Are there any jobs out there that don't suck the life out of you?
I work in IT. I've been in this industry for a while. I have a few certifications and two bachelor degrees and I am very good at what I do.
I recently started a new job at a SaaS company. They were once a large company but trimmed down and I would be the first IT person in this iteration. The interview process was arduous. I interviewed with 5 different people. I checked their Glassdoor and they had some negative reviews but they were all back from the old days, so I ignored. After I accepted the offer, I received numerous texts from my new boss sharing how excited she was and sending me screenshots every time she added me as an admin to something.
On my first day I decided to introduce myself on the general company slack channel. I shared a bit about me and then added that while being remote, it is everyone's job to look after their equipment to make sure it is in full working order and to submit a ticket if their hardware wasn't working. I got a lot of thumbs up and clap emojis, even the CFO applauded.
An hour later my new boss called me into an emergency Zoom where she tore me a fresh asshole and told me that my sole purpose in this role is to make her job easier. She even said out loud that if I was going to be all gung-ho about shit then maybe this isn't the right job for me. I was quite shocked, but chalked it up to a first day hiccup.
On my second day, Friday, I was set up to meet a woman from the sales team as part of an effort to get to know the company better. This woman I met was so cool! But she was also like “Omg you work directly under BOSS'S NAME I'm so scared of her! She is terrifying! Every time she messages me on Slack I'm like OMG WHAT DID I DO NOW?! My boss told me to never message her directly and if I need anything from her to just go to him and HE will be the one to ask her!” Not a good sign.
One of my tasks is to maintain the inventory book in Google Sheets. I noticed that once available computers are assigned, their line in the Available page is strikethrough-ed and its data copied and pasted into the Assigned sheet. I asked my boss why we maintain the same data in two pages and she seemed almost offended. I literally saw her roll her eyes on the Zoom screen. I explained that keeping two copies of identical data just creates more room for error and being verbose in these types of things just creates more work, and I forgot how she worded it, but she basically told me that she wasn't going to change it, that she wasn't open to suggestions on how to better do things, and not to ask again.
Sat, Sun, and Mon I heard from her periodically during the day, mostly telling me what I did was wrong. In particular, on Friday, she told me to send a welcome email to a new hire, and she wanted it EXACTLY like the one she had sent me for my own equipment earlier in the week. So I copied the email verbatim and just changed all the necessary info like the name a tracking number. When I pasted the tracking number into the email, it resulted in a typeface that was slightly different, but I didn't think it was a big enough issue to change it. On Monday, a holiday mind you, she sent me this 3 paragraph email about how the welcome email I sent out was all wrong, and that she had worked very hard on this to make it just perfect for all the new hires, and now there were TWO typefaces, meaning my attention to detail must be just AWFUL.
I reminded her that I have only been with the company for two days and told her that if everything I'm doing is wrong, then maybe I should be given more training. She replied that this job is “self-serve”, whatever that means, and that there would not be any further training.
Then this morning she scheduled a meeting with me and fired me. The HR lady took over the meeting and told me I wasn't a good skill match, something I disagree with. She offered me three weeks of severance, which I accepted, and asked me if I had any questions. I told her I did have any questions per se, but I had some feedback. I told her basically everything I outlined in this post, and told her that she is going to have a very difficult time filling this role. She said that she would share my thoughts with The Big Boss for further coaching.
I think she just wanted a yes-man who was just going to do everything she said to do without thought, and that is not who I am, and also not someone anyone should really want in a growing company, and certainly not in an IT role. My entire career has consisted of making the best decisions for companies as a whole, and this is not the first role I'd be in where I have been the only IT person, so I know what I'm doing.
Are there any IT roles out there that will just stfu and let me do my damn job?!