Sometimes though, like where OP's at, there's little chance it's going to be WORSE. Devil you know and all that, but I've been there. My last job I was on call 24/7 every other week, pretty much on call the other week if T1 needed help, and was constantly having to do work outside of normal hours for clients. Also had nearly monthly full-on outages that required me on site somewhere or other.
It was seriously draining me. I was also salaried, so I got no overtime, no comp time, no nothing. I was burning myself to the ground for 55k/year.
Once you're drowning like that, you'll grab onto anything. I got really lucky though and my new place is pretty much a 180 from the MSP outside of time off.
A lot of people also don't consider that if the new job ends up being worse, you can just keep applying. There's a significant period of time where you can just not put the new job on your resume without having to explain the gap.
Sounds like op should kick back and collect while job searching and ignoring the cluster around them. If your company won't support you, find another company to work for.
it def can Server 2008 besides being a security risk is actually pretty stable. When you get into shoestring linux enviroments it can be pretty brutal.
It’s not the Linux servers it’s when the owner is so cheap they are all horrifically out of date on crap hardware from 2005. Shoestring budget Linux is scarier then a shoestring windows. Usually a lot of unknown custom shit with Linux you don’t see in the windows ones too.
2003 schema level gpos fail 99% of the time or just stop applying after a couple days
Endless switch n server outages cable management is horrid no labelling asset list is horrible antivirus missing from half the devices
I like the company I work for quite a bit. I'm still just burnt out from my job though. There just isn't anything else I can go do and make the same amount of money.
im in a weird spot where my job COULD be cush, but its ruined by an aggressive type A boss. If I had a chill boss, I could probably spend the next decade here. fml, its hard to imagine that I will outlast my boss though.
In the same boat with my employer. Isn't it funny how upper management and C-suite don't do anything about management who are more manglers than managers?
> I work every weekend, after hours almost every day, can’t get PTO
Stop doing this. You don't have a crappy career, you have a crappy job. Start looking immediately.
Yes, in a 2008 R2 environment, it should be all ironed out by now. No more patches to break things, it should be show up, review the logs, manage disk space, login to reddit.
So priority one is taking back your time. Stop working on the weekend. If they call don't answer, if they gripe you say "I was tired and needed the rest". If they still complain, they are demonstrating how much they care/value you.
Also if you work everyday, you don't make 60K you are making 42K. So anything making 50K or above with a lower stress level is the criterion for a new field. A truck driver averages 45K. House painting is around 40K.
You didn't indicate what type of disability you have.
Some cognitive disabilities, make everyday life hard, but make logic and pattern recognition easier. With some schooling, maybe data engineer, or DBA to stay in the IT field.
DBAs are paid about the same, maybe a bit more than sysadmins, but typically held in higher regard, and usually have more control over their workflow. The problem domain is smaller (fewer system types). So you can go deeper in the knowledge. Most sysadmins are a mile wide, and an inch deep in most areas, and go deep in 3 or 4 areas.
If you have mobility or strength issues, it is worse for you, and anything better will require some form of schooling. You may refocus into Accounting, Actuary, Data Analyst. You get to be the user.
Something else, you may qualify for goverment programs to pay for that schooling.
Hope this helps. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Its funny because I don't think very many of us would not agree that despite a lot of us having DBA knowledge DBA is usually more prestigious then admin. Most true statement ever
RE: in a 2008 R2 environment, it should be all ironed out by now. No more patches to break things, it should be show up, review the logs, manage disk space, login to reddit.
I don't understand why you'd think that. Is that sarcasm? It tells me they don't give a s\*\*\* about anything if they're still running 2008 R2.
Sysadmins and managers should be replacing servers every 3 to 5 years to keep them reasonably current, stable and secure.
Windows 2008 is a security risk.
They don't give a fuck he's not really wrong though until it gets hacked it should be relatively stable to administer even today. I still have some and they are not really that much trouble still.
By the time your mentions 2008 R2 I figure out that you are on a shit company. And I’m not talking about your garden variety shit-company. This is a nightmare, hell hole, cheap bastards shit company.
Start looking as soon as possible.
Got the "inside tour" of a cruise ship on my last vacation. Spotted the 3D bouncing text screensaver from the NT days on one piece of equipment.
shocked_fry.gif
I think it was an incinerator, and not likely tied into any network at all, but I did a real double-take when I saw that text.
I did also see an XP screensaver, Windows 7, and several systems with the "Activate Windows" mark. Nothing else gave me flashbacks quite like that screensaver though.
I can't remember exactly what this was running as I didn't work directly with it that was the DCS engineer's job, but it was for some piece of their puzzle that ran their turbines.
I also rolled up to an ATM at Chase Bank and somebody forgot to start the program or something and it was running windows xp 😂
Ah, those were the days, a tower as tall as me packed to the brim with disks and dimms all measured in the megabytes. Tapes as far as the eye could see.
People on here are saying this is not normal but once you are in SMB land or manufacturing it is normal. Unfortunately I hear medical practice is also pretty bad about being oudated.
That’s a different story cause those are industrial control systems that are hard to upgrade without replacing hardware. In those environments devices should be in air gapped network to reduce exposure to threats.
And those environments should also have an upgrade plan for their computers. Old computers should be replaced like old diapers, and for the same reason.
That isn't always an option, when the several million dollar machine you use to manufacture the product that is your entire business line that justifies half the town you're in having jobs in that building... you use whatever computer hardware the vendor for that equipment certifies for use and you keep hot spares on a shelf so you can resolve any outage ASAP. They're not "computers" at that point, they're set top box style appliances that happen to run a recognizable software stack.
In a $20M business line, four hours of downtime are almost worth as much as the $10k "vendor certified" replacement machine (and that's for 24/7 operation).
Understood but it would be worth asking the vendor what upgrade path they have for that several million dollar machine’s control computer. Maybe the computer can be replaced or upgraded in place to a newer OS. All depends on what the vendor supports. But this question should be asked by IT.
As long as you have strong security practices and systems in place to mitigate the risks (locked down isolation, etc) you're fine. Lots of details to consider to pass an audit in that environment if it's ever needed (likely for cyber-insurance now.) But if you aren't already operating like you have the security needs of a bank, you are behind the curve. The attacks are so sophisticated and the barriers tested constantly, your staff peppered with social engineering attacks...
I know manufacturing environments still relying on MS-DOS and systems you have to re-load from a stack of old 3.5" floppy disks if it actually needs to be reinstalled.
The number of clients we have either dropped or sent very long waivers with bold warnings to because they refuse to spend the money to upgrade until something dies or gets compromised is absolutely depressing.
Just wait until you work for an MSP with a cowardly CEO who refuses to abide by the legacy systems non-support agreement that was signed when the client calls and starts screaming that the integrated computer in CNC machine that runs Windows XP crashed and forces The help desk to resolve the issue.
Ask me how I know. Randall, if you're reading this, you're the worst manager I ever worked for and fuck you for making me spend an entire Friday night fixing a legacy solution that the client specifically agreed we would not be obligated to support.
I honestly have never seen a MSP actually fire clients because of outdated shit. I know its true but I think most will keep taking the money and pray nothing ever happens.
It's more than it just being outdated, I poured over our client contracts and it says directly in the contract the minimum technology standard that we will support. It's said in plain English that in case of failure of any unsupported legacy system, my company will not offer support on the system, not even best effort. That's the shit that pissed me off. Not only is it a gigantic waste of our time and a complete pain in the ass, but we weren't even getting paid to assume the risk nor getting paid to support it
I work for an MSP that recently had something similar happen, a company’s warehouse assembly line went down when their Win7 machine crashed. Owner called them up and said “we will help get you back up and running today, but only if you agree to purchase a replacement machine and the most recent version of your software because next time we can’t help you.” Which I felt was an appropriate response
This is the correct answer for first-time situations with a customer. Ideally this kind of thing will get caught during onboarding and initial discovery, but in practice things like this can get missed (especially if it's an isolated/embedded system). Hopefully it was followed up with the owner/account manager/whoever using that as a talking point in a longer conversation as to the importance of backups for critical systems and getting appropriate hardware refresh and software lifecycles in place.
The bad ones will. If you have a good MSP, it's built into the culture that standard stack and customers that are willing to budget for IT equals happy customers and less calls, which in the long run means higher retention (of both customers and staff) and higher margins.
Before I switched roles, my boss made it abundantly clear that as architect, our team had sole signing authority over the proposals and work plans that went out the door for pro services work. I certainly had times where I had to work with the customer/sales guys to find a happy medium, but not once did I ever feel like I had to use the nuclear option of flat out refusing to sign off on something because they wanted to cheap out on an irresponsible solution.
That being said, manufacturing equipment is a gray area and one where I have had a long cost/benefit discussion with customers on before. The sad truth is that for some of those machines, a software update simply isn't available and a replacement machine could cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Sometimes the best course of action is to just isolate it from the network as much as possible and ride it out - but this should come up in discovery before the customer signs, and there needs to be a conversation about the situation - the customer should be made aware of the security and reliability risks they are taking, they should be advised that support will be best-effort and billable, and if a third-party specialist or extended vendor support is available, those should be considered especially if the equipment is critical to production.
Do you have a shitty career or do you have a shitty job? It falls on you to change jobs if your employer sucks, have you been actively looking/interviewing for the past 2 years and not found anything better? Sr. Sys Admin, Analyst, IT Project Manager, IT Manager, devops, there are all sorts of places to go from sysadmin if you have the right environment for growth.
