How stressful is your job?

Hello.

A few months ago I was thinking about whether it was time to start looking to move on in my career and was starting to keep an eye on the job market but not looking too seriously or anything. Anyway the above question has haunted me every time I think of looking again because of below.

A bit about me:
I am 20 and work in the networking department of a 24/7 environment. I've been here for 2 years, starting out as temporary staff doing patching and vlan changes etc. but my responsibilities gradually increased (implementing projects to now being in charge of them) and was taken on permanently a year ago.

A few weeks ago due to a series of events the team of 4 that I work in and my manager was brought down to myself and 1 other person (who's twice my age) for a week and I was put in charge. Not a problem, as this has happened before for the odd day (or just me on my own!) and we concentrate on support. Unfortunately it was the same week that we were shutting down the server room for maintenance for a day. So I now had to organise the shut down of all our equipment and ensure that those who would be doing their normal work were able to, as best they could with no IT, and that they understood implemented the contingency plans etc.

Anyway, I did some great work and it all went smoothly in the end but I was mentally tired at the end of everyday, I got home and did nothing but watch TV, eat and sleep. I didn't do anything that I enjoy doing, and now fear if I change jobs it will be like that all the time.

I know I'm being a bit ridiculous but it is bugging me a bit.

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Comments

networker050184

The higher up you move the larger the impact your work will make. With that comes more stress. Its just part of the job really. In the end its only as stressful as you let it be. The more prior planning you have in place the smoother thins will go. Obviously there are times you don't get much notice to plan, but the better prepared you are the less stressful things will be.

mikedisd2

When was you last holiday? May be overdue.

BroadcastStorm

The people are the one that makes things stressful, not the job itself

jmritenour

Very. Our department's workload to employee ratio is way skewed, and I personally have a LOT more responsibility than my title or salary would dictate. But it all falls in my lap because I seem to have garnered the reputation of being the one who can figure things out fairly easily.

But it's better than being unemployed.

itdaddy

Every since I moved to management, I have been way more stressed. But I have had to learn on the fly most of my skills since my boss was canned.
But to be honest I love the fact that I am the man now and can make some cool decisions. but after watching the network engineers come in do a job and wipe their hands free when they leave, makes me want to do that kind of work.
I want to make 50 bucks an hour come to a job do what I need to do and leave dusting my feet of responsibility off once I ask the client, " do you like what I did? and does it work to your satisfaction? yes they say and bam gone.
now that is my kind of job to swooop in fix stuff or config stuff and leave with cash in hand! bam done!
I like that and some day in the fture see myself leaving my job as IT manager serious! too much Hobnobbing for me. I am a hands on guy not a hobnobbeR!

MechaniX

My job is as stressful as I make it really. Taking on too much work and not being able to say "No" or "I'm tied up for the next bit" is a downfall of a lot of IT professionals, and they feel compelled to please everyone. In retrospect, most people take on work out of fear for losing their jobs, and that is very understandable. Never be afraid to talk to management, or anyone who you feel can help (HR more specifically.)

IMO, Your health and sanity are what really matter and like the above poster mentioned, maybe it's time to take a break and get yourself back together. I've had to take time off before for stress issues, and it's a great thing to do. Granted, mine was coupled with medical and family issues, but that's beside the point.

Always take care of yourself first, then deal with work later. As backwards as it sounds, getting to wound up in your work can be harmful.

forkvoid

Extremely stressful. Perfection is demanded, and I get reamed for every screwup. I'm the only IT guy and am expected to run a full IT shop for three companies that really need at least one dedicated guy for each of them. My responsibilities range from project manager to desktop support and every technical/para-technical role in between. My vacations must be scheduled two months in advance due to a lack of staff.

Sounds Good

forkvoid wrote: »

Extremely stressful. Perfection is demanded, and I get reamed for every screwup. I'm the only IT guy and am expected to run a full IT shop for three companies that really need at least one dedicated guy for each of them. My responsibilities range from project manager to desktop support and every technical/para-technical role in between. My vacations must be scheduled two months in advance due to a lack of staff.

if you are the only IT guy there, who takes your place when you go on vacation?

and how much are you getting paid for this kind of work?

Countryboi

on a scale from one to ten.....maybe a zero....i dont stress things get done when they get done, i try to get thinks done as quickly as i can but i am not going to walk on water to do it

forkvoid

Sounds Good wrote: »

if you are the only IT guy there, who takes your place when you go on vacation?

and how much are you getting paid for this kind of work?

