You know who did understand your "more positive view of government and regulations"?
The Germans - twice.
Guess our notion of liberty wasn't so off base in 1944...
There is one guy I work with, a top performer on the Windows side, who is simply pissed at the company. He tries to work no more the 4 hours a week. Prior to our corporate masters taking away our benefits and making pay cuts and demanding extra hours from us, he worked 70 hours a week. While the C level people pocketed millions and the company moved up on the fortune 100 list regular employees got laid off and the ones who stayed got taken advantage of.
It is a simple balance. If the company screws you, you screw them back. The other thing you should understand is that IT is a 24 X 7 operation. I am the Lead Engineer on the Unix side and I have to be honest, I do what ever I want over the course of my day. I like my 2-hour lunches and my off site coffee breaks (I am particular about my coffee and the cafeteria doesn't make cafe Americano).
Before you condemn my work ethic you should understand that I get called 5 - 6 times a week at 3AM to fix some critical system or application. I am important to the business. I have never not taken a call, after hours, on the weekend or otherwise. I have also never missed a deadline or failed to deliver a solution. How I get to that end point is my business.
I am the best at what I do in my company and I am high enough in the food chain to manage my own time. One of the other posters mentioned burning out. It is a constant issue in IT. You have weeks where you do 5 hours of work. I personally have had weeks where I averaged 100 + for months at a time. You need to balance your time or you will become jaded (see above) and useless.
Welcome to IT. It is a crappy job most of the time. Take a piece of advice for a guy who has been going it for 12 years. Shut your mouth and keep your head down. The only thing people care about is results. What your co-workers do it none of your business and making enemies won't help you get ahead. In the long run no one (including management) cares about your indignation.
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You know who did understand your "more positive view of government and regulations"? The Germans - twice. Guess our notion of liberty wasn't so off base in 1944...
There is one guy I work with, a top performer on the Windows side, who is simply pissed at the company. He tries to work no more the 4 hours a week. Prior to our corporate masters taking away our benefits and making pay cuts and demanding extra hours from us, he worked 70 hours a week. While the C level people pocketed millions and the company moved up on the fortune 100 list regular employees got laid off and the ones who stayed got taken advantage of. It is a simple balance. If the company screws you, you screw them back. The other thing you should understand is that IT is a 24 X 7 operation. I am the Lead Engineer on the Unix side and I have to be honest, I do what ever I want over the course of my day. I like my 2-hour lunches and my off site coffee breaks (I am particular about my coffee and the cafeteria doesn't make cafe Americano). Before you condemn my work ethic you should understand that I get called 5 - 6 times a week at 3AM to fix some critical system or application. I am important to the business. I have never not taken a call, after hours, on the weekend or otherwise. I have also never missed a deadline or failed to deliver a solution. How I get to that end point is my business. I am the best at what I do in my company and I am high enough in the food chain to manage my own time. One of the other posters mentioned burning out. It is a constant issue in IT. You have weeks where you do 5 hours of work. I personally have had weeks where I averaged 100 + for months at a time. You need to balance your time or you will become jaded (see above) and useless. Welcome to IT. It is a crappy job most of the time. Take a piece of advice for a guy who has been going it for 12 years. Shut your mouth and keep your head down. The only thing people care about is results. What your co-workers do it none of your business and making enemies won't help you get ahead. In the long run no one (including management) cares about your indignation.