9 to 5...is there such thing?

[faster]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Sr. Network Administrator -- so yes, I'm in IT.

I turned down a 20K raise to stay at a small company. Our company does 37.5 hour work weeks for salaried employees. I created our entire infrastructure built on VMWare, blades, and a SAN environment. Works beautifully! Telecommuters connect via Citrix.

I did work for a large company, and there was the potential for long hours, but it's not worth it. Still, most of the people sat in their cube and browsed the internet half the day. Hah... our security department, our server group, our workstation group, our WAN. team.... all those teams and there wasn't that much work where people didn't waste most of their day. My buddies are all in IT as well. My best man at my wedding works at Wells Fargo... team lead on a server team... telecommutes, works about 3-4 hours a day. Another buddy works at US Bank on one of their special projects teams.... is in the office maybe 32 hours a week... but is on-call once a month. Guy that works for a smaller ASP company, IT manager, he says he pushes 45 sometimes.

So yeah.... I know about IT a little bit. I'm gonna be honest, the guys that bust their butts... they need to find other places to work... their companies are taking advantage of them and they won't get ANYTHING in return other than their families seeing them less. Find a small company that respects you and it's employees first. They do exist.

[Chaos81]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

I'd say you are VERY lucky.

[faster]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Could be. But I flat out won't kill myself. I did for a bit at a larger company but there's no reason to do it. They won't give me anything for it, and they won't fire me for working my salaried hours. Also, all the guys I know, when they shoot straight with me, will say they don't work those long hours anymore. I think many of us got burned out and just say F it now.

Buddy of mine was just named IT Director for a company in Tampa. He wants me to come down and be their senior tech. I actually just IM'd him to see what kind of hours I would be putting in. THANKS OS!

Guess I'm getting old and don't care about getting ahead anymore.....

[mjb2124]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Sr. Network Administrator -- so yes, I'm in IT.

I turned down a 20K raise to stay at a small company. Our company does 37.5 hour work weeks for salaried employees. I created our entire infrastructure built on VMWare, blades, and a SAN environment. Works beautifully! Telecommuters connect via Citrix.

I did work for a large company, and there was the potential for long hours, but it's not worth it. Still, most of the people sat in their cube and browsed the internet half the day. Hah... our security department, our server group, our workstation group, our WAN. team.... all those teams and there wasn't that much work where people didn't waste most of their day. My buddies are all in IT as well. My best man at my wedding works at Wells Fargo... team lead on a server team... telecommutes, works about 3-4 hours a day. Another buddy works at US Bank on one of their special projects teams.... is in the office maybe 32 hours a week... but is on-call once a month. Guy that works for a smaller ASP company, IT manager, he says he pushes 45 sometimes.

So yeah.... I know about IT a little bit. I'm gonna be honest, the guys that bust their butts... they need to find other places to work... their companies are taking advantage of them and they won't get ANYTHING in return other than their families seeing them less. Find a small company that respects you and it's employees first. They do exist.

I think you're very lucky and so are your buddies that you mentioned. Where I work now, we have 2 server admins and 5 desktop admins for 1500 end users and approximately 90 servers (15 servers are virtual, the rest are physical). I'm one of the server admins. That means on call duty is every other week. Needless to say - that sucks, but so does supporting all those servers between 2 guys.

One other thing - you must be in a much better economy than the one I'm in around here. The Pittsburgh job market is terrible so finding another job with better hours and less stress isn't often a possibility. I could move, but due to multiple circumstances, I'd rather not (one of which being that my fiance passed the bar in PA so she'd have to re-take the test in most other states).

With all that said, I agree that this is the perfect recipe to get burnt out. I know a lot of my friends and myself are burnt out. However, it's tough to pick up and leave when the money and benefits are good and their isn't much else out there with this economy.

[faster]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

I live in Minneapolis. If I were to walk out the door tomorrow I would have a job in 2 weeks. I'm not touting my abilities but rather the IT market in Minneapolis. A couple months ago I put my resume on Monster. Mistake. I couldn't even answer my cellphone and HATED looking at my gmail. You guys want a change, look in MPLS. UGH!

I'm actually considering moving south (GA or Tennesee or maybe FL). I have to do some research on the IT market down there.

I think myself and my close friends when through the crap right after Y2K when everything went to crap and we all got stressed out with long hours, and we just said F it, it's not worth it. I was probably a big proponent with all the guys and I think they followed suit. I had a year where I killed myself and didn't see squat from it. I noticed I got ahead from being proactive and seeking out other department leads, working on projects with them, and being personable.

IT kills a lot of us, but from what I'm seeing, a lot of guys are just flat out saying we aren't doing it anymore. i'm hoping the days of killing ourselves isn't coming back.... bah!

[faster]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

no kidding, you're from Pittsburgh???? a high-school buddy of mine just moved from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis. He's an infrastructure manager. Dang... what company... argh!