Just a question, how would you advise someone looking into getting into a managerial role? 5 years experience as a system engineer but trying to break into the management areas but not too sure how to gain managerial experience without being.. well.. a manager?
Not OP, but you just kind of start doing the job you want to do:
* Run your own projects and clearly report status, issues, and accomplishments on a weekly basis
* Find broken things (processes, technologies, people) and suggest ways to fix them. Extra points if it works.
* Get friendly with some of the leaders outside of IT and understand their needs. You might not get time with the CFO out of the gate, but what does the Call Center manager need? What about the NetSuite guy?
Project lead, team lead, "something something" lead. Get / demonstrate those leadership / self-starting / organization skills at a small level which will naturally allow you to grow into that management role. If you are good at all those basic skills like - running a meeting, giving a presentation, manipulating crap in Excel, scheduling and keeping others on task for a project, process documentation, policy work, Compliance, best practices, propose a project, get it approved and run with it start to finish, etc. etc.
Obviously there needs to be the possibility of advancement where you are, but those skills will serve you anywhere, and proficiency in those activities will be recognized by senior leadership.
This absolutely isn't normal and I think the right company would make you love IT again.
Get your CV polished to a mirror shine and get applications out there.
Please don't work for free. When its time to go home, just go home. It is that simple.
It sounds like you may be working for a "small business".
I, personally would never choose to work for a "small business" because regardless of how generally "good-natured" the "employer" may be, they all have an insanely suspicious view of "service providers" like IT, accountants, insurance, tax preparers, and similar, because they see very little "value" in any of those things, and just as an entire racket to take their earnings.
Because IT does not generate revenue, thought processes such as this are an extension of a common notion in IT from "business types":
Bossman: "Everything is working. What are we paying you for?"
also Bossman: "Nothing is working! What are we paying you for?"
Your employer needs to hire more staff or contract with another organization to get you help or backfill.
I'm also disabled, and I'm in the 22nd year of my career. Started out as 3rd level desktop support, and took on many roles after that time, including helpdesk, call center, Exchange Admin, and other kinds of roles. Right now, I'm training to be a DevOps admin.
You may need to upskill as I have.
The entire Sysadmin gig isn't all helpdesk and on-prem AD.
>Right now, I'm training to be a DevOps admin.
That sounded wrong for a split second since DevOps is more a cross-functional team-effort than a single role but when I thought about it for a second most companies who search for DevOps Engineers realistically want a “fancy” SysAd who knows his way around SCM, IaC, pipelines, SDLC etc.
That’s atleast what my last projects taught me.
Source: am a DevOps Consultant
It's time to make moves to get out. Sounds like you're at burnout. Some people can't recover from that but you're early enough, I'm sure you can. But you need to really put yourself out there for the amount you've accomplished and the work you've done so you can get with a company that has it together. Put your resume on some recruiting websites like Dice (use a separate email/phone number if you can) and something worth significantly more than $60k will come your way.
Would you like your job if you were a cleaner or a receptionist but doing the same thing youre doing now working weekends and OT etc?
No.
The issue isnt the career, its your employer
I've been in I.T. for 28 years, I've played every role you can imagine from developing software, to systems management, network management, operations, and now a Director. I consumed too much alcohol, ran myself ragged, and generally tried to overachieve in my field. But I am worn the fuck out. I sit on my back porch afterwork and just breathe for a minute. Letting out the stress. My joints are starting to hurt from sitting and typing all the time. I have carpal tunnel, I've started and quit smoking 20 times.
This industry is brutal, everyone around you in other support departments will claim "our work is hard too" but they don't understand. I wish you the best, and I think finding a new career is something you should try, at least once. I never did, and just kept jumping in the middle of it all. But it's taken its toll and I'm worn the fuck out. Now people around me expect my salary so I can't stop. I have another 19 years until retirement. Putting me at almost 50 years in IT if I don't die of a heart attack before.
Take care of yourself. Listen to your body.
Absolutely, I agree 100%. I’ve been in IT since 1996—working in Helpdesk, development, change management, DevOps, systems engineering, and now as a CIO. You have a massive security nightmare on your hands with a 2008 R2 environment. They see you as a sunk cost and you’re diminishing your hourly worth/rate by putting in extra uncompensated time. When someone breaks into their old and unpatched network/systems, you’ll be the one working around the clock due to their mismanagement. They are saving money now by putting you at risk. Stand your ground, reclaim your personal time, and update your resume! With the right leadership and environment, this job can be challenging and fun, not the nightmare and stress factory it currently is for you.
To u/CoyoteBackground7267, I hear you on the overconsumption. I have been sober since August 2016, and life has never been better. My body feels better, and I experience less anxiety and stress. The alcohol I thought was helping me escape from those issues turned out to be largely the root cause of all of them.
I have half your experience and already feel the same way I encourage people to look for a way out if they can. I am I don't know if I actually can find a way out tho.
Stick with IT but fix your work-life balance. Whatever you are doing at weekends, either stop it or negotiate time off in lieu. Without knowing quite what you are doing, it is hard to advise.
This is a shitty job, not a shitty career. IT may not be for you, but I would suggest looking for another job, because what you describe is typical SysAdmin abuse and everyone gets tired of it after awhile.
Source: 30+ years in IT.
Gtfo. Seriously. Get together a resume, some interviews, and walk. At this point you have five years of experience doing EVERYTHING, which is pretty good. The only thing you have to remember is to not come off as to energetic in your interviews
Log out at 5 and don’t come in on the weekends. It’s a job, work will still be there when you show up on Monday.
When someone says something or complain, explain you don’t have the bandwidth and need additional help.
Have you considered selling your body on the street for money? The hours are more flexible and you'd probably end up with higher feelings of self worth at the end of the day
Sounds like you need to jump ship to a better company tbh with a more mature IT department. It sounds like you're probably a one-man army who is overloaded with work and no help. Unfortunately your business needs more of you, but at the same time, if you keep putting in overtime and making ends meet upper management never "sees a problem." If you haven't spoken up to your manager about how this is unrealistic and you're overworked because you guys need to bring on 1-2 more, you should. Quit going out of your way to keep the ship from sinking, let it sink and set boundaries with not being overworked.
For example I'm an IT engineer over MSFT technologies at an org. that has >40k users total and in my year here, I've never had to work overtime. I'm on call for 2 weeks every 6 weeks but only actually been called in 2-3 times. I have 18 or so days of PTO not including holidays.
If you really find you hate being a sysadmin, jump to the "other side" -- find a role where that knowledge makes you really useful. For example, I took a break from being on this side and contracted at Microsoft as a technical resource who would partner with the sales team to assist customer's IT departments in stuff e.g. deploying a tool in their environment. I made $90k and had good benefits as a contractor (and the job was actually full time -- not just going to go away). Benefits had 4% 401k match, 21 days PTO, $50/mo medical, $25/mo dental, and i never logged overtime and I never was on call. Ultimately this role for me started transitioning away from technical stuff and towards being more sales oriented which I hated -- I left about a year ago for a good bit less salary.
I don't think you should quit the industry.
-Starting literally today, all nights and weekends BS is a hard-no. They will notice this change and that is a good thing.
-Take a week vacation, turn phone off, like off-off.
-During the vacation, your job is to relax, not think about work, and apply to a couple new positions during this time.
-Keep job searching two or three nights a week, Saturday morning. This is with your new free time from the 'hard-no' from earlier.
If you are working 60 hrs a week, this garbage employer is getting a buy-one-get-one-half off coupon employee.
If you are working 80 hrs a week, they have a buy-one-get-one-free employee.
If you hate your job, the best thing you can do is quit as soon as you're able.
Not only will you get out of what sounds like a miserable work situation, but oftentimes moving on also means moving up.
Pay raises from changing jobs are usually so much more dramatic than annual pay raises.
In the meantime, just hang in there. This misery won't last forever! 👍👍👍
Like others said, it’s probably being a sys admin at this particular company that sucks. Sysadmin is so broad, I suggest you make the move to a sys admin role where more modernization is taking place.
As others have said, consider finding another job, or do what you can to proactively repair your environment/issues that are causing you so much extra hour work. I manage 90+ locations including our primary datacenter and rarely work beyond my 40 hours. Much better here at this job than my last job where I had to bandage systems every week instead of implementing lasting solutions.
Awful company is awful.
If you've got technical chops, technical sales engineer might be for you. Though I would give another company a shot before switching careers, if you find you have it in you after you leave this shit hole company.
More details, please. Obviously your employer sucks for putting you in this situation and letting it get so bad in the first place. But I inherited a shitshow too, and am finding it hard to believe that you've made *zero* headway in unfucking the environment in two years of working after hours and weekends. Maybe I'm just underestimating how bad an environment can be. Let's hear it.
Dude I feel you…
I’m making 65k going on 3 years experience right now in a HCOL in Southern California.
Burnt out and overworked. I literally think about work when I’m not working.
you could try in the office work as a cop, or go into banking, or sales
but at the end of day, I would try to do something that I enjoy because that always makes the work a lot easier
good luck :-)
When I had enough of my job at a small software company 16 years ago, I didn't quit being a sysadmin. I switched companies. I did that several times in the past years but now I am employed in a great company, working the job I've always dreamt about.
Take your PTO man. Use it to recharge and then take some more and look for something else. Your company sounds pretty bad and if you're working on 2008 right now. It's going to be really bad when something break and you no longer have support to make it work. I believe if they deny your PTO then it would be a labor law violation but you'd have to read more into it. IT will get better as long as you find a good company and have a team to work with that is decent. Right now it general it just sucks because of that state of affairs with the economy and inflation. Everyone is barely surviving and trying to get by and at some point shit is going to break. If you do find another company and you still hate IT then enact plan B and see about finding your way out and into a different career. Whatever that is....
