Running out of patience for this field.

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vbpatel@reddit

This happens everywhere man. You don’t think people go to the doctor and then say the doctor is wrong? You’re looking at this the wrong way. If the average person wasn’t a dumbass, would the company need so many of us?

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outcastcolt@reddit

Funny thing I have found my share of doctors who will turn and refer to webmd. It is required access for our providers at my company.

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theMightBoop@reddit

Most of the programs they enter our data into now will provide prompts to recommend treatment/meds anyway.

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erbalchemy@reddit

Exactly. Supporting users isn't just part of the job, it's why the job exists in the first place.

It's like a veterinarian ranting about dealing with animals. On a bad day, sure, vent away. But if that's your every day, you're in the wrong profession.

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r0ndr4s@reddit

I dont even think the fact that they're dumb and need us is the issue. The issue tends to be "they need us.. but they dont pay us properly" and on top of that you have to deal with a dumbass that does get paid more and still doesnt know how to do his job(not knowing IT stuff makes sense, even if its common sense)

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Soggy-Attempt@reddit

Yep. It’s people like this is the reason we have a job. They can’t help but mess up and then can’t fix it themselves.

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Bubby_Mang@reddit

Wait until you learn what the people who need your help just to function are getting paid.

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Riajnor@reddit

Honestly, like everything is done on computers apparently and yet some of these guys struggle to send an email

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heretogetpwned@reddit

"Sorry, I'm not good with technology."

No, this is not a technology problem.

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ImDoneForToday2019@reddit

It's a "picnic" issue. Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.

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ddmf@reddit

Id 10 t error.

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Czech_Thy_Privilege@reddit

I like to refer to it as a layer 8 problem

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ogwilson02@reddit

Good ol’ PEBKAC

Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair

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TheWeakLink@reddit

That’s where I messed up. I want to be in that position. No expectations, be completely useless at everything I do at work and make a ton of money doing it.

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theMightBoop@reddit

Well to get the really good C level jobs you needed to be able to go to a good college. You needed the money and connections to get into that school and graduate (probably a C average). You aren’t becoming the VP of some company by graduating from a state school.

You then needed the connections to land the job. But any of these management jobs you needed to be able to bullshit your way in. We are tech people so we probably can’t pull that off.

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darkblue___@reddit

I have been telling this to one of my friend on daily basis. I just can't imagine getting paid to attend meetings, say couple vague things in the meeting and discuss about the work done or needs to be done by others. I used to get angry at these people but now I understand they play the game properly.

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deadzol@reddit

And what they said about you after you helped them.

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Lucky__Flamingo@reddit

Here's a perspective: AI is more likely to actually follow your instructions. So a lot of the tasks that people try to creatively ignore (because they're toil) can be automated instead.

Hopefully this can free up staff time for more fulfilling work.

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sudo_69@reddit

Sound like your ready to transition into a government contractor role.

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nickydnice@reddit

Don’t take it so seriously. Work to live not live to work, give them your professional opinion and if they don’t want to listen, that’s on them. The stress trying to engage people unwilling to listen isn’t worth the burden on your mental and physical health.

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bigfrog6@reddit

It might be the industry you're in. Every company and industry has their assholes but I try to avoid brokers, lawyers and the entitled super rich.

Outside of the above ***most*** people I've dealt with are fine.

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Ninjabeaver212@reddit

Add doctors to that list. I never want to work IT in a healthcare setting ever again solely because of the doctors.

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1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v@reddit

I think I need a change in profession because I can't deal with people anymore.

Personally, I think you need therapy on how to deal with people who think they are smarter then you or know more then you.

Don't take it the wrong way, you seem like a smart and knowledgeable person, but you clearly care too much about what the users think and seem to be taking it personally.

A good therapist can help you see a different path when this comes up. Because no matter what you do or where you go, it will always come up...

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quantumhardline@reddit

This is pretty much any profession, CPAs people do this (interact directly with clients or employees) , Doctors, list goes on, the key is to remove yourself from the layer that does these interactions. This is what your working directly with other leaders in smaller circle so you get to know them, then someone else like level I and II. Thats why people want to be level III and just work on internal things often.

