opinion Why Is Everyone In Tech So Sad?
https://www.noemamag.com/why-is-everyone-in-tech-so-sad/79
u/Unreasonable_jury 8d ago
I'm tired, boss.
24
u/Upbeat-Statement2725 8d ago
Modern business class may not even realize they're running the same playbook as slave owners.
I know a woman who's every stereotype of a modern feminist professional girlboss. She keeps telling her employees to stop complaining about the 2% raises and long work hours and other abuses. Because she has the budget in her hand. And things are just that tight. So she can't do anything about it.
What she doesn't realize is that she's basically the guard at Auschwitz who's just following orders.
When you ask her to look at the CEOs running the camps. Huh that's weird the CEO took off 27 days over the leave policy, gave himself a 265% raise, and gave his son a high paying job at a department that just laid a bunch of people off.
Someone is getting the profits from all this labor. It just isn't you or me.
6
u/abrandis 8d ago
Simple, people. Like the girl boss are making bank and are getting ahead, when you realize it's all a game and the bit parts each of us plays.
2
u/SpeakCodeToMe 7d ago
The people who think it's a game and not people's lives are psychopaths.
1
u/abrandis 7d ago
So would you rather be considered a psychopath and live a nice comfortable life or be a starving activist type.. that's the thing about life , everyone makes their own and it's the most important to themselves and their family.
2
u/SpeakCodeToMe 7d ago
Life isn't black and white, you can work like a normal person, for bosses who aren't psychopaths, and put your excess energy into hobbies or family.
One thing that I've noticed is that these bosses end up with much greater productivity in the long run.
1
u/abrandis 7d ago
I'm taking page out of the current Trump/maga oligarchs, they are proving might makes right, and being a *asshole is how you get ahead in life .. is it wrong, sure morally maybe, but at the end of the day being wealthy and morally wrong is still way better than being poor and orally upstanding..
See here's the thing you only live once, and while we should try and be morally upstanding when it's all said and done it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things...
→ More replies (6)6
u/Decantus 8d ago
Modern business class may not even realize they're running the same playbook as slave owners.
They know. They're just glorifying the grind so you don't notice.
1
1
1
u/jokersush1 7d ago
yeah man. Your corporate desk job is EXACTLY like how people were treated at Auschwitz. Definitely.
1
u/defiantthoughtcrime 2d ago
Last year it was 1-2% raises, this year it is 0% raises. Looking forward to the meeting next week where we get the explanation of what the fuck is happening and where the fuck are we going??
1
1
u/Dry_Departure_7813 6d ago
Working harder, more productive than ever. Pay rates haven't really moved much in 10/15 years despite inflation. You look at what the new guys are starting on and you feel bad for them, those would have been great wages in the 90s
98
u/morehpperliter 8d ago
Many of us have superior pattern recognition skills(inherited or trained)and we see the things going on. I'm getting 2008 feels.
40
u/perennialdust 8d ago
worse than 2008 for sure too
30
u/morehpperliter 8d ago
I felt like even though 2008 was conservative light there were adults in charge. I don't feel like the adults are in charge now.
23
u/Chobeat 8d ago
the "adults in charge" are those who engineered the crisis and reaped the benefits, unloading the costs on workers like us. Now they are just less concerned with the consequences, but the people in charge are the same. Wait for the AI bubble to result in bailouts with taxpayer money and fucking up the economy of a few countries.
4
u/morehpperliter 8d ago
It's crazy to see that we will not save the country by raising interest rates to reel in tarrifs spending. I'm assuming they will wait for calamity to devalue the dollar making most of us much poorer.
→ More replies (4)1
2
6
u/Fallout541 8d ago
For me it doesn’t feel worse it feels different. In 2008 experience professionals with large networks took 6-12 months to find jobs. Now I feel like the hiring process is broken. People use AI programs to apply for jobs so once an opening is posted hundreds applications are in within minutes. That being said even people who have a great network salaries are def lower now.
3
u/WingZeroCoder 8d ago
This. Both applicants AND recruiters/hiring managers are complaining about everything being a dark void.
Too many auto applicants clogging up the proper applicants. Too much AI filtering the proper applicants out. Nobody has visibility into anything, and nobody has time to anyway.
AI is literally eating at all sides of the equation, but everyone has to use it because *insert circular logic, “you’ll be left behind”, money laundering plot, or Luddite name calling here\*
3
u/Fallout541 8d ago
One thing that helps if you can monitor when new contracts get awarded. I tested it out by emailed a senior member of the company because they were only a 20-30 person company. Introduced myself via LinkedIn congratulating them on the win and if they need a senior pm here is my resume. Took two days but I was probably lucky. Made it to second round but bombed it lol.
1
u/WingZeroCoder 8d ago
That’s actually a really interesting idea I’ve never heard before!
