http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/bus...A?OpenDocument

I'm gonna have to say yes, I've been in jobs, where I've felt exactly how the article states.

Any other "IT" people out there felt like this?

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Well, yeah, but this is usually because the, um, users want something implausible, like a list of all unplanned network downtime.

When I work on computers, the number one irk is the end user's constant irresponsible computing habits. Um, yeah you'll get a virus when you open up every e-mail that's pitched your way. End users never take the time to get familiar with anti-virus software, so when a virus warning pops up, they click the X to ignore it, panic and call someone else, or go back to the retial store to complain to the manager the anti-virus software was causing problems (yes, that actually happened). To make things worse, end users let the content on their computers dictate them. I get tired of hearing, "I want to pitch the darn thing out the window". No, you want to find the data center in question and burn it to the ground, not your own PC.

I even know someone who actually believed that a computer would not power up unless you were connected to the internet. Another was convinced that when you bought a computer, you had to program it yourself. Someone asked if Windows needed to be installed before or after Microsoft Offce is installed, and a friend of mine was ready to throw his wireless mouse in the garbage because it didn't work, only to discover there were no batteries in the mouse.

All nail-biters, but it sure beats working at Wal-Mart.

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I'm seriously thinking about posting some corporate IT support desk questions on here. We have about 2500 users, and you wouldn't believe how many "hair pulling" questions we get. I think my hard drive is broken, it's just black on it. When you ask them if it's plugged in, you get a response like I don't know how to mess with that stuff, can someone just come by and fix it, I have to get this report done! Then when you get there, you see that they've maybe knocked loose the power cord with their foot, but they swear that they've had nothing but problems with this pc, and it only started after they got the latest security patch. blah blah etc..

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I can't say that I've ever been "traumatized" in my IT experiences. I've had some pretty bad, stressfull days, but mostly they were related to critical hardware failures on servers, not user-related mishaps. However, I feel that server-class hardware and software has evolved to the point that there are rarely any unrecoverable problems. Add to that a good disaster recovery plan and backup policy and you have yourself some pretty good peace of mind.

Most of my career has been spent in 2nd and 3rd tier positions with minimal user contact, so maybe I never had a chance to get burned out by the users. I've heard some pretty funny stories though.

When having a serious problem I've learned that you just have to realize that the sky isn't falling and that you will eventually recover from whatever disaster has befallen you and not let it stress you out too much. Its much easier to think clearly once you let the stress evaporate.

I once knew a guy who would completely freak out when anything bad happened - even minor stuff. i.e. lose a single drive in a mirror set = a complete freak-out, even though he knew we had spares available. I'd would've hated to be around him if something really serious happened. His head would probably explode. He ended up with the nickname "cookie", because he would "crumble" under the slightest pressure.

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I work in an IT field of programming with doing some analyst work in there also and I can definitely say my job seems to just get more stressful as the time goes on. Some of the reasons are below:

1) Deadlines get tighter

2) Corporations want ways to cut costs so they let attrition take over and do not hire replacements piling on new work

3) Projects keep getting bigger (larger scope)

4) You're expecting to be able to support the existing systems without any overhead on your current work

5) The more you "patch" older systems the more "bugs" usually end up being found just due to the nature of having to constantly patch bugs over and over in a system without a major overhaul

6) Expectations to fulfill multiple job roles which ends up giving you less amount of adjacent time off due to no proper personnel backups for your job / systems

7) Sarbane-Oxley (nicknamed SOX) compliancy


There are some corporations that do not do this but it seems to be an ever increasing trend from friends I know of different companies and not just the one I work for. It's really irritating as they will have the people burnt out early while they are paying them "okay" wages (nothing like the pre dotCom bust). Personally I think it would be awesome if an IT union existed in which IT people would be able to get back to where the corporation's greediness does not wear us out as much. I'm not looking to take advantage of corporations but at least have them back off their stress / pressure some.