gosh we IT people work hard.

I have being in the I.T industry for 3 years now and I must admit we IT people work hard.

I mean the IT feild is a well paid feild and there is a reason behind that. It is because no many people can do what we do and we work in this feild because we are passionate about what we do and that's how we surive.

That also brings me to my other topic do you guys work more than 40 hours a week? If so how many hours and do you get paid extra for it.

We are normal people but some people think we are super humans because without us their business wouldn't run

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log32

I tend to agree that any person administrating something that serves many people (Especially system admins but not only) is a hard working person.
I work 45 hours a week by the way.

truckfit

you get over time for it?

MiikeB

In my experience it comes and goes. Some weeks I have 60 hours of work to do and am busy all the time, other weeks I have very little going on. I can even have days where I have nothing going on then the next day is a 15 hour day.

Most of my jobs have not paid overtime, some comp time. I personally hate a boss that will ask me to work 60 hours one week but if there is nothing going on still wants me to show up for 40 the next. My favorite bosses have not accounted for time but rather just if my work was getting done or not.

jibbajabba

This is true - but I think people in IT are also the people who have the most quiet days in comparison. I think I was never able to crack a book open (IT or not) or browse the net when I was working in the helpdesk. In IT I was able to reinstall my own ESXi Cluster via IPMI / RDP during office hours

log32

As a sysadmin If you automate many regular tasks then you will provide yourself some spare time to do other things. I used to work for a helpdesk call center that supported 7000 internal employees. And we were 6-7 tech supporters. Each one of us answered over 80 phone calls a day.. Approx 6-7mins each. Now that was madness. My personal record was 180(!). People didn't last too long there. It was hell.

m3zilla

While I don't do 60 hours a week, I haven't had a 40 hour work week for years

discount81

I worked from 7am till midnight yesterday.
Only for the person I went out of my way to help late into the night to have a tantrum with me this morning.

My girlfriend is a high school teacher and I swear sometimes I work with far more immature people than the children she teaches.

Plantwiz

Wow, what a topic.

I know many, many folks who have difficult jobs and IT is a cake walk compared to what they do.

I will caution that this thread needs to stay clean or it will be closed. Simply keep in mind, one's job may appear more or less important because of the ease someone performs the job. People generally do not go into or avoid jobs for pay alone, some may but it is short lived, they do the work they know they can perform.

jibbajabba

I think the main difference between "other" jobs and IT jobs is the appreciation. Well to be fair - that applies to many service related jobs.

You work in a bakery - people come to you because they want something. They want bread - they pay - they walk away and are (generally happy)
You work in IT / Service related jobs - people only come to you (generally) if something is broken

I always say - appreciation in IT is if someone isn't complaining ...

I did notice in my working life so far (Studied Electronics Engineering, drove bus / coach and lorry and now obviously work in IT), through the different areas - that people in IT seem to get quicker frustrated / have lower job satisfaction and tend to think about going into pig farming instead

Obviously there are a lot of exceptions - but that is my impression over the (long) years.

Ismaeljrp

Dolev wrote: »

As a sysadmin If you automate many regular tasks then you will provide yourself some spare time to do other things. I used to work for a helpdesk call center that supported 7000 internal employees. And we were 6-7 tech supporters. Each one of us answered over 80 phone calls a day.. Approx 6-7mins each. Now that was madness. My personal record was 180(!). People didn't last too long there. It was hell.

And then people say there aren't jobs, so ironic.

jibbajabba

removed unnecessary quoted previous reply

Callcenter are manic .. Used to work for Xerox Techsupport once and man - the turnaround is higher than than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

malcybood

It's peaks and troughs.......

I generally have a good work life balance and probably work a bit over 40 hours a week but I make it fit around my personal life, whereas before my personal life fitted around work. It's the nature of working in IT and within project environments.

Networking jobs specifically require changes to be done out of hours and can be anything from a 10 minute firewall policy push to a 4 hour change window to upgrade a core switch and more.

My longest week was a 50 hour week (40 core hours plus 2 hours overtime each night) combined with a 38 hour straight data centre migration over the weekend for a customer - this was phase 1 where we migrated about 10 applications (internal and web facing services)!!!

So that was nearly a 90 hour week. Aside from that in that position I was doing 40 - 60 hours every week, an hour or 2 worth of changes every night, designs to deadlines etc.

