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?"
Not sure.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Chill out... (Score:5, Interesting)
Explain to them what an "enabler" is. Sociopaths are always going to take advantage of everyone, and people like your friend and your wife are just fodder for them. Better no client than a bad client.
I think there is a certain thrill in getting stressed. You get an endorphin rush from it. In a sense it could be quite addictive. Its hard to talk a person out of something like that.
Re:Chill out... (Score:2, Interesting)
I've taken a different approach to my career. I specialized. Heavily.
As a result, I'm in a position where my specialization takes me out of the day to day IT borefests. Yes, I'm responsible for the DR/Continuity stuff too, but really, that shit is easy, especially in small/mid business.
But the specialization is heavy enough that there are very few of us out here, and fewer still that can do it with any degree of competency. As a result, I am constantly being "scouted out" by headhunters...if my employer sucks & treats me like some disposable shitstain, then I'll just take the next job offer that comes my way. I get 3-4 a year...I can wait out a few months of crap & move on to something (hopefully) better.
I guess, in a much shorter version...be the fucking best at what you do, and be known that you're the fucking best at it. Beats the shit out of doing lameass MS certificates to get your resume past some HR loser.
AC for many reasons. The least of which is I don't need my employer knowing I get 3-4 job offers a year
5-HTP works (Score:4, Interesting)
I work seven days a week, where I manage about 150+ desktops out in the field, over 150+ email accounts and several dozen mobile phones. I am also hosting high traffic websites. This may not sound like much to many people out there, but I am constantly under pressure and yes, anxiety does kick in.
Even though I work out 3 times a week (strength training) I am still under stress. My social life is a train wreck, where I rather stay in a veg out on the weekends. Mind you, I have friends and plenty of relationships with the opposite sex, but lately it's just too much for me to handle. I come home and the last thing I want to do is talk to another human being.
One thing that helps is 5-HTP. I pop 100mg in the morning and the rest of the day goes by with little worry. Sometimes, I combine it with a bit of melatonin to have a nice deep sleep (with very vivid dreams). I wake up feeling a bit more refreshed, leading to a better day.
Re:Chill out... (Score:2, Interesting)
sounds illegal. you should sue your workplace hard.
honestly, if one person is that important to an enterprise, then it is doomed to fail miserably.
if your employer has all it's eggs in one basket, then they deserve to lose that basket in a yellow, gooey stomp-fest led by you.
fear of sleeping will give you a healthy dose of PTSD, and jeopardise your ability to do any other job.
i had a job where i was the vital cog at several points, my boss was a psychopath bitch who mismanaged and blamed anyone but herself (mainly me), and when i finally got out of there it took me nearly 6 months to get back to decent productivity. i still flinch when a supervisor glances over at me, and i consider myself a normal person.
that said, the place i left is in such dire straits that i laugh whenever i hear of it, and feel really sad for my colleagues who didn't manage to get out of there. the owners of that company will never retire and will die poor, miserable and disillusioned. and it'll be their fault.
Relax.. Take a deep breath.. (Score:5, Interesting)
You are spot on. You cannot "think" yourself out of stress. Often, it has the opposite effect. But exerting yourself into some physical activity, can be a tremendous stress-reliever.
I've also discovered breathing techniques and yoga to be very helpful to relieve both stress and delusions about one's place in this universe, also on how important one really is ;-) Where mere physical activity can relieve your stress there and then, yoga and its knowledge, can relieve you of all kinds of fears and tensions, or help accept whatever comes, which is more important often than trying to "get rid of the bad feelings" - they tend only to get more stuck that way!
Some people become wise after a long life, but there are ways to speed up the process, if you're smart, and lucky ;)
Re:Personally... (Score:1, Interesting)
i've been to the point of vomitting when i walked through the door at a past job. manager literally stressed and micromanaged me to the point of physical illness. and this was after having had been in the 82nd airborne from '89 to '97, going through a divorce, being unemployeed, you name it - the things most people refer to as "stressful events". sheer madness.
i literally wanted to die and finally called the manager out on their actions in front of HR with one years worth of concise documentation, received an incerdibly nice severance (easily 3 times as much as i should have received versus my time with the company), and never the two shall meet again.
Re:Chill out... (Score:1, Interesting)
That's pretty much the answer: physical activity relieves stress.
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.
After 30+ years in IT, I found myself in a Coronary Intensive care unit one afternoon, and had a quad bypass the next day.
After recovery, I went back to work, only to have my health continue to fail.
I left the industry, bought a small ranch, and rested for a couple of years. That "vacation" cost all my life savings, but it was worth it.
I now work for my State's Department of Transportation - I fix pavement, signs, guardrails, and clear debris from the roadways. I get to operate heavy equipment (Tonka Toys for Bigger Boys).
I've never been happier.
Re:Become the IT manager (Score:1, Interesting)
I am the manager and let me tell you something, going from a environment where everyone functions on logic and making sure things work properly to an environment straight out of a Dilbert cartoon is one of the most stressful transitions I have ever made.
I consider myself one of the "good" managers. Failures stop at my and success gets pushed up. I spend far too much time fighting HR/GA and accounting policies specifically designed to prevent work from getting done in order to keep other people busy and look like they are accomplishing something.
Well, anyway, feeling stressed and had to vent!
Re:Not in today's market (Score:5, Interesting)
The market is bad, yes, but paradoxically not bad for the already employed. I switched jobs in August.