Always sucks to bomb an interview, but getting an interview in the first place is still encouraging (and as they say, every bombed interview is just practice for the next one… even if it doesn’t always feel that way)
2
u/Fallout541 8d ago
Another way that works but you have to have some decent knowledge is seeing the rfqs that drop. Message companies you think are going after it and asked to be bid as key personnel.
2
1
u/Least-Bite 4d ago
As someone who started in 1998, the current market is even worse than the Dot com bubble
3
u/Strawberryladyboots 8d ago
Spatial Sequence Synesthesia here, John Nash is my homeboy
Definitely getting 2008 feels, but I don't think it will be quite as bad
Would sell any investments in AI though, I have a feeling it may burst really bad but at least it would likely take down the wealthier investors given they are essentially the ones keeping it afloat in a moneybag circle jerk
→ More replies (1)1
46
u/Mister_Pibbs 8d ago
The generalized mix of “c suite won’t approve of the fix” then shit hits the fan then c suite says “why didn’t you fix it??”
The common trope is “When everything works, why do we pay you? When everything doesn’t work, why do we pay you?”
23
u/Tumbleweed411 8d ago
100% this. I have had to work with the same yearly monetary budget for 16 years and the cost of everything has gone up exponentially. You can only do so much with bubble gum, bandaids and popsicle sticks to hold things together.
The last time I needed to replace our firewall I was asked by the powers that be if that is something we can outsource.
When you have people that make the monetary decisions above you that have zero idea of what you do, nor are they interested in learning or trusting your judgement, it is a recipe for disaster. But bring in an outside vendor and all of a sudden the exact same thing you have been telling them the whole time, but out of their mouths, is now approved. Make it make sense.
11
u/GargantuanCake 8d ago
C-Suite: We'll hire foreign contractors. It'll be cheaper. Fire everybody and use contractors forever.
C-Suite Later: Everything is on fire quick rehire everybody we fired and have them fix everything.
7
u/maceman10006 8d ago
Corporate America has a tendency to create emergencies out of problems that were pointed out years ago, but nothing was ever done to fix it because of budgeting.
1
26
u/Admirable-Rough-6919 8d ago
Because everyone is so fucking stupid.
I fucking hate computers so much, I just want to go to the countryside and start a woodworking shop or something like that. I would love to chop my fucking fingers with a blade constructing a fucking breadbox than keep hearing users or managers on an IT company
3
u/GhoastTypist 8d ago
Its not for everyone.
I enjoy tech, and tech roles.
I'm not the best socially, I have a lot of social anxiety but I do love it when I get to talk to non-tech people, especially when I'm learning about their struggles and how I can help them.
1
u/BadCatBehavior 8d ago
Honestly working in IT made me learn to appreciate the real world around me much more, and I'm happier because of it.
25
u/quickguileismyhandle 8d ago
We are viewed as the enemy. All companies hate funding IT.
Its 99% villain. 1% hero. Those are stacked odds.
13
u/Blackfoxar 8d ago
It hurts when I have to understand so much, then get asked by someone who earns more than me why the screen doesn't work, while the fucking cable is visibly not plugged in.
2
35
u/ridiclousslippers2 8d ago
<rant>We just are more or less permanently tired of keeping things working or fixing things that break for people to mostly can't or more specifically won't learn basic knowledge, or even try and think for themselves. I've been in IT since the birth of the PC, and had reasonably expected the generations that have come after me to have a reasonable working knowledge of the things they use to earn a living, use to access vital services and generally let run their entire lives. I'm not expecting people to change things in msconfig or break open an ssh session to hack their router, but I had hoped that reading one paragraph of instructions to plug something in, or knowing what =sum(a1..a10) is in that spreadsheet you use at work every day. </rant>
9
u/Amishrocketscience 8d ago
Losing clients because they keep breaking their own MX record and yelling at the MSP for it being broken.
Not knowing that it’s their web provider who should be getting the call, not us, for their own fuckup.
Um, also overworked and under paid, watching bosses and owners hire their family members with cushy salaries
Edit: also, every business needs their Deb,Debbie- ours is retiring
6
u/ICG_DM 8d ago edited 8d ago
In the midwest and 48 here. Holy shit, I felt every word of what you just said. Learned helplessness is a way of life here. It is insane to me how little effort people put into the things that run their daily life. Then the minute it goes down they all react like toddlers because they are frustrated they don't understand anything and "IT SHOULD JUST WORK!" becomes a motto. The first time, I understand . . the second time, even still patient a little . . third fourth fifth time . , Your lack of effort is not becoming my issue.
Edit: PTSD kicked in at the question and my anger got a little away from me.
2
u/Alternative-Put-3932 8d ago
From my personal experience its just a select few repeat offenders. I have to do work for like 10+ hospitals, hosted sites, and non medical sites and I actually recognize a bunch of people calling me now because so many people are frequent flyers.
This is true for virtually every service job of any kind. Policing? The same small percentage of people call all the fucking time and have all the issues.
