I'm getting tired of people thinking I do nothing in IT.

Almost all day long I get smirks or jokes that I do nothing all day. For example:

"Oh you just sit around all day and look at the internet."

"He doesn't do anything."

"Are you working hard or hardly working?"

"Oh come on, you don't do anything all day."

"You don't work. You just walk around all day."

Or some problem happens, where the email stops working. I can only do so much since we outsource it to a provider. So I end up calling them or sending them a ticket to resolve the problem.

"Isn't it your job to fix these things?"

Everytime someone walks by my office I see them glance in. I usually am listening to my ipod in one ear and running updates remotely, checking event logs, researching, monitoring network usage, etc. They all think I am just watching movies or something.

This isn't any of my supervisors or anything since they know exactly what I do, it's just co-workers and such. Lately, it's becoming more frequent and it's starting to aggravate me. One of these days I'm afraid I am going to go off on them. I used to work at the bottom with everyone else, printing, moving skids, cutting forms, working the warehouse. But I worked hard and proved myself, got promoted after I graduated and now I am doing what I want to. It just sucks that I get no respect for what I do. (at least from co-workers) I don't mean to sound like I am whining, but I am starting to get mad at everyone.

I'm still pretty new to the IT field (outside of school) and am always researching and trying to learn more about new technologies. It's my job. It's too bad I am the only IT guy in our building. It's totally different whenever I talk to other IT professionals at other companies, vendors, or contractors. I tell them I am new and they are eager to help.

Anyone get this kind of treatment?

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Comments

cisco_trooper

Don't take this crap personally man. People know IT people generally make more than they do, and often times it is not just more, but ALOT more. Some of them may be jealous, especially if you used to be in production with some of them. One thing though to be careful of, though it is annoying, some of these comments may be light-hearted and nothing meant by them. My favorite one that I hear a lot is "You working hard or hardly working" but it is generally meant as small talk and probably just to get a light laugh. Try to laugh it off as best you can, you know what you are doing and if you are working hard it will show and you will eventually be rewarded.

Just my nickels worth...

BeaverC32

Tell them to STFU and mind their own business.

Smallguy

depends I'd jsut really do it back to them to be honest

but if they're really driving you bonkers and there not joking ask em why they have so much free time they know what you up to all the time

also just my personal opinion but it does look unprofessional when your listening to your ipod at work... at least don;t give them ammunition

maybe after hours or if your in early but during the business day

sprkymrk

Tell them what bothers you most is having to pause Star Wars right in the middle of the best parts every time they come by, so if they would just go quickly and quietly about their business you would be abe to finsih your movie in peace.

Then tell them if they were nicer to you more often you would let them use the executive sauna once in a while when you're not using it.

Then ask them why they weren't smart enough to do your job.

Mishra

It is just jealousy... Most people make tons of comments on how young I look and even very rude comments like "you aren't old enough to work here". When I make 6X their salary and dress nicely to work in order to make good impressions.

It is how people work, I would try to just ignore it as saying something can only be negative.

cisco_trooper

sprkymrk wrote:

Then ask them why they weren't smart enough to do your job.

This is good stuff right here man...

Don't forget that they generally aren't cognisant of the complexities that go into a network that runs well. Hell, they generally aren't intelligent enough even to be trained to do this job..this is not a job that a monkey can do. It DOES involve a higher level of thinking, a level that ALOT of people are not capable of. This is evidenced by that lack of qualified people, and the relatively high salaries that experienced IT people command.

dtlokee

Tell them the better you do your job the less they will notice you're there. Now if they really want to know what you do then start f'ing everything up and when they can't get their email they can come watch you work since they won't be able to forward all their jokes and what not to their friends and they will "have nothing to do".

On a side not I have noticed if you always walk around with papers in your hands people think you're busy, and walk swiftly everywhere you go...

Schluep

sprkymrk wrote:

Tell them what bothers you most is having to pause Star Wars right in the middle of the best parts every time they come by, so if they would just go quickly and quietly about their business you would be abe to finsih your movie in peace.

Then tell them if they were nicer to you more often you would let them use the executive sauna once in a while when you're not using it.

Then ask them why they weren't smart enough to do your job.

Now I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall to see their response for that.

What they say isn't a big deal, don't let it get to you and be sure to always give your best effort. I would also recommend doing whatever it takes to avoid getting to the point where:

Zoomer wrote:

One of these days I'm afraid I am going to go off on them

We had to fire someone last October for that very thing ultimately happening. Her door was the only one facing the main hallway and everyone said "Hello" to her as they passed by. She never mentioned it but apparently that bothered her and one day she completely lost control and physically/verbally assaulted a new employee from our Call Center for simply saying "Hello, how are you?".

hetty

I get that too but I would let it role off your back as long as your supervisors are on your side. They probably have no idea of the work that you do and just see you sitting down. I wouldnt worry about the looking in the window thing, that happens in my company all the time. People are just nosy I guess. They could also be jealous of your position and/or age. You need some good comebacks to show that you dont really care what they say. But you need to do it confidence, humor and sarcasm. Do it deadpan and it could back-fire on you.

