Anxiety and IT? 347
An anonymous reader writes "During these long breaks from work, it's refreshing to not have to worry about your job. Unless you work in IT, in which case you're salaried and constantly on the clock. To all the server room monkeys and desktop admins, do you suffer from anxiety? How do you deal with it? Does the crushing worry of a businesses IT infrastructure (and the rest of the business) coming to a screeching halt make IT occupations prone to anxiety?"
Chill out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Chill out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Weed (Score:5, Insightful)
Whores (Score:1, Insightful)
See subject
Re:Chill out... (Score:4, Insightful)
It depends on your personality. Some people (my wife is one, a guy I work with is another) just seem to let the stress take over. My wife has this client who was pushing her to deliver work on an impossible schedule so she is up to 3 AM working on CAD drawings and wrecking herself in the process. I keep saying its not worth killing yourself over it. Life will go on without that client. But she keeps trying to deliver.
Other people know when to let the breaker trip, and go home to sleep.
The difference between managers and workers (Score:4, Insightful)
The workers care about the stuff that they do, and get anxiety about it. Managers don't give a rat's ass, and have no anxiety.
The hallmark of a good executive, is that he can turn his problems, into yours.
Re:Chill out... (Score:2, Insightful)
^This. I have been in IT for 12 years as a Sys Admin and I have turned to everything from heavy drinking to online gaming to reading to exercise. The "most" effective way, at least for me, to avoiding stress is just get out and exercise. It helps to calm the body AND mind in a way that no other can.
Yeah but you got to let go (Score:3, Insightful)
Salaried or not, take your free time and get away from the computer and do something physical and fun. Eat better too. Junk food is nice sometimes but eating better will have an effect on how you feel and as always get a decent sleep.
My biggest problem was drinking coffee through out the day even minutes before bed while staying up late. I was getting very little sleep. That really drains you (or me at least).
The opposition is only entropy. (Score:3, Insightful)
If the opposition is just entropy, it's not too bad. Active opposition is much more stressful. Lifeguards, firefighters, and EMTs tend not to be overly stressed. Cops and soldiers, though, routinely get stressed out.
Of course (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course a crushing worry will introduce anxiety. In stressful times, people will be stressed. So I'm not sure what you're asking, other than idle chit-chat of anxiety anecdotes.
Anyway, it's certainly not specific to IT. Guess who else deal with standby time: doctors, police, flight attendants, engineers and service crews in other fields (transportation, organised events, most restaurants and bars). Each of which having to deal with systems far less redundant and scalable than what we can set up in IT.
Requires Experience (Score:2, Insightful)
I have found that handling the anxiety comes with experience. For example, I no longer care if the rest of the business comes to a screeching halt.
The best way to avoid all that anxiety ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Does the crushing worry of a businesses IT infrastructure... coming to a screeching halt make IT occupations prone to anxiety?"
.. is to do it so things work.
Things don't come "to a screeching halt" on their own. It requires talent to make the sorts of mistakes that aren't blindingly obvious and that remain hidden during the pre-prod testing (you *do* test before putting something live?). Having a resilient configuration, that is monitored properly and gives plenty of warning of a problem helps, too.
So far, in 12 years looking after this current setup, I've never had an unscheduled call outside working hours. The problem with that is that it makes me look invisible. It's hard to convince "management" that the systems don't look after themselves and will throw novel and exotic problems if not looked after properly. But that's why we take vacations.
Re:Chill out... (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree. I regard myself as a low stress person and I ride a bike to work, That may be a correlation but I don't think its causative. Some people wind them selves up on stress. Panic and stress feeding on each other until there is nothing else. Telling them to go for a swim or something won't help. They have to look outside the job they are working on.
To be fair, I don't know anyone who relaxes on the trip to work. ;) As for looking outside the job you're working on that's why you need regularly scheduled activity, so it forces you to step away for a while.
