Office Escape

>26, IT engineer, $95k salary, 810 credit, no debts
>every day it is litterally painful to be alive
Honestly, just kill yourself you spoiled whiny little pussy

I never said I'm not grateful. Excuse me for wanting to make an improvement. Want to trade?

Just to verify, what the fuck is an IT Engineer? Like what should your job entail? Like provisioning servers and stuff?

Feeling this at 22 after just graduating. On the bright side, I have my own office so I can do other hobbies on slow days.

>just replace parts and wipe the drives without ever discovering the problem

It really is the easiest way you know. If you are slammed with stuff to do that is.

Nuking the OS will solve most issues, why plod around in some virus infested OS trying to discover why half his file are crypto locked?

Pretty easy to test for bad parts with dedicated test beds/rigs on hand. Sometimes you just need to test individual parts and most normies dont have another computer or care to swap parts around to troubleshoot.

>I've invested so much time in IT. I'd be starting over.

Well, you're the same age as me... 26.

You dont get to say you "invested so much time" at that age. 26 is easily young enough for a career change. You'll be working until at least 67 (retirement age for us).

So youve got 40+ years left of work, do what you need to do.

3-6 meetings a day, approve change control requests, review config files, ask pajeet to fix something, ask service provider to fix something, provide documents to auditors, answer 150 emails, send metrics to execs, check a config, ask different department to patch something

I really don't have that option. Open floor plan basically like sitting in a hallway with people walking by and talking about NPC stuff

I worked for a company that did repairs like this. It was painful to watch. I was scolded for solving a customer's problem in 5 seconds when the manager wanted to charge them for a full offsite repair.

I understand and agree. I guess I am not ready to give up my computer fetish even though these IT jobs have killed my casual interest.

I quit my job to to ride my bicycle around the country for six months. My career didn't suffer at all. Stop being a faggot.

I am getting closer to not being a bitch about it. Coworkers that don't snitch and family tell me "no one will hire you with those gaps in your resume."

Mybe back in boomer days, but look at you're own experience. Moving companies has only resulted in gains for you. What's the difference if there is a few months to a year in between. It's not like you will have trouble finding employment with a resume like that.

>If I can finish a week's worth of work in a day, the award of freetime is its own incentive
There are places like this, but they're few and far between in established companies - you're more likely to find it at startups or in research.

You're young and you don't have a family. This is the perfect time in your career to be adventurous, to take risks.
The "9-5, M-F" office job with good pay and benefits and job security is for old people, and those with serious responsibilities (spouse, kids, mortgage).

Tour the startup scene for a few years. Work with passionate people. Work on projects you have an impact on. See and use a wide variety of technologies.
If that isn't for you, try teaching. Unless you have graduate degrees, you'll likely start at a community college or technical school.

>when the manager wanted to charge them for a full offsite repair.

Well.... yeah.... thats kind of the point of being a business. To a make a profit. Obviously you dont scam people but those than can pay should.

You were literally being bad for business.

Sounds to me like you just need to move out of working for the corporate borg, there are shit tonnes of places (in australia at least, and if you're in the states there would 100% be devent places, you guys have an awesome tech scene) that would provide you with enjoyable work. IMO if you want to go work somewhere that'll give you your love back, go and get some AWS certs, then work for a startup, you will rarely be doing bullshit like you've described, you'll be rammed with real work.

This guys knows what's going on.

>distance runner
>bjj
So you must be terrible at one or both of those things.

I work at a place where you are granted some autonomy in how you do your work. As long as you pull your weight, you're good.

A lot of people knock out everything in the first few hours of work and just browse the internet/watch Netflix the rest of the day.

The IT policy is that so long as you do your work to your managers standard, you can watch video all day long if you like.

The real privileged ones have VPN remote access and can work from home as needed. Most of use are hourly and I once saw the managers time sheet and literally everyone of those "Work from home" fuckers were clocking AT LEAST 60 hours a week.

