Does Someone in Information Technology work only 40 hours ( no on-call, weekends off)

Bchen22

Holidays off. If so what job is this?

networker050184

Sure plenty of roles in technology like that. I work hardly 40 hours a week and no on call. I'm a network architect.

In my experience, as far as infrastructure work goes, the lower level and higher level jobs tend to have less of the long hours and on call. When you are low level there really is no reason to call you in. You don't know jack! When you are working high level design there is usually a team of operators/admins to deal with the break/fix and on call that goes along with it. That mid level team is usually where the grueling hours of sitting on calls all night fixing stuff, implementing large changes etc. come in.

You also have plenty other areas of IT outside of infrastructure work. Development, policy, etc. that can come without the on call duties.

lsud00d

Bchen22, as a new user I feel you should be informed as to not start multiple threads on the same general topic.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/105306-feel-maybe-im-just-not-cut-out.html

That said, plenty of people do the straight 40hrs/wk. As a contractor/consultant on salary, I typically have no financial incentive to work over the budgeted hours in the pay period. Sure, sometimes it happens if you're closing out a project, or for other various reasons, but typically if I work a 10-12 hour day (instead of , I will take a short day and balance out the pay period.

cyberguypr

I concur with networker's comments. Another thing is that if your enviroment is highly resilient, on-call is not a big deal. On the other hand, if they are cheap and don't build with redundancy in mind, the tiniest thing can become a big deal.

I've been on-call for most of my professional IT career and it has never been excesively intrusive into my personal life.

IT-Fella

Since I work as the head of a small IT dept I have to be on-call for all major issues, such as outages, and other unforeseen events that require my presence on-site. The reason for it is the low technical level of my helpdesks and rest of the dept are developers who don't want to do anything outside programming. I also take turns in an on-call rotation which makes me a go to person once every 2-3 weeks. To be honest - I think it's the worst part of IT - even if I'm not on-call I still have a constant feeling that my phone will ring and I'll have to login remotely or dress and drive to work as soon as possible. With that being said I hardly can go on vacation and leave the calls/emails behind. Fortunately my boss understands my situation and allows me to take single days off any time without notice.

GAngel

I've done it but it's pretty rare. On the management side I'd say rarely unless you have the most well oiled machine on the planet and even then my phone buzzes for 14-18 hours a day.

Jon_Cisco

After reading the post that we referenced and this post I believe you have already answered your question.
You are probably just looking for someone else to provide you with justification for your opinion.

Good Luck!

210mike

I'm a Sr. Sys Admin for a company with a global presence and my work/life balance is amazing. We have admins in Europe, India and the East and West Coast US, so we have a lot of coverage. We also have a very healthy budget and our infrastructure is all top tier. I can't remember where I had to work after hours or on the weekend. Holidays aren't much of an issue either since we have admins in other countries that don't always have the same holidays as we do.


There are a lot of good IT jobs out there, but happy people don't complain really, that's why you only hear about the bad, never the good.

Kai123

IT-Fella wrote: »

Since I work as the head of a small IT dept I have to be on-call for all major issues, such as outages, and other unforeseen events that require my presence on-site. The reason for it is the low technical level of my helpdesks and rest of the dept are developers who don't want to do anything outside programming. I also take turns in an on-call rotation which makes me a go to person once every 2-3 weeks. To be honest - I think it's the worst part of IT - even if I'm not on-call I still have a constant feeling that my phone will ring and I'll have to login remotely or dress and drive to work as soon as possible. With that being said I hardly can go on vacation and leave the calls/emails behind. Fortunately my boss understands my situation and allows me to take single days off any time without notice.

Some of the senior network engineers where I work do 9-5, but if they are on call they need to be available from 8pm to 8am, and they passionately hate it. I can imagine one or two calls in the night, and 30 minutes to VPN in and look at an issue would really mess up your sleep, making for a not-so happy Engineer for the rest of the day.

