The burn-out is real

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1

I am part of an IT department of two people for 170 users in 6 locations. We have minimal budget and almost no support from management. I am exhausted by the lack of care, attention, and independent thought of our users.

I have brought a security/liability issue to the attention of upper management six times over the last year and a half and nothing has been done. I am constantly fighting an uphill battle, and being crapped on by the end users. Mostly because their managers don’t train them, so they don’t know how to use the tools and management expects two people to train 170.

It very much seems like the only people who are ever being held accountable for anything are me and my manager. Literally everyone else in the company can not do their jobs, and still have a job.

If y’all have any suggestions on how to get past this hump, I’d love to hear it

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I have brought a security/liability issue to the attention of upper management six times over the last year and a half and nothing has been done

Its not your company, not your problem.

I’m certain you’re causing more than 50% of your own stress by putting the workplace burdens on your own shoulders like the success of the company impacts you personally.

It don’t.

Do your job, go home and forget about it.

Stop exhausting yourself and then worry about whats left.

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  1. Use a ticketing system judiciously. Seriously, if you aren’t using one right now, you don’t know what you are missing. This will help you triage and build a backlog.
  2. Develop/enforce policies and SLAs for certain services. Some tickets have a lower priority level than others. The ticketing system should be configured appropriately.
  3. Use some sort of work/project tracking system. Not all work is an incident ticket. Some work is just housekeeping/“behind-the-scenes” IT work no one ever sees. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be tracked though!
  4. Use Waterfall, Agile/SCRUM, KANBAN, or the new thing - SCRUMBAN.
  5. Gantt charts. Who doesn’t love a good Gantt chart?

With the above, you can easily track your backlog and also show leadership your work load.

This process has saved me many times before. I’ve had directors come to me and ask “Why can’t XYZ get done?” My response is “Would you like to see my backlog and current work log or my sprints? I’ll show you my top 3 high priorities and you can decide which one I don’t complete on schedule so I can work on this lower priority issue.” It stops them dead in their tracks. OR, at least you get a CYA when a customer asks why you stopped working on their issue - “Boss man/lady said your ticket wasn’t as important as this one. Take the issue with him/her.”

You can also use said system to show all of the work you’ve done for the past time period. “This year, we closed 562 tickets; 12 high-priorities and 2 zero-day fixes, all within the established SLA…blah blah blah…”

4

Yea, burnout sucks.

I literally had a chat with my boss earlier today letting him know that this isn’t a position I want to do long-term (IT Manager. I also didn’t ask for it. It was given to me with the old one left a few years ago), and that I’m just so burnt out on the infra/support side of IT that I seriously need to pivot soon.

Went into all the IT annoyances, including how I dread getting up to go to the bathroom because there’s a non-zero chance someone will grab me either on the way or in there to ask me about some dumb issue they’re having.

Obviously not a good idea for everyone but might be worth mentioning. Or just start looking elsewhere.

EDIT: Just walked back from the bathroom. Got stopped by someone. Maybe I need to just take the long way.

5

It’s super cliche to say it in this sub. But you should polish up your resume and find somewhere else. You’re just screaming into the void without anyone in upper management to advocate and back you up. Worst case scenario the security liability issues come to a head and you and your coworker take the hit. Document everything so far and keep backups of them in your personal drives, update your resume with what you have been doing, and get the hell out of dodge.

6

Watch IT crowd. Will not change the outcome but, at least get a chuckle.

Solution is to update your resume and find a new job.

7

It very much seems like the only people who are ever being held accountable for anything are me and my manager.

I felt that. It seems really common.

Find a way to translate training issues into money. Lost time, IT salary to help with something unnecessary, users doing nothing while waiting for IT to arrive - figure out what works for you. Try presenting this to management. They understand cost and lost productivity.

I did that, and the company I was at mandated that supervisors had deal with all training-related user issues. When we got a ticket that was obviously training-related, we closed the ticket, and cc’d the employees supervisor and their department heads.

Supervisors did not like their department heads seeing how poorly their teams performed and how much time they wasted, so they started telling employees to ask them for help first, before contacting IT.

Over a few months, out ticket volume dropped considerably, and over a longer period of time supervisor started hiring people who were better (and not just warm bodies) so they wouldn’t have to waste their own time endlessly training and retraining their teams.

Show management the cost, and make poor hiring\training practices hurt the supervisors. Be creative.

8

Work for a highly regulated industry - outside auditors will force management to invest in cybersecurity.

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I love getting calls about how to use a niche sales program we have. Like bitch, ask your coworker or manager. I just install it and ask the vendor about errors

10

Kill them with kindness. If you want to work in I.T. you need to know how to manipulate people. Sometimes with honey and when that doesn’t work you use regulations, audits, and other outside threats. You and your manager should sit down and do a Risk Assessment. You need to fill that fucker out verbosely. Then present your Risk Assessment to management.

Don’t call people out in your Risk Assessment refer to them as “Associates” you may need to say “some associates need…XYZ”

Document, document, document. Keep a daily log of what work you do in a notepad or OneNote or something. Everyday have a date and what you did. This company will burn you if you aren’t careful. CYA

11

Get a job where you’re not alone, where you have a budget, and where the company listens.

That’ll fix a bunch of the burnout.

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I’m in a similar sized org that is also has a 2 person IT department. If management won’t address the issues you raised that is on them. Don’t make their failure to plan your issue. If the company goes down you can always find a job. If anything send the issues in writing and BBC your own external email just in case. The only good thing about American employment laws is that you can walk at any time and they can’t really do anything about it.

13

work less, literally work just enough not to get fired/office space. never break your back for people that don’t appreciate it.

14

Here’s something I’ve said elsewhere, but it applies here as well, since it focuses on the attitude one must have when laboring in a late-stage American Capitalist hellscape.

The owners and their bootlicking sycophants corporate turdwookies do not care about you. At all.

Neither does your government or courts, as they’ve been bought & paid for by said owners.

They also own social networks & (m)ass media, using them as their personal propaganda mouthpiece.

Your job search is never over. In AWA: At-Will America (99.7% of the population), you can be terminated at any time, for almost any (or no) reason, without notice, without compensation, and full loss of healthcare.

Your goal is to be the CEO of your life.

Your only obligation is to yourself and your loved ones, like a CEO.

Your mission is to extract as much value from these soulless megacorps as you can, like a CEO.

Milk the fuckers until sand squirts out of their chafed nips…like a CEO.

  • Do not worry about results – “good enough” is truly good enough. There will always be work left undone.

  • Treat your jobs as cattle, not as pets.

  • Work your wage. Going above and beyond is only rewarded with more work. Your name isn’t above the door. You don’t the company. So stop caring as if you did own the place.

  • Don’t work for free or do additional tasks outside of your role, as that devalues the concept of labor.

  • Sleep well, never skip lunch, get enough physical activity.

  • Avoid drinking coffee at work for your employer’s benefit, as they don’t deserve your caffeinated, productivity-drugged self.

  • Avoid alcohol and other vices, as they steal all the happiness from tomorrow for a brief amount today. Especially when used as coping mechanisms for work-related stress.

  • Knowledge is power. Discussing your compensation with your fellow worker is a federally protected right. Employers hate transparency, as it means they can’t pull their bullshit on others without consequence.

  • Your first job is being an actor. Endeavor to be pleasant & kind…yet unremarkable, bland, forgettable, and mediocre. Though it may feed one’s ego, being a superhero or rockstar isn’t suited for this hellscape. Projecting strength invites challenge. Instead, cultivate a personality that flies under the radar.

  • Be a Chaos Vulture. Embrace the confusion. Does the company have non-existent onboarding? Poor management? Little direction, followup, or reviews? Constantly changing & capricious goals? These are the hallmarks of a bad company…so revel in their misery. Actively seek these places out. This gives you room to coast, to avoid being on anyone’s radar, etc. Restrained mediocre effort will be considered “going above and beyond.” Even if you slip, you can easily blame “the system”, like everyone else at the place. Every single day, week, month of this is more money in your pocket. Stretch it out as long as possible.

  • Tell no one (friends, coworkers, extended family, etc) about your employment mindset. So many people tie their identity to their employment. And jealously makes people do petty things.

  • Recognize that lifestyle is ephemeral. Live below your means. Financial security is comfort, and not being dependent on selling your labor is true power in Capitalism.

  • Do not worry about “the environment you leave behind” when you depart a company. This includes how much notice you provide before leaving. Notice is a courtesy, not a requirement. Continuity of THEIR business operations is THEIR problem, not yours. They should have a plan if you accidentally got hit by a bus full of winning lottery tickets. Always be kind to your peers, but don’t worry about them when you leave. If your leaving hurts their effectiveness – that’s a conversation THEY need with their manglement. The company left them hanging, not you.

You owe the company nothing – if anything, they actually owe you, given how much they profited from your labor.

Play their own game against them.

They exist to service us.

If you feel it’s some type of moral failing on your part, then you are falling for their propaganda. Because don’t think for one fucking second that millionaires and billionaires aren’t doing the SAME EXACT THING…or worse…to you and everyone else.

They sleep perfectly fine at night. You should too. Like a CEO.

15

Wow I’m in the exact same position. Except it’s me and my coworker manning the help desk for a user base of ~1300. It’s actual hell.

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Having worked in severaly highly toxic companies I can say you have to reach a point where you are working on yourself and keeping things running. Some managment will never care and consider it details. You need to pay attention to company culture and who the squeaks are.

It took years for me to learn that no issues no downtime great job done - New CEO thinks he is not being respected and has ‘needs’ will kill it all in 1 week. Management culture can be supportive or toxic. I promise there are solid jobs out there that children are not running the company into the ground.

Put that resume out. From what I just read you have solid experience and would get sucked up fast.

***YOU HAVE TO FLOAT THAT RESUME***

***BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND SELL IT***

17

Oh burnout is real….not worth it! Help and look after yourself.

18

I feel you man, 120+ users, 6 sites, 3 different companies. I’m 25, fresh out of college, but they generally support my ideas and encourage me to pursue whatever action I decide is necessary with very little kickback on funding.

I just try to get the sentiment across that uptime = money coming in. Prove to them that spending money is the only way to save them money in the long run.

19

Been there, feel your pain.

The problem with this exact problem is the stats for recommended ratio (itstaff:users) vary wildly; just the first page on Google has 1:18, 1:100, and some in between, so pushing back with the “IT is understaffed” card is difficult. Add to that, in my experience, everyone knows they need IT generally but they despise having to pay for it.

I don’t have this problem anymore (changed company), but as way of comparison there were also 2 of us for about 80 users. That was 5 years ago as well.

What I have done previously is talk to other companies of similar size in the same industry to try and benchmark it myself.

20

With many things, stop phrasing it as a “we need to do ABC”. That’s just an annoying request from the department that is nothing but overhead.

Defer to other authority. Hand them the scan that informs them they have a D for a grade on a security scan and their insurance company will see it as part of their annual assessments. They clearly don’t respect you, but they will respect a change in their premiums.
And update your resume.