Wednesday, December 22, 2010

My Work is Cyclic

There are many roles in the IT world. In many large corporations they spread the IT workload across multiple, narrowly focused roles. In smaller companies, such as the one I work for, there is a small department of IT professionals that focus on all aspects of IT. The department is really small in my company; I am the only IT professional.

In my role at work, I am the hardware  and software specialist, network engineer, server infrastructure specialist, help desk, and the list goes on. My first priority is to keep all of the employee computers up and running and thus one of my primary roles is desktop support. When I don't have to fix malware issues or crashing computers I work on the projects I develop to better our computer and server infrastructure. This might include extending our wireless network coverage, implementing networked video cameras, replacing aging servers, or virtualizing our physical servers.

These variables (among others) make my workload very cyclic. When things are busy, I often work 10-12 hour days (both at work and at home) and even nights and weekends. When my workload is light it gives me the opportunity to research preventative implementations and measures and develop future project plans (and I can often go home early, allowing me to work from home in the evenings).

The change of pace in my job can be frustrating at times but it's also welcomed. I appreciate being able to take my time planning initiatives but enjoy tackling time-consuming projects when the need arises. But don't worry, we just purchased $50,000 in software and $15,000 in server hardware that I get to install.

Friday, December 10, 2010

I wish I worked Bankers' Hours

I get harassed a lot because of the hours I seem to work. First shift starts promptly at 7 AM (it starts at 6 AM if we are especially busy), engineering must be at their desks and working by no later than 8 and office staff start there day around 8:30.

I get to work by 8:30. I have an hour drive to work and mornings aren't the best time of the day for me. I get through my day and end up going home anywhere between 3:30 and 5 (usually, I try to leave by 4). Now for the keen observer, you might note that I am at my place of work for less than 8 hours on an average day. However, just because I'm not at work doesn't mean I'm not working.

I usually get home around 5:00, spend some time with my family, then log into work around 8 or so. On any given evening I will need to apply updates to servers, restart rogue processes, install software on a user's machine, troubleshoot issues with machines, among many other mundane tasks.

My ultimate goal is for IT to be as unobtrusive as possible. In order to meet that goal I often have to do a lot of work on what most people would call their personal time. IT guys can't necessarily leave their work at the office. If something needs fixed, I fix it whether it's at 11 AM or 9 PM.

So go ahead and give me a hard time. I may not put in a full day at the office, but please don't imply that I get by with doing less work than anybody else. If you do harass me though, I might be inclined to give you a phone call and invite you to ride with me as I go into work at 4 AM to fix a RAID that crashed on a server.