I have been out, fully out, for nearly a year and a half now. Has it stopped phone calls, requests or people coming up to me when out at a food festival asking for my help and/or advice that they never heed anyway? Nope. But now I just smile and say, “You know, the computer biz is so fast and I’ve been out for so long now, I have no idea what’s up.”
I don’t miss it. I knew I wouldn’t. I loved the challenge of problem solving, but the aggravation of dealing with people who wanted things fixed, but not in anyway that would effect their infrastructure or productivity. The folks who wanted something for nothing. The ones you kept having to fix the same thing over and over because they NEVER got it.
Yesterday I received a check for the last bit of receivables I had and after depositing the check, was able to finally close out the books. I’m happy writing my books, working with my dogs and just goofing off if I want. I answer to my husband if he bothers to notice we’re eating sandwiches for the third night in a row because I’m distracted. I’ve taken the time to actually figure out my iPhone, learn to hate Android and fall in love with my Kindle all over again. I’ve gardened, grown some of the prettiest roses you’ve ever seen and done a lot around my house when I feel like it.
I get more of a sense of accomplishment just puttering around my house, dusting and vacuuming than I ever did fixing computers or networks. Because I know it’s appreciated by myself and my husband. My husband is so happy I’m out he bought me the piano I’ve been whining for. He finally agreed to a spinet type rather than a baby grand and a week later my piano was delivered. That’s been the hold up for 12 years. He wouldn’t give on a baby grand. Finally, after a really, really good dinner and a sauce so great it brought tears to my son’s eyes, he gave in.
It’s been worth it to get rid of the phone calls, the outraged exclamations when they discover they screwed up their own machines/networks. I no longer get that suspicious look when discussing my bills, figuring out stupid taxes and everything else I did to get people to just think. I finally realized they don’t think because they don’t want to. So I stopped thinking for them. I don’t miss it one bit.
I had a discussion last week with someone about my life now, compared to the last three customer service jobs. I thought about it for a few minutes and told him, “About the only thing I really would like in my life, that I don’t have now, is less noise, my own kitchen, and my own private bathroom. Other than dealing with management and neighbors in my building, I like my life right now.”
IT stuff is only fun for me because it’s not my primary job. I haven’t supported any version of Windows since XP (which was new and not really trusted at the time), and I definitely do not miss it.
Of course, I’ve been involved in equally futile endeavors (Afghanistan, National Guard paperwork, the War on Drugs/Terror/Evilness) ever since…
According to Wikipedia, spinet style pianos haven’t been made since the early 1990s. Apparently, to make them shorter and smaller, the key action is complicated and potentially loses some feel.
On the other hand, I’ve seen folks refer to Upright style pianos as spinets, although they’re a whole other style.
My dad had a friend that sat on a waiting list for 7 years to be a park ranger. I think a lot of people would take that choice.
2 years after finally getting the job, he was caught on the wrong side of a trail by an early storm and ended up losing 7 fingers, and almost his ears and the tip of his nose. So, three degrees, 6 years of school, 7 years taking more classes and washing dishes in a bar, and he’s back where he started after 2 years. I have no idea what he’s doing now. Likely some environmental science research.
I can’t imagine it’s normal. Obviously it’s a rough job off and on, but that’s pretty damn extreme.
He was at some park that usually had one or two hiking groups at a time. There was a nasty storm front coming in and he thought he could beat it to them and hustle back. The storm came in quicker and the other guy found the group.
I don’t know why he didn’t have more than a windbreaker with him. It was on a mountainside, and it was either spring or fall, I can’t remember now. He wasn’t mad about it, took it pretty philosophically.
I got a call today from someone wanting me to work as a level 2 phone help desk support. Hmmm… no way in hell. I put in my time.
As to the ranger job, when I got out of high school I worked at Philmont Scout Ranch for a summer. Best 3 months of my life living in the back country. I believe they do adult trips now too so you don’t even need to be a Scout. And there’s always alumni trips being planned. I’d go back if I could.
We have relocated to a smallholding just outside Pretoria, this is so much better than the “Big City”. No more traffic noises, neighbourly dogs barking or neighbours making noise, more space and so on.
We took the move as we could not live comfortably on my salary anymore. We haven’t got running water yet, and have to cook our food with wood (or gas), but we don’t mind at all.
As soon as our water is sorted out, we will be able to grow some veggies for ourselves (and hopefully sell off some of our extra produce).
But yeah, if my work hands me a pink slip, I’m not going to worry, I will take it as an opportunity to explore other avenues of employment (and hopefully give somebody else in IT grey hairs )… so at this stage I’m taking every day as they come.
Wonder how many of us “experienced sysadmins” are there who want to get totally out of IT… should be interesting to know.
The guy who hosts my sites on his personal server has been in network admin for years now. His degree was originally Astronomy, but got into IT because he was the only one who could figure out how to make sure all the computer-controlled stuff kept working.
He got a bit of a bonus two years ago, when the company tapped him to design the new data-center. He loved doing it, but it wasn’t long before he was doing both: keeping the old one limping along and getting the new one set-up right.
He’s getting burned out, and he’s been thinking about going back to his first love (Astronomy) a lot lately. I stayed with him and his husband for a few months a couple years ago, and I saw what he was like after a particularly rough Monday, Tuesday or Friday. And then spending two weeks out of every three on on-call… For his sake, I hope he can find something better.
I haven’t missed it. I was fired right before Thanksgiving 2003 before I went to Basic in January. I worked a single day as a contractor in Seattle in February 2007, right after I got back from Afghanistan, and I went right back into full-time uniformed service where I’ve been ever since.
I’m ready to go do something else, but it’s definitely not IT–at least, not IT like I used to do.
(Weirdly, I now go to church with one of the managers at the site from which I was fired, and he told me I could basically have a job if I wanted it, even after making it clear that Windows 2000 was the last version I professionally supported.)
Y’know, it’d take a lot for me to give up IT these days. I left my job at the Internet factory last summer to be a system admin for a small but rapidly growing software company - I’m one of two (soon to be three) IT people and the owners understand that we need to invest in infrastructure if we are to be successful. Since I was hired we have gone from 25 to 30 staff in house and half a dozen in other countries. I’m getting paid what I feel I’m worth and there are lots of perks on the side which makes for a really positive work atmosphere. I’m either dreaming or I found a unicorn… Not sure which yet.
)… so at this stage I’m taking every day as they come.