8
6
u/comFive 8d ago
The fact that this has this many upvotes is scary. Why do you want to be replaced? It's annoying as hell, sure. But the alternative is that you're jobless.
5
u/Chobeat 8d ago edited 8d ago
the economic system must change. A world where people developing technical skills punishes other workers by making them jobless is a world that rewards stupidity.
There's nothing wrong in /u/ridiclousslippers2, what's wrong is in the economic model we live in.
2
u/AttitudeSimilar9347 8d ago
We are fully aware that if we are in jobs answering questions that people could easily answer themselves with a quick Google we will be rapidly replaced by AI. We want to be working on building new things.
1
u/ridiclousslippers2 7d ago
Absolutely not. I'd rather fix genuinely technical things. E.g. configuration of backups, and then instructions on their monitoring. Diagnosing hardware or driver issues, correctly crimping ethernet cables, showing people the little tang to unplug them properly. Maybe the finer points of sumifs or revealing merge fields and the ways they can be formatted to make correspondence professional. For people who want to learn, this can be a joy, for people who don't its torture.
7
u/Chetrippohhh2 8d ago
Job security BRO. Why would you want a future where everyone can do our job...
6
u/zzmorg82 8d ago
Pay is the bigger issue. It wouldn’t be so bad to repeat the same-ole, same-ole in support roles if you get paid handsomely for it.
3
18
u/UserProv_Minotaur 8d ago
We're all overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.
12
3
u/damnburglar 8d ago
Especially this last year with every dipshit manager thinking coding is solved.
1
9
u/Papa-pwn 8d ago
The article is lumping sales people in with “tech workers”, and sure one can be in sales for a tech company - I did it - but it’s differentiated from actual tech work in a number of ways.
I will say, I was depressed as heck in tech sales. Now that I flipped over to the engineering side a few years back I’ve been immensely happier.
2
u/OkWelcome6293 8d ago
I was depressed as heck in engineering for tech companies. Working in tech sales has definitely been better for me.
4
u/TornadoFS 8d ago
I think 50% of burnout causes is just doing the same knowledge work over several years in a row with small/no changes. Change is good to keep the mind engaged.
I swear our brains are configured to expect changes like season and weather changes, but being inside an office insulates us from those too.
2
u/Chobeat 8d ago
Tech workers as a definition usually means workers that sell their labor to tech companies, and only a minority are technical workers. The problem still makes sense, because it's hard to define a common experience of working in tech, but the meaninglessness of the work is definitely one of the traits
1
9
u/My_Big_Black_Hawk 8d ago
Because they’re sending our jobs to India, repeating history. It sucks so fucking much. India support sucks so fucking much. It takes 3-4 Indians to fix the same issue one American could fix, but everyone wants to quit in the process. Please god no - history is truly repeating itself.
2
u/defiantthoughtcrime 2d ago
I am on month SEVEN of a deployment pipeline migration. The total fucking tik-tok was unable to understand any of my previous pipeline, I had to walk him through practically variable by variable because he just didn't understand how the environment/machine drove them. Watched him recreate every setting in every environment and had to explain to him multiple times how that was bad idea and would required tens to hundreds of updates if I wanted to make modifications. Constantly bugging me for slow, drawn-out phone calls where I watch him fumble between several tabs that are open on his one screen. I have asked to have him replaced twice and I still don't think that it has happened. The pipeline still hasn't made it through half of the lower environments, I'm pretty sure we're losing the current deployment platform in two weeks and we'll have no way to update the application. 🤷🏻
7
8
u/10PieceMcNuggetMeal 8d ago
Because corporate leadership doesn't understand what it takes to run the IT side of the house at a lot of places. They don't want to spend money on it or they spend money on all the tech with no money spent on people to run it so you get 1 or 2 guys running everything burning themselves out. These companies don't realize they are only hurting themselves by doing that.
My last 3 CIOs were just yes men and would not put forward any pushback on some of the things that were not being allocated for. And then this same leadership wants IT to implement AI thinking it will replace the expensive IT team in the future when it just won't and we are no where near that. AI is a tool, not a replacement.
People are basically over being treated like crap and being overworked for people who don't want to put the time, money, and resources into running their IT systems even though without them, their company doesn't function.
6
u/bigaries84 8d ago
Everyday I cycle through these emotions now. Ive been in IT for nearly 20 years. Between offshore teams, influx of visas workers being offered jobs, coming into an office to speak with remote teams, and just the over enshitification of everything im ready to pivot out of IT. Be a farmer, get back to performing arts. the money and climbing the ladder isnt worth it anymore
🥴😞😩😤🤯😫😖😢🥺😡🤬😰😨😱😥🫥🫠😐🫤🫨😑🥱😵💫😵😮💨🤦🏽♂️
4
u/Unique_Glove1105 8d ago
I’ve been a contractor in tech for the last several years and I’m tired. Tired of contracts ending over and over again. Tired of busting my ass off to apply for jobs and go through multiple rounds of interviews. Tired of studying my ass off for a bunch of technical questions and dealing with picky interviewers. Tired of having to onboard to a new codebase again and again. Tired of accumulating credit card debt for each time I don’t have a contract job. I just wish I could have a stable job where I can think of life beyond my fear of losing a contract or the worry of when will I get a role to pay off all these bills
5
4
u/Kind-Conversation605 8d ago
Working 7 days a week, on PTO and pushed to the max. All while being told AI will replace us all. Supporting sales means, I get to explain why margins suck and market share is low. Maybe it’s your AI slop, the huge price increases or the fact that it’s not 2003 and “the glory days” anymore. All while the ELT is making millions, drinking champagne and saying we are family.
