@Carnival-Boy said:

I don't agree that threatening to leave is necessarily a bad idea. I've never done it myself, but have seen it work well for colleagues. I've dropped subtle hints that I'm considering leaving, and that has worked out well for me. It all depends on how you do it, and how your employer reacts - no two situations are the same. But I've found that most employers will only give big pay rises if they believe their is a real risk they will lose you, and it doesn't do any harm to help them evaluate that risk.

Well it wouldn't necessarily be "Threatening" as much as unveiling the idea that there's a good chance that I'll have to walk out the door if the reimbursement for the work doesn't change. There are two staff members who received large "Stipends" for doing "Extra work" or finishing the work "Early". When in fact there is no staff member that comes close to the amount of hours we spend here in IT.

The same situation happened to a close friend of mine that worked here(Non-IT). She was great at what she did but they paid her on a part-time pay grade. She left and they immediately were forced to hire someone full time since no one would do the work for such a low number.

@alexntg said:

If you haven't received a raise, using potential departure will be a temporary help. If you make your mind up to leave, leave. As someone who's moved literally halfway across the country for work, sometimes you just need to do that. Traveling for work can also be lucrative, but I understand that it isn't for everyone. Sometimes compensation grows as the position grows, but sometimes it doesn't. In the latter situation, you need to change in order to make the appropriate amount of money. Whichever way you go or don't go, there will always be what-ifs, but it's a matter of learning to not dwell on them.

I wouldn't mind the travelling but only to an extent, and the relocating is very appealing although leaving the area that my entire family resides in is not. I understand there will always be what-ifs, but this one is going to be the first big change after 7 years old the same work environment.

@Carnival-Boy said:

What are the chances of you quitting your current employers but then being re-employed by them as a consultant through your own business for mega-bucks?

(I don't actually know what an MSP is, so I'm not sure if I've understood your post correctly).

(Managed Service Provider) Sadly enough, they pay outside vendors at fair market value...so if I ran 40 cables (Which I did a few months back) whilst doing every day IT work here there's no bonus. If an outside vendor does it, they make half of my annual salary in less than a month. I've thought about it, and although I wouldn't mind proposing it, I'm sure they wouldn't agree to it.

So I've been in IT for roughly 7 years now, and although I enjoy the many different aspects of the job, I'm not exactly sure which path to take in the near future. The majority of my IT experience has been playing the Network Admin role for multiple in-town locations, taking care of 500+ devices for 125+ users. Both after work, and on the weekends, I work for my own MSP supporting a client base made up of small to medium businesses. Although I do enjoy my current job, the position pays so little that I find myself working the minute I get out of working my full time job. I've requested a raise multiple times and have been told it "Can't be done due to budget restrictions"(It's so bad that 2 years out of the past 5 no one has received a raise)...within the next few months the amount of work that will need to be done should be done by 3 full time IT positions (Including the removal of 200+ computers, installation of 350+ computers, conversion & consolidation of 14 physical servers to 9 virtual servers, installing projectors, installing access points, re-routing cables in over 50 rooms, etc). Now, I would have no issue at all working 12+ hour days to ensure the work is all said & done but not for the amount of money I'm paid. I feel like leaving would leave the building in the dust, but I just can't see myself salving over wages comparable to an entry level computer tech.

I've updated my online resume and have been getting multiple calls, but nothing that would have much growth potential (Unless I relocated or travelled a massive amount).

Not really sure if I should approach my "uppers" with a "requirement of a raise or I must leave" situation or just hand in my 2 weeks and risk going to work on my own business full time or continue going back and forth with recruiters until I find something more appealing?

It's being picked up tomorrow morning, I'm just looking to see if anyone else would have tried anything else???

@Seth-Cooper said:

I am new to my company but have saved them upwards of 5,000+ dollars by switching ISPs and fighting for past credits.

I got a ten dollar gas card for Christmas and was pretty well guilted into putting $5 in for my boss's. Net bonus: $5.

My first job I at least got $150 as a lowly IT Assistant.

Edit: Great write up I enjoyed the article, I see why WSJ referenced it.

At least you got $5 in gas for your car...I got a $5 McDonald's card, which was a worse type of gas!

@Bill-Kindle said:

It goes back to the store. That's the step I would have taken.

Return shipping box will be here in the morning, just curious if anyone had any sort of troubleshooting ideas beyond what was listed. In case the laptop isn't new!

@Dominica said:

Could you hear the hard drive spinning when you powered it on, or was it a SSD? I might have plugged in an external monitor to make sure it wasn't a screen issue and tried new RAM if available, but other than that, no ideas. Annoying that you now have to wait for them to send you a new one.

