Career Change 3

[kHz]

This topic has been addressed by me before. The money I make is very good in IT and I like having it available, but today is one of those days that I almost cannot stand to be in IT anymore. It is one of those days that I want to be a market researcher or statistical analyst, or anything!

Why can a user not edit a file they own and make a configuration change? Why must I do it? Why do I have to have a coworker who tattles to the boss and will not stand up for himself and say what he thinks, and makes me listen to his complaints (since his wife won't anymore)?

The evil coworker leaves and now the lone coworker was given a task to coordinate work on development servers. He notifies two users and that is all. Then he recevies complaints from high up the chain because the dev servers were unavailable and not letting anyone know. His complaint is the boss was gone and another manager on another team was gone, so what else was he supposed to do? He let two users know and why is it his responsibility? Well, for one, he was tasked with coordinating the work and failed miserably. Then he is passing off his own inadequate work off as excuses.

And he constantly is asking me how to do this and do that. He complains that he doesn't know Solaris like he knows AIX. Yet his AIX skills are not that great. He wonders how I know more than him. Well, I read!! He certainly is overpaid.

The work doesn't interest me anymore, I do believe. I felt this way before, in my last job, and thought a new job would make me feel different. It did for a while, but not now.

Thanks for listening (or rather reading).

 

[carrr]

The work doesn't interest me anymore

Then, quite simply, it's time to pick up and head on.
I read your complaints loud and clear, as they echo many of mine on a roughly daily basis.
To this point, I'm not bothered by them and simply consider them to be "occupational nuisances."
However, it seems that you've passed that point and those nuisances represent something more significant.
If you cannot dismiss the elements that pain you and your interest in the work is suffering or absent, you owe it to yourself to seek a remedy. I firmly believe that when one's work becomes drudgery, one MUST find an alternative. Life is too short and one's mental health too precious to immerse oneself daily in "forced labor." To this tune, some time ago I encouraged my wife to quit her tenure track university job and take a position with a non-profit. She HATED that for which she'd prepared most of her life a PhD and a academic lifestyle). She has found virtual nirvana in her non-profit position (which I personally think is her true calling).
The only thing that I would caution you over is the fact that you note this has happened before...that you left an old job and the "magic" of this new venture has worn thin. Maybe it's a patience threshold sort of thing? Maybe familiarity breeds contempt? Will you find that "perfect" job, or will you move on only to repeat this thread, so to speak, in a few years?
If all users were as competent as we, many of us would be redundant.
Incompetence on the part of others is to be expected, how we deal with it/tolerate it is our hurdle to leap.

Tired of waiting for an answer? Try asking better questions. See: faq222-2244

 

[aquias]

Well, I can hear you. I have those days where I look to throttle the people that rely on me, most people would probably agree it would be a great boon to the gene pool. However, something that I first learned in IT always comes back to me on those days. If they COULD do it, if they felt COMFORTABLE doing it, then I wouldn't have a job. It is not for them to understand what I do, just for me to do it.

Cold comfort some days, but a bit of comfort none the less. I believe that all of us in this, service industry, have felt your pain. But this is something that we all must deal with, or move on.

I agree with Carr, it's time to seek new challenges. Maybe not leaving IT entirely, but trying on a new hat within the same realm. At least it is something to consider doing if you're at the breaking point (I was there myself a little over two years ago, walked off a well paying high travel job and lived off savings for eight months).

We all have to find our way of dealing with this and our way of finding what makes us truly happy. For me, I discovered that it wasn't a dislike for the work, it was a dislike of the environment I constatly was forced to work in. Take in all factors before choosing to move on...

Now, hang in there and keep firing off upset posts, I don't believe a single one of us here would mind. I know there are days when I drag out a co-worker for lunch so they can listen to my complaints, we've all been there we all can help each other maintain our sanity.

 

[mmorancbt]

Well, if the idea is that you don't like unthinking co-workers and office politics, that is a constant. However, having a dis-interest in the work you are performing will greatly exacerbate this.

Two things to think about:

Personal contentment is a trait you should work to develop. All this means is that you determine to have a great attitude, great work ethic, and place the organization you serve's goals as paramount. Regardless of the field.

The second is that you must have an idea as to where you want to go. You did identify some of those areas. Now the work begins. You need to find places or people doing that work and begin finding out more about what they know, what they do, and make a plan to get there.

Working in a difficult situation is simpler when you have an objective you are working toward. It makes the tedious bearable. It is when you have no idea or plans for your new career direction that frustration and anxiety mount.

Good question and always good to take an introspective look at what drives you.

I hope this is somewhat helpful.

Matthew Moran
Read my career blog at:

http://www.cbtoolkit.com

Musings:

http://matthewmoran.blogspot.com

Todo esta bien.. Todo esta divertido (it's all good, it's all fun)

 

[kHz]

Thanks for your replies, you all have a lot of insight, and I thank you for your helpful answers. What I should say is not that I don't find IT as a whole interesting, but rather the job I do daily is not interesting anymore. It isn't challenging and is the same thing time and again. Changing the permissions on a file or the owner of a file along with the other "monkey-type" work is unbearable. I would rather move into a different role in IT or get out completely because I cannot stand doing thoughtless and mindless work that is mostly drone-like.

And now, since the evil coworker left, the "nice" coworker has taken over where she left off. He is now walking around like he is full of authority. He was asked to remove some file systems but then asked me to do it(will you remove...?), really I think the reason is because he doesn't know how to remove Solaris file systems. Instead of learning or looking it up, he asks me to do it. This from someone who couldn't coordinate work on some dev servers!

