Feeling Overworked and Underpaid (short and long story)

zdx

(long story)

I currently work for a local government township. I support along with 3 other people multiple locations. the township hall (or village hall as some would call it) Police and Fire, public works, 5 Senior and park facilities, three entertainment venues (concerts,theatres,parks) It doesn't seem much but there is constant ongoing activities that go on and with just two people (myself included) Its hard to manage and be on call 24/7 for all of this. I don't have a constant schedule, I usually get a call that wakes me up in the early hours of the day that someone could not punch in and I need to run on sight to check out why while they wait for me or that someone can't/forgot a password to login to a system. That with the constant demand of projects and stress of meeting all those deadlines its getting to me I take my work home and do it off the clock because I am not allowed for over-time. Its overwhelming and it is not my co-workers or bosses fault. If it has power and its electrical its an IT issue.

I do it all at my job. software support, Server management, desktop/helpdesk support, VOIP, networking(lots of it) Supporting two seperate networks (one we don't have access to but a third party does and we get the blunt of calls and complaints if it doesn't work) Theres so much to list but I named them broadly.

My question is this. I've been here for 3 years, and although I'm sure I'll move up eventually with slightly better pay (I make around 34k) Will it be worth the stress of managing this the rest of my life? Its a constant battle to make everyone happy but this workload is getting to me and I can never relax. My phone has rung and vibrated so much that I think someone is calling me.

Maybe I'm ranting but is this what IT is? 24/7 support? Is it supposed to be overwhelming and stressful? My previous job was very simple with a set schedule of answering simple phone calls of resetting passwords and troubleshooting. I'm starting to doubt doing this for a living. I was looking into network engineering but it seems to be a demanding job as well.


(short story)

I'm leaning on quitting my current job (desktop support) due to the workload,stress and bad pay.
Is an IT job always stressful? The higher I move up? Is it possible to take a weekend off?
I wanted to be a network engineer but if its going to be constant workloads I don't know..

joehalford01

You are trying way too hard. Stop taking your work home and let things fall apart. It's the only way you'll get help. You should definitely talk with your boss first and let them know you will no longer be working after hours. If you're not on salary, the firefighters will just be locked out of their systems while someones house burns down. It's not your fault. It's your managers fault, and his managers fault. Push back.

iBrokeIT

Sounds like a majority of your stress is on call related and people are abusing it because you are letting them.

If a system is down and is preventing more than 5 people from doing their work, it is an on call emergency. That's how you need to start phrasing it. After hours on call is for emergencies only. If it's not an emergency then they can put in a ticket and you will attend to it when you get to the office.

You need to learn to say NO otherwise people will trample all over you and you will lose your mind.

cyberguypr

YES. Taking work home and doing it off the clock is a giant mistake. 10 years ago I was in a similar spot. My manager saw me always tired, beat, with no desire to keep going and gave me the best advice ever: "CyberGuyPR, you need to drop things. Seriously. Stop working at home until midnight. Stop coming earlier than you are supposed to. Higher management is not seeing the need for additional bodies because things are getting done. You need to drop things. I've got your back". He did what he could to help but the metrics (all upper management cared about) didn't help the case because of the hours I was putting in. Once I dialed it down, things people started complaining, boss went to upper management, 2 more bodies hired within 60 days. Everyone was happy after that.

On-call shouldn't mean regular calls at 4AM. If this happens constantly it is just a sign of bad implementation, bad processes, bad management, etc. I've been technically on-call most of my IT career but only had to spring into action when there was something major such as an AC in the data center going down, server crapping in the middle of the night, etc. Password resets are not an emergency unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Unfortunately a lot of places believes everything is an emergency and the little IT slave with no life needs to address it immediately. If this is an institutional thought, you need to get out of there ASAP.

gespenstern

Agree with previous orators. And as for them and you it was a story for me as I was constantly overworking trying to keep things afloat no matter what.

You should let the things dive and watch them diving unemotionally. They aren't yours after all.

Just do your fair share of work and sometimes above ONLY if you enjoy what you are doing and it doesn't overstress you.

In the end it's just poor management on the part of your higher-ups, it's not your problem that things are falling apart while you are asleep.

zdx

cyberguypr wrote: »

YES. Taking work home and doing it off the clock is a giant mistake. 10 years ago I was in a similar spot. My manager saw me always tired, beat, with no desire to keep going and gave me the best advice ever: "CyberGuyPR, you need to drop things. Seriously. Stop working at home until midnight. Stop coming earlier than you are supposed to. Higher management is not seeing the need for additional bodies because things are getting done. You need to drop things. I've got your back". He did what he could to help but the metrics (all upper management cared about) didn't help the case because of the hours I was putting in. Once I dialed it down, things people started complaining, boss went to upper management, 2 more bodies hired within 60 days. Everyone was happy after that.

