How's work been?

DSGamer wrote:

I've been working in the capacity of a tech lead for about a year now, but in the past 7 months it's ramped up into a situation where I mostly work on architecture and deep technical problems. Even 7 months in whenever I delegate to someone I feel like I'm being lazy.

Does delegating ever stop feeling like this? Like you're a lazy slacker who's just passing the buck?

Yes. When your work is literally impossible for one person to do and/or you start thinking of your team as a unit and yourself as a worker in that unit, it feels less like you're passing on work and more like a worker-placement puzzle or problem. In some cases, you intentionally pass on work to another person because they would benefit from it, and then you take on a less time-intensive position as mentor. This develops their skills and strengthens succession planning. It's always nice to have redundancy in a team, whether it's XCOM2 or a real life team. Putting the XP where it's most helpful is min-maxing, not lazy.

Ironically, sometimes I take on work to escape leadership roles. No one can fault me for being lazy when I'm already working on something, but it feels scummy - like I'm not doing all that I can and should be doing for the team. And of course, follower roles are usually more relaxing and less stressful.

Developers, how much of your career growth and knowledge comes from your role and how much from personal work done outside work hours? I'm not sure if I've got my expectations in line with reality.

I'm currently frustrated with a feeling of stagnation in my current position. I've spoken to my team lead about how to move forward and grow my career. She suggested to take training courses, which is probably good advice, but I'm already doing that and it doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere. She's unable to provide any actual work that's not the same old stuff I've been doing for years (her hands are kind of tied there). She's also unable to provide any potential pathway to advancement within the company. I'll be speaking with managers relatively soon, but I'm not expecting anything different there. All this just makes me think I'm probably better off jumping ship

Most of my development growth, in terms of learning and in terms of billable hours, has been through work. The few times I've had to implement similar systems for different clients I've improved my approach immensely, which also allowed me to charge more per hour and get more lucrative contracts by promising faster results with concrete examples.

I'm probably an outlier as far as your situation is concerned, though, as I've been a consultant for the last ten years.

I learn nearly exclusively through work. I don't code outside of work, though I do some development related reading and YouTubing.

There always seems to be more to learn. New databases, new open source projects, new cloud stuff, new operational issues to troubleshoot, etc. That's what keeps it fresh and interesting. Granted I don't write much code anymore (probably means fewer bugs to squash), but I'm constantly contorting my brain in new, interesting ways to solve new, interesting problems.

So we had an opening for a network/security administrator. I applied to it because why not, and it paid more and got an interview (it's required that all internal applicants to at least get an interview). Anyways, a couple weeks later I get a phone call from my boss (who would still be my boss should I get this job) but basically was asking about my career aspirations. I told him that I am really interested in cyber security, particularly vulnerability analysis/pentesting. We talked quite a bit about security and what we could improve on within the organization and how to develop a proper security department and then he told me that the position I applied to honestly wouldn't be focused in that area.

By the end of the talk, it seemed like he was trying to find a way to tell me that I didn't get the job without me being upset. So yea I'm fairly positive that I didn't get the position but I did get a 10% raise so it's something.

Going from jobs that GPS tracked me and counted my paycheck to the second, to a job where I'm salaried and no one bats an eye when I'm 90 minutes late, is quite a culture shock.

I feel a bit out of my depth. I spent 7 years as a cable guy, with the last few as a lineman. I was a grunt, but one of the nerdier grunts they had so I understood more about HFC networking than most. But still, I understood fault tracking a lot better than others, so I was also better with a shovel. Our trucks had GPS trackers on them so that at any given time, we all knew where someone was (roughly, within about 200').

After I resigned, because my wife took orders out of state, I got a job digging up gas pipes for the gas company. When our locators couldn't mark a pipe properly, our crew went out and dug it up. Granted, there was so little oversight on our crew that we had to have a meeting to explain what we did, and how we did it, but our time was tracked through an app that took our picture when we clocked in, and tagged it with a time and GPS stamp.

