IT work ain't so bad after all

A recent survey revealed that three-quarters of techies hate their jobs but an ensuing silicon.com leader told readers to count their blessings. Lots of people hate their jobs and IT is no worse than many professions - and lots better than plenty we can think of.

Readers had a mixed response but despite some complaints about the tedium and annoyances of IT work, more than half stuck up for their profession.

But first - those complaints. To start with, there's the boredom that comes from waiting for systems to break because, as one reader put it: "If you have done your job properly very little goes wrong, it just works."

Annoying users also rank up there with 'things that make me hate my IT job'. One system administrator ranted about dealing with "people who are past their expiry date".

He wrote: "I'll give a fix to one lady in the office for her specific computer - all of a sudden, she thinks she 'knows it all' and does the fix on two or three other computers - then the others girls call me, moaning about problems! Drives me nuts."

Lack of resources - which results in too few IT staff and often leads to outsourcing jobs - was also mentioned as a downside to techie work these days.

Fair enough. Another fair complaint was not enough respect from management who expect IT to be at their beck and call and to work miracles overnight (literally).

One reader shared this story: "'I need these figures,' says the FD, handing over a scrap of paper with some doodles on it. 'And I've promised them for the management meeting first thing on Monday,' he says at 3PM on Friday! So what's 800 lines of SQL between friends?"

Even more justified is that keeping office IT up and running is often a thankless job - and you only hear from management when something's wrong. One reader wrote: "All this is 'invisible' to clueless management up and down the country who seem to think that reliable networks and systems build and maintain themselves."

But plenty of readers are happy to be in IT - and say those who aren't should go and do something else. Reader Eric from 'Up North' said: "All these IT workers who claim to be disgruntled should do themselves and the rest of us a favour by taking control of their lives and going and doing something else they find more fulfilling. The resulting skills shortage would be a goldmine for those of us who are happy to work in IT!"

Sarah from Essex concurred, adding that unhappy workers aren't doing the industry any favours. She said: "If you don't want to do the job, MOVE OVER FOR SOMEONE WHO DOES! It also says to me that the industry is full of people who entered it just for the money, rather than because it was a choice of career. It is no wonder that so many high-profile IT projects have gone off the rails. I have worked in IT for over 20 years and love it as much now as I did in 1981!"

Reader Stuart Fawcett posited that the blame may lie with the recruitment process - and not matching the right people up to the right jobs. He said: "If recruitment consultants knew how to use the skills rating from the SFIA [Skills Framework for the Information Age] then maybe they would do better at meeting expectations on both sides."

Perhaps the most convincing evidence that IT is not so bad after all was from John from Edinburgh who pointed out how the open source movement has proved some people must like IT - because they do it for free and in their spare time.

He said: "Open source projects rely on tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people who love working in and around IT. If they didn't, they wouldn't devote their time and energy voluntarily contributing to projects."

He also questioned the survey results and put forth another piece of research: "I work for a commercial IT shop which commissions an annual staff opinion survey. Over 80 per cent of folk agree that their 'work is interesting'. Around 90 per cent agree that 'the people I work with are willing to help each other, even if it means doing something outside their usual activities'.

"This is the reality of life in IT - it's a great profession - get out there and spread the message."