It comes down to how busy the company is, what they commit to the customer and resource availability. It took me a while to learn to say no (to unreasonable requests) as enthusiasm took over in respect to working with cool technologies. Makes you ill if you overdo it. Much more balanced and in control these days.

adamroya

well atleast you have work haha

truckfit

@malcybood

Did you get paid for the over time?

YFZblu

truckfit wrote: »

without us their business wouldn't run

Right - And without HR, nobody would get hired, fired, or paid. Without marketing, people wouldn't know the company even exists. Without sales personnel, there would be no profit...etc.

In the end, we as IT professionals are in place to help the business succeed, not the other way around. The attitude that IT runs the show is an immature position to take, IMO.

Iristheangel

@truckfit - you legally are supposed to get overtime if you are paid hourly while having your taxes taken out of each check. If you are salary or a billed consultant, you dont get any overtime. With salary, you get paid X every year and that's how it works. As a consultant, you bill the hours at a flat rate and its up to you to pay taxes on it. Hope that clears it up for you

truckfit

removed unnecessary quoted previous reply
Thanks.

I am a salaried employee.

I might become a private consultant like you are irishangel. But how do you get clients and overall do you make much money vs being a employee.

Iristheangel

I don't mean this in a condescending way but you're probably better off where you're at right now. I got lucky with my "consultant" job but I don't know if I could repeat that luck if I tried. I am going through a company that bills me off as a consultant. I did not go out and market myself to a major corporation and talk them into hiring me as a consultant all on my own. You could always do side jobs through onforce.com or workmarket.com but the work may be unsteady depending on where you live. Plus if you run into problems that you can't solve on your own as you've mentioned that you've been having in your last thread, it might get you some poor reviews which would limit your future opportunities through those sites. I would recommend to get some more experience doing what you are doing right now and when troubleshooting and hunting/seeking answers becomes second nature to you, THEN think about where to go next in your career position-wise. Master what you are doing first

shodown

When I worked at a TAC center, I worked over 50+ hours every week. When I got back into consulting I only went over 40 if something was broken. Now working for a partner, I do 40 hours a week, but usually only 65-75 percent is billable, the other time is paperwork or learning new tech.

truckfit

You are right Iris

But no matter the task I get it done just like now.

I didn't know I researched and played around and got there. However with that being said I do not believe im ready as of yet maybe in a year to year and a half.

VAHokie56

I like this thread as its fitting to me going on my 18th hour of powering down/up 2 data centers...mind is jello right now

Freeguy

YFZblu wrote: »

Right - And without HR, nobody would get hired, fired, or paid. Without marketing, people wouldn't know the company even exists. Without sales personnel, there would be no profit...etc.

In the end, we as IT professionals are in place to help the business succeed, not the other way around. The attitude that IT runs the show is an immature position to take, IMO.

This is a very good point that I think needs to be restated.

For three years, I worked in a technical role for a distribution company. The technical division was completely removed from the rest of the office - sales had their own area, HR had their own area, finance had their own area, and so on. We thought we walked on water, and that without our vastly superior intellect the entire company would go under. I mean, the sales reps always asked really basic questions and we only saw them chit-chatting in the kitchen so they obviously didn't do any real work.

Well, that company went under in the great crash, even with our unique skillset.

I've been working for a different distribution company since then, but this time I work in the middle of the sales pit (not ideal, but you work with what you got). It's made me realize that everyone has unique skills and contribute differently to the overall mission. My talent is that I can read very quickly, I have an analytical mind-set, and I grasp concepts quickly. However, I absolutely suck when it comes to profitably dealing with a difficult customer that wants to know why their shipment was damaged. I'm not that great at selling the company to suppliers so we can get differential pricing. Massive financial spreadsheets put me to sleep.

I've long since realized that making fun of the sales reps for not understanding the difference between 802.3af and 802.3at PoE standards (even after a dozen explanations) is about equal to them having me do cold prospecting calls to hostile clients while they listen in.

TL;DR: Takes all kinds.

EDIT FOR ON TOPIC: My work week varies. Never below 40, sometimes upwards of 60-70 during busy seasons. I'm salary though, so I don't get paid any kind of overtime. However, the company is more or less easy to work with - if I was out on the road all weekend for work, they are understanding when I have a doctor's appointment during the day.

RouteMyPacket

Real IT professionals that actually know what they are doing work hard because

A. They care
B. Understand an environment is a 24x7 responsibility
C. Want a properly configured and documented environment
D. See A

Again, I would say a good 75% of "IT Professionals" are worthless seat warmers.

malcybood

truckfit wrote: »

Did you get paid for the over time?

