Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day

An anonymous reader writes "Today is the 8th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. It is always the last Friday in July and is the one day that SysAdmins are supposed to get the respect they deserve to be getting the other 364 days of the year. Today is the day that we wish everyone would considering the daunting tasks, small budgets, and ridiculous timelines that many SysAdmins face all year. Please thank them for everything they do for you and for your business. If you think you have a great SysAdmin today would be the day to nominate them for SysAdmin of the Year. 'The idea for System Administrator Day was inspired by a print ad for a Hewlett-Packard laser jet printer. The ad showed lines of employees bringing gifts for the IT guy who made the purchase. System Administrator Appreciation Day has, over the years, garnered support from many organizations."

Comments

I Choose Not to Participate

[eldavojohn]

I don't care for this. They get paid for their job. They get a 'thank you' from me and other people. They don't act like my servant, they give me more crap than I give them, they're not here at all hours of the night when I'm coding to help me, they don't care whether I succeed, etc. It's not like they're an administrative assistant (Secretary's Day) to one person who needs to show them some appreciation once a day.

Why do System Administrators get a day? Why not Database Administrators? Why not Systems Architects? Why not Software Developers? All of these people are needed just as much as any of the others to achieve success.

System Administrators must be much different at other companies because I haven't met one that I've particularly thought deserves a whole freaking day devoted to celebrating them.

If you can read this, thank your sysadmin Yeah, and when do you think the Software Developer who made and maintains the page, the web browser, the web server and the operating systems of both the client and host? Gee, it's not hard to recognize that everyone contributes a vital need to meet a goal. If they didn't, they wouldn't be on the team!

Flamebait, I know ... but I had to get that off my chest.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[MontyApollo]

It has been going on for like 8 years and nobody has heard of it so I doubt they are getting much love anyway.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[SlamMan]

Probably because at any place that's not an IT company (and under a thousand people), all of those jobs are the same 1-5 guys.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

Flamebait, sure.

And in response, from all sysadmins everywhere, to get something off my chest as well, fuck you. Fuck you and every asshole like you.

Oooh, that felt good.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[xmas2003]

Then how about a Painter Appreciation Day?!? ;-)

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Tackhead]

> System Administrators must be much different at other companies because I haven't met one that I've particularly thought deserves a whole freaking day devoted to celebrating them.

"What was your username again?"

> I Choose Not to Participate (Score: 5, Doomed) by eldavojohn (898314)

Ah, there's your username.

*clickity-click*

rm -rf /usr/staff/eldavojohn
mkdir /usr/staff/eldavojohn
wget http://goatse.cx/hello.jpg > /usr/staff/eldavojohn/hello.jpg
chown eldavojohn hello.jpg

"Hello, Human Resources? There's something about one of your employees that you need to know about..."

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

Sysadmins are just high tech janitors.

(THAT is flamebait).

bring it bitches, and fix the ftp server, boy.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[uglydog]

I totally agree! The same goes for how people are always going on about the soldiers 'n shit. Like we don't pay them or they were drafted or something.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Gulthek]

So call it 'Tech Support' day or whatever instead of limiting the name of the day to a subset of the job!

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[saibot834]

They get a 'thank you' from me and other people

No, mostly they don't. Mostly people make them responsible for their own stupidity. (Disclaimer: I am not a sysadmin)

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[HTH NE1]

It has been going on for like 8 years and nobody has heard of it At least, not heard of it 12 hours in advance so that some planning can be done for the event.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[ReverendLoki]

Why do System Administrators get a day? Why not Database Administrators? Why not Systems Architects? Why not Software Developers? All of these people are needed just as much as any of the others to achieve success. I'd be all for it. If all 4 of those positions had their own "day", maybe I'd get 4 times as much appreciation...
As the entire IT department for a small/medium business, even a general "IT Appreciation Day" would be nice.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Kripto]

To all you developers I've fscked before..

As a sysadmin, I don't care either way if you thank me. If someone goes out of their way to give me something as an appreciation gift great.. Its always nice to get a thank you.

As for those who think its stupid.. Go ahead and think that.. Next time you fuck yourself by rm -rf / or rm -rf ~/ you get what you deserve and your sysadmin should let you know.. He may or may not have a backup for your lame ass.. But if he does, thank him and keep that tail between your legs. If he doesn't well, guess you're fucked and got what you deserve..

I for one think that in an industry where the Developers, Marketing, C level and V levels get thanked all the time for doing their jobs.. Sys Admins should as well.. They keep the company running.. Really they do..

For the most part, think of is this way developers.. Its the sys-admins that keep you from getting pages at all fucking hours of the day and night when YOUR lame CRAPPY code breaks...

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[eneville]

rm -rf /usr/staff/eldavojohn
mkdir /usr/staff/eldavojohn
wget http://goatse.cx/hello.jpg > /usr/staff/eldavojohn/hello.jpg
chown eldavojohn hello.jpg

"Hello, Human Resources? There's something about one of your employees that you need to know about..."

and they look at the file to see it's just the output of wget.
you should try this:
wget -O http://goatse.cx/hello.jpg > hello.jpg

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[teh_chrizzle]

Why do System Administrators get a day? Why not Database Administrators? Why not Systems Architects? Why not Software Developers? All of these people are needed just as much as any of the others to achieve success.

System Administrators must be much different at other companies because I haven't met one that I've particularly thought deserves a whole freaking day devoted to celebrating them.

devs and IT guys are always at odds. having worked in both product development and IT, i can see where both parties come from. devs see IT guys as draconian control freaks and view IT policies and practices as obstacles to be overcome. IT guys see devs as spoiled brats who have to have everything there way and refuse to consider the possibility that the problem really is with their beloved application and not with the server itself.

they are both right.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

What you fail to realize is that because of people like you their job can be very difficult, and they deal with you (multiplied by a dozen) each day, which is why we give 'em thanks once a year.

If we don't they'll soon be like postal workers.

It's not like they're an administrative assistant (Secretary's Day)

Yeah, you're righ, they don't serve any one guy - technically speaking they serve everyone at the company. You as a developer do not so when something breaks you get shit from usually just one person (your boss), but when the network goes down everyone bitches at the admin, regardless if he made a mistake or not. I'm not saying we should worship the ground they walk on, I'm just saying they are pretty damn unappreciated and deserve thanks once a year.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[jkrise]

rm -rf /usr/staff/eldavojohn
mkdir /usr/staff/eldavojohn

Looks like you're a Unix sysadmin, and find things boring with Windows servers... point, click, clickety-click, click, mouse over, click.. and Reboot!

Very difficult to do things like the above with Windows.. unless you got Cygwin on all desktops.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[TrippTDF]

I'm the sole IT person at this company (it's very non-technical), and I view my role as simultaneously janitor and wizard of oz- people need me to do things, but don't know what it is that they want. They consider me beneath them, but need my level of knowledge in order to get things done. More often than not, I'm seen as an obstacle to getting things done. Although, from where I sit, their expectations are so far off base with reality I need to try and reign them in, which they don't like. People don't see that I'm argueing a logistical/technical impossiblility with them, and think I'm just "pushing back" so I don't have to do any work. In truth, I'm happy to work as long as everyone is on the same page.