 

[aquias]

Well, as for the evil co-worker you have a few options. The first being, let everything stay status-quo with you and the co-worker, that doesn't sound like an option.

This leaves you with a couple of avenues. The first being that you begin telling the co-worker you're to busy to take on their work, and that they need to handle it. This can create some stress between you two and make a rather rough environment.

My favorite tactic for handling people like this, albeit this can get messy as well, is to begin including management in on the game. And no, I don't mean running to them with every thing that the co-worker states. But, if you're anything like me, I send out weekly updates on projects and "State of the my corner of the IT department". Begin including that you picked up "X" number of additional jobs to assist your co-worker. Don't make it a blatant attack on them, but lay out what is happening to your supervisor or things will never change.

 

[RCorrigan]

I've just read this thread through for the first time at 20 pst 2 in the morning and the one thing that jumps out is this

I believe that all of us in this, service industry, have felt your pain.

The point here is that it is a SERVICE Industry !!!!!!!!!

There will be times that you feel like &*%$%£$% , Tired , Forgotten , Insignificant .....................
But YOU still keep the system running.

If you EVER feel this isn't for you .........


<Do I need A Signature or will an X do?>

 

[langleymass]

kHz,

It's not IT as much as the company you are working for. I would do what I can to get out. This company isn't going to change, and there is nothing you can do to change the company. Your only hope is that the company goes out of business.

 

[aquias]

Langley,

With all due respect I strongly disagree with you. There is nothing you can do to change the company, to a degree that is true. As part of any moderate size company it is very difficult for one person to change the entire face of the company (less people like CEO's and such).

However, it is possible for one person to take control and change their corner of the company. To do so may require some work and the willingness to argue to get things done in the way you wish, but it can be done.

 

[kHz]

Hard to do when your manager's management style is a directive autocrat.

Thankfully I am home sick today, and I am still thinking that I cannot do that job anymore. I have been a Unix Sys Admin for going on 6 years and I need to do something different. The same stuff every day is just wearing on me. I need change and variety. Plus it doesn't help when I try to improve the environment and am met with ambivalence from my boss. He was taken aback at my last review when I said "there is so much you can do in this environment to improve it." He sat there kind of with a dazed look on his face, kind of like "what do you mean?" Of course nothing changes and he isn't receptive to anything, even if he says it is a good idea. Plus his boss and him are friends, so his ineffectiveness to lead people is ignored. Even though there have been 10 new hires for 2 positions in 5 years because nobody stays. I have started looking for a new job and sent my first resume yesterday (as a web systems engineer). Still in technology but not doing Unix admining every day. I would be a slight change and allow me to learn something new.

 

[langleymass]

AQUAIS,

It sounds like you are basically saying that someone can turn a moron into Einstein or that someone can turn Hitler into Jefferson. I don't think that can be done.

 

[aquias]

KHZ,

It sounds as if that may be the best for you.

Langley,

I can understand and respect why you say that, but I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this one. People can affect and change those around them, it is just a matter of finding the correct way to do so.

 

[willir]

Hmmm

I think we have several issues here...

... He notifies two users and that is all ...

Do you not have change control? You can improve upon your management skills by developing processes for Change Control, Incident Reporting, Service Requests. Sound like paper work to some, but it can prevent problems as decribed from happening, and applies ownership to the task.

Likewise, you can track issues and resolutions which will give an idea of the work you do, and more importantly, allow you to improve uptime, reduce number of issues, etc.

With Service Requests, you are able to quantify the number of requests and determine who is doing the work. Management may feel all IT techs are the same until they look at the statistics.

Lastly, on this issue, document procedures. No your evil coworker will have a documented process to follow. The neat thing here is to make him responsible for correcting the documentation.

The work doesn't interest me anymore...

Sounds like you have lost your passion. This is a hard thing to fix and sure takes away from the job satisfaction. You can decide to stick with it and contiue to earn a decent wage. (Sounds like the job is fairly easy, but tedious for you) Here, focusing on non-job related activities may help -- volunteer, join a club, learn a new skill... Then work just becomes another place to hang your hat in between your activities that you find rewarding.

You can take your same job, and look at what is missing -- no challenge, boring, etc. And see how you can change things so you have more satisfaction. For example, develope more sophisticated scripts to automate more of the job ... or allow the evil coworker (you are mean ;-) ) to perform like task. Or you can discuss this problem with your boss to see if he can suggest something for you (besides the door).

Or you can change jobs -- this is a tough thing to do, but sometimes necessary -- depends on your age and non-work obligations (family, kids...) When you start a new career, you may have to climb the experience ladder to start making your decent wage again -- may take a while.

...he constantly is asking me how to do this and do that. He complains that he doesn't know Solaris like he knows AIX. Yet his AIX skills are not that great...

This is your evil coworker's problem. Try not to make it your own. You have a skill set he may never achieve -- ...is this his fault? ...are you just being intolerant? ...do you know how he feels about his level (lack of) skill? ...or is just one of those guys who blames everybody for their own problems? Can you help him become a better person? Do you want to help him become a better person?

If you want to help him because you want to, or he is desperate (five kids and a huge morgage type of thing), then perhaps the two of you can develope a plan.

If not, then can you discuss the issue with your boss?

anyway, you have some very good comments from others. Hopefully something has germinated...

 

[onoski]

Hi Khz,

Have you now settled and or possibly found other job? Or maybe you have left I.T as a whole. Just curious