It is a well known fact that I get on kicks. That is to say, I get intensely interested in a subject or activity for a period of time and later that kick is replaced by something else.

One thing I’ve been in and out of for the last 8 years is Amateur Radio. I got my license a few days before Sept 11, 2001 and upgraded in 2007 to a General Class license. (Visit ARRL.org if none of that makes any sense). Before my upgrade I volunteered with EMA, did storm spotting and other local activities. Ann got her license and got involved in some of the same things, and we were in a great club which gave us plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy the hobby.

When we moved to Little Rock, I just couldn’t find a good club to get involved with and there was no time to volunteer with an organization so my hobby fell by the wayside.

After moving back to Alabama, I started getting some interest back because I could put an antenna up and talk all over North Alabama. I know the area, so storm spotting was more viable and surely I would find a club that was a good fit.

None of that happened except putting up the antenna. I have always been interested in getting  a General or Extra license because it would allow me to talk over greater distances: across the state, the Country and even across the globe.

Since my upgrade I have talked to states from New York to Oregon, made contacts in Spain, Italy, Canada and the British V.I.

Tonight I embarked on my newest goal: The “Worked All States” award. Getting the lower 48 will be relatively easy with the exception of the smaller New England states… the real fun will be working Alaska and Hawaii. I’ve only talked to Hawaii one time and that was on ARRL Field Day in 2002 or 2003 at about 3am. Keep in mind that this was before I had my upgrade, so I was making the contact using the club’s callsign so officially  I haven’t talked to them, and I’ve never even heard an Alaska station. Ever.

So, now I have a new goal. The good news is that I can take my time and I have found a group that meets regularly for the purpose of getting people together for the Worked All States award. Now the fun will be trying to do it with only 100 watts and a 120 foot peice of wire strung up in the back yard.

Man, i’m a geek.

I’ve discussed in some detail here the frustrations that go with being in IT. It’s a good career choice, and I don’t regret going into the field. IT has good moments. There are few feelings better than coming up against a big challenge and finally seeing the system work when you’ve found the solution.

I do some side projects from time to time, mostly for people I know or one time support for someone who has been stranded without any help. I was doing some side work this week and one of the people there asked the question “So, how do you like working in IT?”

The answer that came out of my mouth was more insightful than I expected at 7:30am: “IT gets all the respect of a janitor with the skillset of an engineer”

Now, that may sound bitter or cynical, but I think it really sheds some light on why this industry has such a high rate of burn-out. I was actually interrupted while writing this post by a phone call from my job because a part of the system wasn’t working. To the end user, the solution took about 60 seconds, so the assumption tends to be that my job is easy or that what I do takes the same amount of time as taking out the trash. The truth is, the time that went into that solution is a combination of hundreds of man-hours.

From my recliner, I can log into the network at work. To do that, someone had to first build the network  and provide some way of getting there from the outside world and verifying that i’m supposed to be connected. Once I’m connected, there have to be servers in place that again verify my identity and give me access. Then I have to know where to find the problem, a knowledge base that can take years to develop, and then know how to solve the issue.

So, while what I do seems like it’s easy (and don’t get me wrong, for me it is pretty easy most of the time) it really isn’t that easy.

The burn-out comes from the fact that the recognition is low when the skills are high. I don’t think most people want a cheering squad every time they reset a password or restart a server, but cumulatively the minor miracles we IT folks perform on a daily basis that go unrecognized can make us question how appreciated we are.

I’ve seen what happens when an IT guy leaves, especially when they are the only one. There is usually a real awakening to the amount of work that goes into what we do.

So the next time you walk by your IT guy’s office and he’s sitting in the dark, illuminated only by the glow of his monitor.. don’t assume that just because he is reading the news or browsing a white paper that he’s goofing off. Grab the man a fresh Mountain Dew, maybe a candy bar and give him a “Thanks for what you do!”  It goes a long way, and the next time your computer breaks, you might just end up higher on the list or with a new flat panel monitor instead of a dingy old CRT from the stock room.