We moved back to Maryland last month, and I just started a job on Tuesday that's my first IT job. I'm only about 15 years late getting into an IT role, considering I've been building and troubleshooting PCs since I was about 13. I've always had a bit of low self-confidence and always figured I'd be turned away for not having any experience. But a guy I trained at Comcast, and then talked through the interview process for this company which got him the job, got me an interview for the install room. It's salaried, not the most I've made or could make (I turned down a position where I would have made about $8k more base pay, with lots of overtime availability), but it's super flexible on working times, it's a really short commute (2mi), and it's in a temperature controlled building instead of freezing my ass off in a bucket-truck this time of year.

It's nothing particularly fancy, I'm building servers, pulling a Linux build from a puppet server, then configuring them for the customer's network (IP address and networking configurations are provided to us). Then it's a lot of data entry to document the work done, send emails with instructions to customers, and track shipping and equipment. I don't see a ton of room for advancement here, but I feel it's a step towards a better career fit for me. I've got a lot to learn in the next couple years to position myself for something better, and I'm hopeful that I won't get stuck in another dead-end job like cable turned out to be. Don't get me wrong, I liked cable... but the skills aren't even remotely transferable unless you're trying to switch companies but stay in the same type of position.

Sometimes the persnickety people are hard to work with. I am a patient person, not today.

Things are crumbling quickly at my company. Maybe they were always crumbling.

The project manager on my team left for a different job a few weeks ago. That took me off of development altogether and even off of tech lead duties in exchange for note-taking, meeting organizing and all-around PM duties. I thought I could do a light version of those and still tech lead, but the balls started dropping quickly. And the pressure mounted.

The client I work on predominantly is pressuring us to meet deadlines we can't meet even fully staffed and now we're short 1 PM. Additionally devs on the team are being pulled onto other projects.

I can feel my system overload coming. I'm worried I could experience a version of the same thing that caused me to leave Australia early. The insomnia, nerve pain, etc. It's just too much pressure for my system and I don't know what to do.

When I'm really down about it the last couple of weeks it all feels very total. Like this is the situation and there's nothing else that can be done. I just have to slug my way out of it.

But then if I'm slightly more calm and sober I don't see how this gets any better and I think I should probably just quit. Even before looking for work elsewhere.

Although the general advice is to not leave until you have something else, if you’ve got a decent buffer and it’s stressing you out that much it can be worth it to leave early. Depends on your circumstances though. I hope it gets better

I'm sorry, DSGamer. Good luck!!!

charlemagne wrote:

Although the general advice is to not leave until you have something else, if you’ve got a decent buffer and it’s stressing you out that much it can be worth it to leave early. Depends on your circumstances though. I hope it gets better :(

The problem is I have that whole medication withdrawal issue I’ve mentioned in the depression and anxiety threads (for those that don’t know). So for me stress can, in an extreme situation, manifest as crushing back pain, insomnia, nerve pain and other things. Which makes being functional at work really difficult anyway.

There’s a possibility that the job never gets any better and I end up in that state anyway, but maybe I can head it off at the pass by leaving, is basically my thinking.

Wow, that really sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. Definitely sounds like you should seriously consider leaving.

I was facing real burnout after an intense project i have been tossed into since November. It should have had 4 people on it back in December and it will be getting a 4th person on it next week.

Well out of the blue an old director reached out and offered me a new, lateral move, job. Moves me from project management back to account management which I believe is more my jam. I am part of his fix it crew coming in on the ground floor so this is a pretty great opportunity.

I am bummed to leave my current team but the 12 hour days won't be missed. Lots of work in my new role but I know that is a hill I can climb.

Here is to it all getting better and all of you best of luck!

Big downside is I'll probably keep job searching as I take on the new role as it's a bit rocky.

I misunderstood my manager while discussing our yearly bonus. I thought she said "here's component 1, and here it is with component 2." She actually said "here's component 1, and here's component 2."

I'm getting both of those numbers added together, which is real cool.

Been back with my former company for two years now. Accepted the offer on the pretense that I would be on our travel team doing field installations several times a year, in addition to my other diverse responsibilities of designing, configuring, testing, and in limited cases - building various hardware and software. I did 20 years in the Air Force and until I retired, I had been moving around every 1-3 years and engaging in different tasks within my very diverse career field. Suffice to say, I tend to get a bit stir crazy and bored if I'm sitting in one place for too long, doing the same task day-after-day-after-day-after...

