How much downtime do you have at work

nact

I heard System Admin or Network Admin usually have a lot of downtime at work, is that true? I heard that usually one works about 3 hours out of 8 hours?

What about NOC, does that have a lot of downtime?

Also does NOC involve working alone unlike Sys/Network Admin who work at an open space where others can see you?

networker050184

All of that just depends on the company you work for. Some companies you have nothing to do most of the time and some you're worked to death.

Generally people in a NOC environment are not working alone. The open or closed seating again is going to depend on the company you work for.

[Deleted User]

Free-time for me? None.

DatabaseHead

Day to day for me. I work a lot of Cap dev projects so it's on and off all the time. Usually on.

EANx

When I was a sysadmin, it varied. There were times I'd have 10-15 hrs per week free for things like studying and times when I worked 50-60 hours solid. My longest month had a 72 hour week, two 65 hr weeks and a 55 hr week. It really depends on the environment.

thomas_

At my current position I don’t have any free time unless you count the time it takes me to walk to and from the bathroom. I’m hopelessly backed up with what seems like no hope of making it through the backlog and additional new work that is piled on by various project managers.

At a different site, same type of role, it would vary between being busy all day and having hours of downtime.

markulous

It does depend. My last job I barely had enough time to quickly eat a sandwich at my desk, which was awful. The job now there's significantly more downtime, but that can quickly change with any incidents that happen.

techwizard

I think this depends on your role, and environment. Currently, I work for a bank, as T1 help desk. Basically we are help desk for online banking for both internal and external customers. I literally get maybe 5 or 6 calls per day, that is both internal and external combined. However, the network admin and the IT director are doing more than the help desk people, since they have more responsibilities. I was in a IT manager capacity before this job, and left that one because of a toxic work environment. With that being said, I have a lot of downtime, in this role with my current job.

jvrlopez

Small lab network technician...in between managing 3 switches, 3 server suites, racking and mounting blades, trying to stay on top of an inventory, and running and terminating cable, I'm beat by the end of the day.

JoJoCal19

techwizard wrote: »

I think this depends on your role, and environment. Currently, I work for a bank, as T1 help desk. Basically we are help desk for online banking for both internal and external customers. I literally get maybe 5 or 6 calls per day, that is both internal and external combined. However, the network admin and the IT director are doing more than the help desk people, since they have more responsibilities. I was in a IT manager capacity before this job, and left that one because of a toxic work environment. With that being said, I have a lot of downtime, in this role with my current job.

5-6 calls per day? Damn you're lucky. Every help desk I've ever known gets that many per hour, minimum at T1.

NewbBrandon

At my previous job I had almost no downtime. I mean it wasn't so busy that I couldn't eat a sandwich but it was pretty busy. At my current job I have a lot more downtime. In the afternoon I have maybe 5 to 6 calls from 2-5. I am still working on issues but there is nobody calling in.

alan2308

When I was working for an MSP, we could have all been at the office 100 hours a week and still never run out of things to do. Now, as a government contractor, we struggle to find ways to keep busy a lot of the time. It's all in where you're working and what you do.

techwizard

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

5-6 calls per day? Damn you're lucky. Every help desk I've ever known gets that many per hour, minimum at T1.

Yup.Per.Day. It is really boring.

pitviper

add me to the worked to death category. I rarely have down time from work on the weekends when I'm not technically working as well

And don't get me started on open seating arrangements lol I think I've devolved work induced ADHD... I don't think I'd ever consider a job where I'd be sitting in a bullpen.

LeBroke

I have downtime whenever I want if I'm not dealing with an issue, but in general, most of my work is project-focused.

So if I slack off for a day, it means eventually I'll need to make up the effort to keep (myself) on target with objectives.

jwdk19

IT Plant Systems Analyst for a Pork processor. RARELY have any down-time at all. Worked too death�� Especially if a production line goes down. Great pay and bonus but professional development or training time is practically non-existent. I have learned a ton across the full spectrum of all things IT (network, sysadmin, security, infrastructure, control systems scada etc. etc) so I guess that is "training".

Good position to experience and touch every single aspect of info tech but not a position to retire from (reluctant to hire IT folks as IT is hard to "quantitate" and does not generate profits....however we save the company untold millions by minimizing downtime).�� I digress.

Overall, I am glad and thankful to have this position but more than 3 years in IT, in plant production is likely my limit. Hit my 2 year mark, 1 to go . Rant over lol (sorry I got way off topic)

jamshid666

One of my former co-workers at my current location said it best: "We have two jobs. Our day job is nothing but back to back meetings and doing change management paperwork, and our night job is doing the real IT stuff." That said, there are weeks where I get some downtime, and there are weeks, especially end of month patching, where things get brutal.

nact

I read that most Help Desk jobs have only 30 minutes of downtime. Is that true?

mr.comfortably

Ours gets hammered, and they have high turn over. So ya. Its low downtime.

Welly_59

My SD has no downtime at all

mr.comfortably

Quick note* Any job with low skill entry is gonna be pretty load intensive.

nact

But at least does it provide with experience that will open doors to better opportunities in IT?

mr.comfortably

You receive information of issues from all different sources, you will learn to troubleshoot basic level issues, but get experience in a wide array of systems and technologies. So, yes you will learn, it will be a broad learning curve, then you need to choose a specific route for future studies if thats what you want to do.

nact

Since it is low level entry, is it possible to get the job even if you don't have any IT background?

Welly_59

Yes. My company will literally take on anyone with a pulse

N7Valiant

MSP tech here. Yesterday I wrapped up 13 hours at the office and did 60 hours for the week not counting whatever time I've put into my pet projects over the weekend that are still work related such as automating Windows installations. I've been eating at my desk pretty regularly.

I'm a bit skeptical that the 40-hour work week actually exists after visiting /r/sysadmin.

kohr-ah

Varies week to week.
Some weeks I sit at home and study and other weeks I am booked for 50 hours that week.

mr.comfortably

More work isnt' bad. You get more experience!
Lets put it this way. I'm scheduled 8:00am - 5:00pm. I have never worked that schedule since I've been at this job.
Usually I'm in at 7:00am so I can catch any issues that happen before people start coming in. There is power issues, so some sites lose network connections and such. I usually have about 10 or so projects sitting in my queue to work on, not including break-fix (Manage a 3k+ user environment, w/ police, courts, 24/7 facilities). I do OT every week...."every week". Average work week is about 60 hours. Depends on your environment. I was hired to upgrade their environment, and restore a bunch of "use to work" projects.
People from the outside will see network / system admins sitting at their desk, and the normal thought is "they are surfing the web", or "..doing nothing". So is life. IT is fun, just love what you do and you could do it all day long.