feel like a spare tool

bigpaudge

Hi guys, a bit of advice needed here; I'm feeling down and don't have anyone to reach out to. I'm struggling to understand what's going on.

I joined a multi-national two years ago,I'm in the IT dept.; I'm here two years and I'm still struggling. I have quite a good all-round understanding of how networks/servers etc work but struggle on the difficult stuff like VPNs and loadbalancers; I have done online courses and training in different evening classes and stuff like that, I'm pretty good and can wire a 200 seat office inside-out.

I struggle though with bigger more complicated stuff but when I ask my colleagues they just tell me "Why don't you Google it?". When I ask for tasks I am told "there's nothing you can do for us at the moment, sit tight. I feel like a spare tool most of the time. I get to do a couple of mundane tasks once or twice a week but the boredom is killing me. My colleagues won't show me how to do anything. They seem to have their own jobs to do and they don't seem to want me to know how to do it.

The best company I ever worked for was Xerox in Blanchardstown. That was back in 2002; Xerox looked after their employees, you had a monthly review, were told where your strengths and weaknesses were and you were encouraged. This place I am in is sh1t, I've not had a review since I started and there's no encouragement to do anything.

My managers never even ask "how are you getting on?" I'm paid a decent wage I can't complain there but really feel frustrated that I am not getting anywhere.

I'm not ungrateful that I have a decent job, I just feel frustrated and worry about my personal health.

Any ideas or tips would be great!

listermint

My first advice is that no one is going to help you you have to help yourself.

The answers wont be handed to you ever the best in the field will always strive to find and do more on their own merits.

I see you have done some online courses, but did you try applying anything from them in your day to day.

Id imagine your team work on a ticketing system, rather than asking for tickets to be assigned why not take more complex tickets and try to work through them yourself or identify one that looks interesting and wait until someone takes it. Then ask them do they mind if you sit with them to go through the ticket as you are genuinely interested in their methods to solve it.

I think in a sense you will need to be more proactive especially with IT its about putting yourself out there and exposed to newer technologies it has to come from self interest and yes Google btw is an invaluable forum for answers and discussions as the same problems you have in ticket resolutions would be faced by many others around the world.


So i suppose my guidance is to apply the courses you are taking in reality and push yourself more in terms of complex issues you may have shied away from in the past.

bigpaudge

listermint wrote: »

I see you have done some online courses, but did you try applying anything from them in your day to day.
Id imagine your team work on a ticketing system,

A bit more background; the multinational is like a bookies-chain, there are highly complex systems running on seperate VPN networks that we cannot touch. (are not allowed to alter)
There is no ticketing system those kind of faults get dealt with by our desktop team, I am in networks.

I get your point about being proactive; I'll see what I can do.

listermint

bigpaudge wrote: »

A bit more background; the multinational is like a bookies-chain, there are highly complex systems running on seperate VPN networks that we cannot touch. (are not allowed to alter)
There is no ticketing system those kind of faults get dealt with by our desktop team, I am in networks.

I get your point about being proactive; I'll see what I can do.

Even the networks team should have a ticketing system?

How do tasks make it into the Networks group, whatever method they get in you should pursue an interesting task to the person who is assigned it and follow it through to completion. Its through this interest that you will gain
experience and access.

The thing with IT is people can be self involved in tasks and can tend not to seek out giving assistance to others unless the task requires it. So it will leave you in the situation of having to go get the answers or seek them out personally.

Not an easy ask but it will have its rewards.

bigpaudge

listermint wrote: »

Even the networks team should have a ticketing system?

Believe me; this place is archaic. Their attitude is that they have outlook and why would you need a ticketing system? If there is a port to be patched I get a handwritten note on post-it!!

gandalf

Is there any funding in place for external courses. If there is have a look and see if there any technologies that you would like to learn about and that could be relevant to your employers. Maybe sit down with your direct manager and ask him what he would like you to do for the teams future requirements. You don't mention if you get reviews? If you do, ask about Training and Development options. Any decent corporate will have some sort of programme in place.

Does the company have an online learning portal account like Lynda.com, will your manager allow you an hour or two during your working week to do online learning. Alot of vendors will have basic certification on their products available for free as well. I'd look at doing those as well.