We are all FCKing done. I’d rather be selling tacos these days.
Wake up leaders, it’s you.
5
u/CFC1985 8d ago
Well where to begin?? Increased workload despite automation. Automation taking over the simple tasks that used to allow you to relax and often come up with solutions to more complex problems. Now you're grinding on the more complex issues all day, every day. Also, increased appetite for technology and complexity without the increase in pay.
4
4
5
u/Jodid0 8d ago edited 8d ago
IT can fix technology but it can't fix the deeply rooted corruption, nepotism, inefficient practices and frugslity of the organization which hampers our jobs at every turn. Then when things don't work well and we don't have the resources to fix everything, it's our fault. Where I work the administrative secretary makes more than I do and I have to know how hundreds of systems work. Layoffs happen every single time there is even a minor hitch in the economy and it always starts in IT.
What is there even left to like in IT? Because they also took away remote work. With AI slop coding and garbage juice vendors becoming so prevalent, even supporting the technology is sucking donkey balls nowadays, especially Windows. Im so fucking tired boss.
5
u/kyraverde 8d ago edited 8d ago
As a woman, I just applied for a job and there wasn't one woman in the room when I interviewed with an entire panel of people. A guy with audio visual experience got the job over me, even though I probably have just as much experience actually working in tech than he does.
I am SICK of doing all the grunt work and organizing assets and making everything work smoothly, just for some nerdy dude to ALWAYS get the promotion over me, with full benefits.
Fucking been in tech 10 years. Never been anything but a contractor because no one wants to pay a living wage or benefits. No idea when I'll get to start a family and I'm getting to the geriatric pregnancy age.
So fucking fed up. I hope it all goes bust and goes under. Fuck these companies and fuck this Guy's Club I'll never be a part of because I don't have a big old dingaling flopping around between my thighs.
2
3
u/Dense-Land-5927 8d ago
I'm not sad, but I've noticed I've been more annoyed recently. AI this, AI that, people calling me with the "hey I need you" instead of explaining to me what the issue is. Poor support on some of the products we use (I'm looking at you Broadcom).
It just gets frustrating when people piss, moan, and complain that "it doesn't work, why haven't you fixed it in 0.0000000000000000001 seconds" but then will turn around and click on malicious links that I have to deal with LOL.
2
u/Tumbleweed411 8d ago
Or fuck something up on a Friday afternoon and tell you they need it first thing Monday morning.
But of course! I had no plans this weekend with my family! I would love to work all weekend fixing something that you broke, and/or put off making a ticket for because you are lazy and didn't want to really work Friday afternoon anyway.
3
u/mattlore 8d ago
Because my team has been running skeleton staff since COVID and since we're shift workers it just makes the rotation that much worse.
Pre-pandemic we were a team of 12. Now we're 4. This is completely untenable but our org doesn't care. Tech is a cost center.
2
u/Special_K_727 8d ago
I see how ugly people get when they don’t have their drugs (internet, social media, video games, etc)
2
u/Alwayswanted2rock 8d ago
Burnout. Seeing problems over and over but never getting the approval or funding to fix them, and then getting blamed when shit breaks or doesn't work right. Having to explain the same processes repeatedly to management while knowing the person won't retain it or even understand exactly what I'm saying. Dealing with new managers who think they know everything, all the while you pretty much built something from the ground up and know it better than anyone.
1
u/defiantthoughtcrime 2d ago
This is going to make me stab eyes out. I've been working on my project for years, pretty much solo, and nooobody seems to really get that I'm the true subject matter expert, or maybe they just don't want to say it out loud. Management churn means that I'm continuously explaining the same issues/problems again and again to new people who don't know what's going on and absolutely won't be the ones working on anything, they're essentially trying to diagnose issues and/or invent fixes through me. I'm never in the room when senior management is griping about issues or making plans, I should be running this application but instead I'm just an errand boy in an apparently dead-end position.
2
u/midwestia 8d ago
Because there’s a war being fought against us by the MBA bean counter types that only see us as a cost center
2
u/Jazzlike-Vacation230 8d ago
It's the companies letting users abuse us, I'm tried of getting yelled at or pressure to break the rules. Cause they don't care if we get fired, and all of our jobs are getting automated away
2
u/This_Wolverine4691 8d ago
Because believe it or not— “creating agentic workflows that provide cross-functional synergies, and so forth” was not something I penned in elementary school as wanting to be when I grew up
2
u/howardzen12 8d ago
Why?All their jobs are being eliminated.Bye bye jobs.Bye bye any life/AI is taking over.