This turned into more of rant that I thought it would.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[rossz]

Appreciate us because we're the ones who get up at 3 in the f*ing morning to go down to the colo to try to fix the damn server that just went down. The one we kept telling you was dying and needed to be replaced. The one you said there wasn't any budget to replace (because you and the other sales weenies went to that "conference" in Hawaii).

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[clang_jangle]

So call it 'Tech Support' day or whatever instead of limiting the name of the day to a subset of the job!

That does seem appropriate, I vote for "geek apprciation day". Shoot, we all deserve it -- now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up some luser's mess. Funny how it feels like just another day...

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[PONA-Boy]

Around here, we make SAAD a general IS Department event...everyone geeks out and generally enjoys themselves.

For all of the people who are so adamantly opposed to _any_ sort of "day" for technology professionals...meh. People have birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, funerals, etc, and they are all commemorated in some fashion. I think of SAAD as a good occasion to relax for a day and enjoy things. For the rest of the work year, we will all be trudging about dealing with problems, what is the big objection with having ONE day out of the year where we recognize our achievements even if no-one else does. It is a way of building esprit du corps and good feelings across departments.

(as an aside)
So many frackin' people (I find this especially true in the US) are so hell-bent on being unhappy these days. They want to piss in everyone's Cheerios because they can't be happy...why should anyone ELSE be happy? The last I heard, we all have a time-limit on our existence on this planet, why would you want to spend it being frackin' unhappy? Relax a little people! Loosen that knot around your neck and enjoy just being alive for a moment.

*sheesh*

PONA

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[jessecurry]

This is exactly the attitude that causes the GP to have no positive feelings towards sysadmins.
Why would you be petty and vindictive? You have a small amount of power in an artificial system, lose the god complex. If you were to do anything like this you'd more than likely be fired anyways and go back to being your normal self.

Any time I've been tasked as a sysadmin I've made it a point to treat all my users with respect and take the extra moment to explain things if it seemed like the user wanted to know a little more. Those actions gained me real respect and power.
If you want appreciation as a sysadmin start treating the users that you administer with more respect and make sure that their needs are taken care of before they have to ask. If you have a good relationship with your users you'll hear from them regarding things other than problems... like maybe an invite to the bar, or coffee in the morning.
Having a specific day to "appreciate" anything is stupid, if you do a good job and treat people well you will be appreciated every day.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[TheRaven64]

If I drop a drink on the floor, the fucking janitor will do his job, and I won't thank him for it. I think this says more about you than it does about the grandparent. The janitor may be more replaceable than you (or they may not, after all, there are lots of ACs), but they're still human, and a little respect does a lot to improve the quality of their working environment, which in turn improves that of everyone else who works there.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[ender-]

Excuse me? If I drop a drink on the floor, the fucking janitor will do his job, and I won't thank him for it. Man, you're not an Anonymous Coward. You're an Anonymous Jackass troll. Obviously you were never taught respect or manners.

When I'm working late, and the janitor comes in to my cube to empty my trash, I turn around and say, "Thank you," because he's working late, doing a job that nobody else wants to do, and making sure I can get my job done without having to waste time taking out the trash.

Learn to have a little appreciation for the people who do the things you don't want to do for yourself, eh?

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[PlatyPaul]

*clickity-click* I believe you meant *clickety*

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

Chill, dude. It's clearly a small allusion to the BOFH, which does have the issues you describe but it's funny to some extent.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[cbelle13013]

At my work, the entire staff got together and planned a bowling trip. The firm paid for it, and everyone got to bowl for today. We're a small place (16 people), but its still very nice.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Atzanteol]

As for those who think its stupid.. Go ahead and think that.. Next time you fuck yourself by rm -rf / or rm -rf ~/ you get what you deserve and your sysadmin should let you know.

And this is why we need a day to remind people to be nice to sysadmins... Lose the god complex and folks will respect you *every* day.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Known Nutter]

Please see:

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Agod+comple x

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Perl-Pusher]

Looks like you're a Unix sysadmin, and find things boring with Windows servers... point, click, clickety-click, click, mouse over, click.. and Reboot! Tell me about it. CS degree, 17+ years experience , I developed web apps, been the sole database manger,and have done all of the network security. I administer Solaris, OS X, Linux in addition to windows. I just built a a 68 node cluster for image rendering. For years our firewall was a Linux box I configured. Our mail server is cyrus imap and postfix. A windows admin who takes care of the company a few windows machines for all the secretaries and and managers is in the cubicle down the hall. He took on line training for 6 weeks for a certification yet still can't manage a DNS server and I found out he gets the same pay!

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

#save a line
rm -rf /usr/staff/eldavojohn/*

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason that system administrators or administrative assistants and other jobs like that deserve a day is because they differ in one fundamental way from mine (and from your post, probably yours, too): when things are going perfectly smoothly and these people do a fantastic job, nobody notices. Which is the whole point of their work. Their ultimate goal is to provide smooth, uninterrupted services so I can keep working. When I, as a software engineer, do a great job I get my name stamped on it and a variety of other pats on the back. So go ahead and let these folks have their day, and try to also remember them on days other than when the printer goes down.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[HitekHobo]

Hell, we're a regional CLEC / ISP and the combined sysadmin staff for our customer facing and internal systems is 5 people.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

Excuse me? Failures? While I am designing and implementing systems that are spread across the country so that all the researchers can do their jobs, you are saying I am a failure? I have had lusers like you before.... I wish to god I was your sysadmin now. I have worked long and hard to get to where I am and if you think it is so easy that anyone can walk in and just do the job then you are retarded. I love it when the designers look down on me like some failure, but as soon as one little thing doesn't work they are all smiles and your best friend. I think the truth here is that you hate the fact that these sysadmins can do so much that you could only dream of understanding. You think you are all bad ass but as soon as something goes even a small but off course you are begging for help. A shame really........ you are the true failure and that is why you are so hostile towards these sysadmins.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[sapgau]

I agree 100%... sounds weird. So this means Sys Admins are now clerical jobs?

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[MontyApollo]

>>Probably because at any place that's not an IT company (and under a thousand people), all of those jobs are the same 1-5 guys.

And more than half of them suck, so nobody feels really appreciative.

I have always worked at small companies, and most of the IT people have some serious flaws. At my current company all the IT people are in the home office, and me and another guy cover some of the more basic stuff for our branch. It seems like we are always cleaning up IT messes - just the other day they accidently deleted everybody's user accounts company wide (5 or 6 offices).

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[kollywabbles]

in windows: rmdir d:\users\johndoe /S /Q mkdir d:\users\johndoe

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[COMON$]

I think that may be what they were going for, Sys Admin is only recognized as a subset by those of us in geek departments. I am a Network Admin and I view myself as a sys admin, but I also view our DBA as a sys admin, and same goes with the web dev. Of course I havent worked in a company where there are more than 15 IT people but it has been my experience that when shit hits the fan, the DBA, web dev, app devs and whatnot all are asleep in bed while the "Sys Admins" take the call until the devs and dba's have their morning coffee.