Glass fused light

bigpaudge wrote: »

Hi guys, a bit of advice needed here; I'm feeling down and don't have anyone to reach out to. I'm struggling to understand what's going on.
(snip)
I just feel frustrated and worry about my personal health.

Are you actually feeling down?
If you are feeling this way you need to get it sorted.

Is this from the job or is it feeding into the job?
Eg If its the job and you need to be doing during your work day, you may need to look at your skills and target what you are good at and move. Eg if you like the install look at companies who move or customise offices.
Or get a hobby out of work which satisfies that need.

Either way this needs to be looked at so go to the doctor and get started on getting help.

bigpaudge wrote: »

I joined a multi-national two years ago,I'm in the IT dept.; (snip)
I get to do a couple of mundane tasks once or twice a week but the boredom is killing me.

Was the job you were hired to do a day to day 'run of the mill' spec but there is no tasks / other employees are assigned your tasks or just to be there when it hits the fan.
One of the jobs I had with a MN had a IT guy who's only real job was to be there if the onsite server exploded and to make sure the tapes were switched each night and the backups went off site once a week. The MD got pi**ed when he found the guy asleep at his desk, but the only reason that the boss was looking for him was so he would sort out his illegal non-work download problem:rolleyes::rolleyes::D

bigpaudge wrote: »

They seem to have their own jobs to do and they don't seem to want me to know how to do it.

Holiday time is comming, offer to learn to be a backup to some of the staff.
Non nationals who want to go home for christmas or someone with a young family are good first 'targets' and may see the benefit of having someone who can take over for a hour or day, (they can offer telephone support from the pub).

bigpaudge wrote: »

you had a monthly review, were told where your strengths and weaknesses were

bigpaudge wrote: »

A bit more background; the multinational is like a bookies-chain, there are highly complex systems running on seperate VPN networks that we cannot touch. (are not allowed to alter)
There is no ticketing system those kind of faults get dealt with by our desktop team, I am in networks.

I get your point about being proactive; I'll see what I can do.

Do your own review and set tasks even if this is bring in a personal computer and work on a project on your down time.
Eg Find the recovery plan and read the IT bits see if you can figure out how to improve it etc.
Or look to move jobs.

Glass fused light

bigpaudge wrote: »

Believe me; this place is archaic. Their attitude is that they have outlook and why would you need a ticketing system? If there is a port to be patched I get a handwritten note on post-it!!

Could be a reason is that IT knows it's over staffed on a local and group level and a ticket system metric would show this.
But go with the suggestion of the talk with your manager and look out for projects which the group will need bodies for and ask your manager to recomend you.

bigpaudge

Glass fused light wrote: »

Or get a hobby out of work which satisfies that need.

I do extra jobs on the side, helping private people sort out their home PC's and Laptops... I find that really rewarding, there's not enough work in it though to do it full-time (I don't have the skills to do it full-time) i.e. I cannot solder mainboards or re-ball graphic chips. I'm a bit handicapped there as I am also colour-blind... this kind of feeds my frustration... when they ask if the green light is blinking on the router I can't tell if it's green or orange :eek: I'm afraid to tell them in case I get the sack; but there was never any real problems before.

bigpaudge

gandalf wrote: »

Is there any funding in place for external courses.

Yes there is. I did one but quit half-way through because it was a waste of time. It was advertised as a Network course but we never once touched a switch or a router in the whole course. Everything was mickeysoft based.

I've done CCENT and ICND.

gandalf

bigpaudge wrote: »

Yes there is. I did one but quit half-way through because it was a waste of time. It was advertised as a Network course but we never once touched a switch or a router in the whole course. Everything was mickeysoft based.

I've done CCENT and ICND.

So your company paid for a training course and you dropped it? If I was your manager I wouldn't be impressed at all with that sort of lack of commitment. I assume the company choose the course? If so did you feedback your misgivings on the training?

Is there anything in your office that continually comes up as a problem that you could sort out a solution for? Base your training requests on that and follow through on it.

bigpaudge

gandalf wrote: »

I assume the company choose the course? If so did you feedback your misgivings on the training?

I chose it. I told them.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not sitting on my laurels waiting for something to happen... I've set up a Splunk server for capturing and analysing snmp traffic, I've setup a Linux Snort tool for sniffing network traffic, I've setup a Linux Open VAS vulnerability discovery tool for finding holes in websites... none of the other lads could have done that. I introduced the idea of virtualising a lot of the network monitoring tools because the lads were using PC's which crashed frequently.


