How do you all handle the stress of the grind? Just curious.
Printable View
How do you all handle the stress of the grind? Just curious.
You have to go out on the evenings after work, only working is a guaranty for depression.
Sunlight is important too, at least 10 minutes a day!
Bear in mind that work is a means to an end... you do it to get money that sponsors the rest of your life.Quote:
Originally Posted by Epy
The big trick is to actually have a "rest of your life" to make the grind worthwhile.
As Walla suggests... get out, do stuff in your off time... it's not work that makes you miserable, it's the absence of things that make you happy that wears you down.
I do have other things in my life. Family, school, personal projects, but making it through the day is becoming increasingly difficult as the people I work around are complete ........s.
Forgive me if this sounds trite, but there is a kernel of truth in it...Quote:
Originally Posted by Epy
In my experience *most* people are a-holes in some way or another. Most also impress me as selfish, shallow and slow thinking.
This is never more true than when I treat them according to the impression they give off...
Long ago I learned to focus on their individual redeeming qualities... "Jeff is good at math", "Bill tells great jokes" etc... and let the other crap slide so long as I don't have to contend with it. My experience has been that when treated with respect most people can --and do-- rise to the occasion and return that respect, in some minimal way.
For the most part people react to us the way we treat them... as they say: "You reap what you sew".
I've been trying to do that, but have been unsuccessful. Some people in particular are more troublesome than others. It's more of, "my supervisor and supervisor's supervisor are both extremely lazy and do not care at all about their work, so when I try and come up with new ideas or something they squash them and then load me down with meaningless busywork". So basically, I can be half content if I just shut up, or I can try and be passionate about my work just to have people fight me constantly.
Perhaps a different approach?Quote:
Originally Posted by Epy
I had this project I wanted to do --a diagnostic card for a cash register-- but I was in the computer division so the higher ups weren't prone to consider it (cash registers aren't computers... yeah right). So I conveniently "lost" the schematic on one of the CR tech's worktables. A week later they approached me to help him with this "wonderful computer diagnostic card" their guy had concocted... Even with my name on the schematic! ... In the end I got what I wanted, they got a new tool to use, everyone was happy.
Other times maybe ask permission to explore a problem you've encountered and present a solution.
Or perhaps, present the problem and ask them for help with the solution.
Going at a boss with "I have this idea I want to work on" is going to sound a whole like like "I don't like what you assigned and want to do something else".
Just a thought....
I don't deal with stress, I let it build until I snap into a homicidal attack.
Seriously though, I practice Pekiti Tirsia Kali which is a type of bladed weapon fighting. I do not claim to be any GOOD at it though.
Dealing with stress is up there among the most important things an adult has to take care of on a daily basis. Once you find your personal way of dealing with it life gets a lot better. It WILL come out one way or the other, when it does you want it to not be directed at people you care about.
EDIT: Are you new to the workforce or are you an old fart? In my experience, people who haven't worked much before take a serious shock from the 8 hour workday. If it's the length of the day that's getting to you, don't worry, you will eventually get used to it.
Vodka in coffee cup ;)
Skyrim and other games.
Haha, to MK27, I have put Bailey's in my coffee before.
Brewbuck, I am a mere 24 and finishing up school this year, however I have been working almost constantly in technical fields since graduating from high school. It's not the length of day, though I did have trouble with that once upon a time. It's more of people at this job. I've worked 3 different tech jobs since high school and have worked with good and bad people, but it seems like this place is nothing but incompetent jerks.
To give you all an idea, I am a mech eng. student and have been programming since I was 12 blah blah blah, I work as a computer programmer right now in a very small IT department. My boss has a proper CS degree and is in his early 30s.
Lately he was complaining about how Windows 7 isn't in your face enough about changing your soon-to-expire password. So I made a small .NET program to inform users of password expiration and made a password change dialog that can't be closed. So, I work out all the kinks and finish it, it works great and looks great. I tell him that the .exe and some needed .dll's come to about 2 MB. He starts ranting about how that's too big and it'll create too much network bandwidth. It's something that'll be run once a day...we probably use about 30-40 GB of bandwidth a day within the building if not more. All it really comes down to is that he is one of the many CS grads that can't program for crap and he knows I can run circles around him. He keeps his position by not telling anyone anything about our core systems and is basically juiced in because of this. Still, he can't stand to see me excel at all.</rant>
Basically, I just need to get a new job and can't right now because this company happens to be paying for my tuition. So I'm complaining. Still, looking for ways I can improve the situation.
You know, I never quite thought about it that way. Thanks. That is pretty much my attitude exactly. Like I said in the previous post, he knows I can run circles around him, so it's his mission to give me mindless, pointless, busy work tasks that will keep me from any sort of innovation. There's a ton of things we could do better and he knows it, he just doesn't want me to do it, so he gives me such previously described tasks.Quote:
Originally Posted by CommonTater
What does this company do exactly?
Taking a small leap here... It may not be that he doesn't want you (personally) to do it... It might well be that he doesn't want someone doing it when he has other schedules and requirements to meet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Epy
That "busy work" he's giving you is probably the company's bread and butter coding. Stuff that has to be done and may well be on deadlines. If he lets his programmers go off working on their own projects he loses control over them and over tasks that may well be corporate priorities.
The IT departments in most companies are there to invoate or invent... they're there to do jobs the company needs done...
Try this... Suggest that you may have a solution to the change passwords problem and ask if he can schedule you some time to work on it in the near future... Don't be sitting there on company time, saying "Look what I did"... because you know the first thing he's going to do is check whether your other assignments are done on time.
And FWIW... You might (almost certainly will) concoct a much smaller version of the password change window in C or C++.
AEC firm. So building plans, consulting, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by brewbuck
Tater - I'm not explaining well. Thing is, our little department never has anything to do. We're a 4 man operation and we're all sitting around doing nothing most of the time. It's when I get the bright idea of working on something that will help people (cause why not, I have nothing else to do) that he decides to give me some bewildering ridiculous task like "figure out how to make SharePoint work with an older version of Office even though these 693 Technet articles say it won't, cause he doesn't believe them".
By no means am I going off and working on something else when we've got other work to do. If he has something for me to do, I do it.
Yeah I get that... I was speaking about how it might look to him... Like I say, ask if you can have the time, don't just present the thing to him. Let him think he's in charge.
You may find this a bit weird, but I handle stress from work by listening to music on the way home (sometimes in the morning as well) and... singing along. :redface: (Yes, even rap)
To be honest, your predicament sounds similar to mine. Our workloads come in waves, so it's either all hands to the pumps or we do other things, like shore up on systems training (which usually falls apart because by the time we get to scheduled training time, something's come up).
However, my company hasn't got any hold on me in terms of education and my boss knows this. So I do get respect. On Tuesdays. Between 10 and 11. ;)
Okay, fair enough. Thanks for the insight.Quote:
Originally Posted by CommonTater
The waves part is certainly correct. It is very typical to have nothing major for 2 weeks or so and then one day, I have 9 things to do. Worst part is that my boss gives me no direction on what to do first so I never know if I'm prioritizing correctly. If I ask him, he changes the subject.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMurf
So it sounds like you've got a small, quiet little department and whenever you try to shake it up your boss trips you up. Honestly I can't say that is surprising. A department is typically expected to produce the same sorts of results they've produced in the past. If little demand is placed on IT, chances are things will stay that way. If you go off improving things in ways that are visible company-wide, people will start taking notice of IT as a department that can get stuff done.
That would get in the way of your ability to lounge around, and your boss seems to understand that!
Exactly.