Skip the navigation
Opinion

Career advice: You can make your job situation better by communicating with your boss

By Dale Christian
June 11, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld -

Dale Christian

Title: CIO

Company: Avanade Inc., Seattle

Christian is this month’s guest Premier 100 IT Leader, answering questions about communicating with the boss, making the most of a degree in infosec and regrets over leaving a job. If you have a question you’d like to pose to one of our Premier 100 IT Leaders, send it to askaleader@computerworld.com and watch for this column each month.

Dale Christian of Avanade
Dale Christian of Avanade

The division of the IT department I work in lost a few employees due to attrition last year, and rather than replace those people, management has distributed the workload to me and others. I'm now working 60-plus hours a week, including occasional weekends, and I'm getting burnt out. Do you have any suggestions on how I can approach my supervisor about this? Approach the situation from your supervisor's point of view. She probably doesn't want her team working 60-hour weeks and realizes that it's not a healthy or viable situation. However, she's likely under pressure from management to keep costs down and doesn't have a strong case to justify hiring more people.

So, make a case for her and anticipate what she needs to solve the problem. First, document the problem objectively: write down the specific tasks you are expected to perform and how long it takes to do each one -- each day, week, month or quarter.

Next, use that list as a concrete basis for discussion: Are there tasks that you can drop, service levels that can be relaxed, or efficiencies you can find? You might be able to slim your job down to a reasonable number of hours just by focusing on the essentials. Or it might convince her that more people are needed in your team.

In that case, give your supervisor the facts to take the case to her manager. Help her develop a similar list for the rest of your workgroup, laying out what services the team delivers to the company and what resources -- people, hardware, software, etc. -- are needed to meet those expectations. Then, management can decide whether it's worth hiring more people or reducing the services your group provides.

I have a fresh bachelor's degree in information security, certification in computer networking, eight years in PC troubleshooting maintenance and repair, two years in Internet help desk and two in PDA and BlackBerry support. I am finding it difficult to break into the IT field full time. Most hiring firms want me for the help desk only. What would you suggest? Call me! Seriously, security skills are particularly valuable in today's market. The challenge is that security roles tend to demand deep experience, so you should look for entry-level positions in operations (also called Tier 2 support, production management, systems administration or infrastructure engineering, depending on the organization) that will give you hands-on experience in the production infrastructure. Supporting servers, networks and applications will put you in a good position to grow directly in that area. It will also give you opportunities to practice and deepen your security experience and move into a security role when the time is right. Good luck!



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Careers White Papers
Overcome Top 7 Admin Challenges of Active Directory
As Active Directory's role in the enterprise has drastically increased, so has the need to secure the data. Gain insight on creating repeatable,...
Insiders Can Ruin Your Company. Take Action.
Did you know that 80 percent of threats to an organization come from the inside? The threat from insiders is often overlooked in...
Top Solutions and Tools to Prevent Devastating Malware
Custom malware frequently goes undetected. According to Forrester Research, the best way to reduce risk of breach is to deploy file integrity monitoring...
Streamline Compliance and Increase ROI
Streamline, simplify, and automate compliance related activities; especially those that impact multiple business units. This white paper from NetIQ, outlines solutions that will...
X-Ray of the PCI Process-4 Proactive Steps
This white paper from Forrester Research Inc., helps break PCI into understandable components. Security and risk professionals will gain knowledge and insight into...
All Careers White Papers
Careers Webcasts
Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn...
Virtualize Business-Critical Applications with Confidence
Virtualizing business-critical applications has become a key focus for organizations as they move along their virtualization journey. With the launch of VMware vSphere®...
All Careers Webcasts
Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all newsletters | Privacy Policy
IT Jobs