Slashdot Mirror
Sysadmin Day. Yay.
Izeickl writes "The BBC is running an article about sysadmin day. One admin is quoted saying, 'We are unappreciated and no-one knows what we do for 364 days of the year.' Apparently even the online greeting cards are getting in on the action check out 123Greetings.com and put a smile on that cranky admins face! The starter of this day also has a page here." Well, most competent sysadmins probably have electronic greeting cards blocked at the router, but I suppose it's the thought that counts... Jeremy Sieminski submits a Mouse Pad Couch as the appropriate place for a sysadmin to rest his weary, uh, wrists. And of course if you've never read the BOFH stories, you're missing out.
Something makes me think having a sysadmin's day isn't going to help fix that. :)
sig.
a bad one, like the one i have to deal with, just makes life really difficult and frustrating.
The only true way to appreciate a good sysadmin is to leave them alone for one day. Don't talk to them, don't flood his mailbox with some stupid ass HTML email, don't try to hug them, don't ask them a stupid question, don't blame the network for your incompetence at clicking on links, stop opening spam, stop forwarding around 3meg powerpoint attachments comprised of dilbert comics, stop trying to pretend you get it (when it is anything computer or tech related), and for god's sake don't pretend you understand what it is like to be on call 24x7... in short:
GO AWAY
Now that is some serious appreciation.
--- I do not moderate.
If you're noticed, it means the network is falling apart. Unfortunately, most sysadmins do indeed get noticed. You do the math.
<grub> Reading
Let's see a sysadmin do the work of a construction worker at the construction worker's wage and see just how appreciated the sysadmin feels when he returns to his air conditioned cave with net access and computer toys and a paycheck three to four times as large as the manual laborer.
Says the RIAA: When you EQ, you're stealing bass!
From the .plan of a great sysadmin I once knew ...
"Being a System Administrator is like being the phone company. Nobody ever calls up to say 'you know, this thing works great. Thanks!'"
Thanks, Gabe.
Thanks, Vadim.
Thanks, csoft.net guys.
Thanks, Jonathan.
Thanks, root.
The parent post has some good points but its tone reminds me of some unfortunate tendancy in the IT world: the beliefs that technical prowess does exempts you from offering good customer service, and that anyone who doesn't understand computers must be stupid. While I'd like to indulge the day and let venting occur - I have to deal with self righteous IT folks every day.
Regarding "Stupid questions": A huge ammount of time is wasted at my company because not enough people are asking stupid questions. They just keep doing stupid things. If you don't like to answer stupid questions, make sure that your company has a help desk (or person, depending on the scale) who's job it is answer stupid questions. Stupid questions are the oil in the corporate machine. I consider it my job to turn stupid questions into smart ones.
Arrogance: - keywords incompetence, etc: yes, a lot of people with valuable skills grew up without computers. I know a lot of IT people who think that because they understand discreet mathematics, they understand business rules better than the managers who work with them. We've lost a lot of money that way. More frequently than a lay person not understanding the network, is the problem that the guy coding business logic into the mainframes, didn't understand the point made by the non-technical manager.
If you have problems with misuse of resources on your network - you have to deal with the human element and work with trainers / managers. Where training fails, quotas. It's a simple management issue. Every job has them. Don't whine, solve it.
Sorry, geeks. You can't isolate yourself from the humans you work with. I actually consider it one of the pleasures of the job to work both with humans and their problems, and machines and theirs.
Note: I've worked on various sides of the system administration fence. I've been soley responsible for a small (50 device) network, and user in a large one. Currently an informal part of my job is to act as buffer/liason/interpreter between IT and business process. I appreciate my current sys-admin specifically because he makes his knowledge available, has a system to handle stupid questions, and recognizes that there are skills of value not learnt in the CS department. I think I'll give a basket of fresh fruit and a hug.
My motto: "A cat is no trade for integrity."
So you're saying your job has paged you on a December 24th at 23:40 to work on a QoS report through the night, staying twice as long as you needed to cause none of your support services were available? *grin* Being On-Call means someone owns your body, and you dont get anything extra for it. But you do it anyways cause someone's gotta do it, and it doesnt look like anyone else is gotta, so it's all you, man... ..Yeah OK I dont know if I would want anyone at my company hugging me, but if someone said "hey thanks for you know, always being within 40 minutes of our data center no matter what" then I would go "hey, you know, you're welcome."
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue