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Anxiety and IT?
An anonymous reader writes "During these long breaks from work, it's refreshing to not have to worry about your job. Unless you work in IT, in which case you're salaried and constantly on the clock. To all the server room monkeys and desktop admins, do you suffer from anxiety? How do you deal with it? Does the crushing worry of a businesses IT infrastructure (and the rest of the business) coming to a screeching halt make IT occupations prone to anxiety?"
My boss might be reading this.
Get on the treadmill, go for a run, etc... Stop stressin' dude.
Massive anxiety, and stress.
Frequently relieved by Beer.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
If it's being an anxious person that makes me good at my role in IT (disaster recovery/business continuity), or whether doing that job simply makes me more so, as I constantly have to anticipate the worst.. Either way, yes, I'm an anxious person (and prone to mild depressions), but hey, there are ways of dealing with it. In winter times, a SAD light really helps give a boost.. Every few weeks, I hit a health spa, and get a good massage. I work out at the gym, which gives a good energy rush and helps me feel better.. I dive.. Hanging around the 30m mark doesn't give your body any choice but to relax (the joys of nitrogen).. I keep a fairly busy social life, which doesn't let me dwell (there's nothing like people to keep you distracted!).. And being able to cook pretty well helps with that (and is a great distraction itself).. When you're at work, let the focus (and anxiety) creep up; it gives you an edge.. When you're away from work.. Keep yourself busy and distracted.. In general, that works for me.. And as a side effect, it keeps me pretty healthy and well fed too!
Most people I know that work in IT smoke egregious amounts of pot.
See subject
Spares, disaster plans, good hardware, good software, good staff, backups. All outages can be named and planned for.
And delegate.
I think that likely a high percentage of people in core IT are control freaks (like me) however, you have to learn to deal with it - and yes, go to the gym, go for a walk. It's only work and it's only systems and it's only a job. There are plenty of professions that are plenty more stressful and where failure results in much more negative outcomes than a server going down.
Reading, cycling, target shooting, astronomy, music.... There's a million things to do. Stress doesn't make you a better worker so you may as well avoid it.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
To all the server room monkeys and desktop admins...
If my job could be described this way, my anxiety would probably come more from the fear that I was ripe for "outsourceing" or "rightsizing" or whatever the HR thugs are calling it when they ship jobs to the slave labor camps overseas... Not from the possibility of being called in on Turkey day (when I might well be in a black-out drunken stupor)...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The workers care about the stuff that they do, and get anxiety about it. Managers don't give a rat's ass, and have no anxiety.
The hallmark of a good executive, is that he can turn his problems, into yours.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I find if I spend all my free time on the computer too (even if I'm doing fun things) I'm more likely to keep thinking about work and the fact those of us who are talented at work are out numbers by poor management and poor developers.
Salaried or not, take your free time and get away from the computer and do something physical and fun. Eat better too. Junk food is nice sometimes but eating better will have an effect on how you feel and as always get a decent sleep.
My biggest problem was drinking coffee through out the day even minutes before bed while staying up late. I was getting very little sleep. That really drains you (or me at least).
If the opposition is just entropy, it's not too bad. Active opposition is much more stressful. Lifeguards, firefighters, and EMTs tend not to be overly stressed. Cops and soldiers, though, routinely get stressed out.
I suffer from general anxiety disorder. It has affected my relationships, my health and my pocketbook. As of Tue I am being forced to declare bankruptcy, despite the fact WHEN I WORK I made $30-$40 an hour. I find it almost impossible to keep a job because of it. I really wish I had read this Slashdot story back in 1983. :)
Troll on slashdot. Great for relieving stress!
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
We all have anxiety issues, its just how do you deal with them?
I tend to inline skate, play guitar, work on the house, go for a walk, visit with friends & family, anything to get me away from an LCD screen.
There's always that worry about my infrastructure grinding to a halt and the company suffering because of it, but it shouldnt control your life.
It just depends on how you deal with the stress, if you choose to dwell on it (which most people i know tend to do) then you're destined to always have anxiety issues and be less productive.
A happy worker is a productive worker, when your stressed it causes problems everywhere in life... Follow the KISS rule (Keep it simple... stupid) and life will follow with the work, less anxiety, more productivity, and less stress all around.
I enjoy my job too much, and budgets are so low that if something eventually fails, I just replace it and they start from scratch. None of the data we keep really matters much except finances and we keep those backed up and tested. My contract also releases me from any potential legal action from the company since they declined to pay for much in the line of backups. I keep my systems as robust as possible considering my budget. We're also a mon-fri 830-1630 company and I drop my blackberry on the table when I walk in the door after work.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/23/coders_insomnia_mental_hygiene/
Gotta watch your sleep hygiene!
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
If you're any good, it should be easy to find examples how other people screw up a lot worse than yourself and don't get strung up by their balls for it. People make mistakes, perfectionism is unhealthy. You are not the hero who must, can and does save the day every day, or does your paycheck tell that story? Didn't think so. Relax.
Of course a crushing worry will introduce anxiety. In stressful times, people will be stressed. So I'm not sure what you're asking, other than idle chit-chat of anxiety anecdotes.
Anyway, it's certainly not specific to IT. Guess who else deal with standby time: doctors, police, flight attendants, engineers and service crews in other fields (transportation, organised events, most restaurants and bars). Each of which having to deal with systems far less redundant and scalable than what we can set up in IT.
I have found that handling the anxiety comes with experience. For example, I no longer care if the rest of the business comes to a screeching halt.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
This 'team' thing that managers keep banging on about. It swings both ways. If the manager can't be arsed to ensure that things keep going without any one person, then they've f*cked up. End of the day, the IT person doing a job, just does that job. It's the manager's job to ensure that someone else could step in, should something happen. So don't sweat it. If things collapse in a smoking heap just because you're absent, that's the manager's f*ck up, not yours. And no sane employment tribunal will see it any other way.
When I was in that position, I would wake up each morning, go to the washroom and throw up into the toilet.
Then things got worse and I landed in the cardiac care ward.
While out on disability, they fired me.
I'm now unemployed and the lack of stress is WONDERFUL!
-Eldurbarn
Does the crushing worry of a businesses IT infrastructure... coming to a screeching halt make IT occupations prone to anxiety?"
.. is to do it so things work.
Things don't come "to a screeching halt" on their own. It requires talent to make the sorts of mistakes that aren't blindingly obvious and that remain hidden during the pre-prod testing (you *do* test before putting something live?). Having a resilient configuration, that is monitored properly and gives plenty of warning of a problem helps, too.
So far, in 12 years looking after this current setup, I've never had an unscheduled call outside working hours. The problem with that is that it makes me look invisible. It's hard to convince "management" that the systems don't look after themselves and will throw novel and exotic problems if not looked after properly. But that's why we take vacations.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Don't be salaried. Salary is for suckers. I work, they pay me. They think twice about calling me in as it costs them more money. On salary, any hour you work over 37.5 devalues how much you are really worth. If you want the security of having salary make sure they compensate you for any overtime.
Build redundant systems on work time, such that only common faults are those that are unpredictable and unpreventable e.g. building catching on fire. When your systems are resilient to common faults, you don't have any anxiety about leaving them to look after them selves, and you know that if a common failure occurs, recovering is easy because you're prepared for it.