I think the problem with IT, or any knowledge-based jobs, is that you don't produce anything tangible so no matter how much you work it rarely feels like there's something to show for it. That's why I recommend physical activity.
All the usuals + Meditation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Chill out... (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Re:The best way to avoid all that anxiety ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The difference between managers and workers (Score:4, Insightful)
Spoken like someone new to the workforce.
It's not that simple, actually. As a lower-level worker, you definitely want time to unplug and get time away from the front lines. And there's always the stress of trying to patch something under fire, or deal with rickety systems that have gone completely sideways at the worst possible moment. It's completely stressful and can be a total nightmare.
As a manager, especially those of us who have manage departments of former co-workers, or departments that we would have previously worked in, that is never far from mind. The last thing I like to do (truly) is call at an inopportune moment on a weekend, a holiday, or after a long day. Those calls come after exhausting every other option -- is this really a 10:30 PM/Saturday/company holiday problem? Can it wait until the next morning? Is there a patch coming? Is there a workaround in the meantime? Do we have someone on hand who can patch it that ISN'T on a weekend or a vacation?
Unfortunately, sometimes that call has to be made. And in those cases, there are actually dollars on the line. I have the impression that you've probably heard "dollars on the line" and think it's a lie - there are always dollars on the line, right? Well, yes. And "dollars on the line" - or "account on the line" or whatever variation thereof means, "loss we cannot realistically sustain at this point". Subtext: "We are all in a really bad position if we don't do this."
When I can run interference or manage expectations, I can. But I know that the last thing you and I want is for me to jump in on systems that I'm, at best, a couple years foggy on (or only algorithmically familiar with) -- you really don't want me jumping in where I'm totally unfamiliar with the nuances. (Nor does QA). So in those situations, I can only hang around and answer priority questions, scope reduction questions on the problem at hand, etc. If we're in the office, I'll gladly buy you a drink, dinner, whatever.
But for the love of god, don't think I don't have anxiety. I have just as much as you - it's just a different type.
The best thing for all of us to do is to try and unplug as much as possible when we're out of work. Don't let the time off be tainted by "I could get an email" or "I could get a text", etc... yes, you can, but time off spent worrying about that is not truly downtime. If the call or email or text comes, the call or email or text will come, and worrying about it will not have made that moment any less stressful. I wrestled with that for ages and you really just have to do whatever you can to make it like a switch - off at the end of the day, and if an emergency crops up, on again. It's exceedingly difficult and sometimes you need to have the burnout moment where you realize the job just isn't worth it... some people have to go to therapy to be able to build that separation. Whatever it takes, it's critical to figure out, because it will eat you alive if you don't.
And remember... in most cases, I got a call before you, and I did everything possible to *not* have to call you.
But today - I'm not checking my work email. If the world blows up, Tokyo or London will deal with it to the best of their abilities. If they can't and NY or Chicago can't, then it will come to SF and LA. And we'll do what needs to be done. Even though it sucks. (Because the alternative in those cases sucks pretty badly for all of us.)
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Re:Become the IT manager (Score:2, Insightful)
Nope. Upper management will fire you instead. The engineer needs a warning and 3 write-ups and an improvement plan and all that nonsense before you can fire him. If the VP of sales can't get his email out he can convince HR to not go through these procedures to go after you though.
Also you are responsible for what someone does without your knowledge. If he makes a mistake on your day off your job is on the line. You hired him right? Management makes more for a reason.
Re:Chill out... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are on call 24/7 I hope you charge them 168 hours per week. Seriously. If not, find a reasonable schedule. Being on call a day a week is ok, but being on 24/7 is only acceptable if you are on the C-level and get paid accordingly - and then you need to be able to fully control your own working hours.
Otherwise, remember, it's not your company. If the server is down, its down. If it cannot be fixed quickly, the company is losing money. Too bad. They should have bought a better server solution and paid an additional IT guy. The people in charge need to live with their decisions. It's not your responsibility unless you are in charge.
