them for?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
The worst thing to do with stress/emotion is to hide it and keep it away. Sure, there are definitely occasions when you need to keep your cool, but if you fid yourself having to do it constantly every day, get out fast. You will find yourself doing something rash and stupid which you will most definitely regret later on if you let it all build up.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
However, an idea might be to ask your boss about the possibility of hiring a minimum-wage intern. When I was in college, I would have cheerfully killed to get a job working in IT that provided real-world experience, rather than cleaning greasetraps or restocking warehouses. You'd have to be careful about trustworthiness, but a minion to answer phones, deal with users who habitually leave caps lock on, and make coffee could significantly decrease your workload while not costing your company too much money.
Your boss might well go for it, especially if you explain that there's just too much work for one person, and that you can either get an intern or hire another full-time IT worker. This way, your plan actually saves money (at least compared to the alternatives you present). Even if the boss doesn't go for it, there's very little to lose by trying it. Good luck!
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Reset passwords, create login problems...
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
next time you have to go through an explanation, record it. Make a label for the entry. Accumulate different topics until you have a nice fat cd full of subjects.. Use labels like "AAAk! no password" and "browser is slow/doesn't work" "where's my email?" "how do I..." whatever. Along those lines, with the appropriate response. Burn a lot of CDs with the info, then just smile, hand one over to the latest customer, say "it's on there, first cd is free,you lose it, after that it's ten bucks". Or alternate, run it on the network internally with a pointer to it.
The CD version may not relieve the stress, but at least it will cover beer and aspirin money.....
Remember, for the vast majority of users, their requests are reasonable, and you are just doing your job. Have some self-control, learn not to let every little thing stress you out.
Its not your environment, its how you approach your environment. Remember, you are a clueless user as well, don't think you are special because you know a bit about computers.
This completely depends on whether or not it's your job to handle these things immediately. If it is, then you're kind of out of luck as not doing them means you're not doing your job.
I'm also guessing that you don't mind helping the "nice users" who only ask the "how do I" type questions once and maybe come back again asking for some clarifications on the "why" part of the particular question; I love these users, as they want to learn and help me do my job.
For the users who fit into the "I'll use the admin as my manual" type, quit being nice. Explain something once and, when they ask the same question again, hand them a note pad and remind them that they asked you that same question sometime previously. Suggest that notes be taken. On the third offense, hand them a 3.5 card with "http://www.google.com" written on it and tell them that you are an administrator and that you are more than happy to help them learn a particular concept, but you just don't have the time to be their personal man page.
Do note that to "quit being nice" does not mean to treat them like crap, yell, scream or otherwise throw a fit. I'm trying to get these users to quit using my brain and start using theirs. I'm more than happy to help them with some bit of wisdom once they've demonstrated to me that they're not just lazy.
Passwords I handle in a similar manner. I have the "Monday password club" on my whiteboard with the name of everybody who asks me to reset their password Monday morning because they just can't remember it after a two day weekend. It takes two consecutive Mondays to make the list. Next to the names are the number of "successful" and "failed" Mondays. Passwords are reset to "IForgotMyPasswordXXWeeksStr8" where XX is the number of weeks on the whiteboard. The smarter of the users will come down when they've forgotten their passwords and see my tally. After four weeks on the board, the users are sufficiently trained and I remove their names.
There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
"being stalked by users asking for the same thing over and over (i.e. password resets, login problems, how do you...)"
:D
If you have a large number of people asking the same things over and over again, you ought to have (as the name suggests) a FAQ. Keep it up to date and relevant to the problems people have, and it will save you (and them) time.
If a bunch of people are confused about the same issue, maybe the process they have to follow should be made more user friendly? Usually when a lot of people have the same problem, it is a genuine problem, and not them being idiots. If they *are* idiots there's not much you can do to fix that, so try increasing user-friendliness first.
Keep in mind there is a good kind of lazy. Any tools you can create to save work for yourself and others in the future, is the good kind of lazy. So spend a couple hours writing a shell script, so that you can save 20 minutes each time a problem comes up again and again. Eliminate mindless repetitive tasks as much as possible, and you'll save yourself time, and the time you do work will be more enjoyable.
