Can’t believe I’m posting this, thought I’d get through it on my own but it’s affecting my entire life and I’m miserable. I’m a senior Endpoint guy, focusing on SCCM Intune and sometimes AVD.

My job is to manage the Windows devices for a global law firm for the majority of their firms in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Our team is understaffed (there’s 2 of us for 40+ countries) and our IT admins on the ground at each firm barely know AD let alone SCCM or Intune.

My job is to migrate hybrid joined SCCM co-managed to Entra joined Intune managed, very little config exists in Intune so far.

My goal is to finish the migration and leave but I struggle to get up and want to work every day, I get paid very well but not for the amount of work I’m doing and I’m extremely burnt out.

Brushing my teeth, taking a shower and eating food feels like a big task for me, let alone wanting anything or having hope. I’m married, owing taxes, overworked and extremely unhappy.

I’m not sure what to do…talking to management is not an option because I know it’s their neglect that led to this point. I’ve been to a lot of Enterprise orgs but have never seen one as dysfunctional as the one I currently work for. To top it off, we’re trying to prove our worth to the big firms that contribute to the budget which funds our jobs, so there is no room for extra hires offshore to cover work outside of my scheduled hours (my team mate also works the same hours) so when we’re not around, no one is there to support.

I’ve done all I can to educate my peers and junior admins, created documentation and tried to be a senior tech leader and role model, but all I get in return is what I recognize to be disrespect and a lack of recognition for how hard I work.

At this point I’m questioning whether IT is the industry I want to stay in but I wouldn’t know what else would pay me this much outside of building my own consulting firm / MSP which I’ve started to do. No clients yet but the foundational work like setting up my own Azure tenant, Pax8, etc.

If you’ve read this far, I appreciate you and am open to any feedback (positive or negative). Just give it to me straight. I hesitated many times before hitting the Post button a few times but here I am.

A long vacation and a new job.

drugs

It’s been a year and I’m going to book one asap - the issue is I’m a contractor and lose money on my days off plus my vacation cost itself.

LOL that doesn’t work anymore.

It’s time to leave, my friend. And I mean, run if you can.

Two people for 40+ countries sounds more like a structural failure than a staffing gap. None of what you're feeling is a reflection of your work.

But the stuff about brushing teeth and eating feeling like big tasks, that's past burnout territory. Worth talking to a doctor about that part specifically, separate from the job. You'll make much better calls on the MSP plan once you're not running on empty.

"I get paid very well but not for the amount of work I am doing."

Only of of those things can be true: you're paid well or you're not paid well for the amount of work you're doing. Also, define the amount of work you're doing. Are you have to go ham for 40 hours straight or are you struggling to do that which makes you work 50 hours a week for your salary job.

Anyone who knows me, my job history, work ethic, etc. has said this to me a few times but I just want to finish what I started. Windows 10 to 11 migration and now SCCM to Intune. I can convert GPOs to Config Profiles fast and leave auto patch and autopilot for them to figure out. But I want to build and structure the bulk of the work to get them over the biggest hurdle.

Agree wholeheartedly, they don’t listen to me. Every org I’ve been to, I’ve been a critical part of their team and transform the way they work. I get hated on by peers at the beginning and by the time I leave they (usually) love me and depend on me.

The burnout part my doctor says to take meds which I’m against and spoke to a therapist who said I am beyond regular burnout. So I’m trying to create boundaries for myself in all parts of my life.

I took a year long sabbatical. It was the best time of my life. Definitely made it hard to go back to work though. When I returned to work, I found a great endpoint engineer role for a good firm, getting paid well for a very reasonable workload. As an endpoint guy I think you’re in a great position to find something new. Endpoint/modern workplace skillset tends to fare better in the current market than a sysadmin/infrastructure generalist in my experience.

I get paid over $100/hr but they’re getting their monies worth with the number of people they haven’t and won’t hire. I do over 40 hours a week and there’s no such thing as breaks, I work from the minute I wake up until 5-6pm daily. I previously asked for more money so they increased my hourly rate and reduced my billable hours….since there’s no such thing as approved overtime.

This is a two pronged problem if you ask me personally. Your company is obviously shit to work, and over specialization. At least for me, the fact that one day I'll be working on Intune, next I'll be diagnosing a problem pod in Kubernetes, and next I'll be rolling out Uyuni patching has kept me interested in the job and stopped me from burning out. Too much repetitive labor would drive me insane, but that's just me honestly. It also sounds like a big helping of depression on top of all of that. It's not IT that's the problem, it's your situation in particular. Slow down, take stock of what you have going for you, and find another job. And while you're at it, get some talk time with a therapist.