Of course I also view Sys Admins as anyone who is responsible for the system, essentially a support staff for the people that actually do the work. The web dev and DBA at my current job actually handle everything that people touch via a front end or see on the web, my job is to make sure they can get things done.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[empaler]

(..) but when the network goes down everyone bitches at the admin, regardless if he made a mistake or not.(..) Amen to that. Also, for some reason, everybody thinks that their asking about the problem will hasten the process of fixing it. Yeah, like me explaining the steroid-munching telemarketer his VoIP is choppy is gonna fix the latency problem.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[geekoid]

That poster was certianly rude.
OTOH, there is a difference between saying thank you(or at least apologizing for adding to the janitor work load) and creating an holiday for the sole purpose of giving someone and ego hand job.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Malc]

Chalk it up to society's over-developed sense of entitlement.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[It'sYerMam]

In the UK, the article is listed as being posted at 5:01 PM. I guess the love to sysadmins doesn't extend to actually showing it - you have to internally acknowledge it, after you get home - in the UK, anyway.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[geekoid]

"Hello Mike? get the boys together, there is someone we need to talk to..."

I'll have a new job before you are even out of the hospital.

You fuck with the wrong person, you may find a gun in your mouth.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to understand IT, realize it's a state of constant WWI-style trench warfare between admins, developers, and users.

* Admins want everything to work without breaking, and seek consistency and calm.

* Developers by their very nature break everything they touch, like whirling tornadoes of chaos.

* Users blunder across No Man's Land praying they don't step on a mine or catch the attention of a sniper, or (worse) wind up right in the middle of a huge admin/developer battle (if they do, they're dog food).

The best you can hope for is a long, quiet cease fire due to both sides being equally matched. During times like these, a lonely soldier can amuse himself by watching the users wander about No Man's Land, occasionally blowing themselves up.

Of course...

Management is in the Graf Zepplin 1000 feet up, dropping thousand pound bombs (and the occasional frozen septic system flush) indiscriminately on the battlefield.

Works, doesn't it? As a description, I mean...

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[paeanblack]

People don't see that I'm argueing a logistical/technical impossiblility with them

That's your fault, not theirs. If there is a communications breakdown, it's your job to fix it...you are the one in the supporting role, and they are your customers. No matter how wrong they may seem, they are still right. If you can't communicate with your customers in their own language, you don't belong there.

Eliminate the word 'No' from your vocabulary. All it does is make you sound like a two year-old. If they want the impossible, then give them the estimate and let them know it will be billed to their budget. That's the only reality check necessary.

It's not uncommon in the IT world to prefer dealing with computers than people. In the professional world, that often translates into a smoking hole in the skill set. Go get a job as a car salesman for a few months. You probably won't be very good at it, but you'll learn one hell of a lot about what skills you lack and how to improve them. It will definitely make you a better IT employee.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Sandbags]

Developers don't need a holiday, they get the opportunity to attend dozens of "developer day" events all over the world. Support staff have their own appreciation day (I can't find a link to what day that is, but our company celebrated it recently). What do IT guys get? Calls at 3AM, ever shrinking budgets, every greater system complexity, and occassionally, if they're lucky, they get a day in a classroom that ends in a test and all they get is a shirt that in many cases I have gotten that actually reads "...and all i got was this lousy t-shirt."

My position is not officially "sys-admin" but I support hundreds of them with my companies backup product and am constantly on remote connections rebuilding servers, diagnosing systems, and personally feel the pain not only of one shop's system troubles, but can attest to the fact that sys admins all over the country have some of the most thankless jobs going. I work 60 hours every week, am wakened frequently from sleep, and spend hours on conference calls with panicking customers, resellers, and site managers. ...and I don't even have to deal with end users!

I barely stay sane in my position, and I don't have budget issues or roll-out deadlines. I don't know how you guys do it. I did it years ago when things were simpler and even then it was a suck job. I've also been a programmer before and can definitively say that even under production deadlines, and the stress of problem solving and code testing, being a coder is a hell of a lot easier than being an admin. It also takes (typically) requires less frequent training on new systems and processes (once you know C++ you're good for 10 years), and programming PAYS BETTER. So any of you coders that bitch about how cushy our job is, I say to you, YOU TRY IT! Being a sys admin sucks almost as working for a city government, and yet hundreds of admins I know DO work for cities, ouch.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[darkuncle]

anybody who claims to be an admin and yet does not have an inherent frustration towards users is either lying, stoned or inexperienced.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[bladesjester]

Lose the god complex and folks will respect you *every* day

Actually, you'll find that a lot of users think that they're better than you no matter how you act.

Most businesses view IT as a cost center and therefore something to be disdained.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[SatanicPuppy]

I have to agree. Administration is the smallest part of my job, but one of the biggest headaches; dealing with people who think the world revolves around them and the sun shines out of their ass...People who flat lie about systems stability to excuse their poor performance, people who do mindlessly stupid things for no reason at all. Having to execute poor management descisions, reverse them, execute them again.

Even at the upper levels, there is always some moron who makes it through your minions to bother you when you don't need to be bothered.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[fohat]

I think there is a mod out there on crack, parent clearly isn't a troll.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[DocHolliday916]

Why do System Administrators get a day? Why not Database Administrators? Why not Systems Architects? Why not Software Developers? Because we are cool and code monkey's aren't.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

You fuck with the wrong person, you may find a gun in your mouth

Oh, goodie. Looks like we've found today's Internet Tough Guy. Go on with your bad self, geek. We're all very afraid and very impressed.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Mark_in_Brazil]

GP:

If I drop a drink on the floor, the fucking janitor will do his job, and I won't thank him for it.

PP:

I think this says more about you than it does about the grandparent. The janitor may be more replaceable than you (or they may not, after all, there are lots of ACs), but they're still human, and a little respect does a lot to improve the quality of their working environment, which in turn improves that of everyone else who works there.

Seriously. It's amazing to me how people will treat human beings who happen to have jobs those people regard as "beneath" themselves. I accidentally discovered how to get extra-special service just about everywhere here in São Paulo. Want to know the big secret? Simply treat the employees with the respect and dignity they deserve as human beings. Unfortunately, the few of us who do that end up standing out from the vast majority of people, who seem to treat waiters, buspersons, janitors, and manual laborers in general as if they were poorly made machines or annoying insects.
It's sad that just by being a decent person and treating human beings with respect, I set myself apart and become a favorite customer. But unfortunately, attitudes like the one in the GP are all too common. And this is not unique to Brazil. I see plenty of alleged human beings in the USA treating other human beings like crap just because of the jobs the second group holds, and I've seen the same kind of crap going on in other places I've visited too.
Everyone knows it's nice to be recognized for the work one does now and then, even though the company is already paying you a salary for that work. Why so many educated people can't seem to apply that concept to other people is kind of hard to understand.
GP: Would it really be that hard to thank the janitor for cleaning up the mess you made, or even to (gasp!) apologize for dropping a drink on the floor?