I particularly enjoy subscribing users to inappropriate mailing lists:
- BSDM/Beastiality Mailing Lists
- Homosexual Lists
- Cult religious/political groups
For truly obnoxious users, snail mail is even better. I once had free samples of depends undergarments delivered to a (l)user.
For more inspiration, consult the BOFH.
I find that cutting back my responsibilities in all areas of life helps. For example, if I'm having money problems, I move to a cheaper place, drive a cheaper car, etc... When my home life and personal life feel comfortable and easily manageable, with enough free time for fun stuff, I can handle work stress way more easily. If work is the only source of stress in my life, and I can't handle it, I cut back my work hours. If management expects, for example, sixty hours a week for my salary, then I give them two weeks notice of my change in availablility to fewer hours with a proportional reduction in salary. If I can't handle the salary reduction, then I've got to cut my expenses. It's simple. If I'm stressed out, that means I'm asking myself to do too much. Sometimes a humble life is the best life.
Read www.techtales.com. It shows there is always someone dumber.
"Your having a bad day when the voices in your head put you on hold"
Seriously, exercise, to me at least, is one of the best stress relievers.
I'm an amateur bodybuilder working his way up so I would normally be training in the gym everyday anyway, but its great to go in the gym after a day of dealing with users/customers and slamming some iron around. The weights don't care how you treat them, its great. Plus, when you've got 400lbs on your back, the last thing you're worried about is why Susie Q. can't duplicate an event on her calendar.
Finally, exercising, even a little amount just 3 days a week (think 20 minutes 3 days a week, 1 friggin hour!) will change your life drastically. You'll sleep better, find you naturally eat better, and are much less stress free.
Sorry to sound so preachy, but I used to be a fat computer nerd, and I started training, got hooked, and totally changed my life around. Look into it.
-Vic
Internet Help Desk (studio version) :-D
--Paul
In a job like that, it would make things a lot less stressful and more fun if you smoked the occasional j-stick before work. I suggest doing right before your shower so that you don't smell. You'll have a nice grin on your face, and people's problems won't seem to bad.
I also agree with the person who posted about exercise. I started working out three times a week over a year ago, and now I go anywhere from three to five times a week. It definitely helps with stress, and has the added benefit of making you feel a lot better about yourself, too.
That way, you get to express yourself, and keep the advantage of indirection: "Not YOU, of course. Or maybe YOU, especially". Let the reader decide, and have a laugh, too.
When my stress level maxed out, I posted a price list for questions, akin to the mechanics' price list that starts out "If you fixed it first...", and "If you watch...". The highest price on my list was for "Why..." questions. These days, it might be on your web form users fill in to alert you to their particular brand of misery. Then, it was posted in my cubicle.
curiouser and
Get thee to The Register, and read the BOFH stuff. ALL of it.
That'll give you a few ideas to get started.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
NO MY CAPS ISN'T O.., oh wait, yeah now i can log on..
I think there's a problem with the printer cause it just seems to make a weird noise and no paper comes out. I tried it 5 times already but now it also smells a bit funny
I don't know what happened, my computer just won't turn on this morning, it worked fine yesterday when i left the office.. really
I need you restore that super important file i just erased because i need it for a presentation with a client. Can you please hurry cause they'll be here in 30 minutes. Thanks
I know you can just stay calm and tell the user in a nice way he messed up and he can't depend on you being his saviour every time and forget about the poor user. But usually it just doesn't work like that, especially in a small company...
Maybe you should think where you want to be in a year, still in this job or maybe something else?
Sample this!
One thing I do is if I have a user who repeatedly does the same thing over and over, I will go to that person's manager and report it as a training issue. Usually getting bitched out by your manager is enough to make you get your shit together, but on the rare occasion I've unfortunately been directly responsible for having a particular troublesome user fired. C'est la vie....
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
You can always be the BOFH and move the stress back to the users
I hadnt worked there but for a little while -- and the same with the secretary (we were the only two staff members, everyone else were students, etc). Once a month perhaps, we would let our boss drive us nuts. Until a guy who worked there for quite a few years strolled by us happy as a bird and we said to him "how can you be so relaxed with this deadline?!" and he says, "Boss does this on purpose. I stopped caring years ago."
It had a big impact on us. After that we were incapable of becoming excited about *ANY* deadlines. Deadlines were missed, we didn't care.
The (sweat)lab was eventually defunded by all its benefactors. Nobody could produce research the way the lab was run. And the proposals were so terrible having literally been put together in a few hours, that no new sources of fuding were acquired.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Wield the LARG, clue bat, maulinator, whatever.
Seriously, at a very very stressful contract job I once had, I inherited a baseball bat (fine wood Louisville Slugger) from my predecessor (covering whose escape from there was the agreed-upon purpose of my presence there.) I named it "Molly", from the Neuromancer character Molly Millions.
The thing had come into existence years previously, during a horrible project that was totally overbudget and schedule, where a psycho manager had apparently walked around wielding the bat and a sword and screaming things like "I'm gonna break some fuckin' heads!" When he was called into a meeting, someone stole the bat and sword--nobody knows where the blade is now, but generations of network security guys husbanded the bat until I got it.
I brought it to meetings and to server rooms in emergencies, as kind of a safety blanket. We got really good at training our clientele (major international bank) to understand that we were there for them, we'd fix all their problems, but (a) they had to ask nicely, (b) they had to come to us with the issue, and (c) they'd have to trust us.
We always came through, which translated into a lot of credibility, but also meant that we had the best-stocked "thank you" bar in the whole company, but sitting in your office, listening to some flustered manager blubbering about a dead trading system while patting Molly (but always smiling!) was pretty funny.
It got to the point where it became an icon around the bank--people on the internal IRC channels picked up on it, so whenever someone made some horribly stupid security-related remark, there'd be a loaded pause before somebody would make a comment along the lines of "uh, xxx, I think Molly would like to speak with you"...
So as you see, it's all a question of user re-education, tovarich.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
You say it's a small company and I don't know if you have a PFY or anything.
Often it pays to not be too nice or at least not as nice as the other guy people can go to for "help". People will subconsciously go to the person they feel most comfortable talking to for help. Make sure it isn't you.
Users are stupid. This is a sad fact of life; look on the bright side - if they weren't, some of us would be out of a job.
Make sure you log requests in some form of Helpdesk as evidence. The people who repeatedly ask the same questions over and over need to be tracked and recommendations for training should be made to their manager or relevant department. After all it's 'good for the company'. 'Training' is one of the biggest sticks we wield. Learn to use it well. You wan't people to fear being sent on training and to be motivated to spend time actually reading that dialogue box.
Users are lazy and will follow the easiest path. Don't be easy to get hold of. If it's easier to call you than engage one's brain and actually think then guess which one they are going to do? Work on making coming to you more work than resolving the problem themselves. Don't reset passwords too quickly. They will complain to their manager that they can't do any work and blame you. Point out the 50 or so times the person forgets their password a week and recommend training. Remember you are an easy target to blame for incompetent workers. Always put the responsibility back onto the user by giving them something to do before you can do your bit.
It's a stressful job. About the best way to deal with it is learn to not use logic or think rationally. Think of users as pets; for example, if a dog craps in the street you wouldn't spend time getting upset about it and worrying why it did it - it's a dog - it's what dogs do. You just have to accept it and get on with it - there is no higher thought process at work here. If it's a problem then you have to be prepared for it.
Above all, never, NEVER give out your cell phone number or fix a computer someone brings in from home.
- Users who never learn -- find out how to diplomatically suggest training.
- Jobs that never go away -- Automate or simplify so that the job can be handed to someone else.
There's more than this, but these two groups account for most of my stress, such as it is. If there's a key individual that you simply can't get on with, try ignoring them. This rarely works, but give it a go. If they insist on making your life difficult (stress without reason, confrontation without cause, etc), you shouldn't have to put up with that crap, lodge a formal complaint.How do I deal with it? Oh, let me count the ways...
Pre-emptive: After knocking out the obvious and preventable problems, I keep a list of issues as they come up. I then knock them out as well or...decide not to do them at all. In some cases, you can bargain with people on the solution. In any case, you shouldn't have to manually do the same thing twice unless it is a physical task (moving a system, changing toner). Backups should happen automatically, restoring systems should almost be done by command, new software should be pushed out, ... with your job being to monitor that everything is A-OK not that you had to hover over every minor stage.
