Section 9.1. Overload and Conflicting Directions

9.1. Overload and Conflicting Directions

As a system administrator, I find my two biggest sources of stress are feeling overloaded and being given conflicting directions from management.

When I feel overloaded, I remind myself about the techniques for to do list management in Chapter 5. I close my office door (or steal a conference room), get some peace, and focus on The Cycle techniques. Soon, I realize that what got me feeling overloaded was that I was skipping steps. I go through the steps and plan the remainder of my day, moving to do items to the next day, and so on. It feels good to manage all of my tasks.

When I'm really overloaded, that doesn't work, and I have to seek a higher power, most particularly my boss. A good boss can help prioritize your workload when you are overloaded. It is not a weakness to confess that you are overloaded. Asking for help is a sign of strength. It takes a lot of courage to ask for help, and even more to accept the advice offered.

If your boss isn't around, anyone can help. Explaining the situation to someone can really help with the stress. Even if they don't have any advice, at least you feel like you've been heard. Often that's half the battle. Being heard by others feels good. However, they usually do have advice or can give you reassurance about the things that are unsettling. That always makes me feel better.

The act of explaining something out loud to someone helps us solve our own problems. How many times have you realized the solution to a problem while explaining it to someone else? Life is full of those moments when you tell someone, "So there's this problem, see? If I...." Suddenly you realize the answer, and there is no need to continue talking. It happens all the time.

The Practice of Programming (Addison Wesley) tells the story of one person at Bell Labs who was known for helping many people solve their highly technical problems. Sadly, he couldn't always stop what he was doing to listen to someone, so he had a teddy bear in his office. When he was busy, he would tell people to "talk to the bear." It worked very well. Soon he found people stopping by his office and going straight to the bear.

Detecting when you are so stressed that you need to pause and use these techniques can be a problem. When I'm super-stressed, I'm not able to recognize that this is the exact time to stop what I'm doing and destress. I once had an arrangement with a coworker where we had a code word we would use that would mean, "You're too stressed to see how stressed you are." It was a code word so that it could be said in front of others without embarrassment. He did it for me and I did it for him. It was very helpful.

Receiving conflicting directions is another common stressor for system administrators. Often, system administrators have more than one boss. Each boss gives you conflicting priorities. You try your best to please both, which is fine until you get overloaded.

In a perfect world, you can get both bosses into a room and let them duke it out. Sadly, that isn't always possible. If you are able to make that happen, it is a good idea to have your bosses write out your priorities so that you can refer to it the next time there is a conflict. Of course, if you have to refer to this memorandum of understanding too much, it may be better to seek out an organizational change that fixes the root cause of the problem. You might also consider talking to your favorite of the two bosses about working exclusively for him or her.

The inability to resolve such an issue is one of the leading causes of system administrators seeking employment elsewhere. And for good reason. Maybe a good stress reliever is to update your resume and read the employment section of a newspaper.

Sleep Mitigates Stress

Adequate sleep fixes a slew of problems. Everyone is different and needs a different amount of sleep. Getting the right amount helps you deal with stress better.

During a particularly stressful week, I find that if I get an extra hour of sleep I'm able to manage stress better. I feel better, I'm more relaxed, and I get along with people easier.

The problem is that getting an extra hour of sleep is difficult. We usually can't sleep an hour late, so our only choice is to go to sleep an hour earlier. That's hard! There's so much good TV to watch, books to read, chatrooms to play in, web sites to visit, games to play, and so on.

The only way I'm able to get myself into bed earlier is with a little help. I ask my significant other to be involved (in other words, force me to do it). If you don't have a significant other, have a friend call and nag you. Or, set an alarm that can ring to remind you to go to sleep.

I can't just go to sleep earlier. It's a process. I have to do nothing for a half-hour to wind down enough to be ready to sleep. It's pretty difficult for me to do nothing, but I usually get there in about 15 minutes. I think of it as a countdown. At T-120, I stop eating or drinking. At T-30, I wash up. At T-15, I start doing nothing. At T-0, I turn off the lights and crawl into bed. At T+5 I'm...zzzzzzz.