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For those out there who are veteran IT workers, how do you feel about the constant intrusions of work into your personal time? I know that many of my colleagues over the years have suffered heart attacks, strokes, and broken marriages. Some have even died at a relatively young age from the stress. I realize that the pay is usually very good, but do the long hours, constant on-calls, late nights, and lack of much real time-off get to you?
For those out there who are veteran IT workers, how do you feel about the constant intrusions of work into your personal time? I know that many of my colleagues over the years have suffered heart attacks, strokes, and broken marriages. Some have even died at a relatively young age from the stress. I realize that the pay is usually very good, but do the long hours, constant on-calls, late nights, and lack of much real time-off get to you?
I'm an IT worker for over 15 yrs and I know what you're saying. The only advice I have is to switch jobs, there are much better IT jobs that don't require being available all the time. You just need to do some soul searching and see what other IT jobs that don't have this requirement and don't be afraid to ask during interviews. Even if you don't get the job, it's a blessing that a company don't want you because you can't sell your soul to them for meager salary.
I kinda like it. I just always look back during college years when I was worried that I'd never be this relevant.
Sometimes I enjoyed not picking up my phone and/or slowing down to make a drink before calling back, knowing theres a lot of corporate climber status keepers praying to hear back from me.
I really do not know anyone who died from IT related stress.
For those out there who are veteran IT workers, how do you feel about the constant intrusions of work into your personal time? I know that many of my colleagues over the years have suffered heart attacks, strokes, and broken marriages. Some have even died at a relatively young age from the stress. I realize that the pay is usually very good, but do the long hours, constant on-calls, late nights, and lack of much real time-off get to you?
This is very dependent on the company you work for. I know its widespread, but it's not everywhere. I have been in the field for almost 29 years and have seen extremes as well. A well managed and properly staffed IT organization shouldn't be running its staff into the ground, as that just causes burnout and mistakes. My engineers have an on call rotation, but I make sure they get time off if they get involved in something that takes a lot of after hours work.
Abusing the staff with too much on call or after hours work just makes them look for another job. If they are good, sooner or later they will find one. I would never stay at a job that was affecting my health as much as you have described (but I know some do).
Depends on the job profile, department and how well managed the organization is. There are roles that require firefighting and requires them to be on-call routinely; it shouldn't stress them because it is a part of the role. If that doesn't work for them, they should look for another role that better suits their life style rather give them heart burn or break their marriage.
This is very dependent on the company you work for. I know its widespread, but it's not everywhere. I have been in the field for almost 29 years and have seen extremes as well. A well managed and properly staffed IT organization shouldn't be running its staff into the ground, as that just causes burnout and mistakes. My engineers have an on call rotation, but I make sure they get time off if they get involved in something that takes a lot of after hours work.
Abusing the staff with too much on call or after hours work just makes them look for another job. If they are good, sooner or later they will find one. I would never stay at a job that was affecting my health as much as you have described (but I know some do).
In certain competitive environments, I've seen the workers are the ones that are burning themselves out. I was in a 3 man team and there were two guys that just would not stop trying to get attention and responding to requests at late nights and weekends. It did burn them out, I think the manager is at fault here for not stopping this unnecessary on the job competition. Even on rotations some were getting involved. I didn't mind them jumping in because it didn't benefit any of them in the long run. Job promotions are not about who is 1st to do something or who gets the most work. It's about consistency, quality, and dependability.
And some guys just enjoy being the front man in any team regardless how unimportant something is, they want to be the first to respond.
I found that when you are a contractor, you are less likely to be the standard 'on call' person. Maybe once in awhile, but not on a regular basis. Often it's the salaried folks that get the middle of the night/weekends support work week after week after week. Why? Because the contractor logs time/gets paid for each hour worked and the salaried person doesn't charge extra for those additional hours.
After my last salaried position where I was on call 7x24 15 days per month(most emergencies occurring between 1am and 6am) , I decided that contract work might be a better fit for me. With the contract gigs, I no longer have middle of the night emergencies. In fact, I don't even have a company assigned Smart Phone. And that's a good thing
Last edited by sware2cod; 01-13-2014 at 06:01 PM..
I found that when you are a contractor, your are less likely to be the standard 'on call' person. Maybe once in awhile, but not on a regular basis. Often it's the salaried folks that get the middle of the night/weekends support work week after week after week. Why? Because the contractor logs time/gets paid for each hour worked and the salaried person doesn't charge extra for those additional hours.
After my last salaried position where I was on call 7x24 15 days per month(most emergencies occurring between 1am and 6am) , I decided that contract work might be a better fit for me. With the contract gigs, I not longer have middle of the night emergencies. In fact, I don't even have a company assigned Smart Phone. And that's a good thing
That's generally true and was my experience. Contractors are also used in more project based work and not in monitoring EOD stuff. We are on-call for stuff we "recently" released though.. "recently" means indefinite amount of time, since they dont really hire capable people for EOD monitoring stuff
I've been an IT worker for most of life, and I'm still trying to figure out an exit strategy. All of the above are true. Weekends, holidays, nights, long days, and it doesn't get any easier.
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