Technically Speaking

Being an IT manager is much different than being on an IT staff, unless of course, like me you are the IT staff.  Sure the role of manager gets some benefits, like pay or sometimes delegation to employees, but overall many of the ‘perks’ are more work than perk.

I was reading a blog post recently about not caring about some things.  The post outlined a philosophy of not caring and pointed out that this is ok in some cases.  We all have things we do not care about and others around us will not care about some things that are seemingly near and dear to us or cause us worry.

This hit home for me in terms of IT management because some fires, no matter who they are for are just not that important.

A document has a bad font in the header and gets printed.  The individual printing the document runs over to the help desk and announces their worry about the font issue complaining that it needs to be corrected.

Does the document go to a customer?  Or is the document getting filed for later (or never again) viewing by someone here?

If the document goes to the customer it should be fixed (unless it is known perhaps that the customer doesn’t care) and if it is going to a box in the recesses of an underground bunker never to be seen again, who cares what the header looks like.

While this philosophy cannot be forced on others, like the employee running over with the problem, simply showing that you do not care may get the problem resolved.  You’ll likely have to explain why you don’t care and show that the fix is unnecessary and may well end up fixing it anyway, but the not caring stance may make the whole process less stressful.  If you do not care about the issue, it doesn’t matter either way the outcome, so you needn’t worry about doing it or not doing it.

This isn’t intended as a way to get out of work, but to look at the things you get asked objectively rather than subjectively.  These things shouldn’t cause you worry and loss of sleep because you do not care about them, certainly not the opposite tons of worry and sleeplessness because you didn’t get to the task.

Its all about perspective.  Being an IT Manager can be both interesting and quite frustrating, working on problems of all sizes at all hours day and night.   It may seem like the biggest issue in the world that a printer is not working quite right or that there are problems with some Group Policy Object somewhere on the network, but what about the true size of these issues?

Unless you ar working on a project or in a company where lives depend on the success and failure of IT, there is no reason to see a project as quite that important.  The users will be alright if it takes a few days to get an issue resolved or an upgrade completed.  They likely do not see it that way, but it is imperative, for your health and sanity (and technical problem solving ability) that you keep these issues in perspective.

Recently I had been working on a software upgrade that was just frustrating as ever and seemed to have Murphy riding copilot.  Every possible bump in the road seemed to jump into my path.  Something that might have been a 4 hour project went on for over a week and was quite the experience.  The air near my office was colorful to say the least.  However during the middle of this upgrade, a close family member had a stint in the hospital, and suddenly there are much bigger problems than why the .Net component of my upgrade is failing.

For me, this has been a huge eye opener.  Yes I am still passionate as ever about my job and what I do, so things do frustrate me, but when looking at these things in the grand scheme of life, they are very small.  Important, sure, but not nearly the huge catastrophe they started off to be.

How to gain perspective

You do not need to wait for a huge and traumatic life event to look at your life and put things in perspective.  Sure it sometimes seems that way, but there are other ways to look at these issues:

Reflect – take time at the end of the day/week/project to reflect on that period and make notes about your actions and the outcome.  Look at the results to see if you achieved what you hoped you would, and find places where you might have done things differently or improved.

Be objective – take yourself out of the equation and try to see things ffrom multiple points of view.  Looking at it from the point of view of the end user asking the question or from the point of view of an uninvolved person might help you see where you could handle a situation differently.

Take Notes – carry a notepad and a pen with you and write things down.  Whether just a list of items you would like to get someday or notes to help you understand an issue, they will keep you focused and prevent the brain drain of trying to remember everything.

Taking notes can also help prompt questions to others and allow you to listen actively.  This will also show your co-workers you are doing everything you can to help them.

Relax – take the time to do something nice for yourself and your family.  You do not need to book a week long vacation to the Alps, but a nice dinner out (or in) on a Sunday afternoon with no phones, laptops, or digital distractions would be a nice way to engage with those closest to you, and to give you a few minutes to unplug.

These things are helping me to keep things in perspective.  Sure I slip off the wagon sometimes, but I can always pick myself up and keep right on going.  I have also found that unexpected or random kindness works too.

Thinking outside of the technical arena and the workplace, there are always those who could use a little of whatever help you might be able to offer, even if it only involves holding the door open for someone.