Ask HN: I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal?

Ideally, you should do what you love in order to be able to love what you do.

maybe you are in a transition period between projects, or need to shift to a position where you get to work longer term on a single project?

[edit: this applies on more than one scale - it's best if a project lasts for a couple of months or more, but even within a single week i prefer to not switch around too much, so try to do avoid anything smaller than day-sized chunks when possible]

Anyway, yes, getting help is one option (bad code, like bad driving, is a part of a dev's life. You try to keep a safe distance away from it ;) but you don't get angry). Create an intuitive plan of what you'd really like to be doing and at what company, and then get to work at solving the problem. Don't let it hurt you until it boils over.

Also, I'd split your list out. Things like bad code and unknown crashes come with the territory. That particular patch of grass is never greener on the other side. Demanding clients are also likely to be a problem just about anywhere, even if your clients are other people in the office. Your colleagues and bosses, however, well, there will also be problematic people everywhere, but you can get on with the people around you, then yes, you should should consider a change.

In ten years in the industry, I've only once been "on call" and that was to test our systems after a co-lo move. Sometimes deadlines will be silly, too, but if there's a pattern to that silliness, then something is wrong.

Levels of Pissedoffedness:

Level 0: You don't know that anything is wrong. You just think that's just the way it is.

Level 1: You know something is wrong, but you don't know what to do about it, so you just go along with the program.

Level 2: You know what to do about it, but aren't yet able to do it. So you stick it out, learning as much as you can.

Level 3: You know what to do about it and you are capable of doing it. Now you're really pissed off (mainly at yourself) because you're a fish out of water, in a place where you don't belong.

Level 4: You do something about it. You challenge the people at work to fix things. You start fixing them yourself. Or, best yet, you just go out and do it right on your own. Either way, sweet relief.

Get to Level 4. The days of pissedoffedness will soon seem like a distant memory.

(I have been through this cycle many times, but now I'm at Level 4 and have no intention of ever going back.)

Call me greedy but the question I usually end up at with annoying clients is: "Is this worth it?". Pay me enough and I'll put up with whatever you throw at me.

Obviously your pain/compensation ratio may be unrealistic (i.e. nobody is gonna pay what you need to feel comfortable). In that case you'd have to go freelance or dip a toe into different professions.

However, if you've been switching jobs for a while now and still feel the same way at every job, then either you've got bad luck with picking your jobs, or you're just a bit too sensitive.

At the end of the day though, no job is going to be perfect, and you're not going to be at any job forever anyhow -- so my advice is to just let things slide, brush your shoulders off (channeling Jay-Z), and say to yourself this crap isn't going to matter in a year or two anyhow so why am I getting worked up about this. (Works for me most of the time)

One excellent programmer friend is "naturally angry". He takes medication to control it. When his pills run short, his voice level and agitation increases noticeably. He has shared his difficulties, which makes it easier for everyone else to work with him. Angry or not, his judgement is always sound and exacting and you'd best listen to him, whether he is raising his voice or whispering.

So if you're like my friend, see a psychiatrist. They understand the organic causes of emotions better and can prescribe appropriate drugs. Otherwise try a kickboxing class or a good run or ask a girlfriend for a little sustenance.

Same stuff happens to me. Alas, I'm not in a position to change my job easily (think immigration issues).

Every job has annoyances, but if you're constantly pissed off, you need to do something. My advice would to be to start speaking out when people take advantage of you. If a client is being unreasonable and making your life hell, he's probably making your boss's life even worse. Figure out who you can talk to, and what you might be able to say, in order to improve your situation. You may have to find another job. If you're this angry, my advice would be to start the search process now.

A lot of Americans think it's a reasonable strategy to bottle in anger at the workplace, rather than speaking their minds. This made sense when people stayed at the same company for 30 years, and when getting fired or laid off was a disaster, because you'd be around the same people for most of your working life. Now that the average job lasts 2 to 5 years, it doesn't make sense. You're better off raising the issues (in a respectful, reasonable way) than repressing the anger and damaging your health.

some important points to consider:

1. Stress takes years off your life. You will die early, probably of a heart attack, if you don't correct things.

2. It is possible for two different individuals to look at the same exact situation as insurmountable/overwhelming or, on the other hand, challenging and fun. It really is a perspective thing.

3. Without knowing the exact details of your situation it is impossible for the untrained folks (i'm assuming here) to know how much of your stress comes from you and how much comes from your current situation. Certainly it's a little of both--but the % is critical to understand.

4. You need to talk about these issues with a life coach, career coach or even therapist. They will give you objective feedback on the state of affairs.

5. If this helps, when I was younger in my career (Silicon Alley Reproter days) I would sometimes internalize the bad situations my business was facing (i.e. "What did I do to cause this?" or "Why didn't I see this problem coming?"). This made me anxious. As I got older, and hopefully a little wiser, I wouldn't internalize these things. In the Weblogs, Inc. days I would look at problems as challenges. My internal dialogue morphed to "Oh, this is an interesting challenge... I wonder what ideas my team can come up with to overcome these roadblocks?" and "If we resolve this issue we're going to soar!" This is called attribution theory in psychology and it's a very important concept to understand IMO.

6. Life is short and you get one shot at it. Don't be proud or stupid: get help and get out of bad situations as quickly as possible. Do not stay in a bad situation, like many smart people do, out of some "tough it out" philosophy.

Good luck with it and if you wanted to talk about it with someone ping me at jason at calacanis.com. I'm not a professional, but I been there.