On-call shouldn't mean regular calls at 4AM. If this happens constantly it is just a sign of bad implementation, bad processes, bad management, etc. I've been technically on-call most of my IT career but only had to spring into action when there was something major such as an AC in the data center going down, server crapping in the middle of the night, etc. Password resets are not an emergency unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Unfortunately a lot of places believes everything is an emergency and the little IT slave with no life needs to address it immediately. If this is an institutional thought, you need to get out of there ASAP.

Your response was a delight to read. I basically keep things afloat. Right now we are having a issue with punchclocks where certain people (it only happens to seniors) aren't able to punch in due to bad fingerprints. My job since I'm the low man on the totem pole is to be on call and be at that site where they can't punch in immediately any time of the day or night. They even made a direct extension thats forwarded to my cell.

I've decided I may quit. As of now I'm just going to be doing documentation and inventory before I go. I keep things going but its time for others to step in.

E Double U

cyberguypr wrote: »

"CyberGuyPR, you need to drop things.

Your boss called you by your TE handle? Sweet!

renacido

Have a frank discussion with your boss where you explain the situation and that from that moment on you work during your shift and that's it. On-call emergency means a critical work stoppage that will result in a safety issue or catastrophic loss if not resolved immediately. A user unable to log in because they forgot their password at 4am is not an emergency.

There are times to go above and beyond but working outside of your work schedule should be seen as -- and appreciated by management as -- for actual emergencies. If they need 24/7 support they need to hire more people. If they say they don't have the budget, that is not your problem. You don't get to take food from the grocery store without paying simply because you're broke, and they don't get to steal your free time because they won't put in the effort or spend the political or social capital to raise the money for more staff. It's not your problem.

You've made it possible for them to avoid the uncomfortable conversations of rearranging priorities in the budget by being virtually at work 24/7. They will continue to allow you to do this, expect you to, until you stop. Just stop. Let your boss know that is that.

If your boss doesn't have you back on this, find another job. Seriously. Life is too damned short to live under constant stress and exhaustion.

Job #1 is looking out for #1.

E Double U

@ zdx - A few questions:

- Do you feel you are still learning?
- Are there other roles within that org that you find interesting?
- What's the IT market like in your area?

If network engineering is what you want to do then you shouldn't let possible stress deter you because you can experience stress in just about any line of work. It just depends on the environment.

ThePawofRizzo

I agree with others here. As long as you are covering it all, your manager and other will do nothing to change the dynamic. You will keep working after hours, be perpetually on call, etc. Sure being salary means you may put in a bit more time than 40, and maybe for a big project you put in a lot of hours for a short spurt, but not that you surrender your whole life to The Man. Been there. Done that.

I'd stop taking stuff home, talk to the boss about on call rotation, etc. If you've been doing this for three years you aren't the "new guy" anymore and so shouldn't be expected to just take what the others don't want.

Hopefully there are other IT jobs in your area. I'd start knocking out any certs you've been looking at, beefing up the resume and start looking around.

PCTechLinc

There's also a difference between what others (management) consider an emergency, and what you consider an emergency. For me, if a regular operator can't get their password right, that's not an emergency. However, if my Plant Manager can't log into his laptop, that's a bit different. However, the big difference is the support I get from my direct boss. I worked for 5 years at my previous employer, and I eventually had enough with their political agenda ruining my life, so I found employment elsewhere, and I'm much happier where I work now. Also, I NEVER take a break from improving my knowledge. I have my day job, I teach IT classes at night at a local college, I'm finishing my Master's in IT Security, and I'm studying for 3 different certs. It's a lot on my plate, but if I stop, I probably won't start again. You need to find an employer that will assist you in your goals, not prevent you from reaching them. /rant

bpenn

zdx wrote: »

I do it all at my job. software support, Server management, desktop/helpdesk support, VOIP, networking(lots of it) Supporting two seperate networks (one we don't have access to but a third party does and we get the blunt of calls and complaints if it doesn't work) Theres so much to list but I named them broadly.

On a positive note, you are getting exposure to multiple avenues of technology. And since you have been there for 3 years, I assume you have gotten a solid grasp on all this knowledge? Personally, I think you should jump ship. I think you deserve more than 34k at this point.

iBrokeIT

zdx wrote: »

Right now we are having a issue with punchclocks where certain people (it only happens to seniors) aren't able to punch in due to bad fingerprints. My job since I'm the low man on the totem pole is to be on call and be at that site where they can't punch in immediately any time of the day or night. They even made a direct extension thats forwarded to my cell.

