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Abused IT Workers Ready To Quit
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that new research is suggesting as many as a quarter of all IT staff in small to medium businesses have suffered some sort of abuse and are looking for careers elsewhere (PDF). "The study also found that over a third have suffered from sleepless nights or headaches as a result of IT problems at work, while 59 percent spend between one and 10 hours a week working on IT systems outside normal hours. ... The biggest cause of stress among IT staff is problems arising from operational day-to-day tasks, the survey found. Another major cause came from loss of critical data, according to Connect."
59 per cent spend between one and 10 hours a week working on IT systems outside normal hours.
That's the problem right there: in IT, work can be endless. Saying no is key to keeping your sanity. But 2009 is not the best year to take risks. Good luck finding a job elsewhere.
It's bad in IT, but at least you get to use your brain (to some extent) and some of it is sometimes fun. That's a start.
Do fun stuff on the side and keep your skills current. That could become very handy sooner than you think.
--
FairSoftware.net -- the community for fair entrepreneurs
And why do doctors and lawyers "put up" with working lots of overtime? Could it perhaps be because it's more of a choice and because they actually get some serious compensation for it? I seem to remember some article a while back about a doctor who was found to have endangered his patients by working way way too much, and his reason was summed up as "I wanted to buy a new boat"...
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Contact me. And I'm serious. I'm looking for work and willing to take abuse.
IT Director/Project Manager/General Windows IT guy in the Bay Area.
niceguywithagreatgirl@gmail.com
I can arrange my schedule to fit yours and provide a smooth transition.
Yes I work in IT I think TFA was referring more to the personality type that migrates towards the IT jobs being nerds. Thus being nerds IT types tend to take abuse rather than standing up for themselves. If someone is being abusive they are probably just stressed out themselves. If it happens where I work I just quietly walk away and they are usually falling over themselves to apologize later(so I will come back and fix their computer). This is not because of some god complex. It is because I treat everyone in our diverse workplace with respect. So I demand it in return. BTW I have thick skin so it takes a lot for me to walk away but I will.
"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." -Thomas Szasz
There is a severe lack of respect for IT; a number of comments in here are unexpectedly examples of it.
IT work can be easy. IT work can be hard. IT is generally very time consuming; whether it be easy, or difficult.
I've done the gauntlet, from network drops, router configurations, firewalls, server installs, application suites, application development, end user training, requirements gathering. In the end the biggest problem is that everyone seems to think everything takes only about 10% of the time it actually takes. They see that one instance when everything goes right and decided that it must always be that fast and easy. It seldom is.
I know people who love to work those 80 work weeks in exchange for the freedom to do updates on the live server whenever they wanted without going through 20 different hoops and having manager approval. For some people, the job is its own reward when they're able to set the terms. I'm not one of those people, of course, but they are out there and they get happiness out of the situation.
Man are you clueless.......
Your comments reek of a know-it-all ego. First off you speak like all in IT have an ego. Farthest from the truth. The people with the ego are typically the management be they IT or not. They tend to have the egos with their I'm management I must be smarter attitude.
No, I'm not the poor little peon abused by these types. I've been fortunate enough to avoid this scenario in the majority of my nearly 30 years in IT. I've seen plenty of it though. I've also seen very FEW people that are "voluntarily" working extra hours, they do exist though. What I have seen is the management screaming why is this broken, when is it going to be fixed, why should this take so long when they have no clue about anything going on.
TFA is pretty thin. IT people are stressed due to the... economy?
/bias - Sysadmin in a medium-sized company/
Rant begins>
What's driving me mad at work is dealing with buzz-word spouting idiots. They can barely spell "computer" but they'll come with requests that I perform some half-witted change to fix a problem that they created. (that, of course, won't work)
If they could just summon the brains the come to me with a goal (i.e. we want the application to run faster) I could fix their problems. Instead, I'm not allowed to address the garbage they've created for themselves so they can avoid looking as clueless as they really are. And just forget about introducing new tech to make everyone's life easier. They'd have to learn something new. That makes me a bad guy, until we NEED that new tech, in which case I'm a slacker for not having already done it!
And, no, I'm not perfect, but when I make a mistake I admit it and fix it. Meetings are a lot shorter when you say "yeah, that was my mistake. Sorry about that. I'll fix it" instead of blame-storming the issue for an hour or two of my life that I'll never get back! FUCK!!! FUCK!!! FUCK!!!
So I guess I'm saying, it not the job, it's the people. In the end, it's way less stressful to lower yourself to their level and play the blame-game instead of trying to achieve something useful. Note: this drives you insane if you have a brain. Never forget:
- no good deed goes unpunished
- if you fix something it's your fault that it broke in the first place
Anyway, that why I think about quitting 5 times a day. Unfortunetly, now is not the best time.
