As IT becomes just another profession and pay rates trend down, Rob England predicts IT pros will expect more of a life outside work and to be rewarded when the job intrudes.
In the last millennium, Information Technology was the cutting-edge career
for the nation's best and brightest. It was acceptable to work long hours
and weekends. It was acceptable to have dinners, movies and children's
sports interrupted by the pager or mobile phone. It was acceptable to work
late at home processing emails. This was the price we paid for money and
prestige.
As IT matures, it is discovering professionalism, certification, process and
discipline. As a result it is becoming as exciting as chemical engineering
and not as well paid.
Now the majority of IT workers are considered advanced clerical functions.
Being "in IT" does not hold the same cachet it once did. Now we say it in a
bored voice, like, you know, in IT.
In order to make the future trend clear, consider this: Some of the most
prestigious highly trained technical careers in past centuries included
typist, telephonist, steam engine driver, welder, and DBA.
IT pay rates are high, but not all of them, and many have been fairly static
for some time. While "leading edge" skills demand good dollars, some IT
skills and roles are becoming run of the mill, and paid accordingly.
So it is no longer reasonable to expect 24-hour slavery from IT employees.
They don't get paid enough and they don't get enough prestige and glory as a
result.
Trench warfare
Management have not noticed yet for some strange reason. What some IT
workers do is nothing short of heroic. This is particularly true of support
people, but developers have been known to pull all-weekend stints to finish
a system, and even managers occasionally go on a training course on a
Saturday (although it is OK for them to leave early after encouraging the
troops).
Service Desk people tend to be on a roster but it is not unknown for life to
be disrupted when it is all hands to the pump for an extended Severity 1
outage or a major system release.
Applications support staff carry a varying burden depending on their
organisation. Some applications run as smoothly as the proverbial baby’s
bottom. Others are more like what comes out of it. Some apps staff have it
easy; many more wince when the mobile phone rings or pager buzzes.
The pinnacle of IT heroism, though, is the IT Operations staff. They
regularly work long and odd hours, either to make changes outside normal
work times, or to turn out as Level 1 and 2 support engineers to resolve
incidents. Once again the depth varies depending on the employer
organisation, but in general Operations staff accept disruption of their
personal lives that most people would find intolerable.
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