(no subject)

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

I left my job. I am FREE. I am not going to take another tech support job. I have reached meltdown. There is life after tech. I will find it. I will probably dis-engage from this community in a day or two, I think I don't want to read about other people's stupid user woes any more.

This is a really strange moment, monumental, as the saying goes. I did full time telephone and email tech for a software company for the past two years. I was second tier, so a large part of my job was digging out from the mess that the first lines got them deeper into (like having them do unnecessary diagnostic work that cost them money) and I am sick of fixing everyone else's concerns.

I am just venting. Friday was my last day. I don't have to worry about coming in Monday and having way too much work to do -- hopefully ever again. God, is this really true? I'm sort of in shock.... woooo

Comments

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I quit last month to go back to school.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

As did I!

Many congratulations to all!

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

In library science, no less! Me too!

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I'll be heading to Bloomington once I'm done at Ball State, up in Muncie.

*squee*

Can't WAIT!

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

Good job. I'm trying to find my way out as well. I think I might be close to that point myself. We'll see.

[jecook]

Oh, you'll be back. It's like System Administration. The Cabal™ will find you when you get comfy and re-claim you.

::rubs hands briskly::

In all seriousness, tho: Congrats. I keep thinking that maybe being a computer support monkey is not the job for me, and I've been at it more or less for over ten years.

[geeveecatullus.livejournal.com]

you really make me reconsider doing part time tech support next term.

[twopiearr.livejournal.com]

part time is not so bad, especially if you can get swing shift when they don't call as often so you can study. But 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, can be incredibly soul-numbing.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[siggy-lxvi.livejournal.com]

Not so much numbing as destroying. I find myself becoming a truly soulless bastard. I have begun to truly admire Simon....

heh...

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

All hail Saint Travaglia!

[fiercekitty.livejournal.com]

Well yeah, congrats, but I have to echo some of the other comments: you'll be back. I left my phonemonkey job after two and a half years, only to end up working in IT/sysadmin/network admin a year later.

still, I don't have to touch a phone. I don't even have a phone on my desk. tech support in person is not quite as bad. people aren't as willing to be bitchy to you if they have to see you every single day.

[jecook]

Mostly.

I have a supervisor or two that insist on getting Senior Executive service, even though they don't return phone calls, emails, faxes, etc. when I try to schedule a visit to perform the five minute fix on their machine.

I only have five people in my area that get that, because they are Senior executives. One of them even had firing authority over me until October of last year.

Alas, I have two phones: one at my desk, and one on my belt. Both get abuse.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Congrats and good luck. It's reaching a point where socially people are going to start having to take responsibility for thier own actions, mistakes and ignorance. Probably when GenX dies out.

Rock on!

[don-tzu.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. I have been considering a complete change of careers myself but I have just not gotten strong enough for that yet. I've been a 'computer guy' for 10 years now and it's hard to imagine myself in another field. I am taking a half step, though, and getting into a more business / management role. Hopefully, that will be my gateway to freedom.

Good luck to you in your future employment. I hope you find work that you love.

Re: Rock on!

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[nuadha-prime.livejournal.com]

I, too, just escaped. It wasn't that I disliked the job as much as I disliked the management, but I have to say: I never felt more relief than what I felt after quitting. That job had been dragging me down for months and for the first time in long, long time, I felt like my old self.

I'd still be willing to take another tech support job but I'd be hesitant to do so.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Recently a customer wrote a letter praising me, and the manager took the letter out of my queue, thanked the customer for taking the time to let the company know we'd done something right, and closed the incident - never shared the praise with me. What kind of atmosphere does that create? And then, I got docked a day of pay for being ten minutes late due to horrific traffic, but no compensation for having to come in early or stay late to get all the work done because the department was inadequately staffed. Yet, some of the customers were a blast. Sorry you got me started. Don't go back! Join me in pursuit of 'other opportunities....' - good luck!

[teriwyn.livejournal.com]

If I got in 10 minutes late, and they said they were going to dock me the whole day, I'd probably say, "Fine, but I'm going back home, then." I won't work for free.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Oh ya, if they did it that way DUH... no this was more sinister - I was 'suspended'for a day - had to use one of my personal days to stay home a whole day -- which was the day I went to employment agency and officially kicked of search for new job thank you.

[jeffreycornish.livejournal.com]

Having recently escaped 11 years of hell, I salute you. All I can say is train up for what you want to do and don't let anything trival like lack of knowledge of a subject prevent you from diving in, learning, mastering and kicking ass at it.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Thanks. All advice appreciated.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! And on behalf of Tier 1 everywhere, I apologize. We're not all that bad. I've been doing Tier 1 for five years.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I should also say I was often cleaning up after other people on my own team. Not that I never made an error either (no one is capable of 100% no matter how good we are...) but I think that was the hardest part of the job, coming up with smoke-blowing answers that avoided admitting that we made a mistake and wasted their time or money...

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Heh, good point. Where I work, the smoke-blowing answers are the province of the local techs, and they hire and employ us to take all the yelling from both management and the clients when they mess something up.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Oh God. That sounds harsh. I hope you are duly compensated.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Well, our phones do have mute buttons. Does that count? ;)

Congratulations!

[siggy-lxvi.livejournal.com]

I really admire you. I wish I could get out of it, but I love computers to much to get out of the field, but don't have enough experience at anything to move off the damn phones yet.... one more year and I should be able to get a job at a company just barely big enough to have an IT department....

Re: Congratulations!

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Just be sure to get out before it 'gets' you. Good luck!