Note: there are some rare semi-competent to competent people out there who can at least partially do their job (whatever it is). They are no problem to deal with at all.
Agreed. I talk to IT folks that work at small companies, and I just don't understand why anybody would work in a small company. (Though I've got to say, I'm glad they do, otherwise I'd have a lot more competition)
I have a good, stable job with the occasional overtime, plenty of opportunity to grow, great benefits and good pay. I talk to those that work in small companies, and it's exactly the opposite.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
That most people I know who work in some form of medical profession or in various "legal" roles work overtime because they want extra disposable income while most people I know in IT work overtime because it's that or "You're incompetent and lazy".
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
How many of those IT people are not truly qualify to handle the positions they are in? While many IT people are extremely competent there are many, many who are not. Seen some IT people spends hours and hours trying to get something to work, the competent Joe IT fixes it in five minutes.
"But I am MCSE certified! I know exactly how to do it."
Half of writing history is hiding the truth.
I've taken a lot of abuse as an IT employee. I worked 60 hour weeks without overtime pay. I did whatever I was asked to do. And I never quit. But I did start pointing out (in very diplomatic terms) that I was being abused. At which point I was fired.
It'd be nice to end this story by pointing out how much happier I am now. But that's hard to say when I'm working part-time at a job I was qualified to do 20 years ago, because that's the best replacement job I can find. It's little wonder that workers are abused when the employers hold all the cards.
At least they do for a certain type of personality.
While you are responsible for EVERYTHING, that means that you get to set up everything the right way. Your way. If there's a problem, you can fix it the right way.
As long as you can put up with the salary and hours, the job should be a cake walk.
When I first started working in IT 15 years ago, I felt the same way that you do. IT People can often walk around with a superior attitude. I was determined to be the exception.
I tried to be patient as I explained for the 10th time to a user how to login to their computer and why passwords were necessary. I tried to be helpful when users told me they had lost their documents but, couldn't remember what they named them, when they saved them, which application they used to create the documents or even a few words or phrases within the document. I considered it part of the job when I had to work 110 hour weeks for the Y2K death march because management would not purchase the software upgrades that were requested in February until late November. Of course, it would have been nice if one of the business managers that depended on the systems had checked to see if we had food or needed any assistance.
I tried to take it in stride when year after year, all training money was cut from the budget. I had to buy my own study materials and train myself at nights, weekends, holidays and vacations, neglecting my family the whole time. It was OK because I was part of a team. Every vacation that I have had for the last 15 years, I've been called and had to spend hours on the phone helping someone with a computer problem no matter how self-inflicted. I've been repeatedly called by "frequent flyers" at 3am to unlock someone's account because they can't be bothered to remember the password. I've had superiors bring their home computers into the office for me to fix as a "favor." So why is it that when they have the office Christmas party, I'm not invited? When problems occur in other people's area, it's said "Don't call them, they are on vacation, it can wait." The equipment I use is the discards from other departments.
Why do I have an attitude? I may have stayed up late every night for the last 4 months teaching my self how to support the newest technology that management is demanding, only to be verbally abused by the administrative assistant that is told not stream media over the Internet because it uses up all of the bandwidth. Finally the truth has hit me. The BOFH attitude is a response to the treatment by the users and management.
This type of treatment causes one of three responses. You either become down trodden from the abuse, you become a scowling vicious dog, or you leave. You can either be a victim or refuse to be victimized. I chose the latter. I've joined local professional associations, added to my skills, and began heavily networking. Despite this crazy economy, I have continued to generate job leads and obtain interviews. I have a very serious prospect at the moment and expect to leave within the next few weeks.
My brother started his own business with the settlement money he got after a coworker attacked him.
But the managers have a hard time asking for the purchase of a backup infrastructure too because it does not bring in direct revenues.
The other day management was screaming about the number of servers we have and demanding to know what the function of each and every one was. They put a freeze on buying new equipment (but not a freeze on the projects moving forward which require new equipment). IT suggested that we do virtual machines on existing hardware, but management gave a flat-out no on VM. Management must have discovered some immunity to paradox.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
My last job was of the better ones I had. We start out small, not IT related (env. engineering). The work was interesting, e got to rollout new technology. Since it was a smaller company we spent a large amount of time with the end-users getting to know them, their problems etc. We really developed a good rapport.
We not only set up the infrastructure (email, networking etc.) but as there was no software to do many of the unique tasks of the company (I would look about 2 times a year) we got to do some interesting software development.