I almost feel bad for the NOC guy who has to phone the on-call engineer.

Priston

I currently work 40 hours, no on call, no weekends
Also as long as the hours I work include 9am-2pm, their fine with me working when I want. Some days I work 7am-4pm sometimes 8am-5pm.

If half the jobs on the job boards have on call, the other half don't...

dmoore44

I work 8-5, weekends and holidays off, but I am on call. That being said, no one ever calls me - I guess the lower tiers have it handled. And FWIW, I work in INFOSEC.

pevangel

My very first job was straight 40 hours with no on-call. That's because I was hourly and they didn't want to pay for overtime. It was desktop support.

markulous

I do Level 2 desktop support and I'm never on-call and only work 40 hours (unless there's a huge problem). Pretty much everyone there outside of the manager and director are in the same boat.

Holidays are paid off but I usually always volunteer because they are double time and a half if I work it.

Chitownjedi

7 to 3....if i eat..it's at the desk. Just like everyone else. Sr Desktop Engineering most of job is Sccm

thenjduke

I am 6:30 to 3:30 and I am not on call and have weekends and holidays off. I also been in the field for 20 years and a senior level. I am not management though.

no!all!

I do 40 hours a week. But I'm also responsible for data center maintenance so every few months I'll get some OT staying late.

TomkoTech

This isn't going to go be job title. It's going to be based on the company you work for. Most gov't jobs are going to give to 40 a week and thats it, with all gov't holidays off or you earn comp time when working those holidays.

Other than that its the company not the job title. A small MSP may have you work a set 40 because they don't want to pay overtime. Once you get into salaried positions then it changes. You typically make a higher wage, but that is part of the compensation for being available during emergencies.

Based on your posts you seem to have the job you want, but are looking for a reason to get out of IT just in case you lose your cush position? No one is forcing you to be in IT. If you lose your job you can collect unemployment while you look for a new one. Don't accept a position you won't be happy with. Problem solved.

Nersesian

TomkoTech wrote: »

This isn't going to go be job title. It's going to be based on the company you work for. Most gov't jobs are going to give to 40 a week and thats it, with all gov't holidays off or you earn comp time when working those holidays.

Other than that its the company not the job title. A small MSP may have you work a set 40 because they don't want to pay overtime. Once you get into salaried positions then it changes. You typically make a higher wage, but that is part of the compensation for being available during emergencies.

Based on your posts you seem to have the job you want, but are looking for a reason to get out of IT just in case you lose your cush position? No one is forcing you to be in IT. If you lose your job you can collect unemployment while you look for a new one. Don't accept a position you won't be happy with. Problem solved.

This right here.

I haven't clocked my hours per week in a while, but based on a rough estimate for the last few, I would say I work between 50 and 60 hours a week. This is by far the least I've ever been required to put in and in no way do I feel put upon. If something were to happen, I need to pickup the phone 24/7 unless I'm on PTO but have the freedom to take care of whatever I need to during the week. I'm also underpaid by 60k or so for my position, so keep that in mind. I'm in the office around 8 and leave around 6.

IT Director - Lobby Firm (non-profit) - DC

Protip - If you think Web Development is going to offer a standard schedule, you don't know very many successful Devs.
Protip - If you think teaching is going to offer a standard schedule, you may very well be out of your mind

wolfinsheepsclothing

System Engineer in a small research lab -- 9-3 core hours -- 40 hrs/week

N2IT

I get a lot of my development work done on the weekends. Saturday and Sunday's are life savers for me. I do work 40 - 45 Monday through Friday, but on the weekends I have another 10 - 20 hours of work depending on project status.

logisticalstyles

I'm a level 1 help desk analyst and a contractor as well. I only get 40 hrs a week with no paid holidays or PTO. No weekend work either. I actually kind of miss having the option to log in a few Over Time hours. My last job was in a call center and I could always count on about 5-7 hrs of Over Time per week.