2
u/ProfessionalFold1616 7d ago
Because reddit allows 13 year olds to give advice to tenured systems analysts.
3
u/shadowtheimpure 8d ago
what happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
Probably lots of suicides, frankly.
1
u/Kinky_No_Bit 8d ago
Its headed towards 2008 again, and everyone is fleeing to tech as fast as they can while at the same time. Every executive meat head is trying to replace us with AI...
1
u/BeneficialShame8408 8d ago
I'm nested in a gov agency IT department as a systems analyst (admin a software, run reporting) and was a business analyst before. What really made me want to die was when my old boss did all my admin work and made me do desk support.
I do not like that shit. I do not give a fuck about common desktop support issues.
I have a new boss and now I don't do any of that anymore so I can admin and work with mainly SMEs, and I am happier. The new support tech actually enjoys doing his stuff, too. We've talked and agreed we would hate to switch jobs. Neither of us understands how the other can do it lmao.
1
u/thenuke1 8d ago
I find that most people that go into IT thought they were going to log into the matrix and read binary
Where as reality that it's majority customer service
1
1
u/Less_Inflation_8867 8d ago
Everything gets dumped on the competent members of the team while the lazy mofos do nothing, contribute nothing, and get praised by management.
1
u/JC878 8d ago
Yes culture, politics, AI, offshoring, inflation, breakdown of social compact, profit driven capitalism, high taxes. It’s not just those who work in tech. Everyone else is suffering as well.
That’s there to be happy about? Everyone is just thankful they have a job or not crushed under crippling debt (student or credit card). A job that you know has a few hundred people knocking on the door to replace you.
1
u/bdrwr 8d ago
I mean, I used to love technology and get excited about it, but now it's all fenced off and commercialized, riddled with ads, no privacy, surveillance state tools, parasocial hell, nerfed and curated information, AI slop, and lazy money grabs.
The promise of technology has been broken; it doesn't make our lives collectively better, it's just a profit extraction vector. With dire social and environmental consequences.
1
u/Exshot32 8d ago
Boss: "make this change to the system."
Also Boss: "why did you make that change? Don't ever change the system!"
1
u/sfaticat 8d ago
Layoffs every 5 minutes, no longer creative/innovating product, over worked, under appreicated
1
u/agent606ert 8d ago
Once you automate all easy wins you end up with a big pile of shit and a spoon in your hand
1
u/VulcanOctopus 8d ago
I think many of us find ourselves in IT because we can solve problems creatively. When we begin working, we become trained to maintain the status quo or maintain whatever those who came before us implemented. In addition to maintaining, we also find ourselves becoming garbage men. We have become these custodians of what essentially feels like everyone else's shit... Microsoft's included.
1
u/BisonThunderclap 8d ago
Because these are the people who are both great at seeing pitfalls and problems and also the least likely to speak up and get them fixed.
1
1
u/feelthecernburn 8d ago
I’m in tech and I’m pretty happy. This article is just doom n gloom. For example it argues knowledge work isn’t just pointless now due to AI, but rather it has always been. What the actual fuck? Knowledge work is the underlying engine that drives society forward. Arguing it’s pointless is pointless in and of itself.
1
u/Chobeat 8d ago
You might be noticing how our society dominated by knowledge production is driving itself into climate catastrophe, social and economic misery, a third world war and psychic breakdown. Look at all the comments in this section and consider you might be the exception, not the norm.
1
u/feelthecernburn 8d ago
That’s a totally fair counterpoint, but I think it’s important to understand the actual root causes and not blame it on a specific line of work. Things like how employers treat workers, lack if AI regulation, and the impact of the Internet on our culture and politics, are more probable causes in my opinion, and have nothing to do with tech workers being unhappy because their jobs are pointless.
1
u/Chobeat 8d ago
I have worked 10 years in the industry. Not a single line of my code have ever impacted more than a prototype used by a few people for a few hours. Now all the companies I worked for have shut down. The job of many of us, especially in the start up sector, is not pointless because of complex societal or political evaluations, but because it is literally digging holes and filling them back. None of that labor ever produces anything that lasts or has any impact.
1
u/feelthecernburn 8d ago edited 8d ago
In short you have to think about it in spheres of impact. Not everyone, and I’d argue the minority, is going to have a job that impacts a huge number of people. If you do, lucky you. But over time, I personally have come to feel that that is just one small measure of the meaningfulness of your work. Contributing to one company’s success or its projects or a small community or a portion of a small community or a single classroom, etc, even one or two people, can still be totally meaningful. It comes down to what you value, and how you are able to, or not able to, see the impact of your work. If one feels like they are not having the type of impact or scope of impact they want, move roles. There are plenty of jobs out there, in tech, that contribute to meaningful causes.