"There's no excuse for predictable and preventable downtime (except laziness and incompetence)."
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
This has been a really difficult post to formulate.
I haven't really put much thought into why I don't particularly have a great deal of stress today. (That was not always true) In past places of employment my stresses were due to inexperience and lack of proper support and escalation paths. In those cases I was both the end of a very short escalation path and in lots of scenarios the technology was very new. I also wasn't compensated very well for the troubles until I decided that I should probably find someone who was willing to pay me better for my troubles.
The stress then was the product of the environment and it wasn't a very good position for the company to be in as well. I did grow from the experience, but there was far too much risk for the savings achieved. I've since then moved onto a few companies who generally have their act together. I've made it a point to ask about their escalation and support practices from vendors and integrators. My past experiences generate a bit of a paranoia today and I believe some may refer to that as wisdom. (I call it emotional scarring ;) )
That is really only part of the story when you really think about it. There are many avenues for stress to invade our lives. As some pointed out there could be ridiculous deadlines involved or in other cases poor time management skills. Life is not always about how others punish us, but how we cause distress upon ourselves with our own practices.
In every way, it is important to identify what is causing the anxiety and determine if it can be fixed. If your group or company wants to operate in a fashion that is dangerous for its profits or reputation then it is up to management to decide to stay or sway from the path. In all cases, you can vote with your feet and even if it takes time to change positions there is generally always an out.
At least at my current place of employment we state clearly that people will make mistakes. It's part of the way we operate because we are just too damned last minute. Directors do not like to hear such things, but if they would like to curb issues they could force better planning practices. (Which we kinda did to an extreme sadly... careful what you wish for).
This and many more things contribute to me operating relatively stress free. I have however built up a good chunk of skills and experience which let me operate with as little stress as possible. Mostly today I'm annoyed at the evening calls that happen outside of my oncall period and that is more of an an anger issue.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
I drink beer. Sometimes just one in the evening, sometimes I go out and get drunk. Going out with friends is great too.
"... Maybe we should chug on over to Mambi Pambi land where may be can find some self confidence for you, ya jackwagon .... tissue?"
If it's that bad then become a greeter at Walmart and then you don't need to concern yourself with the IT Infrastructure. But, if you like the paycheck and the fact that you might doing something really cool then go outside, workout, read, get a hobby, drink heavily, whatever to let those feelings turn toward something constructive. But to complain about a high-stress job in a highly technical field to other high-tech inclined people is just plain silly.
I've gotten a lot more disciplined in my exercise schedule, and have always eaten good foods, but I've started going to weekly mediation and have been going for about a year now. The exercise just helps me feel good (hooked on endorphins!), but meditation helps bring awareness and focus and has given me the ability to slow down and pause during the day, let my thoughts all line up, and then focus on one at a time. Having the ability to focus on one thing at a time is nice.
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
Meditation
I'm salaried and for the last two years I've not received a salary increase from my employer. So I decided to give myself a salary increase by working less hours. Now I'm making more per hour.
While certain environments may contribute to overall levels of anxiety and stress if not properly managed, it is the "anxiety" that makes us geeks so obsessive about a given task. How we manage the anxiety and how we let it affect our well being is part of what separates those who are successful at their work from the average. Success in this context is not meant in financial terms, but the ability to get things done in a timely manner, on spec, and with a high degree of satisfaction regarding the finished product.
Also it has been a long running joke with certain colleagues of mine that programmers in particular are prone to having, at least to a small degree, autistic tendencies. Without a singularly focussed mind it would be very difficult or impossible to complete certain development or IT related tasks.
Of course there are always exceptions but these are some personal observations arising from 20 years of working in development, or development related environments.
Peace,
Andy.
My equipment can run for a few days without me being there to monitor every little transaction. In 5 years with my current company, I've been required to deal with IT stuff after hours twice. All other after-hours work has been scheduled and I shifted my time by coming in late or leaving early. That's averaging about once per year. So my stress levels are low.
Obviously your going to feel the stress but the common factor for keeping your cool, at least to me, is indifference. Yes there is a pressing deadline, penalty clauses and blah blah blah but you can't do anything about those factors so you may as well do your best to view them as a distraction from the goal. If you are a tech, it's not your job to feel stress because ultimately that reduces your effectiveness.
Organising your work in certain ways gives you better control which reduces stress. No major changes on Fridays - ever, if you do be prepared to write off your weekend. Also it depends on the team you work with. If they are assholes then the stress levels are going to be higher, if you have passive aggressive types that dig their heals in or the frantic type that create stress or can't handle stress then you have to develop other strategies.
I personally experience stress more from the way people behave rather than from pressing technology task. Ultimately stress is induced as an outside influence usually not in your control. You have to be able to step back from it, figure out what you can control (usually your own reaction to the circumstance) and exert that control to remain effective.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
too much food, drugs, and (hopefully) a quick and early death.
thanks for asking.
Many doctors are on call for most of the time, carrying a pager, or having given out personal phone numbers to certain patients they worry about, etc. :-P
Ask your doctor how he or she manages the stress and anxiety stemming from this. They should be able to give you some good advice because (a) they have first hand experience and (b) they know how the human body and psyche works. If they recommend you become a chain smoker go to another doctor next time.
Actually i think my stress levels went DOWN after working in server room/data centers.
the way technology is these days, tight integration with monitoring solutions, fail over, redundancy, smart phone accss, and all those other fancy techie buzz words we got now.
Everything feels more under control and much easier to keep watch on. Our job feels easier when we know we have immediate solutions to (most) critical problems.
I don't stress about work after work. The thing is: the right organisation. You have people you can rely on, that will do the job when you're not there. And yes - that means someone available under the phone 24x7. Sometimes it's me, but usually not - it's a shift. So - work hard when you work, don't think about it when you're not working :)
I suggest moving to Canada, joining a union, and working an hourly rate plus overtime. Works quite nicely. :)
I don't think IT is any more stressful than any other attention-filled, high demand position in the work field, I think what makes it stressful and piles on the anxiety is what everyone else in the world has to deal with any job: co-worker cooperation (or lack-there-of), difficult boss, tight deadlines, piss-poor-planning, busy streaks in industry or retail, demanding work performance, stupid end-users/consumers, ect. I could go on forever.
Almost every position I've applied for has asked "How do you deal with stress?" because it's something that comes along with any job, not just IT. If you don't have a particular outlet (e.g. break time to take a walk, co-worker to vent to, shruggable conscious, squeeze ball with your co-worker's face on it), then you better get one.
But let's face it, a lot of anxiety and stress can be self-inflicted, too. I've been a Systems Administrator by day profession for quite some time now and I couldn't think of a more fluid position to have to constantly get used to. Every year, I see ton's of "new guys" come in and can't handle it because they are cocky, their resume doesn't match their skillset (e.g. LIED) or just don't have common sense. If you know your job, do it well, can multi-task and prioritize without having someone hold your hand, everything else will fall into place.
I'd never get anything done
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Xanax is the key. Bren taking it for years and it is the best drug ever invented. It absolutely crushes anxiety. You simply don't feel it anymore.
I work seven days a week, where I manage about 150+ desktops out in the field, over 150+ email accounts and several dozen mobile phones. I am also hosting high traffic websites. This may not sound like much to many people out there, but I am constantly under pressure and yes, anxiety does kick in.
