Advice on current job.

darkerz

I'll bring it to you straight. I work in an Operations style NOC environment on night shift 3-4 days a week 10 hours at a time. 20% Helpdesk, 20% reports/billing/documentation, 40% maintenance/monitoring/redundant tasks/Tier2-3 troubleshooting, 10% physical hardware/server room security and maintenance and 10% raw Network deployment, server adjustments, database, backup, etc. checks and troubleshooting.

Sounds like a dream finally-skipped Tier1 Desktop Support/Helpdesk job, right?

The pay is fantastic for my age.
The environment is amazing.
The hours are ripe for advancement and studying.

It's the people. A few 4-6 year veterans truly enjoy escalating trivial things such as wording on tickets (For example, instead of assigning 1 out of the 300+ tickets I do per 4 hours to Network Support, I assigned it to VoIP because of the nature of the issue, it turned out to be correct but one of our micromanaging coworkers escalated it over email to such an extent that it's unbelievable).

I've even talked to my Manager about this, she agree's on the peoples personalities and possible motives and is planning to work on it with them. But things don't change and these trivial emails (I've never once done anything affecting anything besides semantics) are sent out, on purpose via CC, to our entire IT group and my manager. Each. Time.

It's affecting my ability to enjoy my job, I second guess everything I do and as a result I've become inefficient and slow at tasks out of pure paranoia and fear for losing my job.

I've even confronted the individuals directly and it was smirked off with a passive aggressive commentary.

What do I do in this situation? I only have 3 months into this role, 7 total if you count time contracting there, and I dread opening my emails and going to work. It's hard to ignore, before anyone suggests that.

*Sigh*

My young enthusiasm has been crushed by the corporate environment. Go figure.

the_Grinch

How long ago did you speak with your manager? My environment was sorta like this (in my case none of it was malicious, just stupidity) and I switched to night shifts. If you spoke to your manager awhile ago, perhaps (and I say perhaps because overall it sounds like a good gig) start looking elsewhere. The other question is, has anyone that could have you fired said anything? I mean if no one other then the crappy coworkers are giving you grief, I'd say smile and keep doing what your doing. If you doing a good job and management is happy, I'd not worry about what the coworkers are saying/doing.

blargoe

I think these "veteran" co-workers may simply feel threatened by the new guy.

I might would broach the issue with your manager again at some point, she needs to hear the feedback on how it hasn't improved since your last talk. Also ask her for some feedback on what you could improve upon or could be doing differently. I wouldn't continually bring it up after that.

I would be inclined to tell you to stick it out for a while, just because the experience you're gaining for a first IT job is excellent. Unless it is becoming unbearable, sticking it out another 6-9 months would look better on you.

ehnde

I would confront the coworkers again, making direct eye contact and cutting straight to the issue. Do you think these complaints are something you could document and possibly present to your boss and/or human resources?

And on a side note, 300+ alarms over 4 hours sounds a little high to me I might do 700 per week, but we don't escalate very much - there's only 1 level of support above our NOC.

kiki162

Yeah I would just bring it up to your manager again, especially if you keep getting stupid e-mails like that. If you are getting side e-mails that you feel need to be brought to your manager, then do so. In this situation you have to "keep your nose clean" and keep pushing forward in your job. You will always have at least one or two people that will "get in your way...or hair" like that. You really can't let all the BS get to you from these people.

If there's something to learn from these issues because you are new, then I get that. But if you have a bunch of clowns giving you a hard time because they are soooo hard pressed in their ways that they have to complain to "mommy" everytime a major issue happens, then let it go. People like that eventually will get looked down upon with their constant e-mails.

Personally, since you said you kind of enjoy the work you do minus the BS e-mails, then I would stick it out for a while. Don't let the clowns get to you, and ask your manager once another stupid e-mail comes your way and see if this gets resolved. But don't ask anymore after that, because it shows that it's getting to you, and that's not good for your job. Another option is to find another position within the company that you won't have to deal with those people (if it bothers you that much), or you can wait for a couple more months and start looking for a new job.

Armymanis

That sucks dude! I hope things work out for the better!

jakecitrix

how is it now dude?

Cayden

Hope it does get better for you!

If you are truly doing 300+ tickets with in 4 hours, these tickets don't sound like they are getting proper attention they may need. This may be one of the issues that are being brought up.

Good luck!

Kasor

When you find a new job, then move on. However, take the fight to him before you go. I have experience similar problems many time in my career. Sometime you just need to make the stand.