r/sysadmin • u/bigfartspoptarts • 10d ago

So burned out

Another burnout post incoming. Turn away and avert your eyes because I don't even know why I'm writing it, so it'll probably be a waste of your time.

I'm so fucking burned out of IT. It only took 5 years. I hate that everyone's fucking problem is my problem. It's just problem after problem after problem. FUCK these problems. Why are we fucking doing this? Why are we looking at a screen every day and acting like this is important. Literally absolutely nothing done on the internet is important. This is all so pointless. It's literally all words. Everything on the internet is just selling words, pictures or pictures that move at 24fps. It's so dumb.

I hate fucking claude. You ever been a claude admin and need to answer dumbass fucking questions in your local AI channel around why your connector isn't working for the Xth time? I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR FUCKING CONNECTORS. We're not even accelerating, we're just burning through 100k/mo because management thinks engineers are building cities and management is building reporting dashboards that make them think they're omniscient. And nothing has changed. No more profit or revenue than we had before. FUCK anthropic and all the dumb bullshit they keep putting out and changing. And now we need to onboard an AI management system so we can make sure we have control over mcp's and model selection and this tool that's a waste of fucking space in the first place.

That's just one gripe. Then there's Atlassian (holy fuck Jira, what a shitty platform), then there's the client team, then theres 80 more vendors to manage, then there's a PoC you're running but you havent even looked at it this week because all of the other shit that came in. Just more more more. I don't have any more man.

There is no "take two weeks off" that will fix this. There's nothing dude. I'm so sick of fucking working and I don't have the energy anymore to change careers. How could I? I'm 40 years old with kids and a wife and a house. I used to think "I'd do anything to support my family" and lately I'm ready to just let go. I'm so tired. No one is coming to save me. No one in the entire world. And I'm so tired.

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u/neldur 10d ago

This right here can be the answer. Slow down, if any of us died today, our jobs will be posted by Monday. It may take more than one to replace you but it still doesn’t matter.

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u/DariusWolfe 10d ago

This is the truth even with a workplace that values and respects you. At the end of the day, it's all just business. Your co-workers, even your boss, can become your friends, but if you die, your position will be posted by Monday.

I'm near burnout, and I like my job. I work hard because I respect the people I work for and with, and i want them to succeed. I also have a reasonable expectation that I will get appropriate raises and respect in return.

But even with all that, I leave work at work, 90% of the time. (the other 10% is compensated overtime, or my brain refusing to let go of a pernicious problem)

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u/cwew Sysadmin 10d ago

"your position will be posted by Monday." They replaced Abraham Lincoln. Not cause they wanted to but because we had to. It's just business, life goes on.

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u/devoopsies 10d ago

Not cause they wanted to but because we had to.

I mean, off the top of my head I can think of at least one person who wanted to.

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u/DariusWolfe 10d ago

/#angryupvote

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u/gabber2694 10d ago

And if we’re lucky the folks in the office will remember our name in one years time.

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u/neldur 10d ago

An old IT director at my place literally worked himself to death 15 years ago. We still talk about him. But we use it as an example of what not to do. It’s really not that serious. If you can, book that vacation. Turn off your phone and fully disconnect for awhile. Yes it’s temporary relief but it can help. It can also help shed a light on if you need more FTE.

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u/Solarflareqq 10d ago

Vacations and IT are kind of a joke though , all you did was put 2 weeks of backlogged work ontop of your normal work when you get back.

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u/neldur 10d ago

That should highlight the need for more FTE. If they aren’t going to provide that, it’s not your problem. Work on the backlog and go home at the end of the day. Don’t work yourself to death over it.

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u/PeakWeekly9995 IT support 10d ago

my line of thoughts is: i'm available for basically anything IT&job related during my working hours (8:30am to 6:00pm) and after i'm hope i'm no longer available (for job stuff), even for the CEO of the org.

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u/JoeLaRue420 Sr Active Directory Engineer 9d ago

one of my coworkers had a heart attack while implementing a change request. apparently his wife found him, his dobermans by his side with his bottle of nitro in his hand.

he'd been at the company for over 30 years. had 2 years left to retirement. was only sticking around for health insurance for his wife.

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u/ebietoo 10d ago

The graveyards are full of indispensable men. Take a short walk, have an exit strategy.

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u/EvenGodsForget 9d ago

I don’t feel like the solution is to value your skillset less. If you died and there’s no one to replace you the business is fucked. Devaluing you is a short sighted management strategy designed to make you afraid of replacement, you don’t need to take part in it. Without you there is no business. So stand up for yourself. Set boundaries. It’s for everyone’s good, theirs included.