I'm sorry to say that users will always be users. They will never change. They will never learn. They don't want to or need to. If your customers are coworkers, you should be able to expect a certain level of professionalism from them. If your customers are external, you're pretty much stuck with however they treat you, unfortunately. The burn out rate on that job (for me) was at about seven years, n00b to vet, entirely due to lack of respect from customers and lack of support from the person to whom I reported. I recommend you grow your skills, start thinking about the next level, and be aware that, unless you are able to accept the abuse of your customers, you may not be wired for that job. I certainly am not. Every job in IT involves a certain level of customer support; in some other IT jobs, however, you may have a more informed and professional-behaving customer base. I've been programming / webbing for a few years and really like it. Be well. Get lots of sleep. Eat right. Exercise. Floss. Take good care of yourself during this time of stress. Good luck. katie

Beautifully said. I'm a programming n00b. All I have done for the past year is study one language after another (both OOP and procedural). At the end of the day, it really is all about algorithms and methodology. It's about best practices with regard to sucking every bit of information you can from your customer and providing the appropriate solution to the problem they're asking you to solve. It's also about knowing enough about the tools available to you to determine which is the best for the particular application and then applying the appropriate methodology within those tools to accomplish that goal. Beyond that, it's only syntax. That's the easy part.