Even though I work out 3 times a week (strength training) I am still under stress. My social life is a train wreck, where I rather stay in a veg out on the weekends. Mind you, I have friends and plenty of relationships with the opposite sex, but lately it's just too much for me to handle. I come home and the last thing I want to do is talk to another human being.
One thing that helps is 5-HTP. I pop 100mg in the morning and the rest of the day goes by with little worry. Sometimes, I combine it with a bit of melatonin to have a nice deep sleep (with very vivid dreams). I wake up feeling a bit more refreshed, leading to a better day.
I once worked at a place where I was the only IT person, on call 24/7. When I took vacation I had to take it at home encase something happened, not that anything would. I was let go from that job due to bad accounting and I was the only person not doing billable work. Got a job at a major university doing tech support for a department, they don't even want to bother me with anything after 4 PM, let alone weekends, holidays, or vacations.
It's business, you're not supposed to care, but people won't stop you from feeling guilty.
Nobody cares about you getting stressed or losing sleep over some unsolved problem.
If they can make you feel bad without even trying, then they're not going to stop; it's working to their advantage.
You're there because they don't know the quirks of the "let's just ship it" piece of shit software we have to make work or troubleshoot at times.
Also, if they can't afford to pay what it costs to have an IT person, then why give them the advantage over other businesses by working for a substantially lower pay?
Of course, unless you're living at home with your parents, you can't really be that choosey.
That's also the fundamental flaw that keeps certain shitty businesses alive.
Being able to be frank with, and set realistic expectations for, those you work with and for is crucial.
If your boss wants you to do something on an impossible timeline, tell them you can't. If you've got too much on your plate already, give your boss a list of your current projects, and ask him which one should be de-prioritized to push in the latest "emergency". He may suddenly find it's not so urgent after all, and if it's so important something else does need to be pushed back, it now wasn't your idea.
If you go on vacation, make it clear that you may not be immediately (or at all) able to respond to phone calls or email due to where you're going. Again, put it on your boss—ask who he'd like you to cross train in emergency procedures for your area while you're away, and make sure he knows who your vendor contacts are for troubleshooting. Granted, this should be done well before you go on vacation anyway, but all too often it's not.
If your boss is the type to, at this point, stick his fingers in his ears and yell "LALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU", it's time to either have a talk with your boss's boss, or polish up your resume. They're not all like this. Most bosses I've worked for are quite reasonable when you're willing to communicate with and listen to them.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
things have gotten pretty reliable. which is good. on the other hand the slow but deliberate drift to software as cloud based service is automating what used to be jobs. stay sedated.
I just quit, after 10+ years in IT. I now do some consulting work, but mainly write technology stuff for a news site, and nobody calls me at three in the morning because a vowel crashed and won't rejoin the rest of the word cluster after the reboot, and the whole site won't load further in the browser. FSM, I really hated the RHCM stuff.
I miss the money, a little, but definitely not the stress, nor the anxiety.
Also, when at a party someone asks "what do you do for a living" answering "I'm a journalist" results in much more positive reactions (also, from the females of the species), than when I answered "I'm a senior sysadmin at [company]". And I can point a finger to the screen and say "I wrote this!", which was not possible in the case of Puppet deployment which took most of the year (along with day to day wrangling with operations stuff and RHCM lossage).
So, there is life after "Microserfs", after all.
And bank the cheques.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Just Cover Your As... Actions and don't worry about it - if your company doesn't care about you enough to let you spend money for redundant, highly available infrastructure, you shouldn't care enough to lose sleep over it. Tell whoever you need to tell that this is what the risk is, and that's what it would take to eliminate that risk... and if they chose to accept the risk instead, it will be them, not you who will need to do the post-mortem for the next outage. You'll still get chewed out, but they won't be able to fire you, since you covered your a...ctions.
The stressful thing about system admin work is the constant worrying. Will a hard drive crash today? Or a power supply catch on fire and wipe out an entire rack? Will the developers introduce a bug that takes down the web site, or wipes the database, or pegs all the CPUs on all the computers so that no other services can function? Can you upgrade to new hardware without major disruptions, and hordes of angry people hammering on you to get everything working again, ASAP? If a problem with some proprietary software happens, can it be fixed without having to wait on the vendor's pleasure? What about viruses? Or an audit for security or software licenses?
When you have ready answers to these problems, it's way less stressful. Need means and procedures to build from scratch, rollback to old versions, backup data regularly, and do partial or total recovery. And want the ability to be flexible. Have spare capacity ready to go to handle whatever whiz bang extras management wants to add this week. If you don't have such plans, you're just operating by the seat of your pants. Very stressful being forced to hope nothing bad happens, all because you're so busy stamping out fires that you don't have time or resources to get control of the situation. If you can't get on top of things, if the environment is too crazy, then do your health a favor and seek employment elsewhere.
Exercise doesn't do anything for me if I have potential disasters hanging over my head. If it is possible, get control first. Then exercise.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Learn the laws, dude. In the US programmers and analysts are exempt. Network/Systems/Database admins aren't. You are entitled to overtime.
I strongly suggest you lawyer up and demand just wages.
Have you ever worked with/for someone who just sat on projects until they went critical?
That's an adrenaline junkie.
If there's not a crisis, they cannot function. They procrastinate and waffle and keep delaying until it's an emergency.
Then they get the rush they want AND they cannot be blamed for the decisions they made during the crisis.
i just drink beer. Keeps the stress away.
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
If you suffer from anxiety (and even if you don't) I suggest you take a magnesium supplement, preferably magnesium citrate or magnesium ororate. Magnesium helps you relax.
I use a nicotine vaporizer from www.puresmoker.com
I'm able to do this inside at my desk without interfering with others. it honestly helps with the stress. i've gotten a couple of network engineers to buy them too.
You are spot on. You cannot "think" yourself out of stress. Often, it has the opposite effect. But exerting yourself into some physical activity, can be a tremendous stress-reliever.
I've also discovered breathing techniques and yoga to be very helpful to relieve both stress and delusions about one's place in this universe, also on how important one really is ;-) Where mere physical activity can relieve your stress there and then, yoga and its knowledge, can relieve you of all kinds of fears and tensions, or help accept whatever comes, which is more important often than trying to "get rid of the bad feelings" - they tend only to get more stuck that way!
Some people become wise after a long life, but there are ways to speed up the process, if you're smart, and lucky ;)
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
In today's job market, most people really can't afford to quit. You do that, and you'll be unemployed for a LONG time. Then the bills will pile up and you'll find that even the worst job is better than starving and living on the street.
Things have gotten pretty reliable over the years. Good for nerves. On the other hand the slow but deliberate drift towards cloud computing is automating thousands of what used to be jobs. Stay sedated!
they're just blinking
But there's a pattern in their blinking..maybe
Morse Code? Just need to stare a little bit longer to make it out.
*stares*
"I..
"ICAN..
"ICANCU"
Oh, maybe you were right.
I used to have that problem with nerves, but there is an easy solution: get backup. Not a data backup, I mean a person to cover for you. Find someone else who can do your job and make sure they're covering the bases while you're away. Then turn off your phone. Don't check work e-mail. Most IT don't unplug and I think that's what makes us burn out. It's important to be able to step back to just stop working, stop being on the clock.