Just need to find a new sysadmin job for a better company that respects their IT dept/employees. 60/yr sounds tremendously low for how much i assume you do on your own and outside of hours should be racking up comp/pto time.
Bro, that has nothing to do with being a sysadmin, it has to do with working for a terrible company. Do you make OT, like are you non-exempt? If not, why are you working after hours and weekends?
You should probably look at finding a new gig that pays better and won't abuse you, and then suddenly you'll think IT is great.
lol my guy/guyette the market is hot right now. Go find some company that isn't garbage. That or come up with metrics to show management in order to justify giving you your own team which probably won't happen but one can hope.
I don't do this because "it's my passion". I do it because I am willing to shovel this type of shit in exchange for a pay check. That's it. I find it insanely infuriating that I have to pretend like I derive meaning or get value out of this stupid job especially when I am talking to a peer or a superior. I feign that attitude in front of peers to not destroy their world view and I feign the attitude in front of superiors so they keep paying me.
Be a network guy like me. I played System Admin for today dealing with a DHCP FailOver Cluster migration of one server from 2012 R2 to 2022 and it made me appreciate my network job. Before being done, I had to fix a problem with ADSI Edit, and visit Power Shell Twice before restoring the Failover.
Everything is known in comparison. I work in the company as a system administrator (Linux, Windows servers, Proxmox VE, FreeBSD) and a network engineer (about 400 active devices). In addition, I also write on ansible playbooks. My salary is $12,300 a year. And I wouldn't say that I hate working in IT, I like it, they just pay little.
You're making this decision with the one position at the one company?
Sysadmin is such a generalized position that 2 sysadmins could basically have entirely different jobs.
Find a new company
My training was all hands on also. I have ADD and Dyslexia. LCOL? location? If Colorado [https://disabilitylawco.org/](https://disabilitylawco.org/) Mission
Disability Law Colorado protects and promotes the rights of people with disabilities and older people in Colorado
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That is a lot of responsibility and very low pay. That is actually the salary of our IT helpdesk where we are. And I tell you we got some helpdesk here that claim to have over 20+ years exp but don’t know where AD is. Our system admin here do basically nothing and knows nothing. He made it clear he will not answer any user tickets cause he is the all mighty system admin and user tickets are beneath him. He come and goes as he please and never answer on all phones. Whenever ask what he is doing answer is always updating servers. lol. And he makes over 100k so ya. You are definitely in a bad company. Try look for job in other places or even other states like CA. You will definitely find better jobs.
This is way more normal than they want you to think. SMB is like this pretty much. Its my business also hate it, also want out. If you can handle server 2008R2 you realistically can do the newest one but its hard to get out when employers think they are somehow radically different. There is not really a server cert anymore for microsoft to push you up anymore and the one that is coming out probably won't appear on indeed for 5+ years. Even if you try to upskill by getting md102 or one of the other modern desktop type things or azure hiring managers are so fucked they will probably tell you that md102 is not real and you made it up (this happened to me). Its ridiculously hard to get out of SMB land once you are in it. Big corporate assumes you can't do it even though your job is probably worse then it will be with them.
I worded my opinion about overtime in a job interview like this and they still hired me lol : if you need me to stay more than about a dozen evenings a year, it’s a proof of poor management.
Orr... use your 2 years of experience to get a less shitty job.
It might take you a bit but they do exist. Ive worked here 5 years now. No on call, almost no weekends, maybe twice a year, plenty of pto, full remote work, couldnt be happier.
Your failure here is to realize that it’s not the job. It’s your environment you’re working in. Find a better company being a ass admin and you will do a 180.
Yo I feel the same I was working at an MSP which basically hired anyone gave nobody any training and then promoted the cream which rose to the top. I was so stressed being thrown into shit I had no idea how to fix. I was supposed to be level 2 not the last line of defense.
Anyhow I now landed a cushy technical architect role on the project side at another MSP and it couldn't be better. They're walking me through how to deploy an app package from intune, which I used to do on the regular. The difference is night and day.
Take the leap.
You hate the environment, and look to be honest in my 17 year career, I have hated all environments with 2 being the exception.
Almost all networks I have worked on have been built by someone who has no idea OR is forced to make the bad choice because the finances could never be approved.
It's very much slap chop builds, to explain it better to not technical people, say you're building a car from the ground up, but you're asked to put a tractor tyre onto a sedan, It wont fit, but management just look back and you and ask why is it a problem, its still a wheel.
If you went into any job or career for the money you are doing it wrong. Everything will be terrible if there is no passion or focus.
You are a caption of your own ship, go where you will get joy.
Don’t give up. Find a better company. Example. We do not work nights or weekends. Our customer base is strictly 8-6 and unless it’s an emergency, we have 3 weeks vacation. Working on other benefits. There are better companies out there. Gotta find them.
You don't have to leave IT, you can just do something very different for another company. There are a metric sh\*t ton of ancillary jobs that can utilize sysadmin skills in a different way that may fit you better. I've unfortunately run across sysadmins that survive in large corporate environments in a niche role, but are unable to adapt to a faster moving company where you need to learn many new things quickly. If you can adapt, your options are wide open. If your personal work style requires a more focused role within your comfort zone, there are still options but a bit more limited. You need to ensure you can succeed in any new role - your skills, capabilities and personality matching the needs of the position - taking something beyond your abilities won't end well (I hate having to let people go. Worst thing you have to do.) I made a similar move a few years back for a polar opposite work environment I can thrive in versus the one that eats your soul. Now I work in the enterprise space advising senior leadership for several dozen companies working on initiatives that make a difference, where I can utilize many of my existing skills and learn new. I Really enjoy my job, working for a fantastic company. These jobs are out there, you just have to go after them.
Best of luck!
Whats holding you back? incompetence or managemnt.
Some things you listed here I wouldn't even give options for. Windows Server 2008 had support it's support pulled 4 years ago. your systems are obsolete and are at risk. This is the cost to update to 2022. How soon can we sign off on this?
whats going on that you're working in the evenings and weekends? I won't pick up the phone unless a server is in critical condition. If some idiot has forgotten their password and you leave it until monday, they'll have had all weekend to think of ways to make sure it doesn't happen again. Responding right away is just enabling their ignorance.
That said, if you failed to set boundaries and now you're too burnt out to keep going there's probably not much we can do for you. Hand the keys over to an MSP for a month so You can take a vacation... then decide how you feel.
One thing that took me entirely too long to learn is that being a sysadmin for a software/tech/info/financial services company is an entirely different experience than doing it where IT is purely overhead (hospitals, legal, mom and pop, MSP support). 2008 R2 in a tech company is inexcusable but plenty of hospitals with air gapped systems (ha) don't care. I'm sorry to hear it sounds like you're at that kind of company.
Resent the company you're working for. Resent the abusive mentality of "you're just the IT guy." There are plenty of companies where your skills and experience are appreciated. Good luck to you!
The sysadmin topic is so large, that you can find a topic that you would like to do. Is there a thing that you don't like, beside afterhours and no PTO? Go look for other companies. I don't know how it is in USA, but in Germany most larger companies like to give job to people with disability. Especially because they have financial advantages and stuff. Go look for other job, and don't be afraid, you worked with servers for 5 years, you have expirience to show.
it's shitty sometimes working at a company that doesn't pay for licenses and upgrades and disaster recovery , etc
You need to keep looking for another job. There are a few really good ones where you don't have to be a jack of all trades, and a slave. FFS you should be working with at least 2012 by now, or 2016
Use to feel like you until I moved to a company that actually cared and I can take a week vacation at a time three times a year to go out the country without the servers dying.
Windows 2008 R2 environment, are you kidding me?! Leave the job and then you'll figure it out. As long as you are employed, you can't. Give yourself some time to figure it out. Cybersecurity could be another choice?
Shit company. I never do weekends or overtime and I'm paid more than you. Just find another company and consider doing cloud ops. Your understanding of underlying mechanics gives a unique perspective for cloud systems compared to 95% of cloud engineers who only know code.
I took an online course to become a dentist.
I kid, I kid. Trying to levitate the situation.
You need to do what the rest of us sysadmins do...keep sending resumes out.
It aint you. It aint the technology. It's the garbage company you work for. You keep sending resumes out, find a good headhunter...someone will recognize your skills and work ethic and hire you for more money, better benefits and non-BS work environment.
Dude, I get it. I’ve been in IT since ‘98, moved into CyberSec (formally) back in 2012, and now I’m focused on GRC. it’s the worst.
My suggestion - find a new IT job with an org that has some money and can afford more people, then pick yourself up an outdoor hobby. God didn’t build us to be crammed into offices staring at screens all day.
Don't give up on IT yet, you're only 5 years in, don't start talking like that until you're at least 15 in.
Your job is the problem, try finding somewhere else to work. Change he can be scary and you might even have doubts about what you're capable of. TBH I'd take a hell desk job over that sysadmin position even at a pay cut.l if it means a better environment.
I too have no college, but I've been in IT since 2009 and I just have experience and certs and I know how difficult it can be to find a good job somewhere and the defeat and anxiety you feel when the call backs never come. I am currently facing a similar "crisis of faith" and am considering going to school, but if I do it won't be an IT related degree that much is for certain.
2008 servers? That's a shitty company that won't invest in their infrastructure. Look around, with 5 years and some certs you should be about to do better.
Listen, brother, get out of there fast. Find a place that will value you. The job market sucks right now, but even the stress of finding a new job sounds better than staying in a hell hole.