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[WhaThe]

Must.. resist... grabbing flamethrower.

I always thought sysadminday included DB Admins, Networking Techs, etc.

I think a day of appreciation is nice. I've seen some admins get a ton of abuse and some worshiped like gods. Guess it depends on where you work.

I kinda wonder what the world would look like if all the admins suddenly decided they wanted their damn day and took all the systems offline on the 27th of July to make a statement. Sounds like a great si-fi B movie.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Penguinisto]

Why do System Administrators get a day? Why not Database Administrators? Why not Systems Architects? Why not Software Developers? All of these people are needed just as much as any of the others to achieve success.

Well, the votes all ran through my SMTP relay server on the way to the "Name that IT Appreciation Day" committee, and, well, you know...

Now quit your whining or or I'll re-route your MySQL replication slave addys to pull from a pr0n site.

(cripes folks... I'm only kidding!)

/P

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

Dr. Joehio - "You sound depressed, take this placebo."

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

Still, you are right (I know: I'm a sysadmin).

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess you haven't been a sysadmin for very long...

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Kripto]

ITs not a god complex. I've spent the last 15 years being a sysadmin. I've had a LOT of developers think that they could do my job and end up fucking the entire system. Sysadmins are generally fairly understanding until you snub your nose at us and then come crying when you screw yourself. As an admin, its my job to keep the company sites up, developer servers running smoothly, source code safe, email working etc.. It seems to be the developers jobs to do things like remove their source trees and come crying. Just saying...

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

Still wrong, notice the relative path for chown and no cd command being done?

If the user was smart, they could get out of trouble by pointing out it was a root owned file that they couldn't have created.

The sysadmin would be in the one in trouble.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[phreakincool]

If you want appreciation as a sysadmin start treating the users that you administer with more respect and make sure that their needs are taken care of before they have to ask.

Personally, I do not require anyones respect or appreciation...I do require a paycheck and to be left alone to do my work and not be bothered by luser problems all the time. And to the last part of your statement, until I develop the ability to mind read, that will never happen.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[a.d.trick]

Why do System Administrators get a day? Why not Database Administrators? Why not Systems Architects? Why not Software Developers? All of these people are needed just as much as any of the others to achieve success.

I've played all of those roles in my short life, and I would say without doubt that the sysadmin's job is the most difficult. It's not that the programmers are unimportant, but I think their jobs have a lot less emotional stress.

A sysadmin is a lot like a janitor. Just like janitors get to clean up after all the guy's who forgot to aim at the toilet, sysadmins get to clean up after all sorts of ignorance (are teh intarwebs broken again?), much of which could probably be prevented if people would use their heads a bit. DBAs, managers, and developers get some of that stuff, but not near as much.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[royrules22]

Best description evar. Mod parent up

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Penguinisto]

This is exactly the attitude that causes the GP to have no positive feelings towards sysadmins.
Why would you be petty and vindictive?

Umm, Google up the acronym "BOFH", then get back to me.

Personally, and in real life, most of us are at least somewhat handy at being people persons. We have to be. Most SA's suffer under user and managerial stupidity and ignorance on a scale large enough to make any otherwise sane individual start shopping for AK-47's with a distant look in their eyes.

Developers, DBA's. all them folks? Pfah - they got it easy; they're not bound by the laws of physics and city safety ordinance, whenever some mucky-muck demands that $BUZZWORD be fulfilled. They don't have to deal with other human beings. They don't even have to bathe daily. Most will never lift anything heavier than 3kg at work (ever had to shovel five rackloads of server from the office server room down to the datacenter --and have it all back up-- in less than 18 hours, because $MGMT desperately needed to avoid some BS political consequence that they'd dug themselves into? Done that once - it isn't fun. Gets even worse when you know full well that $MGMT was warned about it for months in advance).

I'm fortunate now to work with users and managers who are not only kind, but many know what they're doing - some even grok fully what it is that I deal with on a daily basis. That said, it's a rare thing. Damned rare.

/P

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[roman_mir]

I like my SAs and that is why, as an architect/lead developer I always make my systems easy to build (a single build property, a single build file, and 1 DDL and 1 SQL for those DBAs.) The build procedure is always a one liner, all of the necessary packages are part of the code base so no need to search the web for those extra libraries before this thing builds. It builds with the most primitive tools, so no need to instal complex software for deployment.

Once it's build, there will be a document with all the steps that are needed for deployment described in a way that a monkey could do it. The app is absolutely necessarily unit/system/integration tested before it goes to production, and there is a dry run to make sure everything can end within half an hour during production deployment.

The application will have its own administration console, so most configuration changes can be done from there with or without an SA. The logging is well defined so when things go wrong there is clear indications of what to do. The product will have a manual with all procedures defined, however anything that can be automated is automated (recover on startup flags are good for this.)

I show my appreciation of SAs by making sure we don't run into trouble and don't bug them.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[PatricianVet]

This is, Sir, simply pure, naked Truth. I can't remember situation, when any of them did something "special and personal" for me, so I take them just like a part of the mechanism. But still...I have sent a message to my friend, that used to be one, he deserves it. A message, that's all. XBOX? PS3? iPhone?! Keep dreamin', guys!

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[XPisthenewNT]

Also, the janitor can let you back into your office after you accidentally lock yourself out late at night! I LOVE that guy!

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[thegnu]

Having a specific day to "appreciate" anything is stupid, if you do a good job and treat people well you will be appreciated every day.

My mom used to work an office job, and on employee appreciation day she got a mug that said "You're Appreciated" on it. I thought that someone somewhere must have laughed his ass off when he thought that up.

But really, I perform sysadmin services for clients, and people give me shit, complain about me, and have even yelled at me for stuff such as Internet failures, power failures, their own failures, etc. It makes me see why people charge way too much, fuck people over, and berate them. I, however, am getting out of the field, because I'd rather not be an asshole. But I sympathize with the assholes who are keeping their shitty well-paying jobs so their kids can have health insurance and go to nice schools.

I also think that the problem with your logic is that if you're an exceptional sysadmin, you have minimal contact with the people who use the computers you administrate, and people just don't notice anything. Because there's not a problem. Sysadmin is a problem-oriented job, oftentimes.

Whatever. People thank me, and on occasion I get the sense that a client or a client's employee is appreciating me. So it CAN happen. It just really really doesn't happen every day.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

What I tend to find is that whatever estimate you give them, it's deemed as unacceptable and needs to be revised down.

Conventional wisdom is that one should always overestimate, so that when the job is completed on time, it seems that one has worked above and beyond the call of duty in order to get things done. I can see why this would be so.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[DA-MAN]

I like my SAs and that is why, as an architect/lead developer I always make my systems easy to build (a single build property, a single build file, and 1 DDL and 1 SQL for those DBAs.) I don't understand this whole Dev/SA rivalry thing.