I left for two reasons:
1) I became very interested in Hydrology and decided to pursue that. I wanted a job with some field work.
and
2) As we got bigger the principals decided to hire a "real" manager. Big mistake. Up until then we were shipping software every few months in small increments to improve work flow, finding ways to do tasks for clients so we could bill out hours and be largely self-funded and basically maintaining a positive atmosphere. Within a short period of time costs skyrocketed, billable hours disappeared, the environment became toxic, the rapport with clients deteriorated and the department began to show no results. I'm glad I got out when I did.
The upshot is, if you find the right company and can create a good environment it can be fun.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
My first computer related job (early 90's) was at a small company (maybe 40 people in the office) and I really liked it. This was long before I was anything close to a real sysadmin, but I was basically the only "computer guy" (not really even IT, hell "IT" wasn't a term yet IIRC). I'd lean to the culture being the more imprtant factor then size.
The pluses a smaller place can have if it has the right culture and atmosphere is that you're more like a family and much better communication around the place.
Unfortunately, the place I worked at had really hard times after I was there for about 6 months and a chunk of us were let go.
Now I work in a huge company, but we still have a good culture (in general). I've been here for more then a decade and while there have been times where I was frustrated about stuff, I've been happy overall. Compensation and benefits have been great, and I've worked hard to get my base salary and such up there.
I did go through a long period (first 7-8 years) busting my ass, working WAY more time then I really needed to, but finally realized that it was too much to take anymore and have learned to put things down and get back to them later. I give myself more personal time, work from home more to break up stressful times, etc. I've earned the respect and trust of my peers and bosses in order to be able to do this.
Back to the main article's point.. I looked at TFA and even the PDF (holy crap did it look like crap in acroread on this linux box) and see no details at all. Without them, I can only assume this is mostly just people whining about stress (vs doing something about it) and about how IT can be in general. If they don't like it, they should get out now. As for real physical abuse.. that's illegal anyway, report it.
- My favorite error message: xscreensaver, running on an old Sparc 5 w/ 8bit color: bsod: Couldn't allocate color Blue
I'm looking over the postings here and have realized that the people who are saying that IT workers are whiners and should suck it up - they have never worked in IT and have no idea what it's like. It must be just like any other job, right? No, it's not.
It's a job where upper management sees you as a cost center; you contribute nothing to the bottom line. They don't want to spend any money on IT upgrades either; that old server has been working this long, it can keep on working for years. Problems? That's why we have IT staff.
When things are working you've got management wondering why they pay you. They are constantly finding busy work for you so that you're not just sitting there. But when something fails - be prepared to work as many hours as it takes to resolve the issue. And don't be surprised if you've got executives standing over you and berating you while you're trying to fix the problem.
Imagine (if you can) the Exchange server taking a crap (like they're known to do). The database is corrupt? No problem, that's why we have backups. Now, restore the last backup and while it takes HOURS to complete you get to deal with every asshole in management demanding to know where their email is and why you haven't got it fixed yet. It's a test and if you don't have the right answer you're out of a job. Too bad there's no right answer - good luck trying to think one up.
I survived for eight years doing this job for a major international corporation. Would I go back to it? I'm not sure; the money wasn't too bad but oh geez, the working conditions were awful. It's not the actual problems with hardware and software that get you, it's the problems with all those managers and executives that seem to think that nothing should ever go wrong because they have an IT department taking care of it. And when something does go wrong it's because those IT people didn't do their jobs right and should be punished.
For those of you who think that this is overstated - go get yourself a job in IT and see how you like it. After you've done it for a year or two let's see if you still think the people who have actually done it are nothing more than whiners.
No, unions do not prevent people from being fired for cause.
Pro-athletes, writers, directors, and actors can make vast sums of money, are rewarded for success and creativity, and yet are members of unions. There is nothing about unions that would prevent you from making that six figure salary and getting that Viper you've wanted since you were 16 - nothing.
Yes, sometimes unions make mistakes, and some union members are lazy. But who hasn't worked at a non-union shop and seen lazy people who manage to keep their jobs.
Enron. Worldcom. Bear Sterns. Morgan Stanley. AIG. CitiGroup. Big companies that probably managed to lose a trillion dollars between them. Therefore, big companies are bad, will never work, and should be eliminated. Hey, it's the same tired argument that get's used against unions.
Unions haven't driven a single job overseas. Not one. You can blame executive greed and "free" trade for that.
No, union workers in Detroit do *not* earn $71 an hour. That figure is a lie, created by adding up all the compensation paid to current workers and the benefit costs to retired members, and dividing that by the current number of workers.
You work hard, you get rewarded. That's how it's supposed to work in this country. Yet if the minimum wage had increased at the same rate as the rise in productivity from the American worker, it would be $19 an hour today. If it had increased at the same rate as CEO compensation, it would be over $50 today.
Union workers make at least 11% more in compensation, have more vacation time, have *much* better health benefits, and have much greater job security than non-union workers. You may think you can do a better job negotiating alone, but it's simply not going to be the case. Unless...