>everyone of those "Work from home" fuckers were clocking AT LEAST 60 hours a week.
This is why policies like this are rare - it's open to abuse.
The abuse is much less for salaried employees.

I've been poor before and I can't go back to my family to be NEET. I could go back to college full time, but I feel like that's delaying the inevitable. At least I was able to pay my original loans with IT jobs.

Whenever I think of startups, I picture open floor plans, 80 hour work weeks, and layoffs. My 'friends' that worked for startups keep getting layed off and it spooked me.

I'm not going to sabotage your business, but when you up-sale unnecessary and even destructive services, I'm going to find a new job. I prefer to be honest. Call me a pussy, but I could do cybercrime, but I wouldn't sleep at night.

I was shit at both desu.

I do almost nothing, but get nothing but praise. But with an open floor plan and locked down computers, you have to pretend you're busy to ward off the busybodies. I do have old busy piled up that I am "supposed to do" but I have no deadline on it and it's so mind numbingly tedious that it will never be done. I've only been able to focus on it when working nights in an empty office to babysit after hours config changes.

Yup, its mainly for salaried folk but you can request to stay hourly if you started hourly. Obviously no one in their right mind would give up overtime.

We've got one guy whos at 21 an hour or about 43.5k a year base. He worked 50 hour weeks all last year and made over 60k. He'd just clock in from home on the weekends while playing BF1 and PUBG. 60k is a lot when the average household income is like 36k in this county.

I work 50 hour weeks but I come in because I dont have VPN access. Suffice to say I am jealous.

welcome to my life except no college, no girls, $5k debt, $42k salary, no savings

Work as a freelancer or start your own company. Level1techs made some videos on becoming a freelancer.

>I have no deadline on it and it's so mind numbingly tedious that it will never be done.

Wow, same here man. I do not do well with tedious repetitive work. I find critical bugs and errors and as a result receive praise but I totally get how this feels.

Im also fairly deep into a job that I could walk away from if I got the right offer in another field. But I would not get that offer, as im in this industry now.

But hey, if you've got a good thing going and it pays the bills, try to find hobbies that pique your interest.

>sometimes when I drive past road workers or landscapers, get jellous, they seem free

It's just an illusion. Trust me they hate their job just as much as you do for different reasons that make it equally horrible.

Yeah, OP thinks they are "free" but they are free to have serious health issues in their 40's from the intense physical labor day after day after day....

No cartilage in knees, fucked up backs and joints..... etc.. Skin cancer from constant UV exposure.

I can say with complete honesty, I do not know or have ever known a person who was legitimately happy to do the job they were doing.

I know this doesn't really help at first, but thats what 95% of working class goes through. Everybody and their mother always hates their job and wants to do the opposite. Every road construction grunt prays every night for a job at the desk. Every nurse the same.

It hadn't always been like this. In earlier times, if you really wanted to, you could be a part time postman or store clerk and still live an ok live with it. But corporations decided they not only want your work but they want ALL of your life body health and suck you dry.

What you CAN do however, is just stay on the lookout. Before quitting, constantly look for actually better jobs. Look for nice colleagues. Look for IT startups where you believe in the cause.

Have you looked into being a teacher?

Uni freshman here, the more I hear about open floor plans, the more they scare me. Can anybody provide their experiences from a software engineer's standpoint? Are open office designs super prevalent?
Are they as painful as they sound?

Also sorry you got fucked OP. Hope I don't end up wasting my life the way you did.

>no one will hire you with those gaps in your resume

This is the biggest fucking shit meme of all time. Focus on yourself, not on any of these stupid rules.

>Have you looked into being a teacher?

Holy shit thats a terrible idea is almost all cases. Unless you are planning on being a tenured professor at a large college do not plan on making any sort of good money.

OP says he makes 95K, the best he could do is some highschool gig with a non teaching degree. Good luck getting more than 40k....

ever heard of the panopticon?