Recruit the users: Keep in mind that many minor tasks can be demonstrated to your users and they can take care of them for you. After all, many don't want to call you for small issues and will feel better 'learning about computers'.
Trust: Specifically, make them feel like they can be in control at any time. Annoy them with your concern. Walk around, ask people what they think, listen, give them tons of feedback, let them know you have handled specific issues they raised, give them so much feedback that they will be disinterested in asking you a single question -- unless it is really important. Make it so that they do not have to struggle over having you do anything...and they will not ask as many questions. This works very well... if and only if you are pushy about it for a few weeks. Get them to say 'enough'.
On a similar tangent, here's something to think about. (People aren't simple chimps; we're very complex apes.)
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
How does your boss know how much you work? Is there a ticket tracking system for all these little requests? Who do you bill for the stupid user questions? Which department is the worst?
Being able to show how these little problems use up time that you could be spending doing important maintenance or security tasks may encourage management to help you out a little.
if you smoked the occasional j-stick before work.
I also agree with the person who posted about exercise.
isn't that kinda contradictory?
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Here is my outlook, let me know your thoughts...
If you're at work for X hours, does it really matter how you're spending your time? Just kill your ego a bit and don't worry about it. You are being paid for your time, so if people want to waste it, then complain to management the same as you would if they sit there reading a magazine all day instead of working.
If the problem is keeping track of your TODO list, then you just need to get organized. What would you do if you were a software developer and someone kept giving you new bug reports? You'd log them in a list sorted by priority. Can you do the same here?
If this "stress" is caused be being forced to work more than the original alloted hours, then that should be a different Ask Slashdot question: "What should I do when I get asked to work overtime when i'm not getting paid?"
Psdoom is great!
But beware, shooting at crowds will make the monsters kill eachother (e.g. your X session), potentially taking you down with them. :-)
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
...a valid dogbert tactic (point 19). Unfortunately, dilbert.com seems to no longer exist, and I can't see any archives of the actual cartoon anywhere, but nevertheless would probably get legal threats if I dug out and posted a copy on the 'Net.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
BOFH
... rather see it as a quide.
But don't look at it as humour...
Pehaps you don't properly understand the nature of your job.
Find a different job. If you find yourself treating your users like crap because you hate them for being idiots then you're in the wrong line of work. Get some skills and move on to something else, preferably at a different company so you don't have 5-6 hours a day of the same old support calls since users know to come to you.
If you want to keep the job, then be much more proactive. Seek out trouble users and _ask_them_ if they need help. After fixing something call later in the day or the next day and make sure it's still OK. The users will love you and you'll find they (generally) will respect you more. Over time you will go home at night feeling good that you helpd a bunch of people and they really appreciate you.
The negative, punish-the-users, techniques are counterproductive and will lead to simply more stress and eventually getting fired or (if you can't be fired for some bizarre union rule or whatever) everyone wishing you were gone which is just as bad.
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
First of all, accept that stress may be an inevitable and expected part of your job. Most jobs, from graduate-entry level up to and including Chairman of the Board are inherantly stressful. If you don't want this or can't deal with it at all... go flip burgers.
Work-related stress is not unique to the IT field. Nor is the problem of having to deal with users you think of as stupid (although in other fields, they may be called customers, clients, stakeholders or some other term, rather than users). I've noticed a lot of IT workers exacerbate their own feelings of stress and anger by telling themselves (and everybody else who will listen) that they and their field are unique and have pressures that nobody else can understand. Not true.