Re:Mambi pambi land..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Really?
I have no stress in my job at all. I'm an Electrical Engineer. I work on billion-dollar pieces of life-critical equipment with tight deadlines, zero tolerance for error, and 20-30 year reliability requirements.
I just don't stress about it, I don't come in on overtime unless I'm paid for it, and I enjoy my work. Some people think that you have to be stressed out ("it's part of the field") but that's just a way to move into a small below-ground apartment ahead of schedule.
Re:The best way to avoid all that anxiety ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well that lost a paragraph somewhere...
This (especially the bit about being too good - fake the occasional mail flow issue if you have to).
Make sure hardware is under warranty and your 3rd party software is supported with good SLAs in place. Set up server and systems monitoring so that you know when things are going wrong, rather than finding out when they have gone wrong. Hire competent staff to work with and under you that you can trust to set things up properly and fix them when they break. Never agree to support systems that you don't have the knowledge to fix within your team (unless they have reliable 3rd party support, see above).
Above all, know your infrastructure inside out, take good backups, test your backups and have a DR plan with SLAs for each system and agree it with your business so that people can't turn around in an emergency and demand that you fix *their* system right now because they suddenly decided it was important.
If you're stressed about the bits of your job that are under your control then you're doing it wrong; if you're stressed about your job due to other factors outside your control, you've got a job.
Re:Chill out... (Score:4, Insightful)
that may be borne of the fact that the average person in the western world does not get enough exercise or fruit/veg/vitamins
Re:Weed (Score:5, Insightful)
And we wonder why software fails so often... You get the munchies, forget what you were doing, assume it must have been good because it seems to work!
no, we have crappy software because management doesn't smoke weed. they want software done yesterday with all the ideas they will tell you about tomorrow.
More Magnesium (Score:3, Insightful)
If you suffer from anxiety (and even if you don't) I suggest you take a magnesium supplement, preferably magnesium citrate or magnesium ororate. Magnesium helps you relax.
Re:Chill out... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The difference between managers and workers (Score:2, Insightful)
Not the managers I have met. Everything is always there fault.
When I worked fast food long ago there was an annoying coworker who thought he was bad ass for being promoted to a manager. Now he can move out of his parents house! Wahoo ... for one day. Second day on the job the district manager pointed his finger about handle time, wasting food, etc. He quized him, followed him, and the new manager explained he was not trained and these new guys just started. It wasn't his fault.
Bla bla .. the district manger smiled and said "... it is now. You are the manager. Fix it!"
Within a week he was begging to be demoted back to minimum wage and not deal with this bs. The man had an anxiety attack on the job within his first week!
First day in MBA school they go over every bad theoretical situation at work and it is management's fault 100% of the time. Many of us who think they have it made and get paid to browse the news do not see the other side. I am not a manger, but I am aware when I become one my ass is theirs. It pays more for a very good reason.
Re:Relax.. Take a deep breath.. (Score:3, Insightful)
You cannot "think" yourself out of stress
It's true you can't "think" yourself out of stress but you can meditate on your stress, its effect on your body and your thinking, and come to terms with it in that way. Meditation does not involve thinking i.e., internal dialog, but it does involve taking the time to sit quietly for a half hour or more and just focusing on what exactly the"stress" is. That's the only way to achieve real understanding of it, to come to terms with it, to live with it, and to mitigate its negative effects. It's the same for other types of pain.
If, like most people, you deal with stress by trying not to think about it, by staying busy, by drinking, taking drugs, watching TV, even by exercising (alone) you'll still suffer from it.
If you want to see what meditation is about download a few lectures from audiodharma [audiodharma.org] (to your smartphone or PC) and listen to them while commuting or before bed.
Meditation techniques are even taught in hospitals in the US thanks to unequivocal research showing its beneficial effects. See also books/audiobooks by Jack Kornfield, Lama Surya Das, the Dalai Lama, or Alan Watts among many.