I've been in the field ten years and all of the developers respect me and have my respect. During a major project, the entire dev team got a big award/bonus, and the lead went to corporate and said he'd not accept this award/bonus unless I was included. Although not part of the dev team, he claimed I was indispensable in the completion of the project. Personally I didn't want it because I didn't think I contributed too much, no midnight calls or usual craziness with a hectic project. Our devs are stellar, they built a great system and only needed help where the abstraction of the programming language was too far out and they needed to do some server side scripting (crons, cmds, etc).

That said all of the sysadmins I have worked with have had great relations with the devs. I've personally never seen this rivalry in person and wonder if it's either died down, made bigger than it really is or so forth. We all work as teams to common goals, we don't sit there and bicker over bullshit.

They respect that I will be the one who has to answer the phone in the middle of the night, deal with hack attemps (or successes if their code isn't up to snuff) and so forth. I respect that they are the ones that have to deliver to the customer a working system. We work together to get there . . .

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

"They don't act like my servant"

BINGO. They are NOT your servant which is why you have so much strife with them. They are not there to serve you, they are there to help the business keep running, which means more responsibilities than you take into account. The correct attitude is 'they and you are on the same team.'

Sometimes, that means they make requests from their teammates to help the whole team go further. Unfortuantly, their 'team mates' treat them as if they are mere servants, and it gets really sapping on morale.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Enahs]

Yep. And those of us in smaller offices have loads of fun. As in, 'sysadmin' is so 'unimportant' that it's just part of someone's job. Like me; some people literally expect me to drop what I'm doing, and if I don't, my boss hears about it. Thankfully he's smart enough to realize what a load of crap that is. :-) Not like the last guy who'd just come over and give me hell for not being 'understanding.'

Oh, and don't let that 3 a.m. call/drive to work stop you from coming back in bright and early!

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[DeckardCain]

I've been a SysAdmin for over 6 years and I can't agee more. I don't need an appreciation day. I make close to 100k and have a fair amount of perks. I'm near the top of the food chain in some ways. I get training, comp time, and sometimes work from home. Those SysAdmins that are whinging here, please stop. You make us look bad. If you are treated that poorly at your job, go get a new one. It's not that hard. Bust your butt and become a true guru, get some people/management skills, and get out of there. I don't need a stupid mp3 player or red stapler. I buy plasma screens and mutual funds and vacation in vegas. Keep the stupid t-shirts, just get that p570 funded and leave my DMX alone.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Penguinisto]

"Hello Mike? get the boys together, there is someone we need to talk to..."

I'll have a new job before you are even out of the hospital.

You fuck with the wrong person, you may find a gun in your mouth.

...they have to know it's you first. ;)

/P

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Y2KDragon]

I can understand that some people have problems with their local sys-admins. But the rest of us bust it every day, and a lot of times work weird hours so that we can get things done and not affect the developers work time. So, please don't crap on all of us just because your own personal admins aren't worth the chemicals they're made of.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be satisfied if they just had a RTFM day.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, smartass!

I've figured out your location and your IP,
and now You're GOIN DOWWWN!



... just as soon as I finish this glass of Pinoqachole...

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[bryan1945]

"Simply treat the employees with the respect and dignity they deserve as human beings."

Totally agree. When I start a new job and I need to stay late I always say "hi", how ya doin'", you get the point. After talking with the janitor people a few times I noticed that my office started to be cleaner. Hmmm.... wonder why?

As for the guy who said "it's the fucking janitor's job" about HIS spilled drink- if he was one of my co-workers one morning his chair might be a little sticky since I tripped and accidentally spilled some soda on his chair. Hey, it the janitor's job, right? ;)

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Anonymous Coward]

> You fuck with the wrong person, you may find a gun in your mouth.

"The power of your gun is insignificant next to the power of having the root password."
- Darth BOFH.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[bladesjester]

It was probably some sysadmin who didn't get appreciated :P

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[pipingguy]

Those actions gained me real respect and power.

I honestly cannot remember an assholish-type computer guy (sysadmin or otherwise) in a work environment over the past 15 years or so. Maybe this has to do with the fact that I work in, uh, "traditional" engineering where users may be a bit more capable. Or maybe it's *me* that's the asshole and I haven't realized this yet.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[pipingguy]

Should Janitor Appreciation Day be January 2?

Who wants to set up the site? I'll cover the cost for one year's hosting and the domain name.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[BlueCollarCamel]

there will be a document with all the steps that are needed for deployment described in a way that a monkey could do it. Monkeys: Sure. Average SA: No.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[eneville]

Still wrong, notice the relative path for chown and no cd command being done?

If the user was smart, they could get out of trouble by pointing out it was a root owned file that they couldn't have created.

The sysadmin would be in the one in trouble. Ah, I failed to notice that. I just saw the obvious wget error and replied to that. I didn't bother to look further. Thanks for pointing that out.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[Ash Vince]

Developers don't need a holiday, they get the opportunity to attend dozens of "developer day" events all over the world. Do we? I must have missed them somehow. In truth the only people who get to attend those event are lead developers and system arcitects. the day to day coder who actually does most of the work gets to attend bugger all.

Mind you, maybe I miss out as I am also a sysadmin. So most of the time I code, but when the shit hits the fan I stop what I am doing and fix it. Then I go back to coding. The miracle is that somehow I manage to find the time to make sure the shit hits the fan less often while not missing programming project deadlines.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate

[ahodgson]

No one notices the sysadmin until things break. The other 364 days out of the year, when you could all log in fine, and get things done, nada.

Of course, you never make mistakes in your job.

I'm not suggesting that they didn't screw up, because clearly they did, but if your job consisted of working on live systems all day, you might consider how your normal daily mistakes would become more noticeable. Deleting all those accounts could have happened because of a one character error in an otherwise flawless script, that was thrown together because someone up top mandated that something in everyone's accounts just had to be changed Right Now. Think about it.

Another one?

[garnetlion]

Really now, does every profession need it's own appreciation day?

Re:Another one?

[MontyApollo]

Only those that feel their profession is tougher than everybody else's and/or feel their profession is underappreciated otherwise.

Re:Another one?

[varmittang]

If I remember correctly, there is Secretary's day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary's_Day

Re:Another one?

[Harmonious Botch]

Really now, does every profession need it's own appreciation day Yes. It's called payday. So do the job, cash the check, and if you feel under appreciated, look for a better job.

Appreciation days are for volunteers. ( With that thought in mind, I'd like to thank the folks who did Fedora, Ubuntu, Firefox, OPen Office, and all the other open programs that I use daily )

Re:Another one?

[DamnStupidElf]

Really now, does every profession need it's own appreciation day?

Yes. I call mine Pay Day. It comes 26 times a year.

Re:Another one?

[SuperBanana]

Really now, does every profession need it's own appreciation day?

Many people don't consider it a "profession". IT people in many offices are regarded in the same way secretaries were/are.

It's a field where, if you do your job properly, you're largely invisible- and when things break, even if it's not your fault, you're visible, during said crisis. Very high taskloads, deadlines measured in minutes, high specialization/training/experience requirements. You generally get the least/crappiest office space, first to get laid off, last to get additional staff. You're "overhead" in the budget; nobody else is save the janitor and the admin assistant, but he's cozy with upper management. I recall at one company there was a "salary review freeze", and the very day I was told I wouldn't get mine, the president's executive assistant got a 5% raise.