What is being done to find the root cause of the issue with the technology vendor? What is the consequence of the worker not being able to clock in for 10 minutes vs having the punch in manually entered the next day? Are they still able to do their duties without swiping their finger print?

Like Cyberguypr's example, you need to stop being so available on a whim to come put a bandaid on the issue and start screening your calls to force a more agreeable solution to both parties. Maybe start by adding a 1-2 hour response to these calls because you had other life priorities to attend to first.

zdx wrote: »

I've decided I may quit.

Finding another job sounds like a good idea but I wouldn't quit until you have something else lined up.

scaredoftests

NEVER EVER quit a job without lining up another job first. It is hard enough when you are laid off due to budget cuts. So, please think with your head instead of the emotional part.

jamesleecoleman

Yea, I quit my last job and went back to Russia... thinking that it would help me so much but it didn't really do anything. Got back home, started the masters program and it took 8 months before I could get an IT job, full time. Pleaseeee don't quit without getting something else first. It's a pain in the butt and I'm not sure if people are still doing the whole, "We prefer that you're working while applying to us." thing.

v1ral

Normally I would be advise you to stick it out until you have a job lined up, but it seems like your mentally drained and I don't think staying any longer would be good for your mental health. If you still have "gas in the tank" I'd stick with the job until you have something lined up.

24/7 IT support is exhausting work, demands differ based on company's goal and industry. As others suggested, stop taking work home ASAP! I learned that early on, now I just bring home work if I know im going to be working from home.

zdx

Thanks for the help all. I'm going to stay for a little bit and move on. Its wise for me to have a job lined up before I leave so I'll make sure I find something.

Danielh22185

Your situation sounds similar to mine to a degree. I work for a large company with a silo'd NOC strictly supporting network operations for the company globally. My team is constantly overworked and forced to utilize the smallest staff possible. Normally we have a rotating schedule where we work 3 on 4 off / 4 on 3 off, etc. I was asked months back to start working M-F because we lost one guy "due to budget cuts" (which they didn't back fill) and another go out on disability. Initially I thought it would be good for me and my family because I could work shorter days. So being the nice guy that I am I agreed to help because we would be down at least that one guy for months due to disability. Well turns out he came back and I was still stuck working M-F. Over time they became accustomed to me being there M-F and my days started to get longer and longer and longer. They started abusing my time and not respecting my schedule. I was never even asked to return to my previous schedule. After several bad weeks I decide enough is enough. I went back to my management to ask to return to shift work anticipating a struggle. Surprisingly they honored my request but went after another guy to screw over just the same way. I felt bad for that guy but I had to do what I had to do for me.

Moral of the story is in the working world you have to look out for YOU! Unless you setup boundaries people will continue to take advantage of you. If you can't establish those boundaries I'd say you need to evaluate what you are doing that is preventing you from establishing those boundaries. If you feel you have done all you can in that regard then it's time to start looking elsewhere. Like my example some other guy is about to get screwed over. So my management didn't fix the issue, they just shifted the pain to someone else. It's only a matter of time that guy will get fed up with the schedule and want the same as I did. They didn't even ask me why I wanted to go back to my old schedule, which I was prepared to tell them the struggles I've been dealing with. They instead quickly made a move, so that tells me too they know the issues exists, but they are ignoring fixing it.

Good luck to you!

NetworkNewb

scaredoftests wrote: »

NEVER EVER quit a job without lining up another job first. It is hard enough when you are laid off due to budget cuts. So, please think with your head instead of the emotional part.

Meh, I did that 3-4 years ago. I don't regret it. I was pretty certain I could find a job pretty fast, which I did. Even turned down the first couple offers I got cause they didn't meet my salary demand. I think it a lot depends on job demand in your area and how you are financially. I could've gone a couple months without a job if I had to. Just have to be ready to explain that and make it sound like good to a future employer that can be difficult.

The place I worked at was terrible though, management was slowly pushing everyone out.

But like others said, gotta look out for you. Never work crazy hours if your not getting compensated for it. Just asking to be miserable. If my job required me to work a ton of extra, I would make sure I get more money or PTO in exchange. I would never work a job that required me to work a ton though. Time is something you can never get back...

koz24

So let me get this straight. The title they gave you is "Desktop Support" and you do system administration, network administration, and VOIP support along with helpdesk duties. You're on call 24/7 and you get woken up in the middle of the night for "high priority" tickets like changing passwords? And they're paying you 35k!??!

Dude, you need to run from there. It is not worth it. I don't know what area you live in but what you described is not worth 35k. It's not even worth 50k! You need to fix up your resume ASAP and start looking. Find a way to explain that what you're doing isn't really "Desktop Support" but some kind of "jack of all trades" position. The fact that they gave you a Desktop Support title and are paying you on the very low end of it is a joke. Also, user login issues should not warrant calls in the middle of the night. That is on management.