I did one short trip last year, but other than that, I've been sitting here for about 2 years while the rest of the installation team has been doing their thing several times a year. Too many reasons to get in to, but none of them within my control or a reflection of my ability to do my job.

Anyway, our customer finally requested me by name and I started with a very chilly trip to Omaha, NE back when their weather was in the -30s several weeks ago. Weather wasn't quite so pleasant, but I was stationed there for several years when I was still on Active Duty and I have friends in the area that I hadn't seen in a very long time. Actually ended up being a rather pleasant trip over all.

Next week, I head off to the UK for ~2 weeks. My experience with Europe has been limited to airports on my way to one of my many deployments to the Middle East. Suffice to say, I'm really looking forward to the opportunity and one of my best friends from my military days works for our company's field service division there. After I get back, I'll have a few weeks home and then be off to Okinawa for almost 2 more weeks. I was stationed there in the late 2000s and acquired my SCUBA Divemaster certification before I left, but I haven't been back in the water in almost a decade and plan to dive every chance I get while I'm there.

After that, it will be a few more weeks at home before heading back to a second location in the UK. Then sometime around June or August, I'll start the cycle all over again. So, I'm happy and looking forward to seeing some old friends, engaging in some favorite activities, and doing a bit of siteseeing.

My nervous system is still feeling overloaded. Talked to my employer and they said they understood. Said they’d rather I took a break than lost me. So I’m likely going to take next week off and see how that goes.

DSGamer wrote:

My nervous system is still feeling overloaded. Talked to my employer and they said they understood. Said they’d rather I took a break than lost me. So I’m likely going to take next week off and see how that goes.

best of luck and rest up

Hobear wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

My nervous system is still feeling overloaded. Talked to my employer and they said they understood. Said they’d rather I took a break than lost me. So I’m likely going to take next week off and see how that goes.

best of luck and rest up

Thanks. I nearly cried at work today. Partly because they were being understanding and partly for just being in this situation.

DSGamer wrote:

My nervous system is still feeling overloaded. Talked to my employer and they said they understood. Said they’d rather I took a break than lost me. So I’m likely going to take next week off and see how that goes.

I hope you feel better Make sure you rest!

charlemagne wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

My nervous system is still feeling overloaded. Talked to my employer and they said they understood. Said they’d rather I took a break than lost me. So I’m likely going to take next week off and see how that goes.

I hope you feel better Make sure you rest!

Thanks

DSGamer wrote:
Hobear wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

My nervous system is still feeling overloaded. Talked to my employer and they said they understood. Said they’d rather I took a break than lost me. So I’m likely going to take next week off and see how that goes.

best of luck and rest up

Thanks. I nearly cried at work today. Partly because they were being understanding and partly for just being in this situation.

Gah, that's horrible man. Best of luck and I hope the time off helps a lot.

Crossposted from random loathe thread.

Dropping everything to help a customer starting Friday, though customer issue is not my department's root cause. VP says work with x engineer. After sending examples to engineer all day with little response, engineer replies and says doesn't have time and can't alot, time someone else should do it. Continues to pester me all day long for assistance on something else he is working on. Customer is a super nice guy, loves my team, gave hi praise to my boss and his boss about my work. VP tells customer we will get issue fixed. I'm left wondering where to go next and my boss has been out sick so limited communication with him.

ON top of that my group gets a major project dropped on our heads by marketing to put some data together to persuade customers to sunset their older devices. We bust butt all day long, almost complete, will finish tomorrow, before convention marketing meeting with customers.

And another engineer pestering for her top priority project when she knows we are swamped with other stuff, managed to get her testing scheduled for with vendor and us tomorrow on a weekly call we already have.

TLDR; I loathe when some people think an emergency on their part necessitates an emergency on my part.

Hurray, job offer! Short commute, technology I'm interested in, and seemed like really good folks.

Druidpeak wrote:

Hurray, job offer! Short commute, technology I'm interested in, and seemed like really good folks.

Congrats! For me, the commute changes everything for the better, other than being behind on books or podcasts, or being the only one who is in the office on a snow day. I've turned down a couple jobs the past two years and one of the major reasons is to return to sitting on a bus for 45 minutes or sit on the highway in a car for 30 twice a day.