Look you could get all anxiety ridden, but as yvan pointed out you need to give a cr*p really. Look the chances are that your boss will either a) give you enough money to build systems that are fairly rock solid and reliable, which one you have then invested in you can sit back and keep running b) be a complete d*ck and want you to proved banking class systems for the cost of a couple of wallmart pc's. I'm going for the later frankly, and if thats the case, even if you do manage to provide rock solid reliability, chances are he's going to fire you for some random reason anyway. So why bother getting stressed about it.
First off, IT administrators are not unique in having a high frequency of anxiety (as a medical problem, not the normal emotional experience) related health problems. Most high-pay white collar professionals have large degree of pressure and stress in the careers (lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc.) where the consequences to mistakes or failure in the jobs affects other people's lives, often literally.
IT may be the most unsuspecting professionals, as their professional education is less defined (typically no government certification that requires post-graduate education), and unlike medicine, where medical doctors are put through an incredibly stressful process known as residence (not sure how universal that is), with trains students to expect and prepare to be your profession 24 hours a day, literally, and that you never really get to "turn off" your moral or ethical responsibility. Engineers typically have heavy course loads, which in part, helps to prepare them for their professional work load, they many if not all have mandatory classes on professional ethics, as their work can place them as being under great pressure to bend or break rules / laws for economic / strategic benefit. In my opinion, it is a disservice to new IT professionals to not be forced to partake in similar preparation. Too many large IT projects fail because of the naivety and lack of explicit legal obligation to be held responsible for ethical lapse in the realm of expertise.
As most IT professionals are not unionize employees, and thus typically individually negotiate their contract of employment, they needs to learn about labour laws, learn about real physical limitations, and give up the myths of folk hero hackers who have inhuman strength to not need sleep or rest (two different concepts) and work-life balance to be both a healthy human being (physical, mentally, emotionally), and in the long run, a productive member of the company and society, rather than a burnt-out husk of people at 37 with high blood pressure, overweight, at risk for diabetes, major depressive disorder, social or general anxiety disorder, and heart attack or stroke.
Anxiety disorders are both manageable and treatable, and individual cases will present differently, so be careful of anecdotal "evidence" or diagnosis, although anyone with a serve case should immediately seek professional medical assistance, before potentially developing complications (as noted above) and at risk of suicide. Treatments and techniques vary, so I won't make any suggestions other than to note that self-help and medication are two effective (for some) treatments that are not the only effective treatments.
In larger employers Human Resource (HR) departments and Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) have increasingly identified the importance of work-life balance, which includes not being on-call 24/7 constantly. In it humanly impossible to be constantly (available to) do your job correctly and effectively around the clock on an ongoing basis. Any manager who doesn't realize or acknowledge that is dangerous to your personal and professional well-being. In other words, they are willing to sell your soul for their gain.
In a tiny outfit where is not a lot of duplication of staff (i.e. you are the only IT person in the company) is harder, but then typically if that is the case, then their expectations need to match their situation. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Sometimes involving either HR or your manager's boss improves the expectations of your manager.
Often during serious failures and small scale disasters there is a cascading effect which extends the "emergency" situation over several days. Having been on-call for my share of IT disasters, it is simply taxing, and impossible to continue to do in an on-going basis.
My take on it is purely on economics:Since I assume you are not paid a salary based on a rate of say, $50 / hour, 24 hours, 7 days a week, then you need to point out that you are not employed outside of regular work hour
Your job related worries will pale into comparison. Stress will take on new meaning. Of course while they're infants you'll age 10 years in 2. And that's assuming you have a supportive partner.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Couldn't really give a fuck if the whole shebang crashes like the Hindenburg. I've done my bit to see that it doesn't as best as I am able and as well as I've been resourced, and if it crashes I'll go fix it. I'll be fucked if I'm going to spend even a minute *worrying* about it crashing. After all, it's not a matter of *if* so much as *when*, and that's what I like to refer to as job security.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
IT in a specific company is one thing; even an IT shop is still a bit limited. What about working in an IT CALL CENTER where calls come in from all over the country? You are not measured on your ability, your are measured on YOUR STATISTICS !! And they're bringing in newbies all the time to replace the ones that burn out or otherwise don't keep within the specified statistical parameters . They tell you that they want you to help the customer, , . .but if you take too long because the customer is not understanding, or whatever, you are out of here!!! That's full of anxiety!
I had the same thing happen to me. Shortly after my daughter was born, between work and the baby it was months of hell. I am still recovering but it takes 4 times as long to recover from anxiety. I was having panic attacks and thought I may be dying. Just get checked out by your doc. That way you have the reassurance that nothing is wrong, not knowing will contribute to the anxiety. Then I found the best medicine is to get out of the house and go have fun. Your doc may also be able to prescribe some pills for the really hard days. Just be assured that you are not the only one with IT anxiety and try to find some way to relax. Your mind has associated work as danger and you need to reprogram your mind to think otherwise.
I'm reasonably competent at my job and managed to persuade the managers at the company that they liked their infrastructure to be on. I used to get stressed when there was an electrical storm, the infrastructure I inherited couldn't cope with a power outage, blip or heat wave. Now we've put all the necessary in place I can sleep soundly and I can leave it unattended apart from backups for a couple of weeks, safe in the knowledge there's another guy an hour away who know's how to sort it out if someone drives into the Aircon unit or there's a complete power blackout.
Perhaps when you've been in a situation where the fundamentals are just not there it's puts the rest of it into perspective.
Striving for perfection is good; stressing because of a lack of perfection is bad. Pobody's nerfect.
Your employers won't hate you for it, as you're more useful to them there with a balanced perspective than off sick with stress (or there marching around biting heads off)
If a system goes down does it actually matter that much? Sure in something like Air Traffic Control it might (so you'd pester them every HOUR to spend money on backup systems, other preventative means and additional staff - or quit) but in most cases the worst that can happen is the Sales bods get a bit embarrassed because their CRM system is down or whatever. If it happens frequently and damages the company's reputation then sure, you're doing something wrong. If it's just a possibility though then these things happen. If you've done your best and documented as much of you doing your best as you can (CYA) then there's no point getting worked up about it.
Healthy concern is fine as it helps you to keep up with prevention. But any more than that, ask yourself what worrying about it too much will actually *achieve* apart from damage to your own sanity (a company resource, in a way). In all likelihood: nothing. So don't! Take comfort in doing the best of your ability and accept that shit happens.
After a night at fight club, everything in the real world gets the volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off, your word is law, and if other people break the law or question you, even that doesn't piss you off.
If you've been a sysadmin for any number of years, you know that the nature of the gig is thankless. Everything goes well, you hear a peep out of no one. As soon as something goes wrong, it's an immediate emergency for you. The holiday season in the US is our busy time, so needless to say everyone is on edge. This past week has been the week of everyone suddenly remembering everything they needed done before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush. My typical response: Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part. You're in the queue, we'll get to it when we can. Stack on top of this moving from one data center to two brand new facilities in the past 4 months (plus a third going online in January), my stress level and lack of free time has been maxed.
So this weekend starts my self-imposed stress reduction. That includes, getting back into the gym 3-5x weekly, eating better, and regular trips to the shooting range. Stress relief in the form of a .40 pistol and 12 gauge shotgun are quite effective. :)
Get checked for a Vitamin D deficiency. Your doctor can do that with a blood test. If your doctor doesn't think it is worth doing this test, find another doctor.