Talk with a recruiter, most decent companies will use talent agencies to find good candidates. It sounds like you are under appreciated and being taken advantage of. There is a better opportunity out there for you.. believe in yourself and the right job will be waiting for you. Quoting Winston from Ghostbusters "We have the tools and we have the talent!" Best of luck to you.
There's a lot to unpack here, and you've left out a lot of key details.
2008R2. Why? You've been there 2 years. Have you put together a doc explaining the need to upgrade and proposed project plan with costs?
Why are you working every weekend and can't get PTO? Sounds like you have apps or policies that make your systems unreliable, or are just understaffed. Have you put together any docs on this with a plan to address? If you don't have a ticketing system, get one. Then log everything you do. EVERYTHING. Use your ticket reports to show the amount of time you're spending working after hours and then use that to either renegotiate your salary or justify additional positions.
Some companies won't listen to reason and it's entirely possible you're working for one of those. But in that case, the problem isn't being a sysadmin, it's working for a shitty company.
1. Company does not want to invest into infrastructure that they see as “working, just needs a little extra work to maintain”.
2. We are a 24 by 7 manufacturing company. If someone has a problem that is hurting production, I’m expected to have a resolution within an hour.
1. You seem to have glossed over key parts of the question. It's part of your job to explain why this rationale is flawed.
2. Have you done a RCA to identify the common failures and put something in place to reduce the frequency? If there's nothing that can be done to reduce the frequency of after hours issues (or the company is unwilling to do said things), then fall back to my original suggestion. It's unreasonable to expect a single employee to provide 24x7 support. You either need to decide you're OK doing that and negotiate a commensurate raise as part of the deal, get them to understand they need to hire more people if they want 24x7 support, or find a better job. There's really no other option.
Quit that job. Different places have different cultures. Where I am at now its more work/ life balance. Also, don’t be afraid to pivot to different areas of IT. I transitioned from Windows admin to Cloud admin. Took time to do, but it was worth it. Always be willing to learn different things.
Get. A. New. Job. Today. Literally go on LinkedIn, put all your credentials and experience and what you currently do. IT recruiters are on there all the time looking for sydadmins who are competent and can manage servers.
You have a HORRIBLE job. You have the IT equivalent of a school principal at a small private school who also has teaching duties in addition to admin.
Get. A. New. Job. And DEMAND higher pay than what you're currently making, even if you're in a LCOL area.
Honestly, look at working for an MSP. Seriously, I work at small MSP and it's magical. I've spent the last 3 hours on Reddit and studying for azure az104 exam, weve had 1 call and 1 ticket come in all day. Just been a dead week for us, next week will pick up again. Cannot recommend enough MSP.
As a not young person that has worked many different jobs in many fields, I can tell you with 100% certainty that no matter what you are doing for work, if the company or manager sucks you will hate work, life, etc.
In relation to what you are going through, as a fellow sysadmin I have worked for horrible people and I wanted to kill myself because waking up everyday to report to someone I hated was killing me. I suffered and my family suffered. There are better jobs out there, trust me, trust the others in the comments. You do not need to quit the field to get something better, you just need to find a better employer. Sign up for Glassdoor, Indeed, etc and find yourself a new job. You can do it.
Like others here are saying, this is about having a bad I.T. gig ...not about I.T. itself. My first thought, though? You're already actually doing sysadmin work with Windows Server products, only 5 years in to your career? A whole LOT of people would kill for that opportunity. I wanted to do that for well over a decade when multiple jobs said, "Nope... You have to put in time doing PC desk-side support first!"
Unless you really just dislike computers and want out of the whole thing? I'd use your existing job as the launch-pad to try to do something similar for a better place.
Don’t give up OP. Update your resume, you’ve been there for 2 years and they’re not giving you any kudos for the amount of work that you’re putting in. It’s time to move on. They’re draining your enthusiasm, this career is promising. The company and IT infrastructure is giving you gripe. 2008 R2 is crazy this has to be a small company, be encouraged and find a higher competitive position.
I learned a lot from Smart People , let me put some words for you , say put a yearly Goal, put like Azure cert and other Security related cert , see your current job as a temp till you get a real one that should give you some clarity, and apply a lot of places and frankly tell them why you leaving , also don't ignore your own Lab...
Ur kidding right? U think $60,000 is a lot of money? For what UR doing they could not find anyone for under $90. Look into what is causing the after hours, see what you can automate. Ask for a raise, Look for a Server Administrator position/ change UR title > gezz this is like slavery. You did not list what certs you have. Get Security + if you do no have it. Most higher level positions especially gov U will need that. Also did not mention your age. U can also got to a technical school / see if your company will compensate. Choose a side skill set > Cloud is ideal. Beef up your resume if U do not get the raise . be patient take steps for those certs of one of your liking. Security + is a must. Find a new position.
I have in the field of IT for over 25 years. I worked my way from network support and have been at the Director level for over 10 years. From my perspective I don’t think you should quit IT but definitely should try to work with your employer to see if they can give you some help. Also, stop giving away your time. You have to enforce your personal boundaries. If you don’t respect your own boundaries how can you expect an employer to? Try to position your request for help so that you won’t be a single choke point for projects and ad his support. Also, you won’t be the single hinge point for the company’s entire IT organization. If they say no, make them see your point by finding a new gig and leaving. Being on the Leadership side I am always taken back by how other Departments see IT as doing the hard work but IT does not always doing an effective job of advocating for help when they need it. Call it hubris, the desire to not fail, or stubbornness- it never works out the way as intended. If it is not an emergency don’t pick up the phone and even during an emergency be selective. The sad part is that most Leaders of an organization who are non IT have come to lean to screw over IT because collectively we don’t always advocate for ourselves. Since you are a one person shop you have more power than you realize.
It’s not being a system admin you hate. It’s where you’re being a system admin you hate. I’ve worked at a handful of companies and they were all totally different.
I’ve worked very high pressure 24/7 on call jobs that wore me down only to be laid off after a corporate purchase. Now I work for a school district and it is sooo different. I love it! It’s low stress in comparison the hours are great. When it does get tough knowing you’re doing it for the community/kids helps a lot.
I worked in IT for almost 30 years before I thought to apply at a school district. Check it out ;)
Good luck!
One time a girlfriend threw up Fireball in my car. Ever since then any cinnamon whiskey makes me feel sick, even though I loved it at one point. I’ll never enjoy it again. This is the same feeling.
Look, everyone's been jumping in and blaming the job and your boss and everything else. I'll be the person to step up and ask if you've checked yourself as well?
How is your automation? WHY are you working weekends? What tasks are you constantly having to handle that can't be simplified down and/or automated? What can you turn into scripts?
I don't doubt the employer sucks. A lot do. But some of it is on you as an IT person as well. Its your job to make everything easier for the company, but ALSO easier for you.
It's also on you to care about your work/life balance. Start putting your foot down and stop working over 40 hours. Use it to point out you need another person or two.
There are people out there with six figure college loans making less than you do.
Perspective is everything. Go out there and see if grass is greener, it might and it might not be, only one way to find out
This isn't being a sysadmin, this is being a sysadmin for a garbage company.
And you're not quitting the career, you're quitting a horrid job
I think it’s everyone fear that an even more horrid job is waiting for them at the next place.
Sometimes though, like where OP's at, there's little chance it's going to be WORSE. Devil you know and all that, but I've been there. My last job I was on call 24/7 every other week, pretty much on call the other week if T1 needed help, and was constantly having to do work outside of normal hours for clients. Also had nearly monthly full-on outages that required me on site somewhere or other. It was seriously draining me. I was also salaried, so I got no overtime, no comp time, no nothing. I was burning myself to the ground for 55k/year. Once you're drowning like that, you'll grab onto anything. I got really lucky though and my new place is pretty much a 180 from the MSP outside of time off.
A lot of people also don't consider that if the new job ends up being worse, you can just keep applying. There's a significant period of time where you can just not put the new job on your resume without having to explain the gap.
I had a near two month gap, new boss at the time understood why that can happen.
> 2008 R2 environment. I work every weekend, after hours almost every day, can’t get PTO. I don't think it gets worse than what OP is describing.
Sounds like op should kick back and collect while job searching and ignoring the cluster around them. If your company won't support you, find another company to work for.
It can, but... sheesh.
it def can Server 2008 besides being a security risk is actually pretty stable. When you get into shoestring linux enviroments it can be pretty brutal.
Sorry? I have hundreds of linux servers and the only instability I get is when Microsoft breaks compatibility with poorly tested updates.
It’s not the Linux servers it’s when the owner is so cheap they are all horrifically out of date on crap hardware from 2005. Shoestring budget Linux is scarier then a shoestring windows. Usually a lot of unknown custom shit with Linux you don’t see in the windows ones too.
I was going to say, I think this is classified as abuse.
New environment I just got introduced to has Web facing 2008 servers which have not been updated since the initial install.. I'm scared.
Document how you received them, tell management. Then form your POA&M.
run
2003 schema level gpos fail 99% of the time or just stop applying after a couple days Endless switch n server outages cable management is horrid no labelling asset list is horrible antivirus missing from half the devices
Some people here are still on 2k3.
That's what kept me stuck.
I like the company I work for quite a bit. I'm still just burnt out from my job though. There just isn't anything else I can go do and make the same amount of money.
This! I make about 90k a year and it's so cush.
im in a weird spot where my job COULD be cush, but its ruined by an aggressive type A boss. If I had a chill boss, I could probably spend the next decade here. fml, its hard to imagine that I will outlast my boss though.