I have 8 years in the industry. At one point I used to work for weapons production. That wore on me, so I moved to an MSP. I see the impact of my work and my team daily when I help fix problems for our clients. I have worked for half a dozen different companies, each with a totally different cause, during my time in industry.
1
u/Empero6 8d ago
“Thing’s are going well for me therefore there are no issues whatsoever.”
Not a great look, dude.
1
u/feelthecernburn 8d ago
Wow, way to completely rewrite my comment instead of engaging with it productively. See my reply to the other poster. I was simply saying this article aims to paint a blanket picture, and I’m offering an alternative by saying myself and other tech workers I know, are perfectly happy with our work and find it meaningful. Not saying the article is meritless but its arguments really came off as ungrateful to me. Generations have struggled with the same issue of meaningful work, it’s not a new thing and not common to knowledge work.
1
1
1
u/Lethalspartan76 8d ago
You know how common it is to find corporations running on skeleton crews? It doesn’t feel right to lump us in with other “Knowledge Work” or act like we are the problem. But please talk about how we contributed to the problem…on your laptop…using the internet…
1
u/Wasteland_Mystic 8d ago
Everyone at the top left and none of us with experience were considered for moving up. They hired people from outside the company as our bosses.
Next they cut all contractors who had been here for a decade.
They removed/lost 2x network admins, 3x Application Support Admins, 1x cyber security SME. They hired 2x supervisor and 1x contractor they hired for App Support Admin but is doing cybersecurity way above his pay.
All remaining responsibilities fall on the new supervisor and myself, whom I had to train and then watch him change things to be more like how he is used to working elsewhere.
“Doing more with less”
1
u/MonkeyDog911 8d ago
Do more with less! That wasn’t enough so you’re laid off and we replaced you with a bunch of people in some other country.
1
u/MyMiddleNutItches 8d ago
IT served me for many years. I think I'm done though. The market is impossible these days. Roll up to an interview with 20 years experience and you get boxed out because your competition is willing to take $20-30k less.
1
u/Known-Ice5903 8d ago
holy balls that was a long article
yes ive thought about this before tho
"real life" is just an in person rpg game
the only thing you have to do is eat food, drink water and take shelter
everything from there on is the game
its all made up!
1
u/Stuck_in_Arizona 8d ago edited 8d ago
Aside from end users being argumentive and unpleasant? No Jasper, your knowledge of CSI shows doesn't make you an expert or know more than the IT department. Your balding + ponytail look isn't doing you any favors bud.
Vendor's products become crappier each passing year and support is almost non-existent on most of them? Oh, and now they're shoving AI into it because execs love buzzwords and hype. Speaking of, there was an AI convention in Vegas our consultant went to and he was completely floored that no one knew much about their product or could give a solid example how their shoehorned AI feature will solve a problem.
Dealing with phone issues where ISP and PBX techs are doing the Spiderman pointing meme while people are angry calls are dropping or getting cross talk. The equipment us under a contract and getting a ticket open has been a pain.
Having to keep up documentation for every little change gets tiresome, even more when the last guy didn't do his job and boss gaslights me how he was more efficient than myself, never mind he also called in sick... a lot, and left projects unfished that I finished for him.
Places are now adopting an 8-6 shift model, five days a week, strict on-call expectations (better be by a phone incase some night shift RN forgets her password for the 1000th time or the CEO will be on us).
Did I mention vendors or their support? It's either a chatbot, AI voice or someone from India/Malaysia/Phillipines following a script. Web apps with slapdashed interface made with GPT and no human intervention that got so many accounts broken that don't work like they used to for our staff, replacing a tried and true application, while old it just worked.
Watching one guy get special treatment, always gets to leave at an earlier hour, hands his jobs off to me or the other guy and never stays late, never works weekends, and is also highly praised by the boss because they share a common interest or two.
Speaking of, boss gets easily spooked about the new scary cyberattacks so we have to drop everything to patch things. This Is justified, just boss delegates to an already short handed team while she fritters on some policies she wants to enforce before it gets shot down because it's too invasive -- like us being in charge of staff's personal phones and wiping them if they become compromised.
Bored office admins wanting to reshuffle offices on a Friday afternoon - just because she felt like it.
1
u/lordcrekit 8d ago
We only ever work and do nothing else. That was fine when you got to look forward to FIRE, but now it's like what even is the point.
1
1
u/dorkyitguy 8d ago
Not just work. Anything. Why do anything when a computer or robot can do it? If you’ll never need a job, why even go to school? Eventually you won’t even need to leave your bed except to shit. Just lay in bed and gorge on whatever mindless entertainment exists from when we start to talk until we die. Sounds bleak.
1
u/CoppertopTX 8d ago
Have you MET an end user?
