Appreciation post: That SOC room in Omaha that taught me the value of walking away

After a 14 hour shift staring at a false positive spike from a misconfigured firewall at that datacenter off 72nd Street, I stepped outside for 5 minutes and that's when I realized I'd been missing every real alert because my eyes were too tired to focus, so has anyone else found that getting away from the desk for a bit clears your head better than any tool or dashboard?

2 comments

2 Comments

maxp683d ago

Wait, you're just now figuring this out after a 14 hour shift? That's rough, man. I learned that lesson the hard way in my first year too, staring at the same damn false positives. Your brain isn't a machine, it needs breaks. Stepping away for five minutes resets your focus way better than caffeine ever will. Most people just try to power through and end up missing the real stuff.

parker_foster531d ago

Ease up on the caffeine and step outside for a real 5 minutes, @maxp68. I used to pound energy drinks through my 12 hour nights at that same Omaha SOC, thinking I was sharp. But I learned the hard way that walking a quick lap around the parking lot, even just 3 minutes to breathe, was way better than any Red Bull. My eyes would stop glazing over, and I'd actually catch the real alerts when I got back. Those false positives from firewalls, yeah, they fool you into thinking everything's fine when it's not. Honestly, taking that short break became my go-to move instead of trying to power through.