I Survived: I Was the Entire IT Department for 300 Users
I was 30 years old when my doctor told me I was developing cardiac symptoms from stress. Thirty. Not 55. Not overweight. No family history. Just a guy who'd been on-call 24/7 for two years and thought that was normal.
I want to tell you what that looked like, because I know someone reading this is living it right now and thinks it's just "the nature of the job."
The Setup
I was the sole IT person at a small MSP in Perth. Not a "small MSP" in the way people say when they mean 50 people. I mean small. Five staff. The owner, an office manager, two sales people, and me. I was the entire technical team.
The MSP had 15 clients. Some were tiny — a four-person law firm in Subiaco, a dental practice in Joondalup. Some were bigger — a 60-person construction company in Midland, a 40-person accounting firm in the CBD. In total, I was responsible for approximately 300 users.
My job title was "Systems Administrator." My actual job was everything. Helpdesk, server admin, network engineer, project manager, security analyst, and — when things got really desperate — cable installer.
The Reality
A typical week looked like this:
Monday: 15 tickets from the construction company (they were terrible with IT). Two server patch cycles. A new hire onboarding at the dental practice. An hour on the phone with Microsoft support about a licensing issue.
Tuesday: A printer issue at the law firm that took 45 minutes because their network was held together with prayer and a Netgear switch from 2014. Three M365 migration tickets. An on-site visit to the accounting firm because their Wi-Fi was down and I was the only person who knew how their UniFi controller worked.
Wednesday: Two client meetings (sales wanted me to "build relationships"). A server rebuild for the construction company. Fourteen helpdesk tickets.
Thursday: On-call overnight because a client's backup failed. Woke up at 1am, logged in remotely, fixed it by 3am. Back at the office at 8am. Nine tickets before lunch.
Friday: A project deadline for an Essential 8 maturity upgrade. Three tickets. An argument with the owner about why we needed to hire someone. "We can't afford it" was the answer. Again.
Weekends: My phone was on. Always. If a client's email went down on Sunday, I fixed it on Sunday. There was nobody else.
The Breaking Point
One weekend — I think it was in October — I counted the tickets. Friday 5pm to Monday 8am. Forty-seven. Forty-seven tickets over a weekend. Some were urgent. Some were "my email is loading slowly." All of them landed on me.
I started having chest pains. Not dramatic, movie-style chest pains. Just a tightness that sat under my sternum like a weight. It would come and go. It got worse when I was stressed, which was always.
I went to my GP in Mount Hawthorn. He did an ECG, blood work, blood pressure. Everything came back mostly normal, but my blood pressure was elevated for a 30-year-old. He asked about my work. I told him.
He said, "You're experiencing stress-related cardiac symptoms. If you don't change something, you're going to have a real cardiac event before you're 40."
I sat in my car in the car park for 20 minutes after that appointment. Then I drove to the office and handed in my resignation.
What I Have Now
I work at a school in the northern suburbs. IT support for about 400 students and 60 staff. Normal hours — 8:30 to 4:30. School holidays off. No on-call. The pay is $62K, down from $70K at the MSP.
I take home $8K less a year. I gain about 15 hours of my life back every week. Best trade I've ever made.
My blood pressure is normal now. The chest pains stopped within a month. My GP says my levels are great. "Whatever you're doing," he said at my last check-up, "keep doing it."
I'm doing less. That's what I'm doing.
What I'd Tell Others
One person for 300 users is not a job — it's a hostage situation. If your MSP has that ratio, they're not running a service. They're running you into the ground while billing for a team they're not paying for.
On-call 24/7 is not "part of the job" unless you're paid for it. If you're on-call without adequate compensation or time-in-lieu, that's not a duty. That's unpaid labour. Check the Professional Employees Award — there are specific provisions for this.
Chest pains are your body's red line. Don't wait for a heart attack to take it seriously. If you're having physical symptoms of stress, see a doctor. Today. Not next week. Today.
A pay cut for sanity is not a step backward. I make less money now. I'm healthier, happier, and more effective. The $8K difference is the best insurance policy I've ever bought.
Your employer won't fix this. If the owner was going to hire someone to help you, they would have done it already. The fact that you're still solo means they've decided your health is worth less than a second salary.
What I Learned
- The solo MSP tech is the most exploited role in the industry. You're doing the work of five people for the salary of one. The MSP profits from the gap. That's not a bug — it's the business model.
- Burnout isn't about working hard. It's about working without recovery. I could handle a hard week. I couldn't handle two years of hard weeks with no break, no backup, and no end in sight.
- Scope matters more than hours. Even if the hours were reasonable, the scope — being responsible for everything from printers to firewalls across 15 clients — creates a cognitive load that never switches off.
- Your health is your only non-renewable resource. You can earn money back. You can't un-have a cardiac event at 30.
- Not-for-profit and education IT roles are underrated. Better hours, genuine purpose, less pressure. The pay is lower, but the total compensation — when you factor in sanity — is higher.
Related Reading
If this story resonates, these articles go deeper on the themes above:
- MSP Burnout: Warning Signs and How to Recover — the clinical and practical guide to recognizing and addressing burnout before it becomes a medical event
- Fair Work and MSPs: Your Rights as a Subcontracted IT Worker — what the Professional Employees Award actually says about on-call, overtime, and unreasonable workloads
- MSP Salary Negotiation Guide — how to negotiate a salary that reflects your actual scope, not just your job title
- Escape the MSP Trap: Guide for Australian IT Workers — practical steps for transitioning out of a toxic MSP role without burning bridges
- MSP Contract Red Flags: The Complete Checklist — the warning signs in employment contracts that predict the kind of exploitation described here
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