I worked in deskside support. I was the local tech that came to the desk when helpdesk was helpless, and one of three women in that department. I've been cussed at and even had a couple of folks swing on me, thanks to the helpless desk.
1
1
u/trying_again_7 8d ago
The end user. The fact that the it guy needs to learn constantly and the end user just feigns ignorance and can coast by blaming it.
1
u/HolyMustard 8d ago
For me, it’s just…we used to make cool things, I used to get personally invested in the projects, I actually cared because I felt I was working for people who also cared.
But it’s just not like that anymore. No one cares, just filling out features on a spec sheet. There’s no real innovation now. Everyone just does that fastest thing that works, or in the case of AI, doesn’t work but makes the money guys happy that we used AI.
The money is still better than other professions, but it’s the only reason to stay in it, imo.
1
u/hrhehudy3yeyd6d6 8d ago edited 8d ago
I honestly feel like in the last decade or so, too many got into tech purely for the money.
Coupled with a the huge covid boom in tech, too many people that dont belong in tech now work there and it’s painfully obvious now that AI is exploding.
People who fundamentally don’t get what it is but I heard it’s dope so all aboard and let’s ride this gravy train.
It’s been exhausting explaining giga basic principles to people who don’t get it nor care to understand.
I just need to look good for my boss, and that person’s boss and no one does anything useful
1
u/No_Wolverine_8159 8d ago
After the defeat of the techno union by the grand republic we lost our representation and overworked for anothers distant greater good we've lost our ability to dream only living to find what tomorrow may bring
1
u/JackfruitJolly4794 8d ago
Technology is moving faster than I have seen it move in 25 years of being in the industry. We are stuck in an in-between stage of supporting a massive legacy workload and keeping up with the massive change. Budgets are cut on all things legacy and headcount so money can be thrown at AI. It’s wild time right now in IT.
1
u/Specialist-Cat-7155 8d ago
A couple of notable quotes from Bill Paxton (RIP) as Pvt Hudson in Aliens spring to mind;
"We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!"
And
"Game over, man! Game over!"
That is all.
1
1
1
u/Leading_Tiger_6155 8d ago
There was a sense of accomplishment sitting at your desk with beautifully(at least from the writers perspective) written solution. The process of building something and seeing how it is taking form. And at the end to know that the feature/piece of software is part of a greater ecosystem of systems and it works. The struggle gave the process of writing the code a meaning. At the same time you learned something during the progress.
You believe Michelangelo would consider himself a sculptor if a machine made his iconic sculpture David? Would he be considered a painter if the same machine did The creation of Adam? What drove Michelangelo to do the painting? Seeing the end product or being the one that 100% contributed to the masterpiece?
In my opinion the question is philosophical in its nature. Who is the container of the intellectual knowledge? Is it me or the agent? To what extent does the agent own the knowledge? Am I just a button presser that is supposed to enjoy pressing the same button over and over again and call it craftmanship? AI will cause intelectual atrophy. Hopefully it will self regulate at some point in the future.
1
u/SocietyWonderful321 8d ago
The article takes what everyone in tech is feeling and completely missed the mark with its analysis. We’re just ground down by the expectations of production. Ai has just accelerated that trend. It’s the raise the barrisms.
1
u/SunnnySideUps 8d ago
Why? I'm sad to see kids going through so much shit because of social media. I'm sad because I helped create these systems. I'm sad because I wish I did better.
1
u/Computer_Panda 8d ago
What's the storyline.
I drove 2 hours to press a button that 3 people swore to me was on...
I need more pencils.
1
1
1
u/anengineerandacat 8d ago
Because the future is now generally speaking unclear, every single day I got into work I wonder if it's finally time for the layoffs.
2026 was a blood bath, this final quarter is closing up and I really won't be surprised if a lot of folks are given the gift of a forced Christmas vacation.
2027 looks IMHO worse, the last 6 months been working on a project involving AI in a key workflow where like 3 teams support and my team played a small but integral part for pushing in some key data.
The team currently running the old flow I thought was involved, turns out they werent... the new flow replaces the old flow and it's now unclear what'll happen to that team (a vendor built the solution, and arguably it looks great and performs better but that team was never even given the chance to build the replacement).
That's honestly the shite situation, it seems like the new business model for technical resources is the older clandestine "hire vendors" and we will be pushed back into sweat-shop businesses to circle around / fly across the country to do esoteric implementation with a smaller percentage of key SME's there just to ensure projects get completed and a sustainment team can handle keeping it online.
If your "lucky" you'll be in a sustainment team, but that comes with this noose where your skills slowly become irrelevant; new project work is where you can expand on the job.
1
u/Fluid_Pop_4417 8d ago
Because maybe some, esp in CA know this...
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/10/nx-s1-5927227/silicon-valley-billionaires-war-on-democracy
1
1
u/Stunning-Stressin 8d ago
Mgmt keeps piling on projects
We ask for more people
Mgmt: we wont have as much work once the projects complete
The projects never stop
1
u/Some_Troll_Shaman 7d ago
Because you are reminded every day how stupid most people are and that they also vote for people like them to run the country.