Re:Another one?

[hb253]

Of course! Because we're ALL winners as long as we have fun!

Re:Another one?

[illeism]

Really now, does every profession need it's own appreciation day? YES!!! I need a excuse to drink my sysadmin self into a stupor every day of the week... it's getting hard to justify, but with more holidays...

Re:Another one?

[vsavkin]

Here in (post-)Soviet Russia, just about any profession has one.

No problem.

[ScentCone]

We just asked the system admin guys to roll out the image we stored from last year's celebration. I mean, why fuss when you have a backup? Of course, we had to have them apply all of the interim patches before we could go live with the party. MAN those guys are grumpy - and this is their Special Day!

tag

[Anonymous Coward]

tag

hallmarkholiday :)

oxymoron

[Anonymous Coward]

Happy SAAD.

In other news...

[seven of five]

A hitherto unknown virus has been reportedly bringing down Exchange Server and SQL Server based networks in Europe and Asia...

Re:In other news...

[empaler]

Not only off-topic but without a link that proves the troll statement.

Who cares

[ximenes]

I have worked as a systems administrator my entire professional career (12 years or so), and I couldn't care less about this day.

What is the point of these artificial job-appreciation-days? If someone appreciates me or my work, I would prefer to hear it when they feel like it rather than get a mug or something lame (not that I ever have, no one is aware of this momentous day anywhere I've ever worked, thank god!). Whatever happened to honest sentiment?

Re:Who cares

[Red Flayer]

What is the point of these artificial job-appreciation-days?

Because if you can convince your employees that you really really sincerely appreciate their extra hours and hard work, you can pay them less for it.

No joke. Feeling appreciated at work is worth thousands to many employees, particularly those in support roles (and lets not kid ourselves, a sysadmin is a support person). Plus, if you have one day set aside for it each year, you never have to show your appreciation other days. It's really a very efficient tool to leverage false appreciation to reduce payroll expense.

/PHB impression

Re:Who cares

[lmnfrs]

If you were an Initech sysadmin, your opinion would be swayed by the delicious piece of cake you were enjoying right now!

Re:Who cares

[ximenes]

This is similar to what I was getting at. I prefer sincere appreciation to mandated or one-day-a-year appreciation. I find it a little insulting to my intelligence that I'm not supposed to be able to tell the difference. However, since no one has ever heard of this day, it luckily only comes up as a joke with my co-workers.

Re:Who cares

[garett_spencley]

While I do agree with your overall sentiment, that a day is not required and if people appreciate you they should just let you know when they feel like it etc. (I feel the same way about certain holidays) ....

I WANT A FREAKIN' MUG DAMMIT! :((((((

No one ever buys me a mug :(

Re:Who cares

[Anonymous Coward]

If only girls were like this on Valentine's Day.

Re:Who cares

[bladesjester]

Weird. My first employer gave me several mugs and other presents. They even threw birtday parties for me while I was there.

Heck, I get holiday presents and cards from some of my clients even now.

I suppose that could be because I was a fairly high profile person at all of those places though. *shrugs*

Re:Who cares

[dysfunct]

IMHO it's because a sysadmin's work consists of 2 major parts: getting things running and keeping things running. We do get the occasional "thanks for fixing my PC/server/app/issue". SAAD is there to remind people of our actual work: "thanks for having an uptime of 99.999% this year". People only notice when things *don't* run. They never do when everything *does* run flawlessly due to our hard work.

Re:Who cares

[Anonymous Coward]

"I suppose that could be because I was a fairly high profile person at all of those places though."

Nah, we just thought you were so dang huggable!

Re:Who cares

[pipingguy]

Hallmark?

Re:Who cares

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh,.. you realise that this is a joke, right? A satirical riff of the idea of fake "days", invented "events" such as Father's Day (invented by gift card manufactiere)? A small sprinkling of nerd / hacker types are building a working implementation of their invented "day" is in some ways a sign of the compulsively reflexive nature of post-modern cultural meta-discourse.

Jesus, there's no way I'm posting that under my real UID.

$ sudo pomo-bullshit -u "Anonymous Coward"

From the office

[Reddragon220]

In celebration I finally finished those TPS reports and put on those new coversheets.

Re:From the office

[Notquitecajun]

Are you sure? I'll make sure you get the memo on that.

10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[stacey7165]

1. Remember your password
2. Fix your printer yourself.
3. If you get the message "Critical System Updates Available", don't ignore it. Take the updates.
4. Don't get your laptop stolen.
5. Use sudo, not root.
6. If it was working yesterday, something changed. Fess up.
7. Check to make sure its plugged in.
8. RTFM
9. Don't open that .exe your nice new stranger friend sent you.
10. If its 4:55 pm, let it go. It can wait until Monday.

Full disclosure - I work for Hyperic, http://www.hyperic.com/, and submitted this story which got beat by the one you are now reading... it was in a blog post Javier Soltero made this morning: http://www.hyperic.com/blog/hyperic/2007/07/27/hap py-national-sys-admin-appreciation-day/

Just a fun conversation about all the stupid things admins have to put up with from their users. I know there's more out there!!! Bring it on ./!

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[teh_chrizzle]

7. Check to make sure its plugged in.

7.a. plug it back in
7.b. stop fucking unplugging it

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[Anonymous Coward]

> 1. Remember your password
> 2. Fix your printer yourself.
> 3. If you get the message "Critical System Updates Available", don't ignore it. Take the updates.
> 4. Don't get your laptop stolen.
> 5. Use sudo, not root.
> 6. If it was working yesterday, something changed. Fess up.
> 7. Check to make sure its plugged in.
> 8. RTFM
> 9. Don't open that .exe your nice new stranger friend sent you.
> 10. If its 4:55 pm, let it go. It can wait until Monday.

11. Down, not across.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[laejoh]

9. Don't open that .exe your nice new stranger friend sent you.

but...

3. If you get the message "Critical System Updates Available", don't ignore it. Take the updates.

You TOLD me so and now it doesn't work!!!

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[Nimey]

Non ex transverso sed deorsum.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Not to forget:

11. Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[blhack]

As a side note to "fix the printer yourself", this doesn't mean when your printer is half empty, replace it with a new cartridge THROW THE OTHER ONE AWAY! (goodbye $20 return credit). Don't tell ME (the one who orders the stuff) until we are completely out, then complain when it takes a day to have it delivered because now you have to walk an extra 30 feet to the xerox machine when you want to print out black and white full page photos of your cats that you took with your camera phone.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[geekoid]

1. Remember your password

Maybe the system admin should inplement sane rules and a good password trainingg document?

2. Fix your printer yourself.

Why? they hired you for that.

3. If you get the message "Critical System Updates Available", don't ignore it. Take the updates.

Even if it come in an email? even if it might be a pop up? No user should see that. and competent Sys Admin will to the installs through an automation system. remove updating completely from the user.