Trying to have a little more respect for your co-workers is one of the first steps to managing stress. You may think your users are stupid. In the vast majority of office environments, this won't be the case. Your co-workers may not be IT experts. They may not even be able to use Microsoft Office without screwing up. This is probably not because they are stupid, it's more likely to be because they have no particular interest in computers and no real desire to learn beyond the basic level they think they need to do their job (which may be very different to what you believe is the basic level they need). They almost certainly have a lot of skills that you don't. You may think the people in HR are stupid because they forget their passwords and can't even use Excel for 5 minutes without wiping their hard-disks. If you let them see you feel like this, they will think that YOU are stupid, because you don't know how to develop your career effectively and work well in a corporate environment. If you respect your co-workers, this will show in your behaviour. If it shows in your behaviour, they will pick it up. If they pick it up, their own opinion of you will improve. You don't have to get along with everybody all the time - this isn't achievable other than through being a doormat, which isn't helpful - but if you can establish a degree of mutual professional respect, it will make your office life a thousand times easier. If you need money to hire an assistant, it's easier to get this if the HR and Finance people (who probably have accredited professional qualifications, just like you) you have to deal with see you as a professional rather than as an immature computer geek. If nothing else, it's less frustrating to have to back down in the face of a colleague's arguments than it is to be over-ridden by a pencil-pushing luser idiot.
Therefore, don't adopt a BOFH attitude. Simon Travaglia is a funny guy. Reading his stuff usually makes me chuckle and, yes, this can also relieve stress. But in real life, BOFHs get, at worst, sacked or arrested and, at best, frustrated, stuck in a career rut and stressed beyond belief.
Other than that, all I can offer is the usual stuff. Try to prevent work from encroaching on your recreational time. Don't see "working from home" as a solution. It isn't... it's an invitation for work to take over your home life, without any of the "fun" sides of working in an office. If you can't do something, don't promise it... management respects people who are open about what can and cannot be achieved more often than you might expect.
Above all, be splendid to each other.
"I'd like to thank everyone that waved with all five fingers."
- from GWB's recent press conference in Ottawa
Dude you need to rethink what "highly demanding" is.
The users won't change.
Not all problems can be 'solved'. This is one of them.
You need to accept you will get these same requests forever. I have managed to adapt myself to just calmy continue, and it doesn't bother me anymore, it isn't like I know everything, I barely remember what I've just been told.
If you can't handle this, work somewhere else, but many jobs are like this.
you do sift through the spam filter junk now and then, they aren't joking when they are offering a legit script for a benzo ;)
good to have around
I hear this phrase all the time, and I don't know what it means. Do you mean that "today's" economy is fundamentally different than say, 10 years ago? Are we talking post-Soviet world politics? Post Iraq war? Post dot-bomb bubble? Post New Deal? Post Great Society? When HAVENT people been "working to the point where they don't even know what stress is anymore", unless they had some sinecure union job that only required 20 hours a week?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
sounds like you need a better hobby outside of work. something completely and totally non-IT related. you gotta be able to leave work at work. it sounds like you are not de-stressing enough when you leave. has something changed recently? loss of sig other perhaps?
</dr phil>
go out and have some fun dude!
5:00 to 5:30pm every workday.
The boss accepted it, as we explained that it was 'network testing'.
For some reason, my coworkers accused me of being Dogbert after replying to the suggestion box in a negative way, after working 'till 2am to get the annual report for our group done, and then answering the questions, while the others had gone off drinking:We had to implement a strict rule that you didn't answer people's questions when you weren't working -- if you get stopped while you're at the grocery store by someone who recognized you, then you recommended that they call in, or drop by the office, and talk to someone who's currently working.
[and as for the stalking -- I've had an unlisted number for 6 years, because of a problem with a _coworker_ stalking me, after I helped her... she said that I just didn't understand -- how much do you need to understand when I said stop sending me stuff, and she didn't?]
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
People are just as much a part of the system you are administering as the software and hardware, and all three have "glitches" in them that you will have to deal with on a daily basis. Do everyone who depends on you a favor and take a break from reality for a while until you get your head screwed back on right, because frankly your attitude makes you useless to the users.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
is good people.
There's nothing better than a good laugh over a few beers with somebody who understands how crappy customers can treat you.
I don't mean a bunch of malcontents either -- that'll make things worse. You can't fight a bad attitude with a bad attitude.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
(Directions: apply liberally until problem ceases.)
Seriously. If your job causes you anguish instead of satisfaction, you need to leave. It's making your quality of life suffer. You only live once, it's not worth it. Trust me, I've dealt with the same thing.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
Have you considered the usefulness of substance abuse? I've always found that drinking worked really well when a locked door didn't separate you from your users. Luckier still, sometimes you have an office with a lock on the door so that you can get a few belts in between luser visits.
But seriously...