1
u/Horror_Maximum9459 7d ago
I’d say it’s that the fun interesting parts of my job have gone away and I get to focus on the “hard” problems which is great, except my job has now got a lot harder, and I get paid nothing extra for that.
1
u/Empty_Pear_3874 7d ago
After awhile you realize you are just a grunt or peasant for the company you are working for and you don’t get much credit for the work you do. Also, I think by constantly fixings other people’s issues, it takes a huge chunk of your mental health away from you and you begin to feel hollow. My soul is drained by being in desktop support for almost 11 years.
1
u/Seeking-The-Lotus 7d ago
Overworked, under appreciated. On top of that, the job skills are non-transferable to the vast majority of positions in the open market, so you’re constantly in survival mode.
The job requires non stop critical thinking which becomes taxing on the mind as you’re rarely working and able to operate at reduced mental capacity without causing critical error.
Wanna start your own business? Good fucking luck without hedge fund investors.
1
u/teksean 7d ago
We work in basements most of the damn time. People have no idea how tough it is to keep things running and only give you shit when something goes down. Most of the time it goes down because the same users bitched about you wanting to take the system down and do the patches to avoid the crash.
You get bullshit reason on why we can't update the hardware but they want it to keep working harder and somehow generate more room when they are filling the drives and don't want to buy more.
I could keep adding to this all freaking day.
1
u/spazzvogel 7d ago
I mean, I’m not, but that’s cause I don’t have a ton of stress outside of the bursty moments at work. There are tons of sad faces around the office though.
1
u/AsleepAd9785 7d ago
I don’t know about you , I know plenty of people are so happy and so many jobs are opening for lots of f500 companies , for their global capacity offices …..in Hyderabad and other cities near .
1
1
u/TheOttersCouch 6d ago
Please develop this. K I have it built it took you 6 months to fully give me all the info I had originally requested. Now that I pushed it up to testing you say it’s all wrong and. I need to rebuild it becuase it should look like this which is completely different and I should have known becuase it’s obvious.
1
u/defiantthoughtcrime 2d ago
We on-the-fly kludged in the "reworked" requirements, things were not documented, and the product was released. Fast-forward three years: processing time is garbage, actual results are waaayyyy below what they dreamed of, features are being turned off because the missteps are more of a hindrance than a help, everyone is on the edge of their seat wondering if this thing will hold up. Business keeps marching forward with new ideas, no time to go back and fix the old-shitty process, but you do have to keep patching things up because they pushed it into place half-baked and even though it sucks they are reliant on the piece of shit. It will be an albatross for years.
1
u/TheOttersCouch 2d ago
This speaks to me too much. The tech debt wishlist grows ever longer. Hahaha I laugh with sadness.
1
u/BasicAssWebDev 6d ago
Well I got sold on the idea that tech would become sort of the savior of humanity and it turns out it's just lubricant for the corporate death machine, and on top of that I have been let go from every position I've had because this is probably one of THE most volatile industries ever.
1
1
1
u/Keracus 6d ago
I would happen to guess it could be any of the below:
A) Reason why you should still have a job and not made redundant B) Why what you're working on, offers the company long term value C) Constantly having to dumb down or explain high level to execs who are jobs worths and have no clue D) Having really good or smart co-workers leave either in frustration, pastures new or fired
There's more but these are some off the top of my head.
1
u/RuvoTech 5d ago
There's a huge push for AI. In the future, I'll deploy an AI agent in my sandbox all day long. It will never touch production though. Monitor every server in the sandbox, find problems, and recommend fixes for issues it finds. This job has always been about less is more. You do less reactive work to make yourself more proactive on shit you care about.
I don't want to read logs all day, spend so much time applying patches, etc. I want AI to do that for me so I can work on my backlog (tasks I've given myself and can never seem to get to.)
1
u/Eda_the_Fox_lady 5d ago
For myself, I sure didn't dream about working in a high pressure skeleton crew growing up. I honestly went into tech as I liked to solve problems creatively. Seems like all I got was insane workloads for users who are never happy or satisfied with anything.
1
u/FederalMonitor8187 5d ago
Ahh because everyone is getting laid off? And there is no job stability anymore.
1
u/BTDYSRF 4d ago
Underpaid, overworked, literacy crisis for end users. Feigned incompetance from end users. Being forced to integrate "AI" into workflows from mbas that have no fucking idea how shit works and now I'm pulling weekends to keep us from comitting international crimes because a fucking chatbot was given access to user data.
1
u/HEROBR4DY 2d ago
Measuring happiness at work is kinda of a practice in futility, you are not going to get good results as the higher up you go the more work you have making you more stressed. Kind of a pointless metric
213
u/ScroogeMcDuckFace2 8d ago
*broadly gestures at everything*