Have we all become a bunch of anxious, depressed, sleep-deprived irritable stress-heads?

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RE: Have we all become a bunch of anxious, depressed, sleep-deprived irritable stress-heads?

I work in the small business end of the market where the expectation is that you know it all! You have to know something about everything and there just isn't enough hours in the day. The company I work for is a small team of dedicated professionals who find themselves competing with a national telco conglomerate which has an unparalleled knowledge base that would shut us down in a blink if we did not constantly bend to consumers demand for the services they require that the conglomerates shy away from. That is that to stay viable we work in areas that the big boys are not interested in, such as database support for old legacy systems. The requirements do not limit to just pure PC and Server support. There is all the add-on technologies of phones, security systems and multi-OS applications and operating systems. We subscribe to sites like this to try and keep abreast of the coming scams, technology advances, white papers but there is no time to read it at work so it becomes a task given to the night or weekends. If a third party vendor comes into the picture suddenly we are being treated like we have no IT knowledge so you go through a phase of educating them that you are no computer illiterate dummy. They throw new acronyms and non standard methodology at you because they want to differ from their competitors and if at first you don't understand what the heck they are waffling on about they go to your client and suggest they might be better off with another firm!? Not that it happens often but it seems IT people can be their own worst enemy. In an industry where the complexities are always a challenge you get the kind who on the side say to a client "these guys don't know anything". Sometimes it is for client poaching needs and other times it is because they have jumped into your face with a whole lot of terms and procedures that are totally alien and expect that you know what they are talking about. It's the other extreme of being treated like a dummy. So yeah I work 18 hours a day, much of the night is doing stuff for clients that can't be done when users are on the system or fixing a database where I can find a quiet uninterrupted time of day to focus on the task at hand. Change your job someone says!? I've invested years into a industry degree, certification that is a joke and expires every so many years and constant retraining to keep abreast of the technologies evolution. Frankly I think Microsoft, Apple, Citrix, Blackberry, Alcatel and the rest should be paying me for supporting their products and customer base - it's ludicrous that I am paying them to learn how to service their customers!!! Get another job? - examine the ignorance of that statement. To do something different in this day and age requires qualifications. Qualifications require education, education requires time. Most training at tertiary institutions requires an element of self learning which requires more time! Where am I supposed to find the time and keep abreast of technology so that I can maintain a roof over my head and food on the table. To be fair I work in a small city, there are few opportunities to work in a specialised area. Most businesses are small and want support on a varied level. Their expectations are ludicrously high and they want it for nix. So I hear you say "Well move to a bigger city". Why should I? My family, friends and life is here. I love where I live and I have no ambition to move to a city where I know no-one. It's amusing to hear of people that talk of the riches in IT and those that are making a killing working for the mega guys earning big bucks. The reality of small business IT is far removed by comparison. The hardware market has become so competitive that margins of 50% are as low as 10 to 15% markup these days. Labour is capped because it is the only thing that stops the conglomerates from taking all our business. We absorb other expenses that should be legitimately charged simply to keep our clientele. So yes, stressed, insufficient sleep and relaxation are a very real part of every day life. Health issues are beginning to make their impression as I grow older as it has with others I know in the same boat. I used to be an administrator for a small organisation and even then I was working 13 hour days because the company couldn't afford to hire another to help. The beauty of salary for the employer is that they don't have to reimburse the overtime and usually don't. You can't help feeling you're being taken for granted by employers and the industry as a whole. I look forward to a day when I have nothing computational in my life ever. My passion has become my prison guard.

Posted by: mikasarg   Posted on: 10/10/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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