THE IT BURN-OUT THREAD

[tech_guy]

Hi All,

 

I just though I'd start a thread for those of us who can't get enough of IT and tech but are paying the consequences of living and breathing our jobs and our it/tech obsessions 24/7!

 

I seriously need a break - and it's only the end of the second week of term!

[Koldov]

Seriously! I know what you mean... (I even remote in most nights to the server to check it's ok) Got to .....switch ......off

 

Now the first weeks madness has calmed a little and I have fought the fire from most of the 'little' changes I made in the summer having their effect (desired or otherwise) and things that have 'mysteriously' broken whilst being at home with the teachers for 6 weeks, or things that just do not like coming back on after being switched off for so long (a bit like the staff ).... I have run myself ragged around the School this week, yet heard nothing but complaints about how tired they all are .

 

I am going to work like crazy and push everything through this year so I get a holiday next summer (I'm starting now by coming in on Saturday so I can turn the server off to install more RAM), no leaving this stuff until the holidays and then having to work all through them this year!

 

Kol.

[glennda]

I know what you mean, last thing I do before bed is check out dashboard for any alerts and also backup status's. First thing in the morning I do the same.

 

The last thing at night isn't as important but the first thing in the morning is. That's the o this is broken problem. 99% of the time it is fixed before my clients have even got into work and noticed a problem!

[Rogan]

Try working in a new plant where one wrong move means you've just lost 40million quids worth of parts! We work a continental shift pattern (x2 12 hour days, x2 12hour nights then 4days off) We all check our emails while off but only to see what wall of technical vomit we will be walking into!

 

It's fun I love it

[speckytecky]

My contract is for under 20 hours a week term time. Small school, 2 servers but a total of close to 200 client machines. Web site, MIS, planning new kit etc - I'm also constantly doing work stuff.

 

Trouble seems to be no one seems to have much idea of what I 'actually' do and many think I'm there just to tend their needs when they have problems. Mind MS releasing iffy updates so frequently don't help do they!

[kevin_lane]

Yea my snr tech keeps telling me I need to unplug but when you have over 30 servers etc kinda cant really and some teacher dont understand that things still have to be kept working for for the rest of the 365 days of the year and some times they moam about the smallest of crap it pees me right off my next big upgrade is to replace our main back bone and upgrading it to om3 and then replace the switch and cabs but do the staff take the appreciation of what we arw try to do for them and the pupils NO rant over lol

[broc]

You all need to remember, your aim should be to 'work to live' rather than 'live to work' & also remember you have a life away from work & family & friends who value the time you spend with them. The nature of our jobs in IT means there will always be problems to solve, products to install.... it's an endless treadmill & it is all too easy to get trapped on it.

 

I am at the end of the road as far as my working life & career is concerned. I have worked with computers since the early 1970s and spent my entire life surrounded by IT. I am preparing to retire 'again' soon (I retired 10 years ago & got bored after a few months). I can honestly say I am now ready for a permanent break, I feel burned out.

Edited September 16, 2013 by broc

[Achandler]

I work hard but that doesn't mean I remote in every night, we aren't paid too so why are you doing it?

 

If your checking your servers every night and at the weekend then I wonder what your servers are doing. I trust that my servers will still be working every day when I come in to work, because I look after them when I am in work. Sure there may be the odd day where you need to come in early or even on saturday to get a really important job done. Also the summer holidays is there for most of the disruptive jobs, installign new RAM in a server in 2nd week back? Surely that was a summer job.

 

Servers shouldn't need constant attention, 24/7 in a school environment. Also what you going to do if they all go off at 10pm at night, the answer is probably there isn't much you can do except know the next day won't be fun.

 

Sadly while the staff and students are in the job is to help them and keep everything going, no matter what your next big project is, becuase your next big project isn't happening there and then and it is very likely that it can be interrupted.

Edited September 16, 2013 by Achandler

[fromtheinternet]

I'm paid a 9-5 (or 8-4) job. I've been stung too many times to have work eat into my personal time. If something breaks when you're not there, it has to wait until you get in to fix it. If management aren't happy then it's them who'll have to decide if they want you to be on-call and pay you accordingly.

[Koldov]

Also the summer holidays is there for most of the disruptive jobs, installign new RAM in a server in 2nd week back? Surely that was a summer job.

 

Yes, I guess it should have been, however the 'summer' job was moving SIMS/FMS and staff/student data across to our 2008 server due to finding out a bit late that Capita/Microsoft will no longer be supporting 2003 soon. Also, new profiles, renaming all class PC's due to musical classrooms and working out GPP's to add new printers and shared drives automatically. I wasn't aware what impact that all would have and everything seemed fine until I noticed the server was sitting at the top of its RAM all day. So it was a little more that I wanted it done than it really being necessary. Plus there was nobody in over the summer who could have authorised the purchase anyway!

 

Kol.

[nicholab]

I have to say a lot of these issue were why I pushed visualization when I was working in a school. As a lot off issue like RAM upgrades can be done during core hours. Unfortunately this did not happen and I was left picking up the pieces.

[sonofsanta]

I am saddened (and regrettably not that shocked) at how many people are spending their free time just monitoring servers

 

They don't pay us enough for that. They also don't need 24/7 uptime, 15 minute out of hours responses; outside of 8-4 there are vanishingly few people in a school who will even notice, let alone care. Sometimes it's necessary, yes - MIS updates/restores or security concerns or major no-one will be able logon in the morning issues - and those are the occasions that overtime claim sheets are made for.

 

If the VLE goes down at 8 at night: oh well. If it's exam season I might make the effort, but I live an hour away, I have a family, and I have other things to be doing. Given how infrequently I see SMT appear in the holidays if something major goes wrong (school trip trapped in NYC by hurricane, for example) I fail to see why I should hold myself to a higher standard for something less important.

 

Putting all this time and focus into your network to the exclusion of all else is more likely to result in burn-out (and therefore no network support) or being too caught up in the details to see the bigger picture; ultimately, you're sacrificing the long term health of the network for short term worry. If you can't think about your own health, think about that, at least

[Ephelyon]

I think I'm already approaching burn-out despite having no right to be at my age and stage

[NikChillin]

I'm paid a 9-5 (or 8-4) job. I've been stung too many times to have work eat into my personal time. If something breaks when you're not there, it has to wait until you get in to fix it. If management aren't happy then it's them who'll have to decide if they want you to be on-call and pay you accordingly.

Exactly, come in on a Saturday? No way! If you don't take your holiday then you lose it. You aren't doing yourself an favours.

[hardtailstar]

The only thing that annoys me is that when im on lunch I always get people demanding I fix their problem, If I asked them to do something at lunch time then id get told no.

 

When I finish thats it unless been agreed by the head or its a major problem. I dont even check my emails after work

 

When im not at work thats my time.