Danielh22185

koz24 wrote: »

So let me get this straight. The title they gave you is "Desktop Support" and you do system administration, network administration, and VOIP support along with helpdesk duties. You're on call 24/7 and you get woken up in the middle of the night for "high priority" tickets like changing passwords? And they're paying you 35k!??!

Dude, you need to run from there. It is not worth it. I don't know what area you live in but what you described is not worth 35k. It's not even worth 50k! You need to fix up your resume ASAP and start looking. Find a way to explain that what you're doing isn't really "Desktop Support" but some kind of "jack of all trades" position. The fact that they gave you a Desktop Support title and are paying you on the very low end of it is a joke. Also, user login issues should not warrant calls in the middle of the night. That is on management.

I couldn't agree with this more ^^^. While reading I couldn't help but think you are doing WAY TO MUCH for your current salary. I made something like that doing ONLY password resets for help desk when I first started in IT years ago. If it were me I'd be out in a heartbeat too.

NetworkNewb

^^^ right, I'm guessing they started you at that rate 3 years ago and haven't moved you up from it? Time to get that resume sent out!

zdx

I work in the chicago area. My official title is "IT Technician".
My salary hasn't increased since I got hired. I hear I will but I doubt it.
It does have its benefits though (health and pension plan). But I'm 24 I don't want to stay here forever.

Fulcrum45

My previous boss was awesome about this kind of stuff. He let our users know that we as the I.T. dept had established working hours (and some Saturdays) and if they ran into problems off hours then it had to wait until the next morning/ Monday. He told me that "Family always comes first, don't let anyone tell you otherwise".

koz24

The problem is when you start throwing basic tasks like password resets into the "high priority" bin it devalues the meaning of true high priority. If you really have a constant need to wake someone up during the graveyard shift then it is time to hire someone to work the graveyard shift. It seems like this place won't do it though. Why? Cause they're cheap! There comes a point in time when you have to say enough is enough. You have to stop being the "good soldier" and realize that management sucks and is cheap and it's time go.

alias454

cyberguypr wrote: »

Unfortunately a lot of places believes everything is an emergency and the little IT slave with no life needs to address it immediately..

Preach on brother preach on!

@OP: Seriously though, the movement for always on, always connected is going to cause these types of expectations to grow. Normal people have no clue about what it takes to keep the magic fairy dust flowing and they don't care. If you feel you are getting **** on (which you are) you should move on. One thing you didn't clarify (maybe you did and I missed it) is are you salary or hourly? 35k isn't the worst pay for a single? 24 year old dude but the expectation to give up your free time sucks. Also, if this is your personal cell phone, turn it off once or twice a week and let everyone know you are off the grid for the night. Whether you are the "new guy" or not, your colleagues should help out a little too.

zdx

alias454 wrote: »

Preach on brother preach on!

@OP: Seriously though, the movement for always on, always connected is going to cause these types of expectations to grow. Normal people have no clue about what it takes to keep the magic fairy dust flowing and they don't care. If you feel you are getting **** on (which you are) you should move on. One thing you didn't clarify (maybe you did and I missed it) is are you salary or hourly? 35k isn't the worst pay for a single? 24 year old dude but the expectation to give up your free time sucks. Also, if this is your personal cell phone, turn it off once or twice a week and let everyone know you are off the grid for the night. Whether you are the "new guy" or not, your colleagues should help out a little too.

Not salary thats how much in total my hourly adds up to plus/minus some overtime.

And yea I understand. But with the amount of work and the time I spent there I should get a raise even if its very small.

clintonia

zdx wrote: »

Not salary thats how much in total my hourly adds up to plus/minus some overtime.

And yea I understand. But with the amount of work and the time I spent there I should get a raise even if its very small.

35k is what it works out to even with overtime? Dude I feel so bad for you man. I'm going to join the echo chamber and suggest that you definitely fix your resume and get out of there.

I wouldn't recommend this as I think you should move on and your employer doesn't strike me as the kind to want to pay you more, but if you feel some sort of attachment to the company at the very LEAST ask them for a raise. Based on all the stuff you are doing, you should easily be making 55k, considering you're always on call. If you go this route, research local market rates for the type of work that you are doing and make sure you call to their attention that they have given you the "Desktop Support" role/position but are expecting you to go oh so far beyond that.

alias454

zdx wrote: »

Not salary thats how much in total my hourly adds up to plus/minus some overtime.

And yea I understand. But with the amount of work and the time I spent there I should get a raise even if its very small.

For sure. I wasn't trying to imply you don't deserve a raise. I was just saying it could be worse . As far as how much time you spent working, what is the actual number of hours per week?