They Also Serve Who Only Stand and waitpid()

Listen to Mike McBride. He knows of what he speaks. Mike spent 7 years doing the same type of work I do, which is namely "answering the phone every time a user sees something they don't understand". In August 2005 he left his life as a one-man IT department and joined an IT team (A whole team!) at a law firm.

One can only imagine it's been a huge improvement for him.

In his most recent entry, he discusses a range of reasons why he grew dissatisfied with his old workplace: "I was given the task of doing everything I could to make sure everyone had the training they needed to use their computers, but those same users were never held responsible for actually learning anything." It's a great read that's not to be missed.

Understand that this isn't a negative article, and he doesn't spend any time blaming people for failing to find the Any key. Instead, he focuses on trying to illustrate the importance of job satisfaction in places where "the IT guys" is really just one tired man at a tiny desk in a windowless room that he shares with three other people.

Don't be that guy.