Most people who work in an office all day have low Vitamin D and will benefit from taking a supplement. You don't need a prescription for it (at least not in the US) so you can just walk in and pick it up in the vitamin aisle at the grocery or wherever. Get the ones that are liquid gels as I have heard they are better. I take a Vitamin D supplement twice a day and have noticed vast improvements in feeling more healthy (in general) and being less prone to anxiety and depression (I used to be).
I don't know for sure if all of this is due to taking Vitamin D, but I believe it to be. It is such an easy thing to try and low risk (ask your doctor about it), so why not try it?
And if all of that doesn't work then find another job. Seriously, your time is too important to spend it being miserable.
Good luck.
I Heart Sorting Networks
I work for a company that does well over $1B in business. Working at the level I am at is both stressful and rewarding (the pay can be great). However, because I am very good (certified in several flavors of Unix) I am called frequently. You must be willing to accept the stress and have a very understandable partner who knows how much the job takes out of you. My wife, rest her soul (passed away recently) understood that and supported me and understood the costs my job takes out of me. The support structure has to be in place if you decide to get to that level.
If only there were some way to determine if it were true without using a single anecdotal example to show that one can fit the words "correlation" and "causation" into a single sentence. You know, some kind of scientific discipline involving physiology and anatomy, where they could indeed show that exercise helps reduce overall stress levels. Alas, there is of course no such field of study of which we are aware.
:-(
Another thing someone might determine is that meditation and Yoga help greatly, but again, we cannot prove it since correlation doesn't necessarily indicate causation
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
There are many stressful jobs, IT, Technical Support, Air Traffic Controller. They have several key things in common;
It's not the least bit surprising that folks can get a little bent doing work like this.
Others here talk about the proper maintenance of the human machine. As nerds and geeks, keeping the hardware in top condition is an obvious aspect of addressing stress, but one also needs to look at the software... or in this case the wetware. Stress doesn't exist out there. There is no thing "Stress". It is a conversation you have with yourself. Literally, it lives in a framework of conversation you have with yourself about who you are, how the world works, and what impinges on your survival and continued happiness. The minute you begin to unravel how these conversations live, and are articulated, you can begin to see that Stress is the natural process of you being confronted by life, and that its as vital as breathing. As soon as you can begin to experience stress not as something to be avoided or resisted, but just another emotional reaction in a sea of emotional reactions, you are free to experience your stress, and let it pass right through. Every time you play, you exert yourself physically, mentally or emotionally, you stress yourself. It's how we become strong. If life simply unfolds and you can celebrate every aspect of it, there is nothing to worry about, nothing to fear and nothing to resist. You can create new conversations that leave you empowered and inspired, which are just as valid as the conversations that leave you fearful and frustrated, and they have the added benefit of providing you with a life that doesn't suck. It begins by shifting how you hold yourself as being responsible. From the victim of blame by others, to one who chooses to be accountable for causing a desired result. Since you have no power to change what others think, you can only address the mess in your own head, and lead the march towards sanity by example.
I just get drunk. It helps my anxiety for a short time
How its managed is the important part. I have been in IT for 16 years and now do network eng transitioning to a data center arch function. I have been on some type of oncall rotation for about 7 years. For a year and a half it was every other week, and the last 5 has been once every 4 weeks. Understanding what you are responsible for and what your superiors expect is what you need to understand. Anxiety is usually brought on by worrying about what could happen. If you undersand what your responsible for and what needs to be done, your anxiety beyond this is an issue that lies outside of work. In other words, you need to speak to someone about it. Whether that be a close friend, Dr or psychologist depends on how much the anxiety affects your ability to function. At home or work.
Systems engineer here. Don't sweat it even if I am on call during this week. I've been at the company for five months and gotten exactly ONE call when I was on call. One!
I'm told it's a serious aberration and that it'd be seriously high volume if we got more than one call per YEAR.
Being good at what you do, and ice-cold detachment. If you're not easily replaceable, and don't really give a shit, what is there to worry about? Some guy yelling? If you're good at what you do and you actually do it, you don't have anything to worry about.
I worked for a place where everyone from dba's and senior sysadmins to help call folk were polled if they liked their job (or not) and by how much. The bosses were happy that numbers were up in the happy category (well, very happy through to only moderately dissatisfied were in the low 40s%). The very dissatisfied to the quitting tomorrow numbers were in the high 50s%. It was an improvement over previous years. I don't know about the following year, because I was gone about 4 months later. The fact is, that many IT jobs are not really 'good IT' jobs. Cleaning (vacuuming) equipment isn't exactly coding applications. Now it wouldn't be bad and you could tolerate it if there was at least 5-10% of coding applications or even software updates or backing up databases. If its all vacuuming equipment, cleaning keyboards, palleting old equipment, and cleaning out the office, then you want to leave (and I did leave). I went to university. I studied Computer Science. I have the piece of paper that says BSc Computer Science on my wall. The university isn't a paper mill. The guy who gave me a tour my first day of being an undergrad was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at the end of the year. The job was crap! Sometimes leaving is the best thing you can do.
Posting anon of course.
What I did was stop caring so much. If the server goes down, if a customer calls screaming about why they can't get into their system.
Just stop worrying about it. As long as you've got the skills and the ability to get the server / services back online. Don't worry about it going down.
Makes it tons easier in the long run.
Yep, in the end I dropped out of IT because of the anxiety and the very frequent out of hours call outs when I worked for a large UK bank. Even if I was not on call they still did as I was the "best one" for the system down situation. Phone ringing after 9Pm sent my heart rate and BP through the roof.
My son came over for Thanksgiving. In the midst of all the family activity got a call about a $.5M production loss problem. On the clock 24 by 7. He gets away only by going out of the country.
I run Linux.
I am the only IT staff member for a state agency, and I while I fret taking time off I also know that I have too for my health. I'll take my laptop but the rule is if they call me it had better be an emergency because of union rules governing vacation and on call times. When I am on vacation I generally don't care.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
I go to the beach and dig big holes in the sand. It's very therapeutic.
I'd second this; from: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
"We predict that treatment with physiological doses of vitamin D3 (between 4,000–10,000 IU/day from all sources, including sun, food and supplements) along with periodic monitoring of blood calcidiol and calcium levels will become routine. [Zittermann A. Vitamin D in preventive medicine: are we ignoring the evidence? Br J of Nutr. 2003;89:552–572. Holick M. Vitamin D: A Millennium Perspective. J Cell Biochem. 2003;88:296–307.] Research indicates it will help several vitamin D deficiency-associated diseases such as: autism, autoimmune illness, cancer, chronic pain, depression, diabetes, heart disease, hyperparathyroidism, hypertension, influenza, myopathy (neuromuscular disorders), and osteoporosis.
At this time, we advise even healthy people (those without the diseases of vitamin D deficiency) to seek a knowledgeable physician and have your 25(OH)D level measured. If your levels are below 50 ng/mL you need enough sun, artificial light, oral vitamin D3 supplements, or some combination of the three, to maintain your 25(OH)D levels between 50–80 ng/mL year-round.
How Much Vitamin D?
