I Hate On Call

This is such a common thing to hear in my world, which is Information Technology. On call for most companies with in-house IT includes your vacation and sick time. IT has changed and so have the people who joined the folds of the profession. We see more and more folks leaving their jobs due to the high demand and high stress placed on them. You have a backup for your data, but do you have a backup for your IT person? As an MSP, we understand some companies need to have IT resources on site, but they are too often taken for granted. When your IT Person is on vacation, out sick, or attending weddings and the business is down, who else can you call besides your one resource?

Being a seasoned IT Veteran I know the hardships that one can face in the career field. Keeping up with the changing technologies can be overwhelming but once you add no real downtime on top, well the job can start to feel like disheartening. After a while, the constant after hour calls interrupting the more important things in life such as a child’s birthday party, a vacation with family, or a Sunday dinner. Eventually you start to feel exhausted and with very little hope for change.

This leads to some trends on social media, IT People looking for something different that does not consume the core of you.  When you are part of a team you can share burdens, and brainstorm to make sure you’re going down the correct path.  Modo Networks was born from IT People, and we understand the struggles in the career field.  We understand that “Burn Out” is real, and when you are always on call, and working mostly in isolation it can lead to challenges both professionally and personally.

Back in 2010 we developed our “IT Assist” program to provide the extra relief needed for over worked IT People. I know IT People who quit their career to go to labor jobs to get away from the stress in these scenarios. IT Assist is an inexpensive program for companies that have on site IT Resources, and not only does it deflect the vacation work calls but it also brings a mature, well-vetted toolset to enable your IT Staff to get to the next level. In addition, your team expands, you get our expertise across many IT Platforms which brings much-needed relief to your IT staff. 

Typically, when IT is overworked the first thing to suffer is documentation. This is the perfect disaster scenario whereas the IT Person(s) suddenly becomes completely unavailable when you call in a contractor who has little or no documentation to put things back together. This leads to more downtime and ultimately hurts the business. In this scenario, if they had IT Assist, there would be a group of IT People stepping up to put things back together and keep things running until the IT Person is back. Keep in mind that we do not want to take your job, but we do want to make you successful and take the pressure off. Please reach out to us if you need a little backup for your IT.