We bring in a guy who moonlights... he has to use his vacation from his large company to cover me.

I'm getting paid about $10k under market. Suffice to say, I'm actively looking.

Sabalo

My job isn't too stressful, considering locale. The worst bit is being gone and not having places to hang out and chill, but you get used to it.

QHalo

forkvoid wrote: »

We bring in a guy who moonlights... he has to use his vacation from his large company to cover me.

I'm getting paid about $10k under market. Suffice to say, I'm actively looking.

Good for you for looking. Sounds like poor management decisions.

My job isn't very stressful at all and I get paid a decent amount. More so than I did doing system administration which was way more stressful.

msteinhilber

Honestly, I have to say that my job is only as stressful as I allow it to become. However, being able to keep my present state of mind in check and be consciously aware of when I'm starting to really stress out so I can initiate strategies to not let it get bad is the difficult part.

Stress or really any negative emotion in most situations can be mostly thwarted if you can become aware of it before it reaches a point where it consumes you and basically destroys your day. I've been working on trying to help control negative emotions in and out of the workplace for a while and have gotten better but it can be difficult to be aware of one's own mindset - at least for me it is.

A technique I've used, carried over from a suggestion from a therapist to help control ADD/ADHD is a vibrating watch. I initially used the watch as a queue every X minutes to trigger my mind upon vibrating to think "oh, my watch vibrated - why is that, oh yea it's because I said I would wear this and every time it vibrates I would do a mental check to see if I'm still on task or not". Now I started to use the watch to queue my mind into doing a mental check to see if I'm feeling angry, stressed, whatever. If I'm feeling angry or really stressed out when my watch goes off I simply take a moment to try to think why I'm feeling that way (usually not too difficult to remember) and then I question myself as to what good feeling this way is going to do to benefit the situation. Feeling angry or stressed can't benefit a situation, so I quickly begin to cool down and accept that I have a situation to deal with regardless of it I choose to let it stress me out or upset me. I can tell myself in my head that the problem will still be there either way, and should I allow myself to get all worked up over it it's not only going to still be there but will likely be more difficult to remedy if I let my mood deteriorate.

Obviously, a technique like this probably isn't going to do much good for a very toxic workplace or one where you are constantly putting in a huge amount of hours or a role where you are perhaps taken away from other factors in your life such as family more often than you would like but I find it does wonders for the day to day grind as cheesy as it may sound since it's kind of a mind over matter thing but hey, it works.

snokerpoker

My last job was way more stressful than my current job. Sounds great doesn't it??? Well, only downside is I make about 12k less. My former position was outsourced to India so I had to take a pay cut to stay employed. My current job is fairly low key.... I am able to clock in from home, go in, work, and then leave. My boss is pretty laid back and doesn't care about anything including the users. I pretty much run the department and he goes to the meetings with all the managers.

tribe_menx

Got a boss who panics for nothing, sight of his face is stressful

Repo Man

I'm being laid off in two weeks so I'd hardly call it stressful

chmod

My job is very stressful i work for a big vendor and we are running the biggest network for the goverment service provider, the contract is for 5 years this means we are in charge of the network during the first 5 years.
Because this is a vendor we have another projects with other service provider.

I have to deal with the customers, project managers, NOC guys, my supervisor, local management, headquarter management etc. I have 3 cell phones i have to be by contract available 24/7 or i get fired this means i'm always on call.

I was lucky because i was the first technical guy hired in my country now im 3rd level of support and technical manager.

I have to deal with KPI's, new requirements, solve technical issues, reply to technical inquiries from customers, prepare incoming/new projects, presales support for any customer and my personal life.

I have to travel a lot, learn very fast and "know everything".

Some days i want to leave the company and my country and start my life all over again... working in something else offcourse less stressful.

Maybe start my own business in the beach or something like that.

I like and enjoy IT world but i don't know for how long i can handle this.

Miikey87

Stressful, but its only because I make it this way. Im just a junior, I do work 40 - 45 hours a week and am on call on weekends. I then study about 15 -20 hours a week towards certifications as well. I have a hard time trying to manage my clients and and my time and a hard time saying no. Whilst I push myself forward saying that the this is the only way I will make my mark into the industry I think I need to slow down at some point before I burn out.

However I still love each day, not knowing what the days going to have for me ahead!

N2IT

Potential of outsourcing is there and I have two kids and a fiancee who is still in nursing school so from that vantage point I am. The job itself isn't to bad but I've been their over 2 years now and have learned and retained about 85% of what comes down the pipe.