I was there. I clawed my way out of all of those problems. I am grateful for what I have now, but I was mentally happier in that state. I felt like I had progress and a future despite how hard things were.

Oh I know. But sometimes I daydream about being a Mexican mowing a golf course as the sun rises.

I've gotten more injuries from sitting at a desk than I've ever gotten from physical activity. I admit I am ignorant of the blue collar life.

I've known several IT teachers and they all seemed to be bitter about leaving the industry. "Those that can't do, teach." seems to haunt them.

I'm not a programmer, but to get the experience, try writing code will sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a common area like a cafeteria. Now imagine everyone that walks past is takes a look at your screen and judges you. Make sure there are bright fluorescent lights. Wear business clothes and stay there for 8 hours. It's like trying to take a test while the teacher stands over your shoulder and watches you fill in bubbles. I would say stick with it, but try to find away to make money from your code independently.

>I clawed my way out of all of those problems.
What age did you start getting certificates or a degree?

The usual 4 year 18-22. Went to school year round because schools try to get you to pay tuition for 5 years these days. Payed my way with mostly loans and a small contribution from family. Was fed, but wore old clothes and had a 20 year old car held together with zip ties. Hobbies were free or school sponsored. Didn't party.

You could be like me 25 working 48 hours a week at a blue collar job going to collage full time. Im a year in, have certs and i am applying to any entry level it place i can find.

I worked full time and school full time one semester. Never doing that again. I feel for you.

FIRE aka financial retirement,
Investigate it.
I'm close now. Once there I won't work an officedrone role ever again. I might still do contractor work occasionally for fun.

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Will do, but is it feasible for a Jow Forumstard to do it? I have no interest in finance or business. I've considered using my savings to buy rental property and I can usually make enough to buy dinner day trading on my phone at work.

do consulting short term 2-6 week contracts via a recruitment company
do Jow Forums shit in your spare time

Just googled it. Already kinda doing it. Save 75% of income already. Rent is only $800. Have a used car that I maintain myself. Bank account is only ~$25,000 because I just paid off the last of my student loans and bought a more reliable car.

I'm doing it now, user.
40 hours at work and 18 credit hours for school. I think I can handle it because the last couple years I worked 95-100 hours a week and how can school be much worse?

last couple of years *in Q4
not all year of course, lol

> I did it twice so its always going to be the same

Youre a retard who deserves the crappy office jobs you get

>Open floor plan basically like sitting in a hallway with people walking by and talking about NPC stuff
this shit is so horrible
i worked in a place like this for 2 years
can barely fucking stand it had to use headphoens every day and stuff
also do this
gaps in resume dont mean shit
especially if you can explain them with cool stories

Tried that. Need more qualifications to be part time consultant. Can only get full time staff augmentation jobs.

I had to accept a long commute from dorm to get the job. Probably the worst part of it. Also had to do the gf most nights. Us student employees were known for dozing off.

>~$105k TC, quarterly 2% and EOY 10% bonuses, 6% 401k matching with ~20% EOY bonus
>WFH anytime you want as much as you'd like just tell your manager, but I live next door so 3 minute commute, no point
>seriously, not commuting by car is the best shit ever, so much stress gone in my life
>office is nice, enjoy where I sit
>my coworkers are nice
>get to do neat shit; work on stuff that affects us internally, customer facing and across the company, lots of exposure
>if I feel like it I can take on something else that's not necessarily required for our team, for example, wrote documentation because it was fun and got us out of confluence, wrote something to sync that, works great, real easy to contribute to over confluence (fucking hate it), ended up getting a spot bonus for it
>work is rewarding, genuinely enjoy it most of the time
>barely work 30 hours a week, get in late, leave early, take a long lunch generally
>got on call under control, used to get pages a couple times a week, now it's so rare we usually don't know when we're on call
>can easily see my self staying here for 2-6 more years, unless another company comes along and offers me 50% more for a remote position or close by position I'm not even going to consider it
>only thing I don't like is internal politics but none of it really affects me so I don't worry about it

I don't really care about the company's product or whatever, but I do like working here. I wouldn't leave unless it was a major salary increase as the benefits and atmosphere are good.