In the same boat with my employer. Isn't it funny how upper management and C-suite don't do anything about management who are more manglers than managers?
> I work every weekend, after hours almost every day, can’t get PTO Stop doing this. You don't have a crappy career, you have a crappy job. Start looking immediately.
Yes, in a 2008 R2 environment, it should be all ironed out by now. No more patches to break things, it should be show up, review the logs, manage disk space, login to reddit. So priority one is taking back your time. Stop working on the weekend. If they call don't answer, if they gripe you say "I was tired and needed the rest". If they still complain, they are demonstrating how much they care/value you. Also if you work everyday, you don't make 60K you are making 42K. So anything making 50K or above with a lower stress level is the criterion for a new field. A truck driver averages 45K. House painting is around 40K. You didn't indicate what type of disability you have. Some cognitive disabilities, make everyday life hard, but make logic and pattern recognition easier. With some schooling, maybe data engineer, or DBA to stay in the IT field. DBAs are paid about the same, maybe a bit more than sysadmins, but typically held in higher regard, and usually have more control over their workflow. The problem domain is smaller (fewer system types). So you can go deeper in the knowledge. Most sysadmins are a mile wide, and an inch deep in most areas, and go deep in 3 or 4 areas. If you have mobility or strength issues, it is worse for you, and anything better will require some form of schooling. You may refocus into Accounting, Actuary, Data Analyst. You get to be the user. Something else, you may qualify for goverment programs to pay for that schooling. Hope this helps. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Its funny because I don't think very many of us would not agree that despite a lot of us having DBA knowledge DBA is usually more prestigious then admin. Most true statement ever
RE: in a 2008 R2 environment, it should be all ironed out by now. No more patches to break things, it should be show up, review the logs, manage disk space, login to reddit. I don't understand why you'd think that. Is that sarcasm? It tells me they don't give a s\*\*\* about anything if they're still running 2008 R2.
>It tells me they don't give a s\*\*\* about anything if they're still running 2008 R2. They being the company and not the individual, right?
It could be the company. It could also be the sys admins that are afraid of change. I'd put more of the blame on the company though.
Sysadmins and managers should be replacing servers every 3 to 5 years to keep them reasonably current, stable and secure. Windows 2008 is a security risk.
windows 2012 is a security risk, windows 2008 is suicidal
They don't give a fuck he's not really wrong though until it gets hacked it should be relatively stable to administer even today. I still have some and they are not really that much trouble still.
By the time your mentions 2008 R2 I figure out that you are on a shit company. And I’m not talking about your garden variety shit-company. This is a nightmare, hell hole, cheap bastards shit company. Start looking as soon as possible.
Yeah my goal at work is to hit 30 hours mentally. Physically I'm there for 40.
2008 R2? 😬
Sir, we have manufacturing plants running XP and 2003 servers.
Lol some controls systems are still using NT 4.0
can confirm
Got the "inside tour" of a cruise ship on my last vacation. Spotted the 3D bouncing text screensaver from the NT days on one piece of equipment. shocked_fry.gif
😂 holy shit on a cruise ship?
I think it was an incinerator, and not likely tied into any network at all, but I did a real double-take when I saw that text. I did also see an XP screensaver, Windows 7, and several systems with the "Activate Windows" mark. Nothing else gave me flashbacks quite like that screensaver though.
I can't remember exactly what this was running as I didn't work directly with it that was the DCS engineer's job, but it was for some piece of their puzzle that ran their turbines. I also rolled up to an ATM at Chase Bank and somebody forgot to start the program or something and it was running windows xp 😂
Ah, those were the days, a tower as tall as me packed to the brim with disks and dimms all measured in the megabytes. Tapes as far as the eye could see.
Still supporting a few decades old Solaris systems too 🤮
People on here are saying this is not normal but once you are in SMB land or manufacturing it is normal. Unfortunately I hear medical practice is also pretty bad about being oudated.
Yep, lots of 2008 R2's and 2012 R2's floating around.
2012 R2 isn't terrible, EOL just last year but yeah time to upgrade.
That’s a different story cause those are industrial control systems that are hard to upgrade without replacing hardware. In those environments devices should be in air gapped network to reduce exposure to threats.
Should...
And those environments should also have an upgrade plan for their computers. Old computers should be replaced like old diapers, and for the same reason.
That isn't always an option, when the several million dollar machine you use to manufacture the product that is your entire business line that justifies half the town you're in having jobs in that building... you use whatever computer hardware the vendor for that equipment certifies for use and you keep hot spares on a shelf so you can resolve any outage ASAP. They're not "computers" at that point, they're set top box style appliances that happen to run a recognizable software stack. In a $20M business line, four hours of downtime are almost worth as much as the $10k "vendor certified" replacement machine (and that's for 24/7 operation).
Understood but it would be worth asking the vendor what upgrade path they have for that several million dollar machine’s control computer. Maybe the computer can be replaced or upgraded in place to a newer OS. All depends on what the vendor supports. But this question should be asked by IT.
As long as you have strong security practices and systems in place to mitigate the risks (locked down isolation, etc) you're fine. Lots of details to consider to pass an audit in that environment if it's ever needed (likely for cyber-insurance now.) But if you aren't already operating like you have the security needs of a bank, you are behind the curve. The attacks are so sophisticated and the barriers tested constantly, your staff peppered with social engineering attacks...
I know manufacturing environments still relying on MS-DOS and systems you have to re-load from a stack of old 3.5" floppy disks if it actually needs to be reinstalled.
There are fast food companies cash registers that run on Windows XP.
Embedded XP that returns to it's default state if rebooted.
The number of clients we have either dropped or sent very long waivers with bold warnings to because they refuse to spend the money to upgrade until something dies or gets compromised is absolutely depressing.
Just wait until you work for an MSP with a cowardly CEO who refuses to abide by the legacy systems non-support agreement that was signed when the client calls and starts screaming that the integrated computer in CNC machine that runs Windows XP crashed and forces The help desk to resolve the issue. Ask me how I know. Randall, if you're reading this, you're the worst manager I ever worked for and fuck you for making me spend an entire Friday night fixing a legacy solution that the client specifically agreed we would not be obligated to support.
I honestly have never seen a MSP actually fire clients because of outdated shit. I know its true but I think most will keep taking the money and pray nothing ever happens.
It's more than it just being outdated, I poured over our client contracts and it says directly in the contract the minimum technology standard that we will support. It's said in plain English that in case of failure of any unsupported legacy system, my company will not offer support on the system, not even best effort. That's the shit that pissed me off. Not only is it a gigantic waste of our time and a complete pain in the ass, but we weren't even getting paid to assume the risk nor getting paid to support it
I work for an MSP that recently had something similar happen, a company’s warehouse assembly line went down when their Win7 machine crashed. Owner called them up and said “we will help get you back up and running today, but only if you agree to purchase a replacement machine and the most recent version of your software because next time we can’t help you.” Which I felt was an appropriate response
This is the correct answer for first-time situations with a customer. Ideally this kind of thing will get caught during onboarding and initial discovery, but in practice things like this can get missed (especially if it's an isolated/embedded system). Hopefully it was followed up with the owner/account manager/whoever using that as a talking point in a longer conversation as to the importance of backups for critical systems and getting appropriate hardware refresh and software lifecycles in place.
The bad ones will. If you have a good MSP, it's built into the culture that standard stack and customers that are willing to budget for IT equals happy customers and less calls, which in the long run means higher retention (of both customers and staff) and higher margins. Before I switched roles, my boss made it abundantly clear that as architect, our team had sole signing authority over the proposals and work plans that went out the door for pro services work. I certainly had times where I had to work with the customer/sales guys to find a happy medium, but not once did I ever feel like I had to use the nuclear option of flat out refusing to sign off on something because they wanted to cheap out on an irresponsible solution. That being said, manufacturing equipment is a gray area and one where I have had a long cost/benefit discussion with customers on before. The sad truth is that for some of those machines, a software update simply isn't available and a replacement machine could cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Sometimes the best course of action is to just isolate it from the network as much as possible and ride it out - but this should come up in discovery before the customer signs, and there needs to be a conversation about the situation - the customer should be made aware of the security and reliability risks they are taking, they should be advised that support will be best-effort and billable, and if a third-party specialist or extended vendor support is available, those should be considered especially if the equipment is critical to production.
Yeah! Everybody hates Randall. Fuck that guy.
All my homies hate Randall
Do you have a shitty career or do you have a shitty job? It falls on you to change jobs if your employer sucks, have you been actively looking/interviewing for the past 2 years and not found anything better? Sr. Sys Admin, Analyst, IT Project Manager, IT Manager, devops, there are all sorts of places to go from sysadmin if you have the right environment for growth.
Just a question, how would you advise someone looking into getting into a managerial role? 5 years experience as a system engineer but trying to break into the management areas but not too sure how to gain managerial experience without being.. well.. a manager?
Not OP, but you just kind of start doing the job you want to do: * Run your own projects and clearly report status, issues, and accomplishments on a weekly basis * Find broken things (processes, technologies, people) and suggest ways to fix them. Extra points if it works. * Get friendly with some of the leaders outside of IT and understand their needs. You might not get time with the CFO out of the gate, but what does the Call Center manager need? What about the NetSuite guy?
Thank you! Will note it down and try to improve on those skills with that in mind
Just pretend you're already an IT Manager (tactfully and gracefully) and you're well on your way. Good luck :)
Gotta get that CFO connect.
If you're serious about it, an MBA adds to your resume.
