That is quite a long time. How's the work apart from the lackluster recognition for the big milestone?
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
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Boring, while simultaneously challenging (because of terrible support). I get along well enough with my colleagues but I had a couple that were really great people on top of that, and they were let go for the flimsiest or supidest of reasons.
Essentially, I've fallen out of love with the field (IT). Been working in it for 20 years despite lacking a relevant degree, and there's just no more innovation. Everything is a SaaS or subscription service, and no one is trying to build something better than the competition, just something that extracts more value out of their catt- uhh, customers.
I want off mr. Bones' Wild Ride.
I feel this. There are a lot of companies trying to be a tech company that don't understand what it means to be a tech company. IT and devops get particularly shafted - if everything is running fine it gives the appearance that they aren't needed when in reality it takes a load of work to keep things running smoothly. In addition they are massive cost centers and don't actually make money, so they are first on the chopping block. Every company I've worked at has had a severely understaffed IT/devops team.
Worked for a tiny, conservative, family-owned, Southern Baptist outfit, only IT person. After I settled in, they treated me like gold. No one under me, but I sat every management meeting and my input was valued.
They understood that IT was as key as accounting and payroll, and this was a payroll processor. Always had my own private office, hell, last one I outfitted like an apartment. Left for way better pay, lost that job due to them needing occasional office work. And that was fair, job was kinda nuts WFH. Kill to get back in there.
SRE here, and yeah fuckin' same.
When things are running smoothly all they can do is give us busywork like re-writing the monitoring scripts. >_<
Burned on IT as well, but I have no earnings potential outside the field. I could easily get fired up again with the right employer though!
When I started, one got a (company-branded) watch for the 10th anniversary.
When I reached my tenth, that was no longer the case.
Now I celebrated my 30th with my coworkers, and we had a nice breakfast, and I got a nice gift certificate from my coworkers and the boss.
My 10 was kind of forgotten about. But my 15 year they let me choose something within a budget. I found something over budget and ask to cover the difference. They said no. You can just have it.
My employer's version of Christmas/holiday gifts for the employees was letting us pick through the bin of shit that was dropped off for promotional purposes, like water bottles and staplers and pens and shit. One year he was feeling generous and got us all five dollar gift cards to Walmart.
Despite that, it's still the best job i've had and i'm not sure whether that says more about me or the field I chose to work in
Ours has an online portal where we get to choose gifts. I’ve heard from some that at the 10 year mark, we can get a cruise/trip to somewhere like Hawaii for almost a week. One also mentioned a big screen TV, but that sounded like a dated one when they were $1k+.
I’ve been really grateful to be here (there’s been other benefits too, not just dumb gifts lol). So far for the first few years, I got stuff like a new set of pots and pans for my kitchen and an espresso machine (cheaper model, but hey, it’s still free espresso maker!), and some other tech stuff I can’t remember off the top of my head. Not exactly cheap stuff either. I tried going for the expensive stuff since it’s free lol, like $100-$200 range for some of the stuff I got.
Though we just got acquired by a bigger company, so it might be pizza parties here on out… It was cool because the company was acquiring other companies and your time with them counted, they didn’t reset the clock when the acquisition came through. So if you were with Company X for 9 years when X got acquired, you kept that time and got to choose the 10 year tier gifts on your next year like everyone else. One guy on my team has been with his company through 2-3 acquisitions a month before I was born…
Unknown what’s up with this acquisition and how things are. But they have so far given us $15 gift cards and cookies mailed out to welcome us so there’s that.
I got a fairly crappy picnic blanket for my 5yr anniversary. Logo was peeling off immediately. Threw it in the trunk of my car and forgot about it. Came in handy when I had to take my mom to ER during peak covid and couldn't wait inside with her. I used it as a pillow to sleep in my car and wait.
It's the gift the keeps on givin' Clark!
Unless you were shouting about this in advance, it's pretty amazing that they remembered at all.
Uh, anniversary notes are pretty standard, even in the shittiest companies. It's a no-brainer to integrate off an HR database, don't even have to remember to enter it.
Small to large companies, never known one to not have that data and celebrate in some way.
What you say is correct. You also have to keep in mind that management is often overwhelmed and this sort of thing can pass by. That said, I quit a job when they did nothing for my birthday after making a big deal about two birthdays the month prior.