We have a massive issue brewing at work that I was somewhat a part of, I'm watching the drama unfold, but I'm not in the firing line so it's (to a degree) somewhat entertaining.

The company I work for builds IP based video transmission servers in customizable configurations. I was hired to literally build the stuff, because they'd never had a dedicated install team and just relied on whoever wasn't busy to get the stuff out. Business picked up and they needed more people. Good money, entry level IT experience, and a 2 mile commute? Count me in. We have a big client doing a show this Saturday, which this story is about.

At the end of my first week, we had the kit built for this customer. I'm intentionally being vague here, but it's a big box, about 3' wide, 2.5' tall, 3' deep, weighs 160lbs, and had to be shipped internationally. So after we got everything together, we sat it in the corner and waited for shipping instructions from sales. Our NOC got it activated, and there it sat for over a week. And then we start getting emails from the sales rep asking if we could ship this overnight to him so he could take it on the plane with him.

Big red alarm bells. I'm a big guy, and because of the weight and dimensions I can't pick this thing up by myself. This guy had no idea how big it was, and assumed it was like our other kits that can be stowed in overhead storage (these are a small suitcase style that only hold two appliances... the one we built had 2 servers, 2 massive video encoders, a couple routers, a KVM, a KVM switch, a 20 port switch, and power unit... ). So last Thursday our shipping person had to, on the fly, figure out international priority freight shipping for something that's heavy enough that it has to be shipped on a pallet. It was expensive, about $2000. She actually manages to get everything set up, but then FedEx drops the ball on the pickup.

I walk in to a discussion about who's car this thing will fit in, because we had about two hours to get it to the airport so it could get flown out. Well, I drive a Volvo V70 station wagon, so it just fit in the back. I managed to get it to the shipping center with about 45 minutes to spare. Phew.

We were promised it would arrive Monday. Monday comes, it's still in the US. Tuesday it's finally on a flight, but we're at a point where we're scrambling to put a backup plan in place. FedEx is called, we get promised Thursday delivery, but we're not relying on that at this point. These things need 48 hours to get ready before transmission, so we scramble Tuesday to get another small package of equipment that will... technically work... overnighted to a sales rep in New York who carry it on the plane and will fly out to that country Wednesday, and hopefully get everything worked out today with one kit or the other. Our shipping person calls the shipping company, reams them out, and we find out why it took so long to get there. Apparently there were "technical problems" Thursday that caused a 7 hour delay (that we don't give a damn about, that wasn't that bad of a delay). Then, our box, that can't move under it's own volition, somehow managed to miss it's Friday morning flight. We are assuming it stepped out for a smoke at the wrong time, or maybe went to go grab some Chinese food or something. Then it sat there through the weekend. Now it's held up in customs because they're saying we're missing paperwork.

Now management is trying to contract another shipping company so that we don't have to ship through FedEx again.

Friday we got an escalation from level 2 ops group. We escalated, investigated from our side, didn't see anything that we could assist with/not our issue. We passed it back with the information we could provide and their next escalation path. It got sent back with some harsh tones(group director is a giant dbag and has taught his people to be as well) and told it was our responsibility to do so. Um nope, we'll help where we can, but that's on you. We asked if there were any settings changes or software updates made. Come to find out, the customer manager sent a software update to customer units Thursday, and that is why they were bricked. Now they have had to send someone down to try and fix the customer units. (on-board computers in semi trucks) We have offered to send me down as well to help, but all weekend even though customer is hot and talking to execs, no one can be bothered to reply. So in the office with my bag packed in my car in case I have to fly somewhere this afternoon.

How's work been?

For me this week, I'd sum it up as an unending primal scream.

Doing contract work for an international corporation and I have an interview for a higher level salaried position at a different sector at it in an hour and a half. Trying not to get nervous but I really want to stop being a contractor.

jrralls wrote:

Doing contract work for an international corporation and I have an interview for a higher level salaried position at a different sector at it in an hour and a half. Trying not to get nervous but I really want to stop being a contractor.

You got this! I believe in you!

Give 'em hell!

Had a pretty good day today with an argument before one of the federal circuit courts -- my first ever. We won't know the result for a while, but my managers were very complimentary on how I handled the case. It's a breath of fresh air because, over the past few years, I've often felt like my work hasn't been recognized.