>The "9-5, M-F" office job with good pay and benefits and job security is for old people, and those with serious responsibilities (spouse, kids, mortgage).
No, it's good for anyone. Knowing how to separate work from your own life is important. It's nice going home at 5pm and not giving a shit until tomorrow. The only time it's acceptable to spend all hours of the day working is when you're studying in college, and I never want to do that again.

Work takes up approximately 30% of your life so if you hate your job then it doesn't matter how much money you're getting because you will always hate yourself. Just my 2 cents.

"Just put some headphones on"
Idgaf about noise. It's the being watched constantly. Sitting at a tiny desk in the center of a room under bright lights. Execs think it's a good idea because they won't look at the research showing the contrary. They have private offices of course. Hur dur shoulder to shoulder = teamwork. Completely out of touch.

After doing both extremes, long commute is the lesser evil. I tried living in the city and wanted to die.

I thought that's how it would be, but work has stolen the rest of my life it seems. I can't do life anymore. I am just exhausted when I get home an I'm lucky to get ready for the next day in time to get at least 6 hours of sleep.

you need to find a company that actually makes their own shit instead of just writing technical documents for others to implement.
Maybe you can simply move inside the company you are right now.

I've been seeing the same shit you describe while i was interning and a working student. Soulless miserable husks pushing papers for 80-95% of their office time while constantly being interrupted by office politics/meetings, new compliance inquiries and extremely basic questions by Indian team members that could all have been answered by RTFM or google.

I saw there was no way I would spend my working life like that. Looked around and found a
small to medium sized business where I get to make stuff instead.
And perhaps most importantly, dropped Java. fuck that Pajeet-hell, hope india never discovers there are other languages.

i hope the 190k welder meme never dies

>i hope the 190k welder meme never dies
What meme is this? I heard that welders make 40k on median.
payscale.com/research/US/Job=Welder/Hourly_Rate

>After doing both extremes, long commute is the lesser evil. I tried living in the city and wanted to die.
To each his own, but I've done the 1.5 hr commute each way for shitty jobs, fuck no, it's not worth it ever. If it ever became too expensive to live in the city than I'd just move back near my parents, buy a house and work remotely. No way I would put up with commuting by anymore for more than 15 minutes.

>I thought that's how it would be, but work has stolen the rest of my life it seems. I can't do life anymore. I am just exhausted when I get home an I'm lucky to get ready for the next day in time to get at least 6 hours of sleep.
You need to fix that. I have zero interest in spending all my free time on work, out of the past two years I've spent a total of one saturday morning working on something for work, there's just no point. Anything work related can wait until I'm at work. When I'm home I'm doing whatever I want, it's my time, not my employer's.

I never had an interest in programming. I can do it, but it just feels like math problems to me. I wanted to fix and break things, touch hardware, build complete infrastructure. Hobbies were building Cisco labs, hardening servers, hacking/CTFs, etc.

>You'll be working until at least 67
work however long it takes for you to save FU money. From that point on, you do whatever the fuck you want. If it earns you money, nice, if not, who cares - definitely not you!
No reason to let your government decide such an important factor of your life.

>People don't understand you can't just "fix it now". I get behind trying to diagnose the problems.
>Other repair shops, just replace parts and wipe the drives without ever discovering the problem.
split the business. have a service-front for fixing people's issues, and a workshop where you fix shit up that you see potential for reselling in.

Hard part is finding a remote jobs. Struggling with that now.

I don't do work on my free time, I just am tired, slow, and depressed when I do have free time. I kinda just do chores, veg out, fix cars, and jog...all I seem to have time for.