If you refuse to see a physician, or can't find a knowledgeable one, purchase the 1000 IU/day vitamin D3 cholecalciferol pills that are available over-the-counter in North America or a 5,000 IU capsule. Take an average of 5,000 IU a day, year-round, if you have some sun exposure. If you have little, or no, sun exposure you will need to take at least 5,000 IU per day. How much more depends on your latitude of residence, skin pigmentation, and body weight. Generally speaking, the further you live away from the equator, the darker your skin, and/or the more you weigh, the more you will have to take to maintain healthy blood levels.
For example, Dr. Cannell lives at latitude 32 degrees, weighs 220 pounds, and has fair skin. In the late fall and winter he takes 5,000 IU per day. In the early fall and spring he takes 2,000 IU per day. In the summer he regularly sunbathes for a few minutes most days and thus takes no vitamin D on those days in the summer. The only way you can know how much you vitamin D you need to take is by repeatedly getting your blood tested—known as a 25(OH)D test—and seeing what you need to do to keep your level around 50 ng/mL."
Another site with somewhat lower recommendations:
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/
Eating a lot of vegetables and fruits can help too, as can other good lifestyle things like exercise and sleeping well and thinking positive, having friends, having a sense of humor, communing periodically with nature and the inifinite, and so on. Example on food, related to Dr. Joel Fuhrman:
http://www.alternativeratreatments.com/eat-to-live.html
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
It is pretty simple right now. I am hourly, so if they need me at 3am on some night, then my clock starts ticking when they called me to come in.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Regards,
Shane
As if any of us are even sober enough to notice stress?
What I have done is identify what makes me anxious and stresses me out, and I avoid those activities.
Helpdesk type support for users/train users - avoid
TALK about technology with anyone other than other pros - avoid
Old PC's - avoid
Fix Windoze machines - avoid
Deal with printers - avoid
Deal with user PROBLEMS in general - avoid. I create stuff. I get it done so as to avoid problems. Once something has done turned into a clusterfuck because the imbeciles did not listen to reason or had enough sense to seek the counsel of those who know I stay away. I don't do nasty little problems. The best way to get them off your back is to price them out. That always works.
Develop websites or software for pretentious small biz owner types/wanna be techie types/MBA shitheads/just got started freelancing don't know what they are doing in a hurry just discovered tah internet stuck in the mid 90's types - avoid (I make myself visible to smart, down to earth, serious people who know what the F they are doing in their own field and have enough sense and smarts to let me do my job - all the above types either want you to in effect pay them for the privilege of working for them, want to guide your hand as if they were smarter than you, or both)
In other words, I stick to what I like, and F the rest. I USED to care, and it only got me grief. I used to worry about costs, I used to sit there and go the extra mile to save someone some cash - until I started seeing the idiots spending the cash I saved them on booze, and overpriced inane BS items. That's when I said F this, most users are cheap ingrates. You mean I missed taking some hottie who's willing to do the NASTY for REALS :) out for a night on the town (country where I live is great in that sense - even geeks get laid!) just so some asswipe douchebag fuckhead double digit IQer can buy fn Britney Spears CD's? and then not even put in a good word for me with anyone in spite of the fact that I got it done well AND did it super cheap? LOL
Anyone who does not pay up for me to do what I LIKE to do has nothing coming from me . . . I.simply.don't.care.
People who are paying up and letting me do my job get their money's worth. I get it done, and that is that. I let it go once I fulfill my end of the bargain. Laptop not as fast as you WISH it were for your graphic design work? Should have paid me and asked me before getting burned by a sales drone. Is it now twice as fast as it was before you paid me? It is? OK THEN. I'm done. See ya'. Not going to spend all night looking for ways to squeeze a bit more performance out the thing unless I am paid to do so.
I.simply.don't.care.
Users will suck the life out of you if you let them.
There are many forests and fields large and full of fruit and game - avoid swamps, deserts, cliffs, mountains, small game, and find those places . . . happy feeding.
MOE
SARAVA!
During these long breaks from work, it's refreshing to not have to worry about your job. Unless you work in IT, in which case you're salaried and constantly on the clock.
Excuse me? Like fuck I am. This doesn't really have much bearing on anxiety. It just leads to reason you need a new job.
To all the server room monkeys and desktop admins, do you suffer from anxiety?
Yes. All my life. I don't think it has anything to do with my career choice. With bad enough anxiety the smallest worry feel's like the world is ending regardless of what it is or how much of a non issue it is.
"How do you deal with it?
Regular exercise, breathing exercises, beer, sex, drugs, even WoW. If you have something that consistently winds you down and brings reality back in perspective use it. Just be careful as the things that wind you down often make you feel much better at the same time; that calmness that everyone else has all of the time is very appealing and can easily lead to addictions/dependencies that end up not helping in the end.
Does the crushing worry of a businesses IT infrastructure (and the rest of the business) coming to a screeching halt make IT occupations prone to anxiety?
No. If you have the crushing worry about your IT infrastructure you are doing something seriously wrong and likely doing many things contrary to industry standards.
If your organisation is like any other it will deem IT as a cost not a benefit or investment. Thats fine, you signed up for being treated like literal horse shit. But if they aren't willing to pay up for that cost it is time to go. (not only because they are bad but because you now know you will never see a pay rise.)
I've been doing volunteer firefighting for several years now in addition to the full time IT work and it helps quite a lot. After having to pull yourself and others out a collapsing burning house or having to do CPR to save a child, you wind up with a new definition of emergency. Suddenly a down server is nothing to stress about. My boss and director have even commented on that, in the last big outage, I was very relaxed about it (to the point that some started thinking I didn't care). But I also was the first to track down the real issue and get it resolved since i was keeping more level headed.
Oh no, not again.
It sure makes it hard to quit smoking cigarettes... I find that sometimes going out to smoke gives me the pause I need to clearly see a solution to a problem that eludes me when I'm in there staring at the blinkin-lights. I know I could walk outside without smoking, but it soothes me. :(
I got peoples' skills. What is wrong with you, people?
Between having studied self-defense (to wit: what to do if someone is trying to kill you) and suffered open-heart surgery (to wit: been dead), I find there is little else worth worrying about.
So yes: stop stressin'. If it's not going to kill/maim you, all will come out OK.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Almost constant anxiety and panic for over 19 years maintaining the computer systems at a small electronics manufacturer burned me out. They'll never know how much of my life that job took from me up to the day they fired me. The only solution is to get out....permanently.
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No matter how good you are, no matter how demonstrable it is that your awesome system never actually went down, one day you're going to be taking a shit while some VIP can't perform a basic task on your fully functional system, and people will be banging on your stall door.
On that day, you're going to need a suit to cover your back. Network and form important relationships before that day arrives. Don't put all your faith, love, cooing, time and emotional energy in your toys. They will fail you. Evaluate your anxieties and decide if any stem from fear of job loss, and if they do, remember that no matter if you are super admin of the world, no amount of raw talent will save your ass without an ally behind closed doors. If it costs you the occasional extra two hours at the end of the day to get someone's "Outlook working", go for it. You may find one day that that effort meant more than all your years of college and training and blood sweat and tears put together.
Our corporate recently had a restructure merging all the business units IT sections into a single one. It's been highly stressful (change in location, teams, work, managers, etc.)
I found that I don't mind working hard, but I have an issue with spending 12 hours a day at work. Some guys don't mind doing that provided they're paid enough.
At the end of the day you have to find what works for you..
For me it's a productive 8 hour day, then time to gym, read, meditate, play some games.