Finally, say you really are the hot shit you think you are, AND ignore point #2 above. If you really are 10x as smart and work 10x as hard as the next guy, you don't want to be a worker bee in any case - you want to be in upper management, where union rules don't apply.
They like to be stressed, over-worked, exploited, have no personal time and also appreciate being handed enough rope with which to hang themselves?
Guess I'm one of those guys (although a mere 80 hours/week seems a bit slacker.) On the plus side:
1. Stressed? Yes. But if I want a day off, I just take it. No one is counting vacation and personal days in any real way.
2. Over-worked? Sure. I get stuff done on time and with zero supervision: tell me what you need and it happens. Heck, half my time is spent browsing the web to get up-skilled.
3. Exploited? Hmm... I produce results, you pay me obscene amounts of money. I can deal.
4. No personal time? Maids, nannies, accountants, PAs, etc, fix a lot of this. True that I don't get a few long Sundays fishing with the kids, but I still have time to read them a book every night.
5. Hanging rope? Bring it on! I'm doing what I think is right, and if it ever gets to the point that management and I can't agree on the right course of action, I expect to be fired -- I'm happy to do tactical, but I won't do stupid. The few times this has happened in my career, I've bowed to the inevitable and taken a 20% pay raise at a new company.
The issue in IT, at least from my experience, is not about missing deadlines or other planning, it's about work that springs up suddenly or constantly. These tend to be because of many factors:
a) Budget: A lot of small or mid-sized companies can't afford a huge amount of redundancy. If a server goes down, there's not a drop-in replacement for it. If you're smart there are backups, but one still has to get them up and running.
b) Time=Money: a little different from (a) Time is money. In environments that require near 24/7 uptime, downtime means money lost, which means that you're required to get things up and running ASAP, whether it's 3:00pm or 3:00am. Often again going with small-mid businesses, you may be able to afford all the expensive resources to keep things up (this includes redundant staff)
c) Other People: Plan all you want, but when your development team's latest project breaks a server at 1:00am, or marketing needs a last minute push, or a million other things... and you're the only one who can update or fix a live server... you're going to get a call.
It's funny though, because my previous job in a union shop with strict hours was irritating in the opposite way. I wasn't even *allowed* to work overtime except with large amounts of paperwork, so that means cramming what you would normally do "after hours" in a rather open schedule in a small and very stressful "window"
All very true. But what many IT people fail to see: the converse is also true. Many IT workers work in a dumb way that leads to more and more work. In more than one company I've worked, I've had a person leave, then I absorb their job, largely automate it/make most of the work go away and not really increase my workload. Then someone else leaves, and I repeat that process. One company I worked at, I absorbed/automated the jobs of 5 other people.
For example, one person did a lot of custom reports, worked that job full time 40 hours a week. When she left, I absorbed her job, designed and implemented 5 key reporting views, then trained the users how to do ad-hoc reporting on those views using Oracle Discoverer. Poof, all that was left of what she used to spend 40 hours a week on is 15 minutes a month of answering questions. A lot of IT workers make more work for themselves than is really necessary.
I've done tech work in organizations of a few sizes, and found the bigger tech departents increasingly frustrating to work in. The company is going to get a _____, and that sounds like a fun project to work on, but that falls under the _____ group, so you don't get to. And they're going to replace the _____ with some new gear, but you aren't on the committee deciding what to get, so you have to live with whatever they pick.... And so on. Metaphors involving small cogs and big machines come to mind.
... what a great job description! Granted, it's not all sunshine and roses, and I could go on at length about the down side of working in a small shop. It depends a lot on finding the right (small) group of people to work with. But for someone who considers "jack of all trades" just a pejorative term for "renaissance man", it can be a great environment to work in.
On the other hand, I've been part of some tech departments of just a few people, and there's been so much more opportunity to learn and grow. Sure, it means you get stuck doing grunt work like crawling under desks and changing toner cartridges, but a job where I get to design and build the web site, select and install the mail system, configure the standard user desktop settings, plan and spec out the server room, write the training materials and teach the users, map out the IP addressing scheme and assign names under DNS, diagnose and repair workstation problems, implement the backup strategy
(And if there's anybody in West Michigan who thinks they could use (not abuse) someone like that, drop me a line.)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Everyone in my IT department (of five, for a 5000+ person business) has a Blackberry. They got them when they first came out.
I saw the writing on the wall. You have to weigh each boss differently, but I saw this as the creep towards 24/7 expectations.
I am the only one without a BlackBerry now, and I don't get or take calls on the weekend. I have worked very hard to keep it that way, but everyone else is expected to answer emails "within 24 hours". So there goes your weekend.