Eaton Corporation... ever heard of it?

[youvalss]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Hey penguit, you're truly a lucky man. I'm trying to find a way to get rid of all this pressure and sometimes-crazy-hours and get myself into a smaller company, less pressure, maybe a bit less money etc. The problem is that in my field (graphic artist) smaller companies sometime have crazier hours because they try to compete the larger ones. I've got to a point in my life that I think: pressure, crazy hours etc. - unless I work at a hospital and do something really important - there's no reason to have that. I don't care how much money the client spends, we're not doctors, it's not about life and death - and it's really stupid to treat it this way.
I'm still thinking about working at a city library, but unfortunately it will probably never happen.

[mjb2124]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

no kidding, you're from Pittsburgh???? a high-school buddy of mine just moved from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis. He's an infrastructure manager. Dang... what company... argh!

Eaton Corporation... ever heard of it?

Yep, I've heard of Eaton. I think it's a pretty good company if I'm not mistaken.

[colkilla]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

i am in the same boat with Knight165 and have to admit, once you get used to the schedule there is NO WAY IN HELL i could go back to working every day of the week. we work 2 days a week and technically are on working 48 hour weeks because we work 24 hour shifts as well. we go from 7 am to 7 am...

[fishepa]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

I think you're very lucky and so are your buddies that you mentioned. Where I work now, we have 2 server admins and 5 desktop admins for 1500 end users and approximately 90 servers (15 servers are virtual, the rest are physical). I'm one of the server admins. That means on call duty is every other week. Needless to say - that sucks, but so does supporting all those servers between 2 guys.

One other thing - you must be in a much better economy than the one I'm in around here. The Pittsburgh job market is terrible so finding another job with better hours and less stress isn't often a possibility. I could move, but due to multiple circumstances, I'd rather not (one of which being that my fiance passed the bar in PA so she'd have to re-take the test in most other states).

With all that said, I agree that this is the perfect recipe to get burnt out. I know a lot of my friends and myself are burnt out. However, it's tough to pick up and leave when the money and benefits are good and their isn't much else out there with this economy.

We have 6 helpdesk guys supporting over 3000 end users. Now that sucks.

[faster]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Yep, I've heard of Eaton. I think it's a pretty good company if I'm not mistaken.

It seems to be. They heard he was interviewing because he wanted to move back to Minneapolis and then just said "fine, move back, we will let you telecommuter and here's a raise."

can't beat that.

[Pete1210]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

I am a civil servant working 37.5 hours per week. I could make more working longer hours in the private sector, but time is more valuable to me than the extra money.

[ehh]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Sr. Network Administrator -- so yes, I'm in IT.

I turned down a 20K raise to stay at a small company. Our company does 37.5 hour work weeks for salaried employees. I created our entire infrastructure built on VMWare, blades, and a SAN environment. Works beautifully! Telecommuters connect via Citrix.

I did work for a large company, and there was the potential for long hours, but it's not worth it. Still, most of the people sat in their cube and browsed the internet half the day. Hah... our security department, our server group, our workstation group, our WAN. team.... all those teams and there wasn't that much work where people didn't waste most of their day. My buddies are all in IT as well. My best man at my wedding works at Wells Fargo... team lead on a server team... telecommutes, works about 3-4 hours a day. Another buddy works at US Bank on one of their special projects teams.... is in the office maybe 32 hours a week... but is on-call once a month. Guy that works for a smaller ASP company, IT manager, he says he pushes 45 sometimes.

So yeah.... I know about IT a little bit. I'm gonna be honest, the guys that bust their butts... they need to find other places to work... their companies are taking advantage of them and they won't get ANYTHING in return other than their families seeing them less. Find a small company that respects you and it's employees first. They do exist.

I am in a similar situation as well. We do managed communication services (mainly business-class VOIP; hosted and on-premise) and if I'm not doing installations then I basically just monitor the current clientele and take care of support. When things are working well I'm usually telecommuting and playing Mario Kart Wii by 2pm.

Of course I like being busy with installations since that means more $. Even though we are still a small company with a long way to go, and I make less than all of my boys, I still wouldn't trade my position for anything. I'm confident our business will be successful and I'm going to keep this ridiculously great schedule for the rest of my life.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

Not for me. I average between a 50 and 60 hour work week. Although I have the occasional week where I don't have much going on, and I work 40-45.

My day typically starts at 7:00 am, and finishes whenever. Plus I usually put in some time on the weekends.

Dang, I swear we must work for the same company because my hours are EXACTLY the same as that lol.

[mgoblue]

Re: 9 to 5...is there such thing?

I work pretty typically 8 to 4, one day a week I work the same hours from home. There'll be days where I stay until 4:30 or sometimes 5, but that's more rare. I do what it takes to get stuff done, but I'm far from one of those "live at work" people. I work to live, not the other way around.