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Long-Shine-3701@reddit

You need a junior admin to handle that stuff for you.

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Iamcursed@reddit

Feel you man, it's almost six o clock and because 3 people took 2,5h away from me today, for hiding the reality of the problem (which would be solvable in 0,5h), I'll be here till about 8 o clock to finish up the day....

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techdog19@reddit

Go home

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Life-Sun8620@reddit

Exactly. I used to be that way, and just wanted to see things through to completion, but I've learned plenty since then. You're not going to get some prize or even a bonus for forcing yourself to work longer, and as your hours increase throughout the day, the quality of your work dips once you're working those drastically long hours.

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Ryansit@reddit

I just found out my new ISSO used to just do property for the government, and now he wants me to STIG SQL express…. Wtf he doesn’t even know there’s a difference only that he needs to check a box.

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philrandal@reddit

Almost everybody thinks that their beliefs are more important than facts.

c.f. Covid-19 and climate change denial.

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AnotherCableGuy@reddit

Really. wfh was the best change in my career ever.

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Bladerunner243@reddit

You’ll love this, i run IT, network, security, servers, help desk, vendors, etc. At a small SMB, 150ish users, by myself so im busy all the time. Leadership is now asking me to do something for a user that is their responsibility to do with a 3rd party, ive setup meetings for them to do it, explained what they need to do but they “never have time” to actually follow up to do it so now they got leadership asking me to just do it for them, because apparently i just have more time and its becoming clear to me they have no idea what i actually do. Its quite infuriating

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Error-InvalidName@reddit

Left after 20+ myself fully, best dang thing I ever did not having to look at a screen most of the days. I had to get into something that was outside for the next journey even if it meant starting over.

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Otaehryn@reddit

If you still mostly deal with users and printers after 20 years and you don't like it, something is off.

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SAugsburger@reddit

Agreed. I know everybody's aptitude and motivation is different, but after 20 years most should be able to land something less user support focused if they were really serious about it.

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an_anonymous-person3@reddit (OP)

I'm well beyond that "level" of support. I'd shoot myself in the foot before going back to that.

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ConfidentlyLearning@reddit

Maybe not a change in profession; maybe a change in specialty.

e.g. I knew I was done answering the customer support phone the day I found myself saying, "Open your user manual to page xxx and read along with me, and we'll both know the answer to your question." I got away from the phones and moved my expertise to doing field installs and training. Turned out well.

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zombiezim84@reddit

u need to change company... cause there are morons everywhere, ive been working on a company now for 5 years where the majority are calm understanding ppl..

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the_nil@reddit

I don’t think this issue is isolated to IT work.

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OptimisticSkeleton@reddit

IT unions, now!

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HMP729G@reddit

I packed it in after 17 years a couple of months ago absolutely had enough although I wasn’t specifically sysadmin

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OperationIntrudeN313@reddit

The problem is that you appear to be at least somewhat user-facing. I spend the last 5 years not speaking to a single user and it was great. Loved my job but the company was a shitshow and tanking. I had to go before they started doing layoffs, I could smell them. Sure enough, a week after I left they did massive layoffs and their stocks tanked right after I cashed out mine.

Then I went to work for a smaller company and I handle everything which means I have to communicate with users again. About 60 people in the company. Figured I wouldn't get much in the way of user-facing tickets and it was an occasion to build everything up from scratch and touch technologies I only understood in theory.

Nope. Of these 60 people, 5 of them generate 10-15 tickets a day for the dumbest shit imaginable and the rest have basic reasoning skills and barelu every need anything. Those 5 are also the "upper management" and all of them like to learn with 'well I've managed an IT team before so I know...'. No, you know jack and shit, and Jack left town. Managing an IT team while not knowing the basics of how to use Outlook means that your staff appeased and worked around your dumb ass and breathed a sigh of relief when you left.

I'm building out the infra for my resume so I can literally say I've done damn near everything and then I'm gonna go for another role where I'll never speak to an end user again.

I had little enough patience left for the deskside techs I had to deal with in my previous role who would escalate tickets without doing basic troubleshooting. End users who are straight arrogant when asking for help? Nope. In the words of Stansfield, "I haven't got time for this Mickey Mouse bullshit."

