I was told yesterday, in front of other people, by a man who is both my friend and my employer, that my place in the company is solely as a backup, in case the other IT guy quits, or has the good graces to die.
It was not intended as a slap in the face, but from where I stand this is nothing more than a reaffirmation of just how useless I am around here. From the look on the face of one of the owner’s oldest friends, I’m not the only one that took it that way.

To be told that you are kept on for no reason other than to act as the company equivalent of a spare tire, is hard on a person’s self esteem.
I’m not allowed to do the work I’m trained for. The jealous little boy that serves as the network admin sees to this.

The “network administrator” is an arrogant incompetent, that I have known for 15 years.
In spite of his grandiose claims to the contrary, he has no formal training. However, by trial and error, he has managed to keep the network running.
The only problem with this is that every time he breaks something he finds someone else to blame, preferably me, and then calls me to help him fix it.
At this point he immediately takes credit for anything that goes right and passes the blame for everything that goes wrong.

We all know people like this.
Every company has it’s brown nosing, back-biting, weasel that is favored by the boss.
Unfortunately, he allows the bosses to have him on call 24/7 for personal jobs, in addition to company responsibilities.(with no additional pay)
The end result is that they have relied on him to the point that he is now considered family.
They make excuses for his failures, and defend him (even while admitting he’s an idiot), to the point that complaining becomes a waste of breath.

When it becomes so bad that they don’t consider you anything more than someone they tolerate, until you might be needed, and make certain that their friends are aware of this, it’s time to look around for a job where you can at least feel useful.

I tolerate this situation because of benefits and a steady paycheck.
I mailed my final house payment a few days ago, now I can concentrate on my other debt. When that is gone I will require very little income to get by, and things will change.
Until then, there’s nothing for it, but to suck it up, and deal with it.