Zoomer wrote:

"Oh you just sit around all day and look at the internet."

Yeah thats true, but there is a reason why I have to surf the Internet. But dont even get me started on what you look at all day. Ive seen the logs. Wow. You should be ashamed, you really should. Tut tut tut... pause... smile... MaleOnlyBrides.com (if its a guy) BlowUpMaleDolls.com (if you know shes a single woman) keep going with some good ones which dont have a website. They might actually checkout the websites. Make sure it doesnt exist but is still funny. You get the idea. Works better if there is a group and your come-backing to the one who started on you.

Zoomer wrote:

"Oh come on, you don't do anything all day."

I know. I just pick this piece of paper up from here and then decide to file it in X's office instead of email. I dont think theres a company policy to actually use the email server.

Zoomer wrote:

"You don't work. You just walk around all day."

Im a regular speed walking champion me. Its gold or nothing I tells ya.

Generally agree with them and then turn it in to the ridiculous while depreciating yourself.

RTmarc

BeaverC32 wrote:

Tell them to STFU and mind their own business.

That's the one.

Megadeth4168

I've been getting this type of treatment for 8 years.... You know, it's really funny though, when they really need you, then suddenly you are the hero and you must work hard ect ect..... If you are going to work in IT then you need to get used to things like this.

Seriously, people see me when they walk by and they don't know what I'm doing.... 75% of the time they see me, I'm looking at my monitor.... Of course, none of them actually come up to see what I'm doing, they just make assumptions. Some times I wish one of them would come in while I have a few thousand lines of code up on my screen....

Sie

The one i like is: "How can you be tired you just sit on your bum all day"

Just ignore them, not worth your time or money.

Atleast you and your supervisors know what you do and how hard you work and thats what counts

Goldmember

Megadeth4168 wrote:

Seriously, people see me when they walk by and they don't know what I'm doing.... 75% of the time they see me, I'm looking at my monitor.... Of course, none of them actually come up to see what I'm doing, they just make assumptions. Some times I wish one of them would come in while I have a few thousand lines of code up on my screen....

I'm sure people have caught you in a moment of intense concentration with thousand lines of code...

Thats when they usually walk away and realize how dumb they are for having no clue what you do for a living...

cisco_trooper

Wouldn't it be funny if one of them walked up behind you and saw you remote monitoring their screen as they surfed some inappropriate websites......

Megadeth4168

cisco_trooper wrote:

Wouldn't it be funny if one of them walked up behind you and saw you remote monitoring their screen as they surfed some inappropriate websites......

Nah, don't need to, I administer a websense server where I work. They can't get anywhere they shouldn't be without being blocked. Ahem, that is, with the exception of a few people who thought they were smarter than IT and tried to use proxies or other methods to get around Websense... *Shakes head* they got caught, and got in trouble. As an administrator, I love Websense.

Daniel333

I am feeling pessimistic today, so just a random thought...

IT is a cost, you don't directly generate any rev. for your company. So no matter how hard you work, you are not going to work hard enough because your metrics will always side in the cost column. So upper management will never be kindly to your roll.

At least the salesperson can meet his goals . Once you meet yours (completely automated system), you get laid off/outsourced.

sprkymrk

Daniel333 wrote:

IT is a cost, you don't directly generate any rev. for your company. So no matter how hard you work, you are not going to work hard enough because your metrics will always side in the cost column. So upper management will never be kindly to your roll.

That's why you have to be able to show ROI. It costs a LOT more NOT to have you than it does to have you.

Megadeth4168

Daniel333 wrote:

I am feeling pessimistic today, so just a random thought...

IT is a cost, you don't directly generate any rev. for your company. So no matter how hard you work, you are not going to work hard enough because your metrics will always side in the cost column. So upper management will never be kindly to your roll.

At least the salesperson can meet his goals . Once you meet yours (completely automated system), you get laid off/outsourced.

Yes, but.... IT can cut major costs as well... Automation, fix security holes, find better solutions or utilize new technologies to decrease costs. This can hurt other job positions though... If I create a program the negates the need for a job that a human used to do.... then I just saved the company money.

If I keep the network secure with patches ect... Then when a new threat hits, we are already protected. While this is under my job description, I could argue that without IT personal that there would be a huge hole and the threat would have cost the company a ton in down time and probably contract work.

paintb4707

dtlokee wrote:

Tell them the better you do your job the less they will notice you're there. Now if they really want to know what you do then start f'ing everything up and when they can't get their email they can come watch you work since they won't be able to forward all their jokes and what not to their friends and they will "have nothing to do".