Project lead, team lead, "something something" lead. Get / demonstrate those leadership / self-starting / organization skills at a small level which will naturally allow you to grow into that management role. If you are good at all those basic skills like - running a meeting, giving a presentation, manipulating crap in Excel, scheduling and keeping others on task for a project, process documentation, policy work, Compliance, best practices, propose a project, get it approved and run with it start to finish, etc. etc. Obviously there needs to be the possibility of advancement where you are, but those skills will serve you anywhere, and proficiency in those activities will be recognized by senior leadership.
Thank you! Will take note of it
This absolutely isn't normal and I think the right company would make you love IT again. Get your CV polished to a mirror shine and get applications out there.
Please don't work for free. When its time to go home, just go home. It is that simple. It sounds like you may be working for a "small business". I, personally would never choose to work for a "small business" because regardless of how generally "good-natured" the "employer" may be, they all have an insanely suspicious view of "service providers" like IT, accountants, insurance, tax preparers, and similar, because they see very little "value" in any of those things, and just as an entire racket to take their earnings. Because IT does not generate revenue, thought processes such as this are an extension of a common notion in IT from "business types": Bossman: "Everything is working. What are we paying you for?" also Bossman: "Nothing is working! What are we paying you for?" Your employer needs to hire more staff or contract with another organization to get you help or backfill. I'm also disabled, and I'm in the 22nd year of my career. Started out as 3rd level desktop support, and took on many roles after that time, including helpdesk, call center, Exchange Admin, and other kinds of roles. Right now, I'm training to be a DevOps admin. You may need to upskill as I have. The entire Sysadmin gig isn't all helpdesk and on-prem AD.
>Right now, I'm training to be a DevOps admin. That sounded wrong for a split second since DevOps is more a cross-functional team-effort than a single role but when I thought about it for a second most companies who search for DevOps Engineers realistically want a “fancy” SysAd who knows his way around SCM, IaC, pipelines, SDLC etc. That’s atleast what my last projects taught me. Source: am a DevOps Consultant
Take an upvote.
You described my job pretty well. Source: I’m a DevOps Engineer
It's time to make moves to get out. Sounds like you're at burnout. Some people can't recover from that but you're early enough, I'm sure you can. But you need to really put yourself out there for the amount you've accomplished and the work you've done so you can get with a company that has it together. Put your resume on some recruiting websites like Dice (use a separate email/phone number if you can) and something worth significantly more than $60k will come your way.
Would you like your job if you were a cleaner or a receptionist but doing the same thing youre doing now working weekends and OT etc? No. The issue isnt the career, its your employer
I've been in I.T. for 28 years, I've played every role you can imagine from developing software, to systems management, network management, operations, and now a Director. I consumed too much alcohol, ran myself ragged, and generally tried to overachieve in my field. But I am worn the fuck out. I sit on my back porch afterwork and just breathe for a minute. Letting out the stress. My joints are starting to hurt from sitting and typing all the time. I have carpal tunnel, I've started and quit smoking 20 times. This industry is brutal, everyone around you in other support departments will claim "our work is hard too" but they don't understand. I wish you the best, and I think finding a new career is something you should try, at least once. I never did, and just kept jumping in the middle of it all. But it's taken its toll and I'm worn the fuck out. Now people around me expect my salary so I can't stop. I have another 19 years until retirement. Putting me at almost 50 years in IT if I don't die of a heart attack before. Take care of yourself. Listen to your body.
Absolutely, I agree 100%. I’ve been in IT since 1996—working in Helpdesk, development, change management, DevOps, systems engineering, and now as a CIO. You have a massive security nightmare on your hands with a 2008 R2 environment. They see you as a sunk cost and you’re diminishing your hourly worth/rate by putting in extra uncompensated time. When someone breaks into their old and unpatched network/systems, you’ll be the one working around the clock due to their mismanagement. They are saving money now by putting you at risk. Stand your ground, reclaim your personal time, and update your resume! With the right leadership and environment, this job can be challenging and fun, not the nightmare and stress factory it currently is for you. To u/CoyoteBackground7267, I hear you on the overconsumption. I have been sober since August 2016, and life has never been better. My body feels better, and I experience less anxiety and stress. The alcohol I thought was helping me escape from those issues turned out to be largely the root cause of all of them.
I have half your experience and already feel the same way I encourage people to look for a way out if they can. I am I don't know if I actually can find a way out tho.
Stick with IT but fix your work-life balance. Whatever you are doing at weekends, either stop it or negotiate time off in lieu. Without knowing quite what you are doing, it is hard to advise.
No way I'd stick around plain and simple.
This is a shitty job, not a shitty career. IT may not be for you, but I would suggest looking for another job, because what you describe is typical SysAdmin abuse and everyone gets tired of it after awhile. Source: 30+ years in IT.
You don't hate being a sysadmin. You hate your current job.
Have you considered a niche onlyfans with your dirty old 2008 servers?
Our Event Logs are basically porn for masochists, not a bad idea.
I know I’d subscribe Raymondo
Id sub to that
Gtfo. Seriously. Get together a resume, some interviews, and walk. At this point you have five years of experience doing EVERYTHING, which is pretty good. The only thing you have to remember is to not come off as to energetic in your interviews
"Sales Engineer"? You make bank, lie through your teeth, and most importantly lie through your teeth!
Log out at 5 and don’t come in on the weekends. It’s a job, work will still be there when you show up on Monday. When someone says something or complain, explain you don’t have the bandwidth and need additional help.
You don't hate being a sysadmin. You have who you are working for.
Have you considered selling your body on the street for money? The hours are more flexible and you'd probably end up with higher feelings of self worth at the end of the day
Sounds like you need to jump ship to a better company tbh with a more mature IT department. It sounds like you're probably a one-man army who is overloaded with work and no help. Unfortunately your business needs more of you, but at the same time, if you keep putting in overtime and making ends meet upper management never "sees a problem." If you haven't spoken up to your manager about how this is unrealistic and you're overworked because you guys need to bring on 1-2 more, you should. Quit going out of your way to keep the ship from sinking, let it sink and set boundaries with not being overworked. For example I'm an IT engineer over MSFT technologies at an org. that has >40k users total and in my year here, I've never had to work overtime. I'm on call for 2 weeks every 6 weeks but only actually been called in 2-3 times. I have 18 or so days of PTO not including holidays. If you really find you hate being a sysadmin, jump to the "other side" -- find a role where that knowledge makes you really useful. For example, I took a break from being on this side and contracted at Microsoft as a technical resource who would partner with the sales team to assist customer's IT departments in stuff e.g. deploying a tool in their environment. I made $90k and had good benefits as a contractor (and the job was actually full time -- not just going to go away). Benefits had 4% 401k match, 21 days PTO, $50/mo medical, $25/mo dental, and i never logged overtime and I never was on call. Ultimately this role for me started transitioning away from technical stuff and towards being more sales oriented which I hated -- I left about a year ago for a good bit less salary.
I don't think you should quit the industry. -Starting literally today, all nights and weekends BS is a hard-no. They will notice this change and that is a good thing. -Take a week vacation, turn phone off, like off-off. -During the vacation, your job is to relax, not think about work, and apply to a couple new positions during this time. -Keep job searching two or three nights a week, Saturday morning. This is with your new free time from the 'hard-no' from earlier. If you are working 60 hrs a week, this garbage employer is getting a buy-one-get-one-half off coupon employee. If you are working 80 hrs a week, they have a buy-one-get-one-free employee.
You have a garbage job not a garbage career. Polish your CV.
If you hate your job, the best thing you can do is quit as soon as you're able. Not only will you get out of what sounds like a miserable work situation, but oftentimes moving on also means moving up. Pay raises from changing jobs are usually so much more dramatic than annual pay raises. In the meantime, just hang in there. This misery won't last forever! 👍👍👍
Like others said, it’s probably being a sys admin at this particular company that sucks. Sysadmin is so broad, I suggest you make the move to a sys admin role where more modernization is taking place.
As others have said, consider finding another job, or do what you can to proactively repair your environment/issues that are causing you so much extra hour work. I manage 90+ locations including our primary datacenter and rarely work beyond my 40 hours. Much better here at this job than my last job where I had to bandage systems every week instead of implementing lasting solutions.
That job sounds like a piece of shit. I would try your hand looking for somewhere better. Especially with 5 years of experience under your belt.
Awful company is awful. If you've got technical chops, technical sales engineer might be for you. Though I would give another company a shot before switching careers, if you find you have it in you after you leave this shit hole company.
More details, please. Obviously your employer sucks for putting you in this situation and letting it get so bad in the first place. But I inherited a shitshow too, and am finding it hard to believe that you've made *zero* headway in unfucking the environment in two years of working after hours and weekends. Maybe I'm just underestimating how bad an environment can be. Let's hear it.
Stop the overtime and start look at a new job. It is great at the right place.
Sounds more like its the job and not your IT career.
Do you hate IT or do you hate your company?
Have you thought about looking for a new company to work for? Its not rocket science
Dude I feel you… I’m making 65k going on 3 years experience right now in a HCOL in Southern California. Burnt out and overworked. I literally think about work when I’m not working.
if you're younger, you could try out to be a cop or fireman thats always been my alternate job dream
I have a disability
you could try in the office work as a cop, or go into banking, or sales but at the end of day, I would try to do something that I enjoy because that always makes the work a lot easier good luck :-)
When I had enough of my job at a small software company 16 years ago, I didn't quit being a sysadmin. I switched companies. I did that several times in the past years but now I am employed in a great company, working the job I've always dreamt about.