4. Don't get your laptop stolen.

In other words "Prevent all crime near you" WTF?

5. Use sudo, not root.

If your users can use root, you are a fuck up.

6. If it was working yesterday, something changed. Fess up.

Yes, but that doesn't mean it was something the user could control, or even new they did. 1 week on the job and two brain cells to rub together whould have made you relized this.

7. Check to make sure its plugged in.

hmmm OK
8. RTFM
What M? is ther an M? does the M make sense to someone who isn't technical?

9. Don't open that .exe your nice new stranger friend sent you.

Even if it says "Critical System Updates Available" don't contradict yourself when making rules.

10. If its 4:55 pm, let it go. It can wait until Monday.

Well, it's 4:55 here but only 2 at the company that needs my information for a contract...but if you say it's alright...
his also indicates that you have never worked in a 24/7 environment, or a critical environment.
Not to mention the lack of back bone to tell the person it will have to wait, assuming it is non-critical.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[ElBorba]

2. Fix your printer yourself. should read:

2. "Change Toner" is not an encrypted message

also, I would add (predictably):

0. Reboot it

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice troll!

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[jguthrie]

>> 1. Remember your password
>> 2. Fix your printer yourself.
>> 3. If you get the message "Critical System Updates Available", don't ignore it. Take the updates.
>> 4. Don't get your laptop stolen.
>> 5. Use sudo, not root.
>> 6. If it was working yesterday, something changed. Fess up.
>> 7. Check to make sure its plugged in.
>> 8. RTFM
>> 9. Don't open that .exe your nice new stranger friend sent you.
>> 10. If its 4:55 pm, let it go. It can wait until Monday.

>11. Down, not across.

12. All software sucks.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[chochos]

Ah yes, the IT crowd. My favorite scene is when Moss explains to Jen something he's doing on the computer and suddenly all you can hear is static... I understood immediately how my girlfriend feels when I ramble on about tech stuff.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[mrsmiggs]

"2. Fix your printer yourself. Why? they hired you for that." I've never actually read a job description for a sys admin that specifically mentions printers. We tend to do it as a sideline and we also tend to be very bad at it as well probably just as qualified as anyone else who does problem solving in IT. It's probably just where I work but if it's a major problem and it isn't under warranty or maintenence a printer tends to stay broken until someone finds a budget for a new one. And if it is on some kind of maintenence agreement most sys admins are going to do is repeat the problem over the phone to someone at HP or whoever, anyone can do that the majority of sys admins are hired for their skills with Linux, Windows or Unix and know next to nothing about most printer problems so really you're probably wasting both my time and yours (since you'll just sit waiting) if you ring me about a paper jam or worse to change the toner.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[chochos]

"Change Toner" is not an encrypted message

PC Load Letter? WHAT THE FUCK!!!

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[Jorgandar]

I dont find you particularly brilliant or your counter-arguement compelling.

I think you're just being an asshole.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[RedHat Rocky]

Which fileserver are you on again?

*ZAAAP*

Oh, whoops.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[geekoid]

every sysadmin job description I have read includes hardware support.

Granted, I have only read about 20-25 different sys admin job descriptions, so I may be off base here.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[geekoid]

I was pointing out the 9 out 10 of those posts fall to the admin, not the user. TO put them onto the users is ignorant at best.

Yes, I presented it in a very asshole way, but it was deserved. The poster was being a pompous ass who blames his problems on his customers.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Make up a more sane password policy. Can YOU remember "Jdsfwpq2#^@#$!@#)_021@-=_{}??>?>Adfaccv"? Ever heard of this "security vs usability" thing?
2. Don't get cheap printers. Get some good ones. Oh, where's the new cartridge I ordered two weeks ago?
3. Set up WSUS and proper GPOs (or similar technology for other platforms) if you call yourself a professional.
4. Where's my Kensington I asked for a week ago?
5. Use central software deployment service for your own network's security sake. Where's that app I asked for a week ago?
6. Didn't test the new login scripts properly, didn't we? I reported the problem last week.
7. Puuuhhhleaaase.
8. The FM doesn't help with my issue with YOUR own internal application.
9. Set up a better attachment policy or central antivirus software... "Angelina Jolie Naked.jpg .exe"! YAY BOOOBIES! Click-click.
10. I'd like to finish my work to have a peaceful weekend, how about that.
11. Use the issue reporting system NOT for brushing us off, but for fixing the problems instead. An unclosed issue from a month ago IS actually still an issue. If I report that my old Pentium 4-based PC is noisy in a hot day, it REALLY IS NOISY AND IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK!

Change the sysadmin or change jobs? That is the question.

Re:10 simple rules to show your appreciation

[ladadadada]

My personal favourite (Would be No. 1 on my list):

1. Read the error message you are presented with and do what it says to do.

So often I get people ringing up with an error who expect me to fix it even when the instructions on how to fix it are right there on their screen in front of them. They usually don't send me the error message or even read it to me when it occurs on their screen, they just click OK or Cancel or whatever makes it go away. I walk down to their desk, read the instructions and do what they say to do.

The ultimate example of this happened recently: a couple of emails reached me that had originally been the weekly mail-out from one of our websites. The customer forwarded it one of the editors asking him to unsubscribe her. He forwarded it to IT who forwarded it to someone in Ops (They handle HTML, CSS and other stuff too complicated for editors) who forwarded it to someone else in Ops more relevant who eventually forwarded it to me, the sysadmin. I clicked the unsubscribe link that was still contained in the bottom of the customer's original email.

I'll also throw in a number 2:

2. Give me plenty of notice of requests you know about in advance.

If I have told you in the past that this kind of job takes three days, CCing your request to the CEO won't make it happen any faster. It's not that your job is at the end of the queue and it will take me three days to get to it, it's just that this job takes me three days to complete.

Congrats

[Anonymous Coward]

To all those sysadmins who manage to keep our networks running on deprecated, broken down, flaming, spam ridden, virus ridden, coffee stained, dust covered, dented, cracked, melted, impaled, reconfigured, recompiled, repartitioned, remaining systems, I salute you. Even today I still trip over the cable running 100ft through the office our sysadmin so lovingly placed on the floor due to insufficient wiring in the building.

Cheers

Send them an eCard!

[HangingChad]

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day.

I agree,

[Anonymous Coward]

I never understood the point in this concept. The impression I get is that most of them are elitist people feeling sorry for themselves, or want some special treatment because they believe their profession is so special. It's just another job! It's not as if it's the only job which is thankless, or another job where most efforts go unrecognized because they can't be seen. It's life. People don't care. Really.

So, please stop feeling sorry for yourselves, or feel free to explain how you should get a "thank you", other than for superficial reasons (which I'd never give into anyway).
Ray

why bother

[aztuscani]

A true sysadmin day would be to send them home for the day, benefitting both them and the employees that dislike. The true workers holiday is labor day is it not? (A day most sysadmins have to work depending on their industry anyways)

Too late!

[caluml]

It's 6pm here in the UK. Meh.