FU is what I tell myself my savings are for now that loans are paid.

>hacking/CTFs, etc.
If you were any good with those try doing itsec consulting

I've had the same experience as you for the last 20+years. I'm 40 now and I've worked in a lot of different companies in IT and honestly it doesn't get any better.
I've been through depression to the point of wanting to kill myself. Driven away friends and family because the stress of the work.
It gets to a point where you hate being at work and it wipes you out so much that you have nothing left for your personal time, it infects you.
Many IT places are really toxic. I moved to a new country to see if it was any different there and it was just more of the same.
IT is the same the world over.
I don't have an answer. Try a few more places but they will likely be the same.
Either get out or develop tough enough skin for it to not bother you. The later is what most do. Then wake up one day and realise you have become just as nasty and toxic as everyone else there.
Many people just burn out after a few years, I've seen it many many times. Some people have mental breakdowns. One guy I worked with was removed by the police and put in a mental institute after he posted on facebook that he was going to kill people in the office.

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Quit my Senior Engineering job last year and it's the best thing I ever did. Thinking of taking a Bachelor's in Ranger (nature preservation).

Do whatever makes you happy, life's too short to be a drone.

I have done this and I'm exploring getting back into it now. I'm just weary of travel and layoffs I've seen when meeting these guys.

>It gets to a point where you hate being at work and it wipes you out so much that you have nothing left for your personal time, it infects you.
You understand. I've only been accused of being on drugs because of sleep deprivation and not showing anger when we're fucked over. I'm just used to being fucked and too tired to make scene.

I have considered forestry, but it seems like there isn't a lot of demand despite living in the sticks.

Demand doesn't really matter all that much. Seriously, stop worrying so much and do what makes you happy. Otherwise you'll end up with a semi decent retirement and 40+ years of your life just wasted.

You make a lot of money. Why be afraid of layoffs? You should have loads of savings. Seems like you have a case of being a pussy, op. You know those who work from home and get paid hourly just play vidya. Keep job hopping until you get your own office.

>Demand doesn't really matter all that much.
Demand matters a lot. When there's low demand, you have to be "one of the best" to get ahead. When there's high demand you can demand more for doing less boring stuff.

When I say the best, I don't mean just meriotocratically. I mean everything, the best connected, the most likable to management including politically, socially, looks...

Reading this thread makes le happy I ditched IT in favour of music production.

I don't have a lot of savings because I just paid off my loans. Getting laid off now would be a relief, but the job hopping scares me because boomers always tell me that "shortimers" don't get hired after a while.

My other skills aren't that marketable unless I became a sponsored paintballer, but that won't pay bills.

Boomers are from a different age. Short term jobhopping is normal now, loyalty is dead.

IT is 1/3 Pajeets, 1/3 Newgrads, and 1/3 boomers that don't know shit about technology and needs a desk job until they retire with 30 years at the company. Very rarely there will be an old guru that knows what's going on.

Working with computers has unironically made me fucking hate computers, thinking of just buying a Jow Forums netbook machine and checking out of every technology related activity I possibly can.

>develop depression, unproductive, lose interest in hobbies,lose all friends, can't sleep, ulcer, bad cholesterol, back pain, lost interest in girls
go to doc. get cert that says you are depressed. Make work a little easier on yourself. Ask to work x amount of days from home.

Doesn't have to be that exactly, but you should try something.

Tried this once for a different chronic issue. "We want you to get better. If you're sick, you need to use your sick days." or something like that. Which was a legal way to say "find a new job if you can't show up in person".

I fucking hate this attitude, offices could have been done away with a decade ago when people were finally able to get decent internet at home. The usual excuse is

>But how are we gonna make sure they stay productive????

Just assign them tasks and check on then throughout the day remotely to make sure they are being completed. The amount of stress, wasted time driving, wasted time with stupid office politics, wasted real estate, etc.... is fucking unbelievable.

