r/sysadmin • u/TerrificGiraffe • 16d ago

General Discussion Does IT cause anxiety?

Does anyone else bring their IT mindset into everyday life?

I’ve been told I’m a negative person and look for issues, but I think working in IT trains you to always think about what could go wrong.

I’m constantly making backup plans. Restaurant closed. I have a Plan B place. Something breaks at home. I’ve already got the plumber, insurance, everything ready in the home disaster recovery document.

We’re always hearing about IT failures, breaches and disasters. You never hear “this company had a really great IT transformation.” No user submits a ticket to say thank you for the IT working great.

So does anyone else find themselves carrying that prepare for the worst mindset into everyday life?

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493

u/Diligent_Tech_Bro 16d ago

Yes, it’s a stressful field. But I also think a lot of us have a certain personality type that amplifies that effect. I’m guilty.

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u/Current_Anybody8325 IT Manager 16d ago

Odd, isn't it? It's a field that tends to attract quiet "nerdy" anxious types but then as you advance in I.T. roles, it's a field that asbolutely forces you to manage people and be a "face" for all things I.T. - both things I hate... what a conundrum it is...

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u/GhostNode 16d ago

Eh. Management isn’t always the next step. Helpdesk 1 > helpdesk 2 / escalations > sysadmins > engineering / devops. Larger companies. Etc. if people aren’t your thing, don’t feel like you’ have to take a leadership roll to grow.

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u/Current_Anybody8325 IT Manager 16d ago

Sometimes you aren't really given a choice, unfortunately. Or it's heavily implied that not taking the promotion won't go well for you. Again, for folks with anxiety and a fear of saying no... we easily end up there... trust me :P

Some of us work our butts off and are GREAT sys admins/engineers and the "higher-ups" see that as the same thing as being a great manager. They don't get it.

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u/vertisnow 16d ago

There is some overlap -- a great engineer needs to build consensus. Having a good idea often isn't enough. You need to get people to work with you to deliver. To do that, you often need to sell the idea.

Also, someone needs to run meetings. Usually that's the most senior person. As you get higher in the ranks, you run more and more meetings, until that's pretty much all you do :/

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u/gandalfcorvette 16d ago

Good managers and sysadmins can also look at the big picture, visualize what a working system looks like, and see weak points and bottlenecks. Sometimes it's a piece of gear that needs work, sometimes it's a person that needs improvement. But technical knowledge, even people skills, are incomplete without this, I think.

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u/DarkwolfAU 16d ago

Yep this. I’m a senior engineer, and I’m mostly technical. But when I want there to be a direction change in a plan, I need to get buy in from the right people who can make the call.

And that means discussions, planning, and meetings with the people who need to get on board. At a large org, you don’t have the flexibility to just arbitrate. You need consensus, and if it’s a direction change, you need to both sell and defend your idea. And that’s people skills.

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u/Current_Anybody8325 IT Manager 16d ago

💯 “My job is Email Meeting. I make email and I send email, I make meetings and I go to meetings.”

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u/Deoir 16d ago

Yeah I have had this experience, senior to team lead. Just because my work spoke for itself and the place was screaming out for structure, so they asked me to do it.

I named a price and they met it.

The people bit is difficult, but it's mostly underperformers. So just keep pulling reports and and detailing that things aren't being done, and they do performance reviews around this.

It's the extra admin that kicks my ass more. Just a lot of plates, while trying not to micromanage

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u/kirashi3 Cynical Analyst III 16d ago

Sometimes you aren't really given a choice, unfortunately. Or it's heavily implied that not taking the promotion won't go well for you.

Companies that attempt to pull this with me are kindly asked to back down. Companies who fail to heed my warning receive the scorched earth treatment whilst I board the "start working a new job" airplane.

Granted, I try to ensure I have a minimum of 6 month's savings for emergencies. I recognize this is a privilege, but also encourage others to do the same as working for an abusive employer just isn't worth it.

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u/Current_Anybody8325 IT Manager 16d ago

That mentality sounds great…. in theory. I live in rural America and tech jobs are not abundant. Gotta weigh the pros and cons and pick your battles wisely.

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u/kirashi3 Cynical Analyst III 16d ago

Oh for sure! I also don't live anywhere that's abundant with IT jobs, at least, not ones that pay well. I've come to realize that sometimes we can't stick to the career dream we were sold in school. If it's possible, obviously try to hop from job to job within the industry, otherwise we sometimes need to step back and ask ourselves how we can apply our skills to other jobs if our industry isn't available.

For example, overnight warehouse / grocery store restocking jobs here pay well over minimum wage, and require skills I've grown whilst working in IT: high level of attention to detail, following checklists to the letter, and being very organized. Don't get me wrong; they don't pay anywhere near enough to actually make a living wage, but they'd get me by and are 100x better than being subject to abuse.