Silly US centric (that'll get some debate going!) Slashdot.

Re:Too late!

[spuke4000]

Silly US centric (that'll get some debate going!) Slashdot.

No it won't.

Re:Too late!

[geekoid]

Stupid British centric BBC.

MOD parent up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. Wish that I had MOD points for your post.

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you need an "appreciation day" for whatever your job is, chances are very good your job really isn't that special. You don't see a "Surgeon Appreciation" day, do you?

All in all, the day is a method of trying to state that you are somehow irreplaceable or special in that not just anyone can do your job. The irony is that if you need to create a special day to do this, you probably are replaceable and anyone could realistically do your job.

Re:Why?

[SatanicPuppy]

Blah blah.

Nice to see the trolls out in force.

Sysadmin is a pretty general term these days, but I fall into that category on a number of critical systems. It means that I perform maintenance, upgrades, patches. Means I check the logs on a daily basis, run down obscure errors. I do backup restores, to make sure the guy who is in charge of the backups is doing his job correctly.

If nothing ever goes wrong, then no one knows I exist. Something explodes, and I work Friday night to Monday at 2:00am getting everything back up, and no one even knows that there was a problem on Monday. Then I go on vacation, and something breaks and they call support, and support fixes it and bills them 25,000 dollars because they decided "per incident" support was enough for anyone, and the support guys take a day to fix a problem I could fix in an hour.

So yea, I love it when people who are completely helpless when my systems go down tell me I don't do anything special. I love sitting around at the company meetings where some jerkoff who made 10,000 dollars over his sales goal gets employee of the month, while my jury-rigged failover backup that I put together out of spare parts, which kept the whole company running for 5 days, goes completely unrecognized.

If it weren't for people like me, you'd be using a typewriter and a can phone.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

if it wasn't for useful people like designers, engineers and developers, you would be nothing. Read the manual, write the conf, execute the process monkey. If "your" System goes down, ITS YOUR OWN FUCKING FAULT, and you damn well better fix it

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

"So yea, I love it when people who are completely helpless when my systems go down tell me I don't do anything special."

You could say the exact same thing for plumbers or the guys who pick up trash. Doesn't mean your job is any more "special" or requires any more "talent" or "knowledge" than those.

You are replaceable just like they are.

Re:Why?

[StarvingSE]

Bah... I'm willing to cancel out my MOD points to make this comment.

SysAdmin Appreciation Day is a way for ThinkGeek.com to boost their sales for the year. I'm willing to bet that the summer months are a slump for them, as is the same for most retailers. Nov-Jan is christmas, Feb is valentines... after that the retail buying frenzy is back down to normal levels. This is non-holiday is always in July.

Hallmark does the same thing... I live in Michigan and we have "Sweetest Day" in September (or October, can't remember). It's basically Valentine's Day round 2...

Sorry, but I'm just full of conspiracy theories today!

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my, have you even seen a computer?

Re:Why?

[alta]

Amen!

i'm sysadmin at a small company with more servers than people. Everyone else here gets 3 weeks vacation but the boss wants them to take at least 2 of them all at once. Well, except me, he knows that there's not 9 consecutive days in any year that something doesn't break.

Re:Why?

[2names]

Looks like you have run into some real dicks in sysadmin's clothing. The sysadmins where I work actually - hold on - HELP PEOPLE. It's true, I swear!

Seriously, you can find assholes in any profession. If your sysadmins are dickheads, you need to let HR know about it and find some new ones because there are a lot of good ones out there who love the job, like to help people, and have tons of knowledge and experience to share.

Now let's all hug.

Re:Why?

[Vancorps]

I knew there was a reason I was on slashdot, haha... I was worried that there was 1.5 servers for every person in the company here but now you've made me feel better about my situation.

Course my problem is that we play transformers with our servers twice a year shipping half of them across the country and dynamically creating a new site where all the employees expect to be able to just plug in like they were back at home with no need to reconfigure everything. It's taken me three years but I've got a system that works now, of course it takes twice as many servers as would otherwise be required.

Re:Why?

[ocbwilg]

If you need an "appreciation day" for whatever your job is, chances are very good your job really isn't that special. You don't see a "Surgeon Appreciation" day, do you?

That's right, you don't. But only because they get an entire week.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in the US there are all sorts of official days and weeks for various professions. Until recently I worked as a "sysadmin" at a small hospital. They celebrated just about every "professionals holiday" you can imagine. National doctor's week, nurse's week, pharmacy week, lab tech week, secretary's day (administrative professionals day if you want to be PC), and so on. On the respective days/weeks they would hang a big banner in the cafeteria, they'd send around trays of fresh-baked cookies to all of the departments, and usually they would have a little cake and ice cream party to celebrate it. I lobbied HR and hospital administration for three years to have them institute a recognition of International System's Administrator's day as an opportunity to "thank" their IT staff, but we never got it. Not even so much as a "thank you" email or a tray of cookies to our department.

Now that I re-read that, it probably sounds kind of bitter. I've got to say that I wouldn't have made a stink about it at all if they nobody else had their "holidays" celebrated. I mean, when it comes down to it I think it's a bit silly to celebrate a special day for a particular profession. But my previous employer was willing to go all out to celebrate just about any profession except those in IT, and it's hard to take that as anything other than a slap in the face. I could see them not knowing about it the first year, but after three years of asking about it they still wouldn't budge.

So yeah, now I celebrate it every year.

Re:Why?

[deamonpainter33]

AMEN!!! AMEN!!!! PRAISE THE BIT LORD!!!! omg you have spoken the word of god! HA ok well, somewhat. I'd just rather be called Network Administrator, that way if the database fails i don't get the finger pointed at me :) At least my highways are still up :)

Re:Why?

[ResidntGeek]

Actually, no, I'm perfectly capable of fixing plumbing and emptying trash cans. If I hire someone to do it, it's because I don't have time or don't want to, not because I can't (which is usually the case with systems administration). I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with your general point, but you'll have to come up with a better argument.

Hooray!

[Anonymous Coward]

Boss brought in free chocolate cake. Never heard of this before, but you can't argue with free food, especially cake.

Re:Hooray!

[Notquitecajun]

So YOU'VE been stealing my cake out of the fridge...

if the internet is a series of tubes

[circletimessquare]

then system administrators are plumbers 2.0

so as long as you guys can keep your asscrack hidden as you do your work, then you can have your own day

Re:if the internet is a series of tubes

[B3ryllium]

That makes me a Plumber 2.0 working at ... a plumbing wholesale company. Go figure.

The System Administrator Song

[Dan Posluns]

By Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie:

http://www.deadtroll.com/index2.html?/sysadmin/ind ex.html~content

Dan.

...and, so?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Today is the day that we wish everyone would considering the daunting tasks, small budgets, and ridiculous timelines that many SysAdmins face all year.

...and this is unlike the work that most other working adults face because?

And what's with the cheesy HP plug? (Does anyone still really buy HP printers?)

Re:...and, so?

[Anonymous Coward]

HP printers? Hell yeah! The printers do cost x2 upfront, but they last forever