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Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

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Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#81

Post by agumonkey »

I feel a lot like the author. Computers used to hold promises. But both because understanding of society complexity and aging I have a lot less value in them.

At first I thought, maybe I just need to make people use of computers happier, but the average person doesn't care, they mostly fear computers and don't want to learn but mostly have a vaguely workable tool to fill taxes or get mail. While I'm at it, take a step back and see how much negativity is around computers... privacy, encryption, it's insane.

Nowadays I'm much more interested in setting repair fablabs and planting trees to make both landscape and people happier in simpler ways.

My interests in computing have shifted a bit, I mostly care about very broad abstractions (say graph orderings and commutations or partial evaluation).

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#82

Post by agumonkey »

sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

Slight digression: how many thinks that there's also a strong "burnout" trend across the whole job surface ? health, teachers, programmers ..

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#83

Post by sleepysysadmin »

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #42
sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

I have experienced everything you cited. Especially the death threats. Even when we shut off a customer for non-payment we would sometimes get them at my one job. The negativity seems to be pervasive at companies where tech is viewed as a cost center. At those kind of companies, IT tries to be proactive at first, but being proactive usually costs money, so it's often ignored. And then a failure happens as a result of…

>As for IT being understaffed, I do think this problem could be improved if companies invested more in their employees (e.g. training). And maybe took more chances on peoples capability, instead of requiring 2-3 years of experience on a range of skills prior to hiring them.

I disagree. There are people who graduate with a 3 year degree and they know absolutely nothing. I've interviewed 7 CCNAs with 3 year degrees in a row who didn't know the command 'sh run'. I gave them # cli access and asked them to tell me about what the hardware is and does. They didn't know 'sh run'. They ask for a tip or something and I'd say 'show running-configuration' and they'd type out 'show running configuration'

Sending them for 2-3 days of training isn't going to increase their skills to any legitimate degree when 3 years hasnt done anything.

As for what do I think is the fix? Lawyers have the same problem; bottom heavy. Their fix? The way lawfirms work is that those senior staff are treated better and compensated very well. That's where IT needs to go.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#84

Post by balabaster »

nunodonato wrote: post #80
balabaster wrote: post #5

Wow! Can I ever see some parallels with the inverse correlation of my own inward search for meaning and my lack of contentment with life. They say that happiness is found within, but the more time I spend looking inward, the more and more sure I become that it's not. Happiness, at least for me, is found in friendships and relationships, in human connection. The search inward may lead to many profound and philosophica…

If it was that easy, everyone would have it ;) (source: meditation for 15+ years now)

Happiness for me is found in moments of joy and laughter. None of which in my life I've ever experienced without people to share them with. I've certainly never found that inside my own head.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#85

Post by sleepysysadmin »

segmondy wrote: post #20
sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

Perhaps there really is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT, but perhaps that's not the problem. There're ton of companies with burnout problems and worse turnover rates than IT. I personally believe that the issue we are seeing today is that most people don't know how to manager stress, emotion & energy. Most people are leading a very reactive life and constantly been pulled and pushed in all directions by "lif…

>Perhaps there really is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT, but perhaps that's not the problem. There're ton of companies with burnout problems and worse turnover rates than IT.

This is true. IT is the second worst industry. Healthcare is worse.

The way Law has dealt with this. The top performers are made partner and are driving Ferraris and the bullshit work is dealt with by the juniors.

>I personally believe that the issue we are seeing today is that most people don't know how to manager stress, emotion & energy. Most people are leading a very reactive life and constantly been pulled and pushed in all directions by "life"

I'm certain there's truth to this.

>Stress happens when there's a large gulf between what you expect and reality. Most folks in IT are getting paid so well that they can bridge this gap better than most folks. All one has to do is freaking chillax. F material things, don't compare yourself or compete with others, learn to make do with what you have. Last but not least, do your very best at work, but detach your emotion from the outcome.

Certainly a factor, but when you're burnt out. You lose emotion. That's actually a telltale of burnout late stages, you lose all emotion.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#86

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

shade wrote: post #27
sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

I've commented on this previously, but I think there's some aspects of the tech industry that really do lead to burnout, depression, and cynicism among the people who work in it - and this applies to both software dev and IT support. We spend so much time dealing with tools that tend to be extremely pedantic and detail-focused. We're constantly thinking about all of the stuff that's gone wrong with our applications p…

> We spend so much time dealing with tools that tend to be extremely pedantic and detail-focused.

This in combination with deadlines has caused my resting face to develop into an angry expression. As soon as I stop smiling and return to my “neutral” face, I look like I am angry, ready to kill someone. I now make an effort to smile while walking so people don’t get frightened.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#87

Post by reactor4 »

sleepysysadmin wrote: post #83
eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have experienced everything you cited. Especially the death threats. Even when we shut off a customer for non-payment we would sometimes get them at my one job. The negativity seems to be pervasive at companies where tech is viewed as a cost center. At those kind of companies, IT tries to be proactive at first, but being proactive usually costs money, so it's often ignored. And then a failure happens as a result of…

>As for IT being understaffed, I do think this problem could be improved if companies invested more in their employees (e.g. training). And maybe took more chances on peoples capability, instead of requiring 2-3 years of experience on a range of skills prior to hiring them. I disagree. There are people who graduate with a 3 year degree and they know absolutely nothing. I've interviewed 7 CCNAs with 3 year degrees in…

'sh run' doesn't show hardware information.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#88

Post by dcoo »

fb03 wrote: post #4

I knew there would be some relation with drugs in the text. People who think psychedelic drugs (even Cannabis) are just about 'having fun' or 'getting high' are skipping past the biggest ability these compounds have: to make you change some already hardcoded aspects of your life. Someone who isn't me started working out and eating properly after having an epiphany on cannabis which prompted him to openly evaluate his…

Someone who isn't me had a similar experience. The psychedelics just acted as a catalyst to act on things they already knew needed to change.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#89

Post by nabnob »

lm28469 wrote: post #60
nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

> most of the world's problems are social/political and won't be fixed by technology. One might argue that technology not only won't fix our issues but, used as it is today, is the cause of a lot of them.

I agree with you, but I didn't particularly feel like getting into a debate over this topic at work :)

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#90

Post by ben7799 »

Maybe too many people are trying to find all their meaning in life through their work. It's not a recipe for success for most people, I think the media plays it up a bit too much. They're only covering the success stories in terms of people who are single minded and who make their work everything.

The author of the article doesn't mention any relationships or other interests in life, no passion for anything but work. Maybe that wasn't the case but you can't tell from the article.

Lots of people do something in the arts, music, physical fitness, etc.. on the side along with family & relationships or faith/religion to find meaning. If you're happy from that aspect work becomes just something you do to pay the bills. It doesn't mean you're not passionate about work but the other things can make up for times when work isn't so great.

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