Defusing the Threat of Disgruntled IT Workers 401
snydeq writes "According to computer forensics expert witness Keith Jones, for every logic bomb on the network or Terry Childs case that makes it into the press, there are 98 other incidents of disgruntled IT pros damaging company assets that you never hear about. And though most IT workers are too professional to take out their grievances on the systems they've worked so hard to maintain, unless management takes note of the growing discontent in the IT workplace, it may fall victim to the unspoken 'ticking time bomb' lurking within its call for IT to do more with less, InfoWorld reports. Drastically understaffed, battered by interminable hours and impossible demands, many IT folks are being pushed to the brink by management that neither trusts nor supports them."
Printable version (Score:4, Informative)
is available here: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/09/22/39FE-IT-management-chasm_1.html [infoworld.com]
Re:Leave something funny - not code bombs (Score:2, Informative)
That was me.
And I assure you - it was pretty fucking funny.
Engineers? Unionised? You are nuts. (Score:3, Informative)
The kind of engineer that is in a union (operating engineer) is like a sanitation engineer. A blue collar worker with little training.
If you are still making $30k after eight or so years you should take that as a sign. You are just not very good at what you are doing. Try something else.
Re:Pussies (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pussies (Score:4, Informative)
There's good times and there's bad times, and contractors don't generally get much work in the bad times.
Your skill set has to be sufficiently in demand to either guarantee you pretty close to full time work, or for you to get paid sufficiently above permanent rates to make up for the time you're not working. This demand is often substantially higher than the demand necessary to get a regular job.
You have to have either a really flexible financial situation, or a partner with an income you can live on.
Most companies are perfectly willing to throw extra work at a contractor because, well they're paying for it, so you often end up more stressed.
Add to that the fact that in a lot of countries if you work as a contractor for one company for too long you're considered legally a full time employee and have to pay all the relevant payroll taxes anyway.
For my two cents, if you're young, and single, or financially stable on your wife/husband's income. If your skill set is really hot at the moment, or if your specialty is in a field where generally you're only needed for a small portion of the project life cycle, then go ahead and contract.
If these things aren't true, it can be a hell of a lot worse than doing a regular old job, even if the pay during the good times is better. Being your own boss isn't sleeping in till noon and taking days off when you want, it's working for someone else who quite justifiable does't give a rats about you, and without the security of a regular position.
Re:Why?? (Score:2, Informative)
I mean, IT is a utility, and should be treated much the same - engineered to the level of 'enough' resilience that the end users never see an outage. Engineered enough that the systems are self monitoring, flagging up potential problems, and autocorrecting as much as possible, to avoid problems occuring.
The best sysadmins are the ones that are working hard to put themselves out of a job. Sadly they're functionally indistinguishable from the incompetent scumbags who ignore all the red lights in the server room, but can think up good excuses as to why it's no their fault that server XYZ blew up.
Re:Engineers? Unionised? You are nuts. (Score:3, Informative)
That's not a union (speaking as an ASME member) its a professional organization for networking. There are no contracts with employers its essentially an excuse to pass standards and go to conferences once a year.
Sorry to burst your bubble.