How to handle being the only IT person at a company
Running legacy systems solo forces you into an endless loop of firefighting daily distractions like broken printers and lockouts, leaving zero time to fix root problems. This constant operational chaos creates permanent 24/7 on-call stress and makes major projects feel impossible to tackle alone.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1documenting needs with ballpark cost estimates for managementDid this help you?
- 2breaking upgrade needs into project lists with priorities and risksDid this help you?
- 3automating data collection and recurring reportsDid this help you?
- 4looking for employment elsewhere or exiting the roleDid this help you?
- 5contacting head office for approvalsDid this help you?
- 6planning to physically reset locked devicesDid this help you?
- 7cleaning malware-infected systems and taking backupsDid this help you?
- 8looking into company-paid certifications once things are sortedDid this help you?
- 9Asking AI tools for conceptual explanationsDid this help you?
- 10Tracing a single user action like opening an email client to show all dependent background servicesDid this help you?
- 11coasting and focusing on simplifying and securely automating workload and update cyclesDid this help you?
- 12saying no as much as possible to stupid ideasDid this help you?
- 13moving all the insecure shit in my environment into it's own controlled areasDid this help you?
- 14updating resume to find a new jobDid this help you?
- 15disabling features like flexcache to prevent failuresDid this help you?
- 16trying AI to validate setup, topology, and architectureDid this help you?
- 17reading documentation or taking official trainingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm on call 24/7, I inherited a patchwork EOL environment, and a seasonal project buries me for months every winter for the next few years. Pay and benefits are good but I'm stressed and stuck.”source ↗
“Every time I sit down to start on the real problems, something on the operational side yanks me back off it, and the fix goes back on the pile.”source ↗
“Now I'm supposed to set direction and own the risk for all of it and that jump feels enormous. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, this job is stressing me out pretty badly.”source ↗
“some days it feels like I'm one bad outage away from going under, and I catch myself wondering if the smarter move is to quietly start looking for an off ramp before this thing wears me down”source ↗
“The old IT guy left, so its just me now”source ↗
“In the meantime, i am untangling the colossal mess that our current IT infrastructure is”source ↗
“The old IT guy had fortitoken enabled, unfortunately he uninstalled it, and i am unable to get in”source ↗
“My day to day stuff mostly involves fixing the CCTV system, sorting out printer sharing errors, teaching people the art of rebooting a system to fix issues and so on and so forth”source ↗
“I have no degree on this specific subject, nor certifications, just years of teenage spent among computers i am grateful to have this job, and i am learning valuable information, still, i occassionally get the feeling like a kid who just got access to nuclear codes”source ↗
“A friend of mine said about the current state of being an IT guy: either you're completely drowned in shit or you're unemployed. I honestly don't know which one is more dreadful.”source ↗
“All I want to do is block all WAN ports entirely and have a whitelist for websites for people and require a multi-MFA VPN for anyone needing internal access. I can explain Zero trust until I'm blue in the face but nobody cares.”source ↗
“The attack methods are moving faster than the users and admins can keep up.”source ↗
“I had 0 training. I am putting out fires so I do not have time. I did a few.”source ↗
“I can learn individual technologies, but sometimes I feel like understanding each technology separately isn't enough. I want to understand the bigger picture of why these things exist and how they work together.”source ↗
“I have opened over +30 cases in the past 6 months with nothing but problems! Hourly alerts about bully and victim volumes.”source ↗
“It's been 2 weeks and support is clueless and worthless. We are at mercy with no options for most of the +30 cases I opened.”source ↗
“I am updating my resume as I am afraid I am about to get fired as I can't work with this steaming pile of doodoo and managers feel it is a reflection of me at a this point!”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Why does IT make work harder instead of helping?
- 4How to manage remote IT infrastructure without a dedicated team
- 4Thrown into managing cloud architecture with no experience
- 2How do I take over home tech and cameras when my partner is gone?
- 12Why are cloud bills so unexpectedly high?
- 6How to build an IT department from scratch alone