The course was really bad, I was supposed to be doing networking. The course was advertised as a networking course, nowhere did we even see a switch or router. The course was purely based on Windows Server 2012 and Linux Server Administration... absolutely nothing to do with switching or routing.
The company only had to pay for the half that I attended. It was also bad from the point of view that the other participants acted like kids, there were a lot of young people on the course, guys in the twenties who chatted incessantly and left the room 30 minutes before finish each night. Right school kids.
The instructor just ignored them. When I complained I was told this was to be expected on such a course... I was angry.

gandalf

That's pretty bad. Was the course shared with FAS (or what ever they called these days!). Chalk it up to experience and next time you are scoping out a course you know to ask if the training is hands on using equipment or theoretical.

Also check out with the vendors of the equipment your company uses they may have specific training sessions as well.

For example Dell run very good overview sessions in their Customer Solution Centre in Limerick.

bigpaudge

It wasn't FAS. I'm not going to name them on here. Have started doing more work in the last few days on Cisco FW stuff for our DSL access, it's hard grind! I have a book about 10 inches thick and two Firewalls to play with!

ongarboy

OP, I find it odd that you don't have a supervisor or manager that you can discuss this with or that they haven't asked you how you are getting on? Any competent manager or team leader should be aware of how over loaded or idle their individual team members are. Whenever I started in new jobs, I found I had very little to do no matter how busy the department was because everyone else was struggling to get their work done and had little time to be training me even though it would have benefited them in the long term.

During my early 1:1s with managers, I would have pointed out that I'd like extra workloads as there were often gaps and they'd help address them by getting me involved in projects or given ownership of certain tasks to relieve others who previously had to do them. It was only over time when I gradually ascended the learning curve through deep end exposure of requests and incidents and fellow employees or business users increasingly became aware of my existence and ability to assist that I became the go to person and then got overburdened and longed for those quieter early days!!

It's unfortunate that there isn't a ticketing system as that was always a good way to pick up unassigned tickets and ascent the learning curve either through self teach or ask others how to fix. Is it possible for you to suggest to management to introduce such a system either online or via a database and that you could be a project lead on it's implementation? You could make a list of all the benefits it had from your experience in Xerox and other companies that had much more progressive systems in place (audit trails, MIS to report ticket volumes by issue type etc, tasks assigned in order of priority and age, documented ownership to prevent duplication etc etc).

If you find the company is resistant to such progress, then maybe it's time to reconsider staying there.

bigpaudge

follow up. I changed companies - de-ja-vous... I'm in the same boat again ... cannot keep up with the processes, feel lost, feel shunned by colleagues... honestly I wash everyday and brush my teeth, wtf is it?

luap_42

bigpaudge wrote: »

follow up. I changed companies - de-ja-vous... I'm in the same boat again ... cannot keep up with the processes, feel lost, feel shunned by colleagues... honestly I wash everyday and brush my teeth, wtf is it?

You may find that these workplaces are more the norm than your experience at Xerox. I contracted in IT for decades and was virtually always expected to self-start and self-motivate. Some of the workplace environments were/are abysmal, most were dead boring life sucking pits of hell, some were fantastic, but only some. However I only ever resigned once in 30 years due to a case of being bullied separately and simultaneously by two superiors.

Maybe you should review your take on the employee-employer relationship. I can guarantee you will find life a lot more rewarding if you concentrate on yourself primarily, and the company secondly. Try to find options that are win-win for yourself first, and then and only then the company. If they are unwilling to give you work and boredom is the issue, then make use of that free gift of paid free time, especially if they are not reviewing your status or progress. Teach yourself whatever will reward you in the long term. Structure your free time, so that when you inevitably move on from yet another sub-standard workplace, that you will have progressed personally at least, and professionally hopefully.

Wanderer2010

bigpaudge wrote: »

follow up. I changed companies - de-ja-vous... I'm in the same boat again ... cannot keep up with the processes, feel lost, feel shunned by colleagues... honestly I wash everyday and brush my teeth, wtf is it?

You might have been unlucky enough to have 2 bad workplaces in a row but it also sounds like your industry in general seems to involve a lot of down time, unhelpful co workers and an unsure structure to your working week.