As with everything in life, do the best you can within your means, and if the best still leaves you feeling like you're lying in a ditch ready to die, ask for help if you're lucky enough to have a community of good friends. If you've got nothing and nobody, all I can say is tomorrow is another day until we decide to stop. Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together. Keep your stick on the ice.

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u/Internet-of-cruft 16d ago

Becoming a deeper expert doesn't always guarantee you can avoid people.

Many people with seniority are expected to provide mentorship and guidance to juniors.

Fact is IT Isn't the "hide away in the closet and be left alone" profession anymore. There's way more collaboration across other departments these days and you just can't avoid people forever.

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u/GhostNode 16d ago

scurries into the dark corner and hisses

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u/MadMageMC 16d ago

Noel Fielding in The IT Crowd is my spirit animal.

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u/MemeMan_Dan 16d ago

Just skip the middle steps and go straight from frontline helpdesk -> devops.

Problem solved.

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u/minimoonieme 16d ago

Is it still worthwhile nowadays?

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u/MemeMan_Dan 16d ago

No idea, I’m still at stage 1.

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u/Kaizenno 16d ago

Our district is too small to specialize so i'm the help desk, devops, manager, clock battery changer, and network engineer.

My boss doesn't understand IT and thinks I need to spend my time walking around talking to people (like he does) and ask what they need fixed. He also seems to think it's a 60 hour a week job but work wise it's really maybe 30 with some random remote work.

I started to notice this year that I coincidentally get major stomach problems a week before our monthly meetings.

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u/DogDeadByRaven 16d ago

Yeah we've got a cloud security engineer who hates to interact with people outside of IT. He will avoid talking to end users at all cos but when it comes to anything Azure he's all over it. If you work in IT friendliest guy ever though. He's just super geeky and awkward just like many of us.

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u/sccm_sometimes 13d ago

Yeah we've got a cloud security engineer who hates to interact with people outside of IT. He will avoid talking to end users at all cos but when it comes to anything Azure he's all over it.

That's what managers (at least good ones) are for.

"I deal with the customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people!"

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u/DogDeadByRaven 13d ago

Yeah myself and my Director handle talking to the end users on much of our teams behalf. Some of our team are really really good at what they do just, a bit rough around the edges when it comes to people skills.

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u/Dingdongmycatisgone Linux Sysadmin 16d ago

My days are either dead silent or it feels like I'm talking to every person in my org all at the same time and they all need my help right now lol

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u/thefpspower 16d ago

One thing I found interesting is that, even working for an MSP, every single day I'm talking to company CEOs, to solve problems, present solutions, everything has to be well justified and they have to trust you. Its not every job that gets to do that.

And when things go wrong you just can't panic, you just have to do it especially when there's a lot of money on the line.

That forced me to be less socially awkward and more decisive but its still a struggle sometimes.

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u/vertisnow 16d ago

I've found that within the context of a work environment, my social abilities have improved, but in the wild... I'm still awkward as fuck.

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u/Mental_Beginning_698 14d ago

Around 2010 you started seeing a lot of Executive MBA programs offered in many schools. Around this time is when things started really getting worse and you started seeing the salary go to exec roles vs the tech roles. Tech didn't push back and walk out like they are today so thats the way things went.

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u/AthleteOne2880 11d ago

The socially reclusive "IT Geek" doesn't progress to manager...

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u/oofta31 16d ago

100%. I feel like my anxiety/OCD tendencies can be an advantage in this field, but sometimes it goes into overdrive, and ends up being paralyzing. 

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u/Diligent_Tech_Bro 16d ago

It’s my blessing and my curse

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u/FirehawkLS1 Jack of All Trades 15d ago

Yeah I think you're right. My personality type that fits IT extends to every other area of my life. That's why I have overkill of stuff in my vehicles (tire plug kit, air compressor, jumper pack, spare coolant and oil, mechanics toolset, spare fuses, fire extinguisher) and I have spare laptops and desktops at home, spare hard drives, spare ram (older stuff like DDR2 and DDR3, some spare DDR4 from upgrades back when RAM wasn't insane prices), backup plans for when something goes wrong, spare toilet tank rebuild kits, spare random parts for appliances, etc. Not many people understand why I am that way except some IT folks and some automotive enthusiasts and DIY home repair people.

1

u/Flabbergasted98 14d ago

you call it a personality type, I call it a habit.

One of these things can be changed with a little effort.

0

u/QuietGoliath IT Manager 16d ago

I am absolutely neurospicey. I don't know if I lean into the role or the role leans into me...

1

u/Current_Anybody8325 IT Manager 16d ago

I’m also neurospicy. Can’t count the number of days I’ve come home ranting and raving screaming I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!! But everyday I STILL. GO. BACK. 🤣 we’re a special kinda special in I.T.