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GreyBeardEng@reddit

Reminds me of a time I sat in a room with a guy half my age who had a doctorate in data science from another country, and he was trying to tell me how BGP worked.

I've been in this business for 30 years, In the room was my team and between the three of us we probably had 60 years of working with BGP. But also in the room was a guy who was a CTO of a VAR and the former network lead of a large enterprise and he easily had 30 plus years of experience with BGP. But we also had a 'distinguished' CCIe from Cisco, also with 30+ years of BGP experience. All told, 120 plus years of BGP experience on our side of the table.

But this fucking data scientist, with no experience in BGP other than maybe some poorly worded googles searches performed that same week, insisted he knew more than all of us. At one point I had to just put my foot down and tell him why has idea wasn't going to work and that we weren't going to do what he wanted. He tried to get me written up through HR.

Now he's on my list, people on my list when they reach out to me directly get the standard responses.

"I'm sorry I'm extremely busy right now working on a production critical issue, but I don't want to lose focus of a clearly very important issue, please open a helpdesk ticket so this issue can be tracked".

I want people on that list to feel like they're talking to a chatbot.

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PitcherOTerrigen@reddit

The most confidently incorrect people I've worked with were a boomers or people much older than me.

Age isn't a skill.

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Leather-Arachnid-417@reddit

It comes with the territory man. I know its frustrating. Ive fantasized about an IT job that doesnt deal with end users, but at this point I believe they are a myth. I blew a gasket over it about 15 years ago. Ive mellowed out since. I realized its meaningless. None of this dumb shit means anything at all. Im not curing cancer. I work for people that lie (and lie well) for a living.

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DocsHuckleberries@reddit

I've had to explain to the same Director three times now that he can't schedule recurring meetings in a specific room when someone else already has a booking on that date and time.

I feel you, and I too am contemplating a different field. The job is not hard... the people are horrible though

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Temporary-Library597@reddit

No, this is the case no matter what profession you are a part of. Unfortunately, decades of "Everybody's Special!" in primary schools got in there so deep that everybody thinks their opinion is correct, that they are good at everything, and that no one else is worthy of attention.

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octahexxer@reddit

I actually changed job... I don't argue with idiots anymore... It's great. It's just not worth it.

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Camp-Complete@reddit

May I introduce you to malicious compliance?

Make it loud and proud that you are following their instruction and follow it to the end.

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Accomplished_Disk475@reddit

I bet you are not as good as you think you are.

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BisonThunderclap@reddit

Touting degrees like it means they're better than everyone else calling in is a dead giveaway.

Welcome to IT, your soft skills matter. If you care about being correct, this is not the field for you.

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butthurtpants@reddit

And 20 years and still dealing directly with users when you don't like it is also pretty telling... Yikes.

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Klutzy_Scheme_9871@reddit

Just look at work as being paid to deal with people. That’s the only way to remain sane. This isn’t just IT. It’s every single field. You can be law enforcement and your peers will mess with you or other members from a different law enforcement group will. It’s human nature. Do you really want to be isolated in the woods not dealing with anyone? That can get boring too. Stop looking for a perfect job because it doesn’t exist. There’s a reason what you are paid to do is a job.

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ballzsweat@reddit

When you figure a clear path let me know please I will follow your lead.

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brejackal99@reddit

gif

You are not alone!

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TheGenericUser0815@reddit

Just look for a senior position, 3rd level would be a good idea.

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apple_tech_admin@reddit

I report directly to senior leadership. It’s the same bullshit up here too.

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TheGenericUser0815@reddit

But then you are the one in the telling bs position, lol.

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NeezDuts900@reddit

This is unfortunately endemic to the field. At any job in which you are an expert in that field and people are coming to you for assistance with that topic, there's going to be a lot of people who just cannot think their way out of a wet paper bag that are now your problem.

If somebody isn't purposely breaking shit, being an idiot, doing a modicum of basic troubleshooting and understanding of how a computer works on a day-to-day level, and they are patient and not demanding, it doesn't matter how ignorant you are about computers, I'll help you all day long with no problem.

The people that I do take exception to are demanding idiots who cannot read a simple four-step document with screenshots and call us and demand that we just do it for them, are constantly breaking things because they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing in spite of us telling them multiple times. Those people can fuck right off.

I've learned that in a good company, if a user is repeatedly doing something that they are not supposed to be doing or they are not doing something that they are supposed to be doing and it's causing issues that are taking up our time, we can warn them three or four times and then if the behavior continues, we can go to their manager and explain the situation and ask them to have a talk with that user.

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butthurtpants@reddit

20 years and you're still dealing with users? And you have degrees? You need to look at where you are in your career and where you want to be. There are plenty of skilled roles which don't require dealing with users.

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Dismal-File-9542@reddit

This is not unique to IT

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Jazzlike-Vacation230@reddit

So question, who are you referring to? Superiors? Peers? The Helpdesk who sends up tickets to you? Or end users?

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qwikh1t@reddit

Susan in Accounting is everywhere unfortunately

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Pertinax1981@reddit

Universe will always supply you with a bigger idiot. New job will not change that fact.

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galland101@reddit

To paraphrase Jurassic Park: "Stupid finds a way."

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badaz06@reddit

I worked at a NOC and fielded calls from about 400+ customers, some huge, some small. I created a "special projects team" that was mostly just dealing with the problem customers, 95% of which were more PITA customers who called and complained about everything and anything.

Thing is, the people I hired for that team were "people" people. One was a bartender actually. Working a NOC. They'd take the call, listen to the customers rant, hand the ticket if there was one to someone technical, and serve as an information relay back and forth.

Most of the customers were happier having someone to bitch to who listened, one even raved over how much more technical the new team was, and the tech guys on the back end were definitely happier even though the headcount for the special projects team came from them and meant more workload.

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ZanzerFineSuits@reddit

I joke that most people go into IT because they're better with technology than people, and yet 80% of the job is dealing with people and not technology.

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MDParagon@reddit

I don't think that's exclusively in IT lmao, I've been in a manufacturing and biomedical and I've met liabilities like that lmao

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Stryker1-1@reddit

I've been at it 15 years in the last 2 weeks I have had numerous people tell me to go fuck myself or just refuse to take meetings because they dont agree with the security changes being implemented.

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ProfessionalEven296@reddit

All in writing, I hope!

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PsychologicalAioli45@reddit

Sorry but your full statement does not reflect that you have 'more patience than most'.

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galland101@reddit

I don't know, I think people who start a rant quoting their resume, certs, and degrees is probably full of shit, too. You need to look in the mirror.

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WetMogwai@reddit

You know how some doctors have a great bedside manner and some are horrible to deal with and make you feel worse? This sounds like that. Some people have nothing but problems with users. When it is that common, it is not a problem with the users.

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Anonymo123@reddit

In nearly 30 myself.. I am honestly to the point where I am dialing back my daily work to whats required and nothing more. The company and its people don't want to listen to experience and expertise.. so they fumble-fuck around with things that don't work until it does and then its "see.. its fine".

Thats fine. I'll do a solid day and thats it.. if the job market improves I'll go somewhere else, but I am not risking my high pay and benefits otherwise. I'm def not changing professions.. I make too much money lol

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hkusp45css@reddit

I got into this field specifically because I like people. Nothing has changed about that in the last 30 years.

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gwatt21@reddit

"YOU called me for help and tell me I'm wrong?"
Not only that, they'll argue till their blue in the face even if you have proof they are wrong.

In my head, I'm like sure bro.

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RumRogerz@reddit

I lasted about 5 years doing system admin work that was people facing. I’m impressed you lasted this long.

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RevolutionaryElk7446@reddit

It's not the profession, you'll find that this type of environment exists in each profession. Just have to find a good environment.

Most of what your complaining about is either human nature, or lack of education or being taught manners as a child.

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adsarelies@reddit

If you are on the customer-facing side of this field, it's the people you have the deal with being the real challenge. It's not the technology; it's the (gd) people.

If you get to work on the back office side if this field, then you can just deal with the machines. And your boss. But mostly the machines.

Some folks like one side or the other better.

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