Would you consider upskilling in your free time to a different career?

beauf

luap_42 wrote: »

You may find that these workplaces are more the norm than your experience at Xerox. I contracted in IT for decades and was virtually always expected to self-start and self-motivate. Some of the workplace environments were/are abysmal, most were dead boring life sucking pits of hell, some were fantastic, but only some. ....

Most places I've worked in IT were never very mentoring focused. You kinda just sink or swim. Probably much of the reason they find it hard to find people with the right skills. Occasionally you find helpful people. It not the norm in my experience either.

bigpaudge

Update: Laid off again after 3 years in another company, I really have had it.

nthclare

bigpaudge wrote: »

Update: Laid off again after 3 years in another company, I really have had it.

Sorry to hear that, its obviously frustrating.
There's more to life than information technology.
Working with bell ends ain't easy.
Have you thought about trying something else or re-education.

Working in biodiversity and environmental work is going to be the new sexy soon, because they're going to need a new army to sort out the monumental fck ups we've encouraged in the last 60 year's.

Much more healthier and people who work outdoors are a different breed, than working with a team of clowns in the cooperative world.

bigpaudge

bigpaudge wrote: »

Update: Laid off again after 3 years in another company, I really have had it.

Why were you laid off? Redundancy or through HR process?

Stheno

bigpaudge wrote: »

Update: Laid off again after 3 years in another company, I really have had it.

Have you thought about the one common denominator here? Ie you?

bigpaudge

Stheno wrote: »

Have you thought about the one common denominator here? Ie you?

Yes, i have and I'm getting counselling for some deep seated issues

bigpaudge

Deleted User wrote: »

Why were you laid off? Redundancy or through HR process?

Through HR, company says it cannot work with me. I am not productive enough, colleagues explain processes to me over and over but either I'm too thick to understand or I have a learning difficulty. I take notes and screenshots but stuff doesn't stay in my head. I have to say I work for a German company, I speak German and understand it but I'm by no means a native speaker.

bigpaudge

bigpaudge wrote: »

Through HR, company says it cannot work with me. I am not productive enough, colleagues explain processes to me over and over but either I'm too thick to understand or I have a learning difficulty. I take notes and screenshots but stuff doesn't stay in my head. I have to say I work for a German company, I speak German and understand it but I'm by no means a native speaker.

You need take time out, then review your options and Possibly change direction. Give yourself time and get all the help you need. Speak to recruitment companies and take things from there.

Best of luck.

bigpaudge

bigpaudge wrote: »

Through HR, company says it cannot work with me. I am not productive enough, colleagues explain processes to me over and over but either I'm too thick to understand or I have a learning difficulty. I take notes and screenshots but stuff doesn't stay in my head. I have to say I work for a German company, I speak German and understand it but I'm by no means a native speaker.

There's a shortage of IT professionals, so you'll always get a job assuming you've access to a couple of decent references.



The thing is IT may not be for you. It's a profession with a level of expectation that needs to be met at key times.



The role you were probably most suited to was the original one where they only called on you sparingly, but Hindsight is 20/20


You can keep plugging away at Multi National IT roles, but it's unlikely they are going to give you fulfillment. Are there other options?

Boozybooze

I'm kind of in the same boat OP. I've joined a new team around 18 months and all the team members have been there 15-20 years plus and will not share out any information about some systems in place whatsoever or some information in upgrades. I'm at least 15 years younger than them.

I'm fine with 60% of the work but its kind of draining when someone comes to me asking for something and I can't do it. I ask the team members will they walk me through it and they just say they'll do it and been smug about it. I don't have the access anyway to do it.

It could be something as simple as getting me setup on an external companies VPN to look at some of stuff.

I usually only have to be show something once and some of the stuff like SQL i do need a bit training on.

Its frustrating beyond belief but my manager is too afraid to say anything to them unfortunately and reassures me i'm doing fine.

I think the team members just want me doing all the donkey work.

You can do all the exams in your spare time but nothing compares to real world experience.

_Brian

Maybe your a square peg trying to force yourself into a round hole, maybe this industry just isn’t your thing, if that’s the case for your sanity make a change do something you have a passion for.

On the other hand, maybe your just a complete bellend that just rubs everyone up the wrong way, if you are you need to work with your councillor and learn how to work as part of a team dynamic.