I kinda meditate on the fact that the requests only seem inane because I know how to do them, or I am the gatekeeper for getting them done. And, it's helpful to keep reminding myself that I'm getting paid to do this. Never forget that the user who is asking you for the same thing for the tenth time needs your help, and they are likely under pressure themselves.
There are plenty of facets of my current and past employers that might seem shrouded in mystery and ritual. We're all uneducated about something. Drawing on what it feels like to interact with someone more knowledgeable helps keep my attitude in line.
Now, with all that, I'm still pretty merciless with the people who should know better. But, I'm merciless in a humorous way (or, at least, I try to be). It doesn't work for or with everyone. And, I try not to forget that even those who should know better are still under pressure and need my help.
Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics.
While it is REALLY easy to use salesmen as your whipping boy, it's also more satisfying than you'd realize.
They are always the target of my outbursts, especially the ones that call themselves "Sales Engineers."
-- "Bother," said Pooh, as he chambered another round.
your stress is users asking for help with lots of simple stupid things. Get away from the irritation by hiring a piss-boy to take care of all these people. Oh, wait, you are the piss-boy. Nevermind.
Don't jump to handle every request. You have to wean the group of "admin as manual" users. When they call just politely say, "I'm handling another request and I'll be there in 10 minutes. Most of the time when I got back to them they tell me that they figured it out. I'd complement them and go on my way. It takes practice to find answers on your own and people won't do it unless nudged.
Note: this applies to admins as well. I recently read an article commenting on how admins/programmers in shops using lots of open-source were much more adept at finding their own answers on the net than closed-source shops who had gotten used to hitting the speed-dial to tech-support.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
>It's my nature to remain calm and collected
I would recommend to try autogenic trainingAutogenic training
as you may see it is recommended for western peopleAT is particularly appealing to the Western mind, because unlike many forms of meditation and yoga it has no cultural, religious or cosmological overtones, and requires no special clothing or unusual postures or practices.
Unfortunately it is mainly practised in europe and not such popular in usa. though there are several books at amazon Autogenic Therapy: Self-help For Mind And Body Autogenic Training: A Clinical Guide search for more books at book stores for 'autogenic' or 'autogenics'another thing which I use in similar situations is Eleuthero ( or Eleutherococcus or Siberian ginseng , search google for details). while it does not directly concerns the ability to deal with people - it greatly helps to fight fatigue and stress and is not a drug in a sense - it is herb.
Though initially eleuthero ( esp. in big doses) could cause increase in strenuous (physical) activity , in time ( or with less doses - which I recommend to start with - so initially use three times less dose than it stated in prescript for the herb ) this side effect becomes negligible and Eleuthero becomes just a very good assistant to fight stress and helps to deal with difficult situations.
The best way to handle stress is not to accept it in the first place.
Stress is entirely within yourself, resulting from friction with that which is outside of you. If you don't let the friction occur, the stress won't either.
Like this book...
--
Smile, he said. Things can always get worse.
I smiled, and he was right. Things did get worse.
And some people will get the hint - when someone comes over to ask a dumb question, they'll notice that the perfectly polite sysadmin is crushing the living fuck out of that stress ball.
PS - Buy 2 or three at a time, they wear out fairly quickly.
The human body and psyche is not equipped to deal with constant and chronic stress. Get at the source of the stress and don't try to manage the symptoms all the time. The simplest answer is that you need additional workers in your department to help you. With this solution comes lots of other problems: management, fear of losing one's job, etc. Don't be selfish and hoard your jobs for fear that you'll lose it -- I'm not saying you're doing it specifically, but I see some people in IT have this mentality. Don't be surprised that you have to do some MORE work to get help -- collecting data on the hours spent (or wasted) doing menial tasks and conveying it to upper management. Good luck and always remember to get at the source of the problem -- plugging holes here and there is not the solution, and this pertains not just to your health but the entire configuration of your work's network and computer system.
Linux at home
For me, one big stress source is having more to do than I can get done. Instead, you should turn things around so that you work a fixed number of hours and always get the most important things done.
The trick is to get your bosses to accept that a your work will never be done. I prefer to handle this by keeping a to-do list that's in strict linear order of priority, hopefully ordered by the bosses. Then I make sure every week that they know how much I got done, so that they focus on that rather than how much is left to do.