Damn right I did, unfortunately I live in the UK and more than 50% went to taxman / student loans (yep still paying it after 10 years post university working).

I'm still of the attitude if something needs done I'll finish it more or less whatever it takes, but working like that for long periods (i.e. months / years) of time isn't good for your health either. I know a guy who got signed off for stress at 26 years old when I was there - I found that crazy and never got to that stage myself but I was incredibly stressed - I just dealt with it and it gave me good experience anyway to move onto a more realistic role work/life balance wise.

That's one of the things I took out of my experience.....Health is more important than a few extra bucks - that you don't have time to spend anyway.

malcybood

RouteMyPacket wrote: »

Real IT professionals that actually know what they are doing work hard because

A. They care
B. Understand an environment is a 24x7 responsibility
C. Want a properly configured and documented environment
D. See A

Again, I would say a good 75% of "IT Professionals" are worthless seat warmers.

^ what that dude said

RouteMyPacket

YFZblu wrote: »

Right - And without HR, nobody would get hired, fired, or paid. Without marketing, people wouldn't know the company even exists. Without sales personnel, there would be no profit...etc.

In the end, we as IT professionals are in place to help the business succeed, not the other way around. The attitude that IT runs the show is an immature position to take, IMO.

Only the inexperienced and or immature carry the attitude that IT is king (I remember those days myself). I quickly came to the realization that IT is the red headed step child of business. Stop and think about it

1. You are "the computer guy" to everyone regardless if you are Desktop or Sr. Network Engineer "Hey computer guy, my Outlook isn't working"

2. We don't generate business

3. We always ask for money (Umm, yeah I like need $100,000 for a new SAN this year etc.)

To be honest if you are going to make IT your career you have to accept the fact that

A. We are a customer service driven industry, meaning we take on problems. That is the very nature of our work, we are problem solvers.
B. Get use to not getting major props from the business (Sales are king when it comes to this)
C. It is rare anyone commends us for keeping the mail system up, storage or servers up, network up...but the second it's down you are the worst IT department known to mankind.

So working with that knowledge goes a long way. It "is what it is" and I accept it.

truckfit

RouteMyPacket wrote:

Only the inexperienced and or immature carry the attitude that IT is king (I remember those days myself). I quickly came to the realization that IT is the red headed step child of business. Stop and think about it

....snip...
So working with that knowledge goes a long way. It "is what it is" and I accept it.

You are so right.

kurosaki00

If you're an active Admin
by active I mean pro active when it comes to your work and knowledge
you always end up working more than 40 hours
either directly because you have work to do
or for example on the weekend Im always at many points during the day "let me check this and that"
quick looks to see if all is alright
also one thing its your college/personal goal IT studies
and another is when you work for example with Citrix and you end up reading pages and pages of wikis and documentation at home so you can do your work better tomorrow

Sometimes I feel Im getting paid for browsing around, sometimes I think its fair
sometimes I dont have time to eat, literally 9 hours without eating

PurpleIT

RouteMyPacket wrote: »

Only the inexperienced and or immature carry the attitude that IT is king (I remember those days myself). I quickly came to the realization that IT is the red headed step child of business. Stop and think about it

1. You are "the computer guy" to everyone regardless if you are Desktop or Sr. Network Engineer "Hey computer guy, my Outlook isn't working"

2. We don't generate business

3. We always ask for money (Umm, yeah I like need $100,000 for a new SAN this year etc.)

I like to say our (IT) job is to make sure everyone else can do their job.

C. It is rare anyone commends us for keeping the mail system up, storage or servers up, network up...but the second it's down you are the worst IT department known to mankind.

So working with that knowledge goes a long way. It "is what it is" and I accept it.

The other thing I always say is that if people aren't calling to complain and they kind of forget we are here then we are doing our job.

bdub

Plantwiz wrote: »

I know many, many folks who have difficult jobs and IT is a cake walk compared to what they do.

I want to echo this as my wife who works in child care/early childhood education works just as hard if not harder than I do as a systems engineer. Part of it is that she is a director of a center so she works many hours and has to wear many hats and has virtually no flexibility in her hours. Working with not only young children but also their parents is much more stressful than any users or development teams IMHO. On top of the high stress and long hours she gets paid very little compared to what I make.

Yes, many of us work hard in IT mostly because we are passionate and most of us are continually engrossed in technology ie our jobs, but really we have it pretty damn good compared to a lot of other careers out there.