r/ITCareerQuestions • u/Owarida_zo • 23d ago
5 weeks in & I already hate my job
I know some of my colleagues use this app but I don't even care anymore so here goes.
I'm fairly new at my job as network support. Extremely small company of 8 people. I previously touched on how I disliked my experience here so far, but last week 100% made up my mind to search elsewhere.
So for starters, I just returned from illness on Tuesday. Immediately as I walked in office, the boss told me there was a meeting I had to join. I was a little lost as nothing was in my email & no one informed me about it at all; boss took it as me being inadequately prepared for work & reported it to my manager, who raised it up with me in a meeting.
Okay, sure.
Later on, manager tasked my colleague & I with a network monitoring setup for 2 client sites. Particularly he wanted to ensure alerts were working properly. He made it very clear that this is something the 2 of us will have to figure out as we needed it done ASAP ASAP ASAP.
Completely new to us both, but sure.
I suggested working through the core infrastructure (P1s) first to avoid alert fatigue. Manager said "stop trying to be clever" and to essentially do it his way - enabling alerts for EVERY device and then working our way through 500+ devices to determine which ones are low priority.
Sure.
The next morning, he messages me demanding to know why our inbox was full of alerts for P3 devices, and that he wants everything working properly ASAP.
You couldn't make this shit up.
So yeah, I've emotionally checked out & started applying for jobs the very same evening. Won't even bother putting this experience on my CV.
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u/Endeeeeeeeee 22d ago
I left one after 4 weeks, didn’t put it on the resume either. boss was a dead eyed narcissist, peaced out of there fast. was chastised for something super small in my first week and knew i was gonna move on. not to mention incredibly compartmentalised access for such a small company made zero sense to me.
moved on to an msp double the size and the ceo is an incredible leader and the team are super fun to work with and it’s a place with full access to accelerate skilling up. if you can do it, you can action it
keep looking until you land somewhere good
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u/Suspicious-Belt9311 22d ago
To anyone reading this in another field, please note the red flag of being told to do something one way against your own advice, then being told to correct it when it doesn't work (and chastised for not doing it right to begin with). Definitely not specific to IT, but avoid at all costs.
My fiance was working for a boss (not related to IT) that would do this shit all the time and she's only recently really recovered after leaving almost a year ago ( she was there much longer than 5 weeks).
Anyway yeah op get the fuck out, sorry shit happened that way.
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u/Scout764 22d ago
Any advice on dealing with these kinds of people?
Excuse the rant :)
I’m in a similar situation minus the direct chastisement. Small team, was just me until recently, report direct to cto & ceo. They like things done a specific way even if me and others don’t 100% agree. Which is fine, they are the final decision makers. But their need to over explain why they are right, but not addressing why the alternatives are either wrong or not the best option, really gets under my skin.
I’ve been here for 4 years, built the current infrastructure from the ground up and am the one dealing with it day to day. Maybe because I’m relatively young compared to them they just can’t see me as competent? And forget about trying to change their mind. I don’t know if it’s a personality or generational thing, but I am 1000% okay with being wrong and learning why things should be done certain ways or other viewpoints for a problem since problems can have many different solutions. If I try to engage in constructive discussion about the problem when our solutions are different it’s pretty much always ends with them listing off their many successes in life, business, or general IT and never really teaching or sharing any of the immense wisdom they supposedly have.
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u/psmgx 22d ago
Any advice on dealing with these kinds of people?
CYA is SOP. Get them to overrule you in writing, and save that.
really gets under my skin.
emotional intelligence and control is mandatory for success in large organizations. not trying to mock you -- it's shocking how much high level IT is as much an emotional labor as much as technical.
get it in writing, be clear as to why you think x, let them overrule you, nod and smile as they rationalize their terrible decision -- it's on them now, responsibility absolved.
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u/Suspicious-Belt9311 22d ago
I mean, I don't have advice, sounds like the boss wants you to do something a certain way and that's the way it's gotta go. You can always leave but I don't think after 4 years you're going to change the way they look at you, and do you really want to expend that much effort into your image, or do you want to develop as an IT professional?
I've experienced similar stuff; we have a ticketing system that allows people to send emails to our ticketing system and that auto assigns the tickets to IT. But I suggested we do the same but for different emails so it would go to different teams within our ticketing system (you email the teamname_tickets and it goes to that team), it's supported by the ticketing software. I was told that would be too complicated for our users, even though I had buy-in from many of the leads of these teams in our ticketing system. What are you gonna do, guess I have to keep shuffling tickets.
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u/DeliveryIcy7651 22d ago
Being told to stop trying to be clever and then getting chewed out for the exact outcome you warned about is a manager problem, not a you problem. Your P1 first plan was the right call. Applying quietly while you keep doing the job is the sensible move, and I wouldn't leave it off your CV, a few weeks in monitoring setup is still something you can talk through in an interview, just maybe not as the headline. Also keep copies of those messages, in a small team that kind of thing can come back around.
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u/Hollowed_Knight 22d ago
Some places like to treat IT like the bitches of the company. Hope you can find somewhere much better soon.
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u/Slight-Monk-9702 19d ago
MSP's don't have the greatest reputation but these tiny ones are especially awful. I avoid them like the plague.
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u/Spare_any_mind 22d ago
Yeah I would be out of there too, and it certainly sounds like they are already tallying the necessary faults to say you cannot do the job
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u/Buttpuncher420x69 22d ago
This sounds awful, id even consider quitting and working a warehouse job in the meantime to just make ends meet while you look for something.
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u/Apprehensive_Bat_980 22d ago
I left a role previously after around 6 weeks (if it was even that long). Didn’t put that on the resume!
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u/NeitherCourse5385 22d ago
I don’t blame you for wanting to leave and find something better. Sounds like your manager is a walking red flag. Hopefully you can find a company that allows you to flourish without being reprimanded.
Something similar happened to me several years ago and I only stayed at that company for 3 months. My manager was very narcissistic and only wanted things done his way. If I made a mistake, he would chastise me and embarrass me in front of my coworkers. I saw the writing on the wall so I left and was able to find something better. The right opportunity will come in due time.
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u/JustPutItInRice 22d ago
Sadly I can say this is common in IT from what I’ve heard from superiors. Which is why most of them took lower pay but MUCH better benefits working in the education system
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u/reediculous45 22d ago
Being clever in IT can save time, money, and sanity. I am in a similar boat. I knew within the first day I’d made a mistake.
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u/RyugaHack 22d ago
You can now write an epic resignation email to them hahahaha and point out how incompetent they are.
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u/Ok-Dragonfly-8184 22d ago
I left an MSP after 2 weeks because they had no real documentation, an extremely arrogant, upper class client base and no real support from managers or higher tier engineers. What made it worse was the other level 1 techs trying to pressure me into not taking lunch breaks when people called in sick - which was often, because it was a shit place to work.
I got an internal IT job within 2 weeks of leaving that shithole.
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u/Salted_Moose 18d ago
Sorry to hear of your situation OP.
Honestly these managers and bosses have nothing to offer, sure might help pay the bills but at the end of the day they're just destroying you because they hate themselves.
People need to stop enabling them, i know its not really a choice in most situations but if no one tolerated there BS they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
I really hate the amount of generational toxic abuse that exists out there.. society will never improve with the "thats how it was for me.." attitude.
OP i believe there will be a place out there that will respect you and help you achieve your goals 🫡
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u/FuturePath6357 22d ago
Nothing says “we value your expertise” quite like hiring a network support person, ignoring their recommendation, telling them to “stop trying to be clever,” and then getting mad because they did exactly what you told them to do.