It's also important to look for ways to get recurring problems to go away. For example, maybe you're doing too many password resets because of a crazed policy that demands hard-to-remember passwords changed too frequently. Or perhaps there's a way to give department secretaries the power to reset passwords with notification to you when it happens.
Part of your job is structuring your job in a way that keeps you happy over the long haul. It's really expensive to lose a good sysadmin, so for both your sake and your company's, don't let it happen.
Care less.
No, I'm serious.
It is in my nature to take pride in my work. To be emotionally invested. I have to tell you that, to a degree, this is a personality flaw.
I worked for Dell tech support for about two and a half years. It was extremely stressful for the first several months. At some point I realized that I was a cog in a corporate machine, and that no matter how heroic I was on this call, there would always be another, and another, and another.
Now, I still took pride in my uncanny technical abilities, but I emotionally de-coupled from the work.
I can't tell you how much better I felt. I also think I performed better.
I eventually quit due to, uh, management issues, but that's a tale of woe for another Ask Slashdot.
-Peter
Booze. In large quantities.
You should have a procedure in place to deal with requests.
Even the smallest company can benefit from some procedures.
A form, a website, emails (visible to everybody).
What you want to achieve:
- Organize the work in order to prioritize it.
- Quantify the work that you are doing. If 9 to 5 is not enough time to do all the work you should be able to prove it, And by no means work a single minute more than what you are paid for, otherwise resourcing problems will never become evident.
- If you are overwhelmed you can shift the decision about what gets priority to your boss. That is why bosses exist, they deal with the unpleaseant part. hey get well paid for that, let them earn their money.
- Is somebody comes to chase you point to your input tray (whatever form it takes). If Somebody is too insistent then inform other people that you are giving him priority. If your boss is not sorting out things, then let the users "help you" with the prioritization.
Bureaucracy is your ally if you know how to use it in your advantage.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I go home and have sex with my significant other, that usually makes me forget even the loudest, rudest and stupidest of customers.
Of course, this is a non option for most geeks.
--Nuintari
slashdot : where an opinion can be wrong.
People allow the work to become stressful.
In today's economy the unemployment is tremendously low and people are not starving to death on the streets (I am talking developed countries here folks).
Most people in rich countries have excellent standards of living, but forgot how it is to really be working just to earn enough to eat.
The point is that the excuse of accepting streess in order to hold the job is laughable. Any person in rich countires willing to work will be able to work.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I'm not sure what past you're talking about but working conditions are much better today than they were in years past. How many offices were climate controled in 1900? How much demanding physical labor is done now as apposed to in decades past? Have living conditions and work weeks gotten better or worse? For the most part, you'll find it's better.
Work is demanding yes, but that's just the nature of work. If you're in a place where stress is not a component of the job, your job and possibly industry will probably be replaced by robots or programs soon.
Blaze a trail to the New World
I am sure your partner is just waiting for you so whenever you feel stressed she/he/it is the paliative to your woes.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
An admin's job is to make sure no IT problems rise to management's purview. That includes acting as a buffer between management and users. If this guy thought he was hired to play with computers, he's wrong.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I've gotten to the point where I just don't care. Piss and moan all you want but I have other things that take a higher priority than what you're asking me to do. If it is a manager, or higher up, that asks for something ask them where their task falls in your prioritized list. Generally a VP will recognize that changing toner in his printer comes after replacing a bad switch that is keeping a bunch of people from doing work.
My short list would be:
1) Don't let their emotions affect you (or at least sympathize with them eg. I'm sorry you're printer is out of toner but if I don't get the network fixed 20 people aren't going to be able to meet their deadlines.)
2) Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize some features or tasks are more important than others. (e.g. being able to enter data into an application is more important that writing a report to get the info out... that can come later when you actually have data to report on.)
3) Always do the best job you can to satisfy the user's needs but if you have other pressing requests don't try to achieve perfection.
4) If it requires you to work extra hours, make sure you record that extra time. You might not get paid for it... but down the road when things get so hectic and you ask for a subordinate you can show how much extra you're having to do just to get the basics done.
"When I die, I want to go quietly, like my grandfather, in his sleep... not screaming, like the passengers in his car."
