The IT Rollercoaster of Issues
IT is still a relatively new field, and therefore suffers from some very interesting issues that mostly stem from upper management not fully understanding what it is we actually do. Sometimes we're treated like second-class citizens; the janitors of the computer world. Other times we're treated as gods, the Perseus of Problem Resolution, the Rhea of ROI, the Silenos of Solutions.
It is through the beer goggles of ignorance and misconception that IT is seen. And we suffer for it. Our work cycle must be the most misunderstood piece of the IT puzzle, though. Most IT professionals have some form of driving factor, like the need for new software, or stupid users breaking things. These driving factors create work for us. The flippant nature of these driving factors make our workloads irregular. For instance, today, I've said "hi" to people and twiddled my thumbs a lot. This is because people are not breaking things for whatever reason. Perhaps all my yelling and demeaning attitude have finally shown them the light, perhaps the firewall is doing its job, or it could be that an advanced alien species has been fixing our simple issues from the comfort of their spaceship, safely hidden behind a comet. It's punch time!
As I sit here, playing solitaire, reading webpages, I find myself constantly minimizing or closing applications as my boss walks by. My boss isn't evil, but Bossperson doesn't understand that there's nothing to do. I have a cell phone, I have a wireless device that receives emails, I have a laptop and the means to connect to our office and fix issues from anywhere, but if I leave 15 minutes early on a day like today, I will be written up because attendance is worth more than skill. My last job proved this to me. I showed my bosses that I was doing 50% more work than any other single person in my group, they in turn showed me that everyone worked 50% more hours than me. I was denied the raise that the others received for this reason. In other words, their incompetence got them a raise. Their inability to do as much work as me in a timely manner required them to stay late in order to achieve even a small semblance of the workload that I could manage.
I can work from anywhere, and do 95% of what my job entails. So why do I have to sit in an office from 8-5 Monday through Friday and play solitaire? There are weeks that I do indeed work 70 hours, but they are rare. If a job requires me to work 70 hours every week, that job can find someone else. I work to live, I do not live to work. Work is not the center of my life, nor the center of my social life. I would rather have a day at home, with constant phone calls coming in than a day at work playing solitaire.
Bossperson doesn't get it. Working from home is some hippy lovechild fad that'll die down in a few years to Bossperson. Afterall, long hours at work show dedication, like a lapdog. After all, everybody loves a good lapdog because lapdogs are loyal, friendly, and dumb as a stump! My boss knows what my workload is, and can monitor how much I've done and how much I do on a daily basis, but that's not enough.
IT also has a high degree of supervision associated with it, far more than necessary. I've rarely seen any lower than a 5-1 employee to boss ratio. There is no reason to have that many supervisors, managers, vice-presidents, and CEO's brothers-in-law looking over IT people's shoulders. We're supervised because we're not understood.
An IT group is pretty much self-managing. When you have a team of 15 people, who all share a single workload, they police eachother. If someone is slow or stupid, they're not liked be the rest of the group, and as long as you have an electronic tracking system, the group knows who is lazy. As for the stupid, IT people can smell stupidity. Throw the new guy into the group and if he's stupid, he'll be torn apart faster than a package of ding-dongs or even a Microsoft service pack.
IT people don't like to sit around doing nothing, despite what people think. I want to have work to do or I want to go home. There is no in between for me. There is no reason to sit here, with my thumbs fighting for dominance, only to warm the office with my body heat and my ever-so-charming persona.
Lower your head and pray with me:
I, a humble IT person, blessed with genius and good fashion sense do beseech the IT gods to send forth the IT Bosspersons to this website and make them see the light! Let them read these words here and raise mighty boss-like eyebrows unto you! Let them send me home when there is no work, let them supervise me less, and let them get rid of their horrible toupee because nobody believes that it's real anyway! This I beg of you oh IT gods, that there be righteousness and sanity in the computer world.
-Amemorystick
It is through the beer goggles of ignorance and misconception that IT is seen. And we suffer for it. Our work cycle must be the most misunderstood piece of the IT puzzle, though. Most IT professionals have some form of driving factor, like the need for new software, or stupid users breaking things. These driving factors create work for us. The flippant nature of these driving factors make our workloads irregular. For instance, today, I've said "hi" to people and twiddled my thumbs a lot. This is because people are not breaking things for whatever reason. Perhaps all my yelling and demeaning attitude have finally shown them the light, perhaps the firewall is doing its job, or it could be that an advanced alien species has been fixing our simple issues from the comfort of their spaceship, safely hidden behind a comet. It's punch time!
As I sit here, playing solitaire, reading webpages, I find myself constantly minimizing or closing applications as my boss walks by. My boss isn't evil, but Bossperson doesn't understand that there's nothing to do. I have a cell phone, I have a wireless device that receives emails, I have a laptop and the means to connect to our office and fix issues from anywhere, but if I leave 15 minutes early on a day like today, I will be written up because attendance is worth more than skill. My last job proved this to me. I showed my bosses that I was doing 50% more work than any other single person in my group, they in turn showed me that everyone worked 50% more hours than me. I was denied the raise that the others received for this reason. In other words, their incompetence got them a raise. Their inability to do as much work as me in a timely manner required them to stay late in order to achieve even a small semblance of the workload that I could manage.
I can work from anywhere, and do 95% of what my job entails. So why do I have to sit in an office from 8-5 Monday through Friday and play solitaire? There are weeks that I do indeed work 70 hours, but they are rare. If a job requires me to work 70 hours every week, that job can find someone else. I work to live, I do not live to work. Work is not the center of my life, nor the center of my social life. I would rather have a day at home, with constant phone calls coming in than a day at work playing solitaire.
Bossperson doesn't get it. Working from home is some hippy lovechild fad that'll die down in a few years to Bossperson. Afterall, long hours at work show dedication, like a lapdog. After all, everybody loves a good lapdog because lapdogs are loyal, friendly, and dumb as a stump! My boss knows what my workload is, and can monitor how much I've done and how much I do on a daily basis, but that's not enough.
IT also has a high degree of supervision associated with it, far more than necessary. I've rarely seen any lower than a 5-1 employee to boss ratio. There is no reason to have that many supervisors, managers, vice-presidents, and CEO's brothers-in-law looking over IT people's shoulders. We're supervised because we're not understood.
An IT group is pretty much self-managing. When you have a team of 15 people, who all share a single workload, they police eachother. If someone is slow or stupid, they're not liked be the rest of the group, and as long as you have an electronic tracking system, the group knows who is lazy. As for the stupid, IT people can smell stupidity. Throw the new guy into the group and if he's stupid, he'll be torn apart faster than a package of ding-dongs or even a Microsoft service pack.
IT people don't like to sit around doing nothing, despite what people think. I want to have work to do or I want to go home. There is no in between for me. There is no reason to sit here, with my thumbs fighting for dominance, only to warm the office with my body heat and my ever-so-charming persona.
Lower your head and pray with me:
I, a humble IT person, blessed with genius and good fashion sense do beseech the IT gods to send forth the IT Bosspersons to this website and make them see the light! Let them read these words here and raise mighty boss-like eyebrows unto you! Let them send me home when there is no work, let them supervise me less, and let them get rid of their horrible toupee because nobody believes that it's real anyway! This I beg of you oh IT gods, that there be righteousness and sanity in the computer world.
-Amemorystick
posted by ITFury at 1:07 PM
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