>Why do you hire people you can't trust to work on your IT infrastructure?
>Why do you keep employees that don't deliver?

harsh dude. my experience has not been so extreme but I can believe what you have said. I think the key is what a few other anons have said about financial independence. A side effect of this is that you always have a fund available (while you are saving) if you get fired, so it makes you confident to tell your boss no, give the correct advice and solutions to the client, and also to leave if the situation gets really bad. Uncle Bob has a bit of advice about this stuff. Also fuck working >40 hrs per week...

ah but see the real reason is they want you to endure pain just like them. really if a business wants to make money who cares what your employees are doing as long as the work gets done? if I employ some cunt and he works from home and automates it all and continues to do no work, who cares it is the same outcome for me that I would be paying for anyway. If someone wants to work in their PJs and take shit breaks and coffee breaks every hour, who cares as long as work gets done. But no, the business types want you to suffer, wear your collar tie and make sure you are not surfing the web on company time.

OP go freelance. I'm basically a field technican that gets consulting work because companies like my work and trust my opinion. For instance yesterday I was in to my former workplace where I was the sys admin. They want all new IT stuff so they got another company to quote them. I get called in to reduce the quote and give my opinion. I charged them 300 for the day and saved them 5000 on the quote. It was literally the easiest days work I've ever had and they'll keep calling me back. Because I'm self employed I get to write off expenses such as pretty much all purchases against tax. Try it

Boomers say a lot of things. Like my grandma thought I could just get a job with no HS diploma, no exp, in a country where I barely spoke the language non the less.

OP if you're still around why are you complaining? Work for a while longer and find some remote work. Otherwise suck it up and save and invest your money.

The reality is all jobs suck and are boring. You're getting paid to work in an airconditioned office. You have it better than the vast majority of the planet. Once you get that some more experience and in demand skills then look for a place that give you your own office or find some remote work my man.

I have worked some shitty jobs in my life. Not working in sewers in India or something. But just tough work involving heavy lifting in hot places.

You're 26, you have 2 more years to get married you dumb fuck. You're depressed because your life has no direction. Once your goals become maintaining a relationship and raising a kid you won't really care about your "career". All your work "stress" will go away because you have divorced yourself from the success or failure of your profession, and dumb shit like switching to an "open office" won't faze you

he could just pay a woman to bear his child and then raise it on his own while still maintaining focus on his career

Has to be better than being a jobless faggot going to interviews just to get cucked by someone more fitting

This

same for me but i work in a research lab and get to do wetlab stuff a decent amount over paperwork. still soul crushing and 100% feels like prison except i'm expected to come in at least a little bit every weekend

i'm not jealous of the road workers though, i'm jealous of the fucks who are at the mall or grocery store at like 11 AM on a weekday. that's real freedom, i have to imagine they are all either unemployed or have a spouse who works, anyone working night shift probably aint up and out that early

its the Office Space delusion and even though i know its illogical, i feel it all the time too, just like OP

>It's the being watched constantly

this, i feel like i have to be constantly productive because everyone can see my screen

I moved my "office" to the server room at my work. Nobody cared, and I do enough backend work that I don't seem out of place when others happen to show up there.
The noise of the fans is calming and the feeling of not being watched is beyond words. I can actually be productive and not feel exhausted at the end of the day.

Read Marcus Aurelius and stop letting what's extrinsic to you control your inner state.

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is that an argument for sticking with the job and stop letting it make you miserable or is it an argument for just quitting to do what you want without caring what people say

>people advocating freelance

this is a terrible idea, have fun paying for your own insurace, having no retirement/401K incentives, and being worried you wont get enough work to pay the bills next month

the former

I had one office where I could watch the free people going to the strip mall on a week day.

For my situation, there really isn't much of a market for short term B2B consulting. Only long term staff augmentation or like opening a computer store.

>free people going to the strip mall on a week day

IT AINT FAIR

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