taternuts666

I'm a Systems Engineer for a smaller MSP in central IL. I work a lot of weekends and outside of business hours. I do also have some slow days where I'll take off early though. I'm on salary so it's a give and take.

srabiee

Bchen22, you mentioned in another thread that you started that you currently work an 8 - 5 job with no weekends and no on-call. What is it that you are trying to accomplish here? Why do you keep starting these threads?

cyberguypr

I think the OP's goal is simple: get a job that is 8-5 and doesn't touch any of his personal time in any way. Go to work, do his part, walk out, and don't hear anything until he shows up the next day. Kind of like a McDonald's job. You walk out the door and don't take it home with you. Nothing wrong with that, just that seems to be the exception rather the norm in the IT world.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, I hope I never come across people with this mindset in any team I am a member of. I have passion for what I do and need to be surrounded my similar individuals. Like I said earlier, in my 15 year IT career I've done on call, middle of the night maintenance, broken data center cooling system at 4am, etc, but that doesn't mean my career took control of my life or that I missed on my wife and kid's stuff. They key term is work life balance. Of course an on call that takes 4 hours every single night is ridiculous and means there's an underlying issue that needs management's attention. A call once in a blue moon that take 30 minutes should not be a big deal.

As others said the on call is very company specific. Some expect you to be a slave an respond within 5 minutes multiple times per week. Others have one issue every couple of months but need someone on call because the business determined that was required. There's no standard.

The private sector provides great opportunities for excellent remuneration but in return it requires commitment and "whatever it takes" attitude. In my opinion, IT is not for the OP.

nelson8403

My job currently is 8-5 with an hour lunch and I never work weekends, I'm the IT Director for a large construction company. I may have a call or two on the weekends but if I tell them I'm busy they understand, and if not I can always hop on and help out. I generally always choose to stay late to work on things but I'm never required to. I love what I do and I want to make sure the rest of the employees are happy with everything that I do.

bhcs2014

cyberguypr wrote: »

I think the OP's goal is simple: get a job that is 8-5 and doesn't touch any of his personal time in any way. Go to work, do his part, walk out, and don't hear anything until he shows up the next day. Kind of like a McDonald's job. You walk out the door and don't take it home with you. Nothing wrong with that, just that seems to be the exception rather the norm in the IT world.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, I hope I never come across people with this mindset in any team I am a member of. I have passion for what I do and need to be surrounded my similar individuals. Like I said earlier, in my 15 year IT career I've done on call, middle of the night maintenance, broken data center cooling system at 4am, etc, but that doesn't mean my career took control of my life or that I missed on my wife and kid's stuff. They key term is work life balance. Of course an on call that takes 4 hours every single night is ridiculous and means there's an underlying issue that needs management's attention. A call once in a blue moon that take 30 minutes should not be a big deal.

As others said the on call is very company specific. Some expect you to be a slave an respond within 5 minutes multiple times per week. Others have one issue every couple of months but need someone on call because the business determined that was required. There's no standard.

The private sector provides great opportunities for excellent remuneration but in return it requires commitment and "whatever it takes" attitude. In my opinion, IT is not for the OP.

I wouldn't say a 40 hour week is the exception. As you can see by this thread plenty of people only do 40 hours a week, not a minute more. Plenty of people in IT leave their work at work. You may not like working with them but there are plenty of them out there. I don't think it's right to say IT isn't for the OP because he doesn't want to work extra hours. His mindset will definitely affect his career progression but it doesn't mean he won't make it in IT.

Danielm7

I just took a contract role that is set at 40 hrs a week. If it is even a minute more they need approval and need to pay me time and a half. Granted I won't be doing a lot of work from home after hours but I'll still be learning at home and trying to better myself. I'm not sure if the OP just wants to never have to even touch a computer or think about it vs actually logging into work for tasks. I don't imagine too many people who are passionate about IT don't even read blogs or learn new things when they are off the clock.