What I do is place it in my hand and power it on. That way I can feel any anomalies in the hardware.
Tried the external monitor, nothing

@Hubtech said:

@Dominica said:

Clocking in and out is so problematic. The number of times that I've forgotten to do one or the other at jobs where it was required... I haven't had to do this in years, though. Finger print scanners seem pretty extreme, especially when only a fraction of the people in the company are required to use them.

We used this in a mental healthcare facility. direct care staff had to use the hand clocks because they proved themselves untrustworthy to use PIN clocking, card clocking, or phone in clocking. Had to find a means that couldn't be cheated, cause they would cheat.

But if some full time salary employees are forced to do it, and some are not...I'd assume that would be a legal problem. We have people who received bonuses for "Working beyond their job title" leaving early consistently and I'm sitting here having to clock out to step out of the building for a few minutes. This is a public sector job, we are all employees of "The state".

@Dominica said:

Clocking in and out is so problematic. The number of times that I've forgotten to do one or the other at jobs where it was required... I haven't had to do this in years, though. Finger print scanners seem pretty extreme, especially when only a fraction of the people in the company are required to use them.

I forgot to mention, they had issues with reading certain employee finger-prints therefore a FOB reader was attached to it...which defeats the purpose of a finger-print reader (ie "Hey Jimmy I'm going home, could you use my FOB to clock me out in 4 hours?").

@scottalanmiller said:

Wrote this one most of a decade ago but it is a "classic" and I reference it often. So I thought that I would share it here:

http://www.sheepguardingllama.com/2007/10/the-fallacy-of-bonuses/

We had one employee get a huge bonus for a project "Being finished earlier than expected" when in reality it went 2-3 months overdue!

Another for doing "Work asides from their described job" and someone had mentioned they work at our office over the weekends (Which was not true at all).

I've wrote down (Based off of our received quotes) how I saved our workplace from spending $60,000 of quoted work in 3 months time and received two days off.

The term "Fallacy" would be putting it kindly

We have an issue at one of our locations, where there are finger-print readers used to "Clock-in & out" even for lunch breaks.

Yet this rule is only mandatory for ~30-40 employees out of 125+, whereas the majority just writes down on a list when they arrive/leave.

I know for a fact that a good number of personnel (Whether those who are supposed to clock in or check in on the list) leave early without being penalized quite often.

With the list, anyone can write their buddies name down so they don't even have to be in the building. With the finger-print reader that's obviously impossible.

I feel like this is some form of discrimination, I'll admit when I'm late, but being in IT we also work more hours than any staff member in the building by 5-10 hours weekly!

Does anyone else have to deal with something like this at their place of work?

Had someone come in with a brand new Lenovo E431(Laptop) today. When you power up there is nothing on the screen. I pulled the hard drive, plugged it into a SATA-USB adapter and could see everything on it (Hard drive health showing 100%).

Tried:
Pulling the RAM and testing each of 2 sticks in every position possible.
Holding the power button with the battery out.
Resetting the CMOS Battery.

Strange part - when I put the Hard drive back in it showed the Lenovo screen then blanked out. Couldn't get that screen back.

Since it's brand new it's getting sent back but I'm curious if anyone has any other steps they would have taken?

I'd have to say Ubuntu, I've found it has the best "Built in" compatibilities and since it's the "Band wagon" linux OS, I've never had an issue finding support online.

@lance said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Criminal justice was a program that you had to pick at age thirteen?

Wow, I had no idea what I wanted to do thirteen.

Me either, the criminal justice program seemed interesting so that was my first choice...funny thing is now I'm in IT...and running a PD's network.

@scottalanmiller said:

Criminal justice was a program that you had to pick at age thirteen?

Well I didn't have to pick it, that's just the major that I had applied for (Vocational school) if you don't qualify for one program they ask that you list a secondary program. If both were full (And/or preceding applicants have better grades) you didn't get into the school. Needless to say it Networking/Program was a pilot program for them, so my Freshman year included 1 semester of each: Electronics Repair, Networking Basics, Programming Basics, and Digital Media. Apparently now it's MUCH harder to get in to the same school since there is such a high demand for a "Pre-Engineering" styled vocational high school.

I was first introduced to electronics - my father being a manager for a huge oscilloscope manufacturer he showed me how "Everything was put together".

As for IT, I didn't get into the Criminal Justice program, so I opted for the next best thing - Networking & Programming. Seeing the change in majors, my parents surprised me on my 13th birthday...I was given a computer...in parts! From then on my family never bought an OEM computer again. I got a job when I was 16 as a cable technician, my boss would come pick me up from school and I would then run cable like there was no tomorrow. Whilst running cables I made a lot of contacts for IT work (Since my boss was a "Phones only" guy). Worked as a sub-contractor for two government entities and my cable tech job until I graduated HS, became full time on one of the government positions, and picked up a second job refurbishing computers (About 200 a day!). Second job moved to a far location & now I'm still at my government position working for 3 different municipality buildings and running my own IT business.

And the search for growth continues!