"As most IT professionals are not unionize employees, and thus typically individually negotiate their contract of employment..."
Negotiate? Most IT professionals don't have the option to negotiate anything. It's "here's what we're paying". Yes, during hiring in good times, you have a one-time opportunity to express what you will and won't take. Once you're in, that's it, even in good companies. You get the salary rate, raise, or nowadays cut, that they tell you you're getting.
"In larger employers Human Resource (HR) departments and Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) have increasingly identified the importance of work-life balance, which includes not being on-call 24/7 constantly. In it humanly impossible to be constantly (available to) do your job correctly and effectively around the clock on an ongoing basis. Any manager who doesn't realize or acknowledge that is dangerous to your personal and professional well-being. In other words, they are willing to sell your soul for their gain."
Have you ever dealt with them? HR will do absolutely nothing about managers like this. I've been in plenty of large companies in Finance, Retailing, Motion Picture Studios - big companies will full-fledged HR Depts. You start a complaint, you're toast. You find yourself getting a bad rating or a not-so-good rating in your annual review, but nothing so egregious or provably retaliatory. Suddenly your share of the "bonus pool" is lower than you were getting.
HR is there to help managers cover their ass and the company stay out of legal trouble. Not to help you.
"And suggest your manager fields all calls first, so as to filter any non-essential incidences since all professionals are 'always on the clock.'"
Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
Meditate, do yoga, and like bagboy says workout
In other word GET IN YOUR BODY !
Being too much in your head causes anxiety.
I know this sounds bad, but if I get time, I go to class, it's a physical workout and if you have a good academy, you get to bludgeon someone in a controlled environment. I know many of these places are filled with little kids, but I work out in one that has adults as well and while this is not a fight club, there are a few people that I spare with that leave their fair share of bruises as I enjoy leaving a fair share as well. I started back to Martial arts 5 years ago, quit this summer, almost burnt out at work, went back to Martial Arts, and feel ready to handle my job again. It's a requirement I personally think. Either that or get a punching bag. That works too.
Place something witty here
Unless you have a real ownership in the company, realize that their problems are not your problems. I do my job and I do it well, even the times when I realize it won't matter because they're busy shooting themselves in the foot. And I do try to give some input on that when asked or when I have the opportunity. But if they seem determined to jump off a cliff and start flying, then I'm not trying to be the Hercules to stop them. If what you're paying me for is to run as fast as possible towards it, I'll do it. As long as we're talking about wasting money and not something that'd get me in a war crimes tribunal, I'm just obeying orders like a good soldier.
It pays off in that everyone in your immidiate surroundings, and probably your closest boss sees you're a good worker. Maybe from an eagle eye view the project is still a flop because it's mission impossible, but those people might be in a hiring position someday or they may help you find work through their network or they might give you good recommendations. It's a big world out there, but the people doing the same kind of work in the same field in the same geographical area is small. Essential personal qualities like "yeah I remember working with him 10 years ago, always doing a great job" have lasting value. Do that and there will always be work for you, maybe not the same job but you'll always have alternatives. Because no matter how much you've fretted over work, you might be laid off anyway.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I agree on physical workout. I went to work with my bike most of the year (about 45 mins single trip) and stopped for about 1.5 months now (weather getting bad).
Because driving my car is more stressful I feel I take my job home sometimes, this does not happen when I go by bike.
Workout really helps.
Next: Why are you so important for your company?
If stuff breaks, does this really mean the company goes down the drain?
And you are the only one who can fix this?
Time to ask for a huge raise!
Get rid of this feeling.
When you cannot do your job tomorrow for whatever reason and IT fails the company will not go bust.
You have a job, do it well. When you close the door when leaving for home, work is gone.
When people call you in the middle of the night, work starts the moment you log into the system.
Between this it's your time, your life. Do something usefull with it instead of living in fear.
I can only work part-time now, which makes it hard finding an IT job. Perhaps part-timers can make it one day in that industry we're not worthless.
Don't panic. You are working to keep that environment up and running. If disaster strikes, you are working to get it back up. It is just another side of your work; you work to avoid disasters, but you don't worry about them, you prepare and deal with them.
It is a job, not your life. If you forget that, you will end up burning yourself out. Take a good look at your work agreement - it will tell what you are expected to do and for how many hours in a week, and how much money and benefits you are getting in exchange.
Can someone please explain this whole 'salaried' thing to me.
I live in Europe and I am employed on a salary basis. I am contracted to work 40 hours per week and I am paid a certain amount per year for this. As a result of being salaried, I get pension contributions, paid holiday and paid time off if I get ill. Bonuses and increases are based on my salary. I'm taxed based on this salary and the company pays these taxes to The Man(tm).
On the other hand, if I have to work significantly beyond my contracted 40 hours per week, I am paid overtime. The general rule is that you don't claim for an hour here or there, but if you do a solid block of 4 or more hours, you are paid based on you salary.
Why do Americans see being salaried as a bad thing ?
The alternative here is a contractor. This normally involves a daily rate and you are responsible for your own taxes, sickness cover, etc. And when you aren't working, you aren't earning. You do generally earn more per day and there are more tax avoidance options available to you, but you get no sick cover, no vacation, etc.
I have worked in IT all my life, from the jack of all trades to specialized technologies.... on call all the time, i have had my fair share of events where 60 people swarm my desk as i type away and talk on the phone trying to resolve the issues.... my view of this....
other people can have the anxiety... i am here to do my job to the best of my abilities, i get paid to do that, i get paid to be on call, so i will do that... i have projects that i know will fail, projects that i am struggling to meet the timelines for and problems that i can solve, and problems that i can't solve... last I checked, that is IT period.
If you have real issues with anxiety and coping with this "crushing pressure" go work in another industry, IT isn't a walk in the park and if you can't balance work/personal and your own emotions, IT isn't for you.
Sure that sounds harsh, but again, in IT, get used to it.
Most folks try to be helpful by saying things like "you can't let it get to you" or "try to relax". While I don't doubt their intentions, or even the truth of their words, the advice is ultimately useless because it doesn't explain *how* to do it.
There's a practice called "mindfulness meditation" that comes out of the buddhist tradition. There's a great (free-as-in-beer) book on the subject here: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html. In short, it's the process of bringing the mind and body together. Since the mind is often on trips to the past or to futures that may never be, it's really the task of bringing the mind back home to where the body is stuck. ;)
It's a simple practice, though not an easy one. It provides a proactive means for you to find your way out of the maze of stress and anxiety. A problem that a previous poster rightly said you can't "think" your way to solving.
We have this crazy concept of certain jobs being exempt from overtime rules. As a general rule, most salaried positions are classified as exempt, most hourly positions are classified as non-exempt (both are considered full time positions with benefits, vacation, etc.).
Thus, if a salaried person works 60 hours a week, s/he still gets the same pay as when working 40 hours per week. IT is a classic example. Longer workdays, 24x7 oncall rotations, weekend work to implement significant changes ... same pay as the normal 40 work weeks.
Was in the same position as you few years ago. At some point I learned to give my 110% and if there is something that go wrong well shit happen and I’m no god. This is working well for me as long as I give my 110% and use my head.