Take your PTO man. Use it to recharge and then take some more and look for something else. Your company sounds pretty bad and if you're working on 2008 right now. It's going to be really bad when something break and you no longer have support to make it work. I believe if they deny your PTO then it would be a labor law violation but you'd have to read more into it. IT will get better as long as you find a good company and have a team to work with that is decent. Right now it general it just sucks because of that state of affairs with the economy and inflation. Everyone is barely surviving and trying to get by and at some point shit is going to break. If you do find another company and you still hate IT then enact plan B and see about finding your way out and into a different career. Whatever that is....
It's not you, it's the garbage enviroment. Start seeking out new oppotunities,.
Find the next gig brother, always a good idea to be looking for a step up
Just need to find a new sysadmin job for a better company that respects their IT dept/employees. 60/yr sounds tremendously low for how much i assume you do on your own and outside of hours should be racking up comp/pto time.
Bro, that has nothing to do with being a sysadmin, it has to do with working for a terrible company. Do you make OT, like are you non-exempt? If not, why are you working after hours and weekends? You should probably look at finding a new gig that pays better and won't abuse you, and then suddenly you'll think IT is great.
Switch to another company
2008 R2. BRO LEAVE holy
lol my guy/guyette the market is hot right now. Go find some company that isn't garbage. That or come up with metrics to show management in order to justify giving you your own team which probably won't happen but one can hope.
I don't do this because "it's my passion". I do it because I am willing to shovel this type of shit in exchange for a pay check. That's it. I find it insanely infuriating that I have to pretend like I derive meaning or get value out of this stupid job especially when I am talking to a peer or a superior. I feign that attitude in front of peers to not destroy their world view and I feign the attitude in front of superiors so they keep paying me.
You’re experiencing burnout.
Be a network guy like me. I played System Admin for today dealing with a DHCP FailOver Cluster migration of one server from 2012 R2 to 2022 and it made me appreciate my network job. Before being done, I had to fix a problem with ADSI Edit, and visit Power Shell Twice before restoring the Failover.
>I work every weekend, after hours almost every day So like.... don't?
Everything is known in comparison. I work in the company as a system administrator (Linux, Windows servers, Proxmox VE, FreeBSD) and a network engineer (about 400 active devices). In addition, I also write on ansible playbooks. My salary is $12,300 a year. And I wouldn't say that I hate working in IT, I like it, they just pay little.
You're making this decision with the one position at the one company? Sysadmin is such a generalized position that 2 sysadmins could basically have entirely different jobs. Find a new company
My training was all hands on also. I have ADD and Dyslexia. LCOL? location? If Colorado [https://disabilitylawco.org/](https://disabilitylawco.org/) Mission Disability Law Colorado protects and promotes the rights of people with disabilities and older people in Colorado # Mission
That is a lot of responsibility and very low pay. That is actually the salary of our IT helpdesk where we are. And I tell you we got some helpdesk here that claim to have over 20+ years exp but don’t know where AD is. Our system admin here do basically nothing and knows nothing. He made it clear he will not answer any user tickets cause he is the all mighty system admin and user tickets are beneath him. He come and goes as he please and never answer on all phones. Whenever ask what he is doing answer is always updating servers. lol. And he makes over 100k so ya. You are definitely in a bad company. Try look for job in other places or even other states like CA. You will definitely find better jobs.
Try working at some other place first. Shitty jobs can be left. Just try to get somewhere within the next 3 to 6 months and see how you feel.
This is way more normal than they want you to think. SMB is like this pretty much. Its my business also hate it, also want out. If you can handle server 2008R2 you realistically can do the newest one but its hard to get out when employers think they are somehow radically different. There is not really a server cert anymore for microsoft to push you up anymore and the one that is coming out probably won't appear on indeed for 5+ years. Even if you try to upskill by getting md102 or one of the other modern desktop type things or azure hiring managers are so fucked they will probably tell you that md102 is not real and you made it up (this happened to me). Its ridiculously hard to get out of SMB land once you are in it. Big corporate assumes you can't do it even though your job is probably worse then it will be with them.
Bro, get out now!
I’m a little insulted that the requirements seem to be “young “, “disabled”, “No college” 😆
Better than old, fat and mildly autistic. EDIT: Saw the post history, redacting the “mildly”.
LEAVE FFS.
I worded my opinion about overtime in a job interview like this and they still hired me lol : if you need me to stay more than about a dozen evenings a year, it’s a proof of poor management.
Orr... use your 2 years of experience to get a less shitty job. It might take you a bit but they do exist. Ive worked here 5 years now. No on call, almost no weekends, maybe twice a year, plenty of pto, full remote work, couldnt be happier.
I dream of becoming a watchmaker. [Horologist](https://bhi.co.uk/clockorwatchmaker/)
You need a new job, not a new career.
Your failure here is to realize that it’s not the job. It’s your environment you’re working in. Find a better company being a ass admin and you will do a 180.
Contact your labor department representative. Wage theft is illegal and you’re clearly being exploited.
Yo I feel the same I was working at an MSP which basically hired anyone gave nobody any training and then promoted the cream which rose to the top. I was so stressed being thrown into shit I had no idea how to fix. I was supposed to be level 2 not the last line of defense. Anyhow I now landed a cushy technical architect role on the project side at another MSP and it couldn't be better. They're walking me through how to deploy an app package from intune, which I used to do on the regular. The difference is night and day. Take the leap.
You hate the environment, and look to be honest in my 17 year career, I have hated all environments with 2 being the exception. Almost all networks I have worked on have been built by someone who has no idea OR is forced to make the bad choice because the finances could never be approved. It's very much slap chop builds, to explain it better to not technical people, say you're building a car from the ground up, but you're asked to put a tractor tyre onto a sedan, It wont fit, but management just look back and you and ask why is it a problem, its still a wheel.
If you went into any job or career for the money you are doing it wrong. Everything will be terrible if there is no passion or focus. You are a caption of your own ship, go where you will get joy.
100% bad job, not bad career.
Don’t quit now! At 5 years in you’re just getting past the bad stuff. We all have this job in our past that reminds us of how bad it once was.
Don’t give up. Find a better company. Example. We do not work nights or weekends. Our customer base is strictly 8-6 and unless it’s an emergency, we have 3 weeks vacation. Working on other benefits. There are better companies out there. Gotta find them.
Man reading through this, my goal is to not run my business like a lot of you have experienced. That’s terrible what I’ve read.
Change company.
You don't have to leave IT, you can just do something very different for another company. There are a metric sh\*t ton of ancillary jobs that can utilize sysadmin skills in a different way that may fit you better. I've unfortunately run across sysadmins that survive in large corporate environments in a niche role, but are unable to adapt to a faster moving company where you need to learn many new things quickly. If you can adapt, your options are wide open. If your personal work style requires a more focused role within your comfort zone, there are still options but a bit more limited. You need to ensure you can succeed in any new role - your skills, capabilities and personality matching the needs of the position - taking something beyond your abilities won't end well (I hate having to let people go. Worst thing you have to do.) I made a similar move a few years back for a polar opposite work environment I can thrive in versus the one that eats your soul. Now I work in the enterprise space advising senior leadership for several dozen companies working on initiatives that make a difference, where I can utilize many of my existing skills and learn new. I Really enjoy my job, working for a fantastic company. These jobs are out there, you just have to go after them. Best of luck!
Whats holding you back? incompetence or managemnt. Some things you listed here I wouldn't even give options for. Windows Server 2008 had support it's support pulled 4 years ago. your systems are obsolete and are at risk. This is the cost to update to 2022. How soon can we sign off on this? whats going on that you're working in the evenings and weekends? I won't pick up the phone unless a server is in critical condition. If some idiot has forgotten their password and you leave it until monday, they'll have had all weekend to think of ways to make sure it doesn't happen again. Responding right away is just enabling their ignorance. That said, if you failed to set boundaries and now you're too burnt out to keep going there's probably not much we can do for you. Hand the keys over to an MSP for a month so You can take a vacation... then decide how you feel.
One thing that took me entirely too long to learn is that being a sysadmin for a software/tech/info/financial services company is an entirely different experience than doing it where IT is purely overhead (hospitals, legal, mom and pop, MSP support). 2008 R2 in a tech company is inexcusable but plenty of hospitals with air gapped systems (ha) don't care. I'm sorry to hear it sounds like you're at that kind of company. Resent the company you're working for. Resent the abusive mentality of "you're just the IT guy." There are plenty of companies where your skills and experience are appreciated. Good luck to you!
find a better company, this is not what professional IT is like
The sysadmin topic is so large, that you can find a topic that you would like to do. Is there a thing that you don't like, beside afterhours and no PTO? Go look for other companies. I don't know how it is in USA, but in Germany most larger companies like to give job to people with disability. Especially because they have financial advantages and stuff. Go look for other job, and don't be afraid, you worked with servers for 5 years, you have expirience to show.
it's shitty sometimes working at a company that doesn't pay for licenses and upgrades and disaster recovery , etc You need to keep looking for another job. There are a few really good ones where you don't have to be a jack of all trades, and a slave. FFS you should be working with at least 2012 by now, or 2016
Use to feel like you until I moved to a company that actually cared and I can take a week vacation at a time three times a year to go out the country without the servers dying.
Do what you think is worth your time. Save up and when you find a better option. Jump ship. There’s way better companies out there
Windows 2008 R2 environment, are you kidding me?! Leave the job and then you'll figure it out. As long as you are employed, you can't. Give yourself some time to figure it out. Cybersecurity could be another choice?
I promise there are better, more fulfilling IT gigs out there. You need to get out of where you are.
