Out of Office Support

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by Luddym, Jan 5, 2008.

  1. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    I'd say get as much experience as you deserve and move on, that's what I did in your previous last job and got a deserved nice pay rise including playing with real technology. Best wishes:)
     
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  2. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    There is a simple solution here, get rid of your IT manager and assign some of the managerial tasks to the 3rd line guy. I’m sure he can handle it. This will then free up funds for you so you can get a pay increase, happy days!

    Seriously though, as said before perhaps get your CV out there and see what happens. :biggrin
     
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  3. wizard

    wizard Petabyte Poster

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    Luddy,

    This may sound a little harsh, but I think it should be your manager thinking about the welfare of the 3rd Line support guy and his young family, not you.

    I would make your stand and let the manager deal with it, after all managers are there to manage employees in their charge and to come up with a solution.
     
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  4. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    Hey Luddy,

    In your situation, I would certainly make my feelings known, but as I have still relatively little real-world IT experience, I would still continue doing the support to garner what I could for my CV.

    You have said that the company 'growth spurt' is recent; are they budgeting this year to expand their IT team? What is your infrastructure? We have around 400 employees total across 5 sites, in the UK and UAE; however, we don't support the UAE office. So 4 sites, the IT team has 2 First Line, 2 Second Line, 2 Third Line/management and 2 programmers.

    However, 800 staff and 18 sites, having just 3 IT staff including 1 manager sounds completely untenable. If they don't indicate they are going to recruit for at least first line, and soon, I'd hightail it out of there before you become so overworked you won't be able to get the time off to interview...
     
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  5. Luddym

    Luddym Megabyte Poster

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    Hey Arroyn,

    We do have 2 other sites, one in the Czech Republic the other in Italy, but thankfully we don't need to have anything to do with those.

    In regards to increasing the IT team, there is a possibility of another member of staff this year, but he will be joining the other application guy. As it is, the application guy we have deals with one application, and thats it. Everything else comes down to the 'infrastructure team'.

    Apparently, before I started, it was completely manic, and since I've started it still is. :D But I think there is the mentality of 'If we can get 4 people to do 6 peoples work...' then most companies will try their luck. In a way, it should make the current staff more valuable.
     
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  6. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    But with what you have said, it sounds like they don't value you at all. I would personally find that demoralising in the extreme.

    It sounds like a difficult situation to be in, and I wish you all the best, whether you decide to walk, ask for more, or just bite the bullet and carry on slaving it out.

    As I already said, if it were me, I'd mention the fact that I wasn't happy and try for a raise, but I'd carry on doing the support. If they were still treating me like a dog after six months, I'd be gone quicker than a bat out of hell.
     
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  7. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    I've done it before, but when I have, the terms (if any) were agreed upon when I interviewed for the job. Thus, I've never been in a situation where I've had to work an extreme number of hours doing on-call work without compensation of some sort. I've either gotten extra pay for carrying the phone, or, when a situation came up where I had to come in after hours or on weekends, I was allowed to be off for a few hours or a day or two of my choosing to make up for it.

    If I were in a situation where I was being unfairly "used" by management, without giving any sort of recompensation for lost "free time", my solution would be simple: find another job. If management is that uncaring, I don't want to work for them, ya know? However, if they're willing to work with me, I'm willing to work with them.
     
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