So in other words 85% of my job duties are routine and don't require much thought.

jmritenour

tribe_menx wrote: »

Got a boss who panics for nothing, sight of his face is stressful

I got one of those too.

forkvoid

jmritenour wrote: »

I got one of those too.

Indeed, myself as well.

Boss: "omg, customer is freaking out, she needs this software yesterday!"

"No, sir, she categorized it as 'wishlist' and said that's it not important at all in the ticket..."

"oh, I didn't read the ticket"

rwmidl

Right now my position isn't that stressful. However I did have a job at one time where I was a ball of nerves the entire time I was there. My boss (who I actually liked) was a workaholic and was at the office 18 or so hours a day. So you got the "feeling" you were expected to do the same. Plus he was always right, so even if you told him the sky was blue, you were wrong. Local management (my boss was in another state) expected even more from you and it wasn't uncommon to be verbally berated if you couldn't cater to anyones ideas (ex: we had a supervisor who wanted a laptop. All hardware requests had to go through my boss for approval. He didn't approve it, yet it was local IT's fault that this supervisor couldn't get a laptop). On top of all that, we were on call 24x7 so it wasn't uncommon for me to get calls at 7am on a Saturday morning because some supervisor couldn't get on the internet at home.

The day I left, I physically felt myself feel better. My attitude improved, and my health improved too.

jojopramos

My job is so stressful as I am working as a systems and network engineer handling 4 domains in different locations in the city. I am the only admin who work in network and systems. I am working here in my current company for almost 2 years now. My boss is not listening to me regarding adding an admin guy and well, he don't know anything about infra as he is just being hired because the company owner is his friend and it pains me a lot. The good thing, I am resigning this december because a multinational company is hiring me as a Wintel Admin (less stress) and higher pay. Stress is ok but to much stress is not ok already.

vCole

Current job is stressful, IT manager, no other IT people except me. 3 locations too.

I work about 80-100hrs/week right now. No days off, I'm burnt.

veritas_libertas

forkvoid wrote: »

Indeed, myself as well.

Boss: "omg, customer is freaking out, she needs this software yesterday!"

"No, sir, she categorized it as 'wishlist' and said that's it not important at all in the ticket..."

"oh, I didn't read the ticket"

All to familiar with this. It doesn't take much for my supervisor to freak out.

itdaddy

Those of you who give the crap of "my job is only as stressful as I make it" do not have a stressfull job. Sheeet rolls down hill and if you get heat from the top because your market is very demanding (no amount of fung swayy!) nothing a person can do a say can make it less stressfull. yeah there are things I have done to prioritize but after a while you get hit with so much crap...I work at a place where there is so much crap you would not believe....

I will be changing jobs to go to site step 1, work on systems step2,
tell customer how is the jobs do you like it step3, step4 they say yes great job. Step 5 I leave and collect paycheck. I do not have babysit anything you betcha!!!!

itdaddy

Tribe_menx

that exactly what I am talking about bosses who freak out and then in turn freak you out....no amount of psych will help me it is the nature of beast. I try to hide sometimes

turn my phone off say bad reception stuff like that helps hahaa aha

forkvoid

itdaddy wrote: »

Tribe_menx

that exactly what I am talking about bosses who freak out and then in turn freak you out....no amount of psych will help me it is the nature of beast. I try to hide sometimes turn my phone off say bad reception stuff like that helps hahaa aha

I've taken to turning off my phones at 6pm every evening, and leaving the work phone off on weekends. I don't check email/voicemail until Monday morning. It helps to keep me relaxed on nights/weekends, though it sometimes gets me in trouble. My logic, though: you want me available 24/7, you pay the price tag that comes with denying me a social life.

chmod

2:00 am and i'm still working.

I'm getting sick and tire of the 24/7 crap. Always available, always on call, always working.

I'm starting to consider a change.

Sabalo

forkvoid wrote: »

I've taken to turning off my phones at 6pm every evening, and leaving the work phone off on weekends. I don't check email/voicemail until Monday morning. It helps to keep me relaxed on nights/weekends, though it sometimes gets me in trouble. My logic, though: you want me available 24/7, you pay the price tag that comes with denying me a social life.

I consider my providing support after hours to be a privilege. How I handle that really depends on the employer. If I have an employer prone to calling me on my off time, I explain to them that I will be billing for after hours support. If I have an employer who very rarely needs help or clarification after hours, I let it ride... most good employers will do the "you supported me for 30 minutes so your leaving a bit early is fine" without needing to say it.