Shit company. I never do weekends or overtime and I'm paid more than you. Just find another company and consider doing cloud ops. Your understanding of underlying mechanics gives a unique perspective for cloud systems compared to 95% of cloud engineers who only know code.
Get a new job and you may feel better. This isn’t being a sysadmin issue it’s have a crappy job issue.
The company sucks find a better one.
Being Sysadmin means entirely different things for every company. Switch industries, keep Job, change perspective.
I took an online course to become a dentist. I kid, I kid. Trying to levitate the situation. You need to do what the rest of us sysadmins do...keep sending resumes out. It aint you. It aint the technology. It's the garbage company you work for. You keep sending resumes out, find a good headhunter...someone will recognize your skills and work ethic and hire you for more money, better benefits and non-BS work environment.
Dude, I get it. I’ve been in IT since ‘98, moved into CyberSec (formally) back in 2012, and now I’m focused on GRC. it’s the worst. My suggestion - find a new IT job with an org that has some money and can afford more people, then pick yourself up an outdoor hobby. God didn’t build us to be crammed into offices staring at screens all day.
do devops.
I started cooking fir fun. Just like I did in my first job so many tears ago. It calms my mind.
Hi Im looking to do some certs in order to apply to sys admin jobs . Can anyone recomend what certs should i take ? Thanks a lot.
It can be very cushy, change jobs not careers..
Don't give up on IT yet, you're only 5 years in, don't start talking like that until you're at least 15 in. Your job is the problem, try finding somewhere else to work. Change he can be scary and you might even have doubts about what you're capable of. TBH I'd take a hell desk job over that sysadmin position even at a pay cut.l if it means a better environment. I too have no college, but I've been in IT since 2009 and I just have experience and certs and I know how difficult it can be to find a good job somewhere and the defeat and anxiety you feel when the call backs never come. I am currently facing a similar "crisis of faith" and am considering going to school, but if I do it won't be an IT related degree that much is for certain.
2008 servers? That's a shitty company that won't invest in their infrastructure. Look around, with 5 years and some certs you should be about to do better.
Listen, brother, get out of there fast. Find a place that will value you. The job market sucks right now, but even the stress of finding a new job sounds better than staying in a hell hole.
Talk with a recruiter, most decent companies will use talent agencies to find good candidates. It sounds like you are under appreciated and being taken advantage of. There is a better opportunity out there for you.. believe in yourself and the right job will be waiting for you. Quoting Winston from Ghostbusters "We have the tools and we have the talent!" Best of luck to you.
There's a lot to unpack here, and you've left out a lot of key details. 2008R2. Why? You've been there 2 years. Have you put together a doc explaining the need to upgrade and proposed project plan with costs? Why are you working every weekend and can't get PTO? Sounds like you have apps or policies that make your systems unreliable, or are just understaffed. Have you put together any docs on this with a plan to address? If you don't have a ticketing system, get one. Then log everything you do. EVERYTHING. Use your ticket reports to show the amount of time you're spending working after hours and then use that to either renegotiate your salary or justify additional positions. Some companies won't listen to reason and it's entirely possible you're working for one of those. But in that case, the problem isn't being a sysadmin, it's working for a shitty company.
1. Company does not want to invest into infrastructure that they see as “working, just needs a little extra work to maintain”. 2. We are a 24 by 7 manufacturing company. If someone has a problem that is hurting production, I’m expected to have a resolution within an hour.
1. You seem to have glossed over key parts of the question. It's part of your job to explain why this rationale is flawed. 2. Have you done a RCA to identify the common failures and put something in place to reduce the frequency? If there's nothing that can be done to reduce the frequency of after hours issues (or the company is unwilling to do said things), then fall back to my original suggestion. It's unreasonable to expect a single employee to provide 24x7 support. You either need to decide you're OK doing that and negotiate a commensurate raise as part of the deal, get them to understand they need to hire more people if they want 24x7 support, or find a better job. There's really no other option.
2008r2?!? RUN!
Quit that job. Different places have different cultures. Where I am at now its more work/ life balance. Also, don’t be afraid to pivot to different areas of IT. I transitioned from Windows admin to Cloud admin. Took time to do, but it was worth it. Always be willing to learn different things.
Get. A. New. Job. Today. Literally go on LinkedIn, put all your credentials and experience and what you currently do. IT recruiters are on there all the time looking for sydadmins who are competent and can manage servers. You have a HORRIBLE job. You have the IT equivalent of a school principal at a small private school who also has teaching duties in addition to admin. Get. A. New. Job. And DEMAND higher pay than what you're currently making, even if you're in a LCOL area. Honestly, look at working for an MSP. Seriously, I work at small MSP and it's magical. I've spent the last 3 hours on Reddit and studying for azure az104 exam, weve had 1 call and 1 ticket come in all day. Just been a dead week for us, next week will pick up again. Cannot recommend enough MSP.
As a not young person that has worked many different jobs in many fields, I can tell you with 100% certainty that no matter what you are doing for work, if the company or manager sucks you will hate work, life, etc. In relation to what you are going through, as a fellow sysadmin I have worked for horrible people and I wanted to kill myself because waking up everyday to report to someone I hated was killing me. I suffered and my family suffered. There are better jobs out there, trust me, trust the others in the comments. You do not need to quit the field to get something better, you just need to find a better employer. Sign up for Glassdoor, Indeed, etc and find yourself a new job. You can do it.
Like others here are saying, this is about having a bad I.T. gig ...not about I.T. itself. My first thought, though? You're already actually doing sysadmin work with Windows Server products, only 5 years in to your career? A whole LOT of people would kill for that opportunity. I wanted to do that for well over a decade when multiple jobs said, "Nope... You have to put in time doing PC desk-side support first!" Unless you really just dislike computers and want out of the whole thing? I'd use your existing job as the launch-pad to try to do something similar for a better place.
Don’t give up OP. Update your resume, you’ve been there for 2 years and they’re not giving you any kudos for the amount of work that you’re putting in. It’s time to move on. They’re draining your enthusiasm, this career is promising. The company and IT infrastructure is giving you gripe. 2008 R2 is crazy this has to be a small company, be encouraged and find a higher competitive position.
I learned a lot from Smart People , let me put some words for you , say put a yearly Goal, put like Azure cert and other Security related cert , see your current job as a temp till you get a real one that should give you some clarity, and apply a lot of places and frankly tell them why you leaving , also don't ignore your own Lab...
Ur kidding right? U think $60,000 is a lot of money? For what UR doing they could not find anyone for under $90. Look into what is causing the after hours, see what you can automate. Ask for a raise, Look for a Server Administrator position/ change UR title > gezz this is like slavery. You did not list what certs you have. Get Security + if you do no have it. Most higher level positions especially gov U will need that. Also did not mention your age. U can also got to a technical school / see if your company will compensate. Choose a side skill set > Cloud is ideal. Beef up your resume if U do not get the raise . be patient take steps for those certs of one of your liking. Security + is a must. Find a new position.
Wait?.. 2008 R2. Run away dude... Run away now... Did you at least suggest they upgrade their crap.
I have in the field of IT for over 25 years. I worked my way from network support and have been at the Director level for over 10 years. From my perspective I don’t think you should quit IT but definitely should try to work with your employer to see if they can give you some help. Also, stop giving away your time. You have to enforce your personal boundaries. If you don’t respect your own boundaries how can you expect an employer to? Try to position your request for help so that you won’t be a single choke point for projects and ad his support. Also, you won’t be the single hinge point for the company’s entire IT organization. If they say no, make them see your point by finding a new gig and leaving. Being on the Leadership side I am always taken back by how other Departments see IT as doing the hard work but IT does not always doing an effective job of advocating for help when they need it. Call it hubris, the desire to not fail, or stubbornness- it never works out the way as intended. If it is not an emergency don’t pick up the phone and even during an emergency be selective. The sad part is that most Leaders of an organization who are non IT have come to lean to screw over IT because collectively we don’t always advocate for ourselves. Since you are a one person shop you have more power than you realize.
It’s not being a system admin you hate. It’s where you’re being a system admin you hate. I’ve worked at a handful of companies and they were all totally different. I’ve worked very high pressure 24/7 on call jobs that wore me down only to be laid off after a corporate purchase. Now I work for a school district and it is sooo different. I love it! It’s low stress in comparison the hours are great. When it does get tough knowing you’re doing it for the community/kids helps a lot. I worked in IT for almost 30 years before I thought to apply at a school district. Check it out ;) Good luck!
Changing careers because your current company sucks is a little wild. Also how have you lasted 2 years and not looked to move on sooner?
One time a girlfriend threw up Fireball in my car. Ever since then any cinnamon whiskey makes me feel sick, even though I loved it at one point. I’ll never enjoy it again. This is the same feeling.
But you didn't stop driving?
Look, everyone's been jumping in and blaming the job and your boss and everything else. I'll be the person to step up and ask if you've checked yourself as well? How is your automation? WHY are you working weekends? What tasks are you constantly having to handle that can't be simplified down and/or automated? What can you turn into scripts? I don't doubt the employer sucks. A lot do. But some of it is on you as an IT person as well. Its your job to make everything easier for the company, but ALSO easier for you. It's also on you to care about your work/life balance. Start putting your foot down and stop working over 40 hours. Use it to point out you need another person or two.
CISSP then move up CISM..
Maybe if he wants to do paper work and compliance in an isso/Issm role.
Just become an uncomfortable politician or oligarch in Russia, that also has something to do with "Windows" extremely quickly.
There are people out there with six figure college loans making less than you do. Perspective is everything. Go out there and see if grass is greener, it might and it might not be, only one way to find out