I've been with my company for almost three years, and for about the past year I've felt increasingly stuck. When I started, I worked on Azure, VMware, Veeam, and other infrastructure-related tasks. Lately, most of my time is spent handling basic requests like fixing Excel, checking printers, and answering routine user questions. I often feel more like L1 support than a systems administrator, especially since even my manager sends these requests my way. We're a small team with a manager, me, and one L1 technician, so I'm worried that setting boundaries could leave me covering two roles if the L1 person leaves. My salary is acceptable, but I'm not learning much and don't want to stay stagnant. How should I approach my manager about changing my responsibilities, and should I start looking for another job?
4 Answers
Create a proposal for a project you want to lead and present it in terms of business impact. For example, outline the current risk or inefficiency, the proposed improvement, the effort required, and how it affects employees and operations. Learning basic project management and communicating in plain business language can help you move from reactive support toward planned technical work.
Include a phased rollout, testing period, rollback plan, and an explanation of the risks of doing nothing. That can make a change feel less disruptive and more manageable.
If there’s an L1 technician, start redirecting ordinary user issues to them instead of automatically taking everything yourself. You can remain available for escalations, but don’t quietly become the backup help desk for every request. Set a reasonable exception for urgent issues or requests from your manager, and document how much time these interruptions take.
My concern is that if the L1 person leaves, I’ll end up filling both positions. We’re small enough that there aren’t many alternatives.
Have a direct conversation with your manager about expectations and career progression. Bring a concrete plan: which infrastructure projects you want to own, how much time routine requests consume, and what risks or delays they create. If your manager expects you to handle both help desk and systems administration indefinitely, that’s useful information—and it may be time to explore other roles. Asking for growth isn’t the same as refusing to work.
I’m worried my manager will think I’m lazy because I’m not constantly busy, even though the routine requests make me feel like I’m not progressing.
Frame it around business needs and development rather than avoiding work. Showing how a clearer division of responsibilities would improve project delivery makes the conversation much easier.
Small companies often expect infrastructure staff to help with printers, spreadsheets, and other simple problems. That isn’t automatically a bad thing; being approachable and solving small issues builds trust. The real question is whether those tasks are preventing important work or leaving you with no opportunity to develop. If they are, discuss priorities and protected time for infrastructure projects rather than trying to eliminate every basic request.
I tried proposing security improvements before, but my manager rejected them because they might disrupt employees. I’m not sure how to make a stronger case.