1. Role Reversal - Don't be stressed by users, stress the users. I had a manager who stated, "A.C. doesn't get stressed, A.C. causes stress. See my inspiration for more details.
2. Job Security - "It's not that idiot who needs to be walked through her xyzzy menu every month, it's the voice of job security." Just realize some people aren't interested or don't have the memory skills you do. That's why they need to give you money. As long as you're taking the dough, you might as well get used to the filling. You could even publish a troubleshooting/how-to faq, but be warned, communications skills could mark your career.
I maintain network/security equipment for about 1000 users located at 4 different sites. I have my share of extremely annoying users, and I find the above methods helpful for when I need to forget about work. I also play guitar, which seems to help as well.
Still, with a plan, you only get the best you can imagine. I'd always hoped for something better than that. -CP
If you're stressed, there are two hormones you need to watch: adrenaline and cortisone. Adrenaline gives you that rush when you're busy, but it subsides slower than it builds up, so extended crunch time will give you too much adrenaline. Then, cortisone kicks in. Sadly, cortisone is just like that acid in your muscles (I forget the name) -- it's short-term relief that only adds to your hormonal imbalance.
So, what you need to do is mentally relieve yourself once in a while. I realize that's not the best thing to say on Slashdot, but I am in fact quite earnest.
How you do it (playing a computer game, reading a book on your lunchbreak(!), going bowling or walking the dog) is up to you, as long as you get your mind on something else entirely.
What really works well is sleeping (obviously), or just a nap if you cna manage one mid-day, and also laughing og yawning. Honestly.
If you feel your stress is beginning to become a problem, talk to your manager and see if you can get a couple of wednesdays off -- then your work week will be only two days long, with short and long "weekends" in between. I know from personal experience that this is a great way to recover from work burn-out.
Hope it helps, and good luck to you!
"Good news, everyone!"
Kill them, lest you lose your sanity.
At your trial plead temporary insanity.
If David Berkowitz could say his neighbors dog said to kill people, then I'm sure a "The Windows B.S.O.D. told me to", would work just as well.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Maybe you should try this cool password management tool I found at www.protocom.com. Worked for us!!
for a year and a half or so, I spent one day per week supporting a department of a major food company. The place was horribly disorganized when my company came in, and we wanted to improve things for them. Eighteen months later, I was completely burnt out-- I spent nearly every hour of every visit putting out fires, and never got to the "project" type stuff that would have improved things for everyone. If I did get to work on those things at all, I would make no headway before being interrupted by a user with some other problem.
I would walk out of there feeling punch-drunk, and like I had just spent eight hours working furiously and accomplishing nothing.
The worst part was when they ignored my advice to wait a while before performing a major software upgrade. They went ahead and had me do the upgrade anyway, and had all the problems I told them to expect, and more. And I had to fix them all.
Finally, I went to my boss and told him this client was slowly killing me and I needed to get out of there. He agreed, and we soon after hired another person who does what I do, specifically to take that account off my hands. I gave up 400 billable hours annually by getting rid of that client, but I value my sanity more than the bonus I would've gotten if those hours had been added to my other yearly billing.
I go to the range and run about 200 rounds through my Glocks every week. I don't even think about work when I do it. The repetitive action, noise, and effort at hitting the target has a very calming effect. My cousin compares it to other martial arts for stress relief. (She just earned her black belt in Karate.)
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
I work in public safety. My "customers" are the 911 PSAP and all fo the public safety units in the field. Tonight is Friday and, just at quitting time when things are getting nasty out there with the slick roads, I got a report of a radio acting up and one workstation that went BSOD.
Stress?
No, not really. I've been to war, I've been shot and shot at. This job isn't stress at all.
All you can do is all you can do but all you can do is enough.
You simply do the best that you can and keep a smile on your face while you do it. When you smile, those around you will smile too.
Remember that all of this is only temporary anyway. We're all going to be dust before long. So you can either be stressed out and hate life or you can relax and enjoy.
I've made my choice.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Or rather the lack of them, cut out anything with caffeine in it.. Sounds stupid, but it will do wonders..
And never forget, its just a job...Dont take it too seriously.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I get paid, very well.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM