IT workers pushed to the limits [Video]

Downsizing, offshoring, and a widening gulf between techies and management — is IT at the breaking point?

Tempers flared inside a San Francisco datacenter on Friday, June 20, igniting the greatest public spectacle pitting a lone tech worker against management, media, and the law. Tension between network admin Terry Childs and his managers had been simmering for years and reached a boiling point on one of the hottest days of the summer.

Childs allegedly harassed a new manager on that day and, later, held captive San Francisco’s omnipresent data network. This landed him in jail on charges of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act; the judge gave him a punishing $5 million bail.

Like a match falling on dry leaves, the Childs case spurred techies to the blogosphere bearing angry messages and not-so-veiled threats: “Many an IT worker has been cursed with incompetent superiors,” “I’ve seen no-win situations in the past …