It's toxic because it's a high demand job, often underpaid and overworked. People are constantly stressed out. I know there's jobs out there that you know what you're going to work on tomorrow, and they day after that. You can plan all you want in the IT field, but usually it doesn't work out that way. You're playing whack-a-mole with fixing things, listening to complaining people, and all that fun stuff all day in the meantime you're trying to rack servers, get them operational, etc. Ironically if you re-read my fifth job posting above, it gives you an idea of a certain something that crossed my mind during that "meeting" with my boss. I told him I had a stammer during the interview process, but it looks like the comment went in one ear and right out the other. It gave me the vibe that if he had paid attention to it, that I wouldn't have gotten the job in the first place.