1

I was thinking the other day about Why do IT people always seem stressed out for such a nice field of work. We dont have to play by the same tight rules as most other people in our organisations, yet we tend to feel so burdened most of the time.

And as I thought to myself, myself came up with 2 main reasons.

Is it because everyone else in the company dumps a bit of their stress on us continuously? Like the guy who jammed then destroyed the printer, or my personal favorite; THE INTERNET IS DOWN

or

Is it from the responsibility that we bare? Like all the company’s data for the last 20 years is riding on your ability to maintain it and back it up.

Any other major stress factors that you think is common to all IT?

41 Spice ups
2

Major Stress in IT = Users.

15 Spice ups
3

i think it is because we are so practiced at our systems that after a while it irritates us to explain continually simplistic things over and over…we never wanted to teach did we? or like we get assigned the miscellaneous things no one else wants or can do.

4 Spice ups
4

I work with everyone in the business and have to develop unique fixes for everyone’s problems. The stress comes in prioritizing it and telling people that their problems are not important enough, or when they have a legitimate problem and can’t find a way to tell me what that is but expect me to find it myself.

2 Spice ups
5

Being in the middle of something that you are really focused on setting up/figuring out and then having people have “emergencies” that force you to have to stop mid-stream. Then by the time you get back to it, you don’t remember where you were.

20 Spice ups
6

Users dump stress on us all day long all year long. It compiles and adds up. No wonder so many IT people love to drink alcoholic beverages at the end of the day. Go to your local watering hole and you are guaranteed to find a few IT people there drowning away their stress…

2 Spice ups
7

This is a funny one that I have noticed over the years. When I first started in IT I assumed it was going to be the older employees bringing me all my issues. Just because the technology is new and it is harder for older people to change their ways. However, while they do bring me some issues, it’s the younger employees that bring me the most stress and cause most of the major issues. Why?? Because older employees when confused or think they messed something up they call me right away, the younger ones try to fix the problem on their own. Causing me hours of work as opposed to a few seconds of work. I just find it odd that my assumption was totally backwards.

8 Spice ups
8

Here’s an example - Power outage leads to a server (On a UPS) to fail, crippling the organization. Who’s called in? The person that doesn’t make OT!

I’d say responsibility all the way, if a user causes stress, your personality should adapt to deal with those people without getting upset.

2 Spice ups
9

I’ve been assigned the task of uploading pictures to salesforce since we can’t seem to find a receptionist who isn’t retarded.

19 Spice ups
10

Everything is your fault!

Now go back to your Ice Cave and don’t bother anyone!

No socializing!

Getting treated like a piece of crap by rich, grey-haired, people that all look alike.

Not being born into the official family here, and being treated as an outsider.

7 Spice ups
11

Wish I could double spice this reply…

“Noo…you cannot save to the C:\ drive then access the same stuff on another laptop…Computer Networks dont work that way…for the 30th thousand time”

12

We’re implementing Salesforce very soon & i can see this very job in my future

1 Spice up
13

“Ice Cave” Love it!!! So true.

1 Spice up
14

im sorting through 500sheets of printed reports copying any that have something printed double sided and then scan them all through then shred, (because apparently we do not want to scan in blank pages this is how they want it done, a user mind you not my boss) ive been here 10months, theyve been here years, they say they dont have time to do this? how the heck was this done before me? was there a monkey in a fez doing it…

edit: if there was a monkey with a fez doing it i want my free fez then.

4 Spice ups
15

That is ridiculous.

Our receptionist has been scanning a shoebox full of pictures for probably 2 years now.

4 Spice ups
16

"The box isn’t working properly, the television isn’t on and when it is, it doesn’t show the right stuff " - user #241

3 Spice ups
17

I think the biggest contributer is that even if we aren’t “on-call,” we are never off work. If a major failure arises, we are working around the clock to fix it, plus maintain normal business hours. Custodian staff and other support departments have hours outside of normal business hours, most other staff can go home after putting in their time, but IT can have to work both and doesn’t always know when the Fit will hit the Shan.

The only times I’ve felt truly off work I was outside the country, and I still checked email a couple of times in case there was an emergency question that needed answered.

5 Spice ups
18

I was called yesterday to do Video editing for a slideshow for graduation. I am not a videographer or whatever they would call themselves. I actually hate that kind of stuff. Ended up not going back on that side of campus for the day…hopefully she found a student to help her…poor old teacher

1 Spice up
19

I think that a lot of it comes down to personality type. It has been highlighted that most people working IT are a specific type when defined by the Briggs - Myers index. Unfortunately, that same type are most comfortable when working with others of the same type; but most users are one of the other 15 types!

What really helps is to try to be more proactive; rather than wait for people to call you tell you that things are going nasty, use SpiceWorks to monitor systems and you can be the one telling them what you are doing to fix things before they even notice something is not right.

That and large quanitities of alcohol!

20

Why stress? The issue will still exist if you stress or not. Also if you stress while you are working it can doom what you’re trying to fix and mess up which can cause even more stress. Relax and enjoy the fun puzzle.

Or beat the users to death… always another option lol

4 Spice ups