IT is a stressful industry and as you become more and more skilled you get more and more stress. Look at the CCIE certification. I remember reading an article that said CCIE certified network admins have the highest divorce rate of anyone in IT. They also mentioned that IT has a higher divorce rate then most industries. The stress comes from the job, and it comes from home. Many times spouses have issues dealing with the on-call nature of IT and feel like their spouse cares more about work then about the relationship/family. I have had this issue with my girlfriend when I did network operations at an ISP(hooray for call-ins on Thanksgiving and Christmas, boy was I in the dog house). As far as minimizing stress, regardless of your situation, make time for you(Playing with the kids doesn't count). Even just 5 minutes of busting heads on the ps3 or 360 can be very relieving. Maybe you're a DnD player, find a group and make time in your life to play. Paint some warhammer. Or the best of all, lots of sex. Sex is what I have found to be #1 stress reliever, come home and take out your stress on the girlfriend/wife. She'll probably enjoy it and itll take the stress away from home life too. One or any combination of such things will make you a happier, more personable, and less stressed IT worker.
In North America some people see salaried as a bad thing because 1) even after taxes and insurance, contractors make WAY more and 2) Many employers take advantage of salaried workers. They give us Blackberry's, expect us to reply to any message within 5 minutes of receiving, even at 2:30 in the morning, and they feel like they are entitled to have us work overtime and not pay us. Over here, most on-call work gets you no compensation unless you get called in, and even then, many employers still don't end up paying, they just try to dodge the bullet. It's very unfair sometimes. I know I've had my fair share of employers who never paid overtime, and then when you tried to use your lieu time to get an afternoon off, they made you feel like a worthless useless piece of crap for it. Europe is more understanding and left wing then North America as a whole. Sometimes, the left actually is better then the right
You need to get away from the screens. In the summer, nothing relaxes me like going for a boat ride - even if it's just a little row boat - it's a great way to disconnect from the world from a while. You're on your own when you're on the water. In the winter, I love taking my shotgun out to the local gun club and shooting trap (clay pigeons.) Video games can be fun, and you can try and boot up the old "Duck Hunter" but all that does is give you more time behind a screen... you can pick up a shotgun for less than a PS3 and really get out some aggression trying your best to break clay.
Keep experimenting with different hobbies that get you outside and away from screens. With boating and shooting, you really don't need another person to do them with - which is nice when you just need a break from the world for a while.
I'm not sure this is a left wing / right wing thing - it's simple theft.
Unless my employer are prepared to provide their services to me for free, I'm damn sure not providing mine to them for free. If I went and asked for an advertising campaign to be run for some side project of mine for free, I'd get told where to go... It's business, not a charity.
By the same token, I'm providing them a service. No pay, no work. Simples.
... and you're IT!
You wanted to be IT!
You got IT.
So Deal with IT.
Users are kept to stupid to do IT for themselves.
Right isn't IT?
Blame the OS designers...... your job could be so easy ITs not even needed.
I took matters into my own hands and quit my IT job after 15 years, sold everything I owned, and started cycling around the world. Guess what! No more stress!
Dave - http://www.tiredofit.ca
Drink Beer...Then go for a run
When I was the IT manager - definitely. Stress 24/7. Sucked ass.
Becoming a "grunt" again was the best move I ever made. "Not my problem" is my new mantra. I take care of my systems. Make recommendations. Sleep well knowing that as long as I do my job with due diligence - well, its not my problem.
"Smile, listen, agree, and then do whatever the fuck you wanted to do anyway." ~Robert Downey Jr.
yup. so plenty of IT support people feel anxiety, I am now a manager in an IT support group after having risen through the ranks. I'm a seasoned veteran of 2am, 3am, 4am support calls every night; midnight critsit or sitman calls, and unreasonable expectations of uptime - "whadya mean you cant guarantee 100% availability?", etc. IT Support professionals experience one of the highest levels of stress per industry, topped by roles that involve life and death such as, ER doctors and nurses, Miners, Troops at War, and oil rig workers. At the most stressful points of my own support roles I found I was being woken up 4 or 5 times a night - every night - and also over the weekend, I was doing an 80 hour week just to keep the lights on, so were the other 50 people working with me. The real problem here was there was no money available at the time to fix things that had been slowly deteriorating for years. I slept with my pager switched onto vibrate in my hand so I would not wake my partner. Things in my dept are a bit better now, but people still work long hours and are oncall 24/7. There will always be these sorts of issues in any big complex IT Dept, my job now is to minimize them within the constraints placed on us. There are a couple of points about this. 1. IT support staff get paid well above average. It is not uncommon for them to have no tertiary education. The expected stress is built into their wages. 2. After doing the job for years and years, I became very good at it. This confidence and calmness in emergencies comes from the experience, most people dont build that without experience. After a while I found myself able to run the environment without much stress because I was confident in what i was doing and instructing others to do. I harsh experience can be a good thing if you can learn the behaviors required to cope with it. 3. I see alot of comments here about eating good food and exercising, and whilst these are undoubtedly a component to dealing with the stress, They dont replace the experience you need in order to deal with a highly stressful environment.
To deal with stress I work out before work. My feeling is no matter how frustrating the day -- I've accomplished something.
In the long run, if you have your choice of jobs, avoid one where they are trying to get 24/7 coverage but only want to pay for 8/5. Working in an environment where you know you have backup makes life easier. Companies that demand everyone be on call are not valuing your contribution to the company but regard you as part of the infrastructure and will be replaced when they feel you are no longer useful.
I'm lucky enough to work in an environment where it can be very enjoyable to go to work. People are friendly, the office space looks beautiful, the work isn't difficult... so the stress just doesn't get to me. In other words, the pros far outweigh the cons.
I've had cases where I'll get home from the office (30 minute commute) in a terrible snow storm only to be called the second I walk through the door that the internet just died at the office. Back out I go.
Once I decided to take a whole week off on holiday (unheard of in all the years I have worked there!) and the very first day, the very first minute of my holiday..... I got a call that the email sending server was down.
There are dozens of other instances very similar to those, and yes they are very annoying at the time, but I don't take it for granted that
1: I have a job.
2: It's a good job with great co-workers.
3: Pays well enough.
4: In a field I love working in.
Yes it can be stressful and anxiety does mount, but realize that there are people out there who are much worse off, and no matter how stressful people make it for you, the fact that you have a job is pretty good in itself. Don't take it for granted and most importantly don't let it get to you.
Everything fails, you have to design the system to work in spite of the failures. And yeah, the system will break once in a while anyway, but it works mostly so the stress is low. The place where the stress occurs is dealing with all the poorly documented crap software that we have to use because bad as it is, it's the best there is. I'd name names, but pretty much any name you might pick is on the list.
I still suffer from anxiety issues. It will always be with me. In a sick twist of fate I got into IT in a round about way. At 16 I became a complete and total agoraphobic.. couldn't leave the driveway or I'd get severe chest pains, pins and needles from head to toe, I really thought I was dying of a heart attack. I spent the next three years bottled up inside as a recluse and did the best I could with my time.. read and learned, programmed, unix.. linux.. it was all I had. I eventually learned to function and go out like anyone else. 17 years later and I am living in the third largest city in North America, I take trains. I fly for business and pleasure. I still have anxiety issues though. I carry some prescription xanax in the event of a bad one but usually I go down the street and have a beer at the pub which makes everything quite alright. The last thing I worry about is messing something up at work. If I worried about that I would not be able to do an effective job.
Fuck Ajit Pai