So true so true. When you're in an administrator type position, the less you have to do the better job you're doing.

The only person that usually picks on me at work is our receptionist. I just return the favor though since I know she's surfing MySpace all day. It's all in good humor really. Other than that no one ever says anything to me but I always feel self-conscious that I look like I'm doing nothing merely because no one has any clue what I really do. However that's just the nature of the game really. Admins are employed ultimately to wait for something to happen and prevent it if possible. People need to understand that. Not to say that most admins do nothing all day but I'm sure nothing is keeping you busy enough where you can't put it on hold for a few minutes to help out an end-user. Luckily for me, before I started working at my company they had virtually nothing so I'm building things from the ground up and they really appreciate my presence.

The best thing I can say is, even if you're browsing the web all day reading IT articles you're still doing your job. You're educating yourself and therefor making yourself a more experienced employee. Who knows? An article you read several months back could help you solve a crisis in the future. "You know... this looks awfully familiar!" Hell, I recall even seeing some job postings where it was REQUIRED of you to keep in touch with the latest greatest technology. They practically expect you to surf the web at work.

But like most people said, the ipod is probably a little too much. When you're slouched in your chair listening to music its bound to cause certain assumptions. That's for any type of position really, IT or not.

dax_kun

Dont think much about it. I'm a sole IT in our company too and they think that I'm doing nothing too. They just dont understand what things we need to face each day. They dont know that we need to monitor everything because we are the only person responsible for the company's IT. Even before I got to sleep I'm thinking ways to make my work easier.

dynamik

paintb4707 wrote:

The best thing I can say is, even if you're browsing the web all day reading IT articles you're still doing your job. You're educating yourself and therefor making yourself a more experienced employee. Who knows? An article you read several months back could help you solve a crisis in the future. "You know... this looks awfully familiar!" Hell, I recall even seeing some job postings where it was REQUIRED of you to keep in touch with the latest greatest technology. They practically expect you to surf the web at work.

Yea. And when you're on techexams.net all day responding to people's questions, that's just to help foster the community so someone will be there to answer your questions someday, right?

Darthn3ss

I'd just ignore it. Or go postal. but thats up to you.

spike_tomahawk

Just go Nick Burns on em... Moooooooove... Nick Burns, now theres a man who DEMANDED respect.

And when they cant map a drive or create a .pst just say "They teach this kind of stuff on "Blue's Clues"

Slowhand

My advice: take some time off, maybe a week or two, and then come back and ask all those people giving you a hard time why they didn't fix their own problems while you were away. After all, how hard could it be to do the job of someone that "just sits and looks at the internet all day"?

paintb4707

Slowhand wrote:

My advice: take some time off, maybe a week or two, and then come back and ask all those people giving you a hard time why they didn't fix their own problems while you were away. After all, how hard could it be to do the job of someone that "just sits and looks at the internet all day"?

Or better yet... Crash the DC and call in sick.

BigTone

Its my experience that you are either put on a pedestal or in front of a firing range by your users.

Its great when you have users that know you are talented

ie. One of our remote managers called in about a monitor that was acting funky and when I said she'd have to replace it she said, "I finally found something you couldn't fix"

On the converse ->

When our users can't remember what they set their outlook passwords to and our ancient NT domain controller nix's the passwords when they have their bimonthly reset and they call in and b*tch. "WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN" "WHY CAN"T YOU FIX THIS"

TechJunky

I used to get that a lot my first year at my current job... Now I look at people and tell them to get back to work. Keep your head up and keep up the good work. The ignoring method works great for me.

I usually say "Yah Sure" if they are trying to have their fun and I just go back to work and ignore them.

The biggest leap was I was a "trainee" per say when I came on because all of their stuff was propietary. Now I am the head IT guy and moving into management in May. The best advice I can say is be proactive and always look for ways to improve the business. The person your trying to impress is your boss, no one else. So do what they require and forget about the idiots who are jelious.

I am currently reading a book called "Dare to Prepare". It has great tips and will help you focus on your work, not the employees.

blargoe

It is almost always under appreciated by the masses. Time to start making disparaging remarks about their sales jobs.

Pash

Only your supervisors and managers will know your productivity. Do not sweat it and ignore the users, if they feel you/IT department are not performing well then they should complain to your manager/supervisor and not take digs at you.....

snadam

Most people have a tendency to put down/criticize/diminish what they don't know or understand. Unfortunately its human nature. I find this especially relative when you're the 'young guy' on the job. I whole-heartedly feel where you're coming from. I still get mad every now and then, but mostly I just smile and walk away, without giving them any satisfaction that they pissed me off.

We all know that we are here for a reason. Non-tech people really don't understand that reason until something happens, and you fix it. So when people B***H about you not "doing anything", then you're probably doing you're job right.

hang in there man, we all get it!