I ended up in a similar situation that lasted years and pretty much broke me.
I started out as the sole IT guy at a small consulting company with about 50 users, half on site back in 1997. There was plenty of work to make it a full time job.
As time went by, things got more and more reliable, and my workload dropped. There was an in house database that I tried to upgrade, but couldn't get buy-in to switch over... I tried 3 times, and eventually gave up.
In the end, system admins weren't a job anymore, and I was stuck... Showing up, trying to be super helpful when things broke, otherwise surfing the net and waiting for the end of the day. I knew it was unsustainable, but didn't want to self destruct the one job I knew and paid well.
It was hell, I was well liked, but it was still hell. The axe fell in 2012, and I was relieved in a way.
I took a job after that making gears... Some of the gears I worked on will still be in service a century from now. It was very fulfilling, but the pay and commute sucked.
Then I got Covid, and now Long Covid.. so I find myself at home back in the same place... Nothing to do, unable to sustain thought long enough to be useful in a job, and without the endurance to make gears.
I started out as the sole IT guy at a small consulting company with about 50 users, half on site back in 1997. There was plenty of work to make it a full time job.
As time went by, things got more and more reliable, and my workload dropped. There was an in house database that I tried to upgrade, but couldn't get buy-in to switch over... I tried 3 times, and eventually gave up.
In the end, system admins weren't a job anymore, and I was stuck... Showing up, trying to be super helpful when things broke, otherwise surfing the net and waiting for the end of the day. I knew it was unsustainable, but didn't want to self destruct the one job I knew and paid well.
It was hell, I was well liked, but it was still hell. The axe fell in 2012, and I was relieved in a way.
I took a job after that making gears... Some of the gears I worked on will still be in service a century from now. It was very fulfilling, but the pay and commute sucked.
Then I got Covid, and now Long Covid.. so I find myself at home back in the same place... Nothing to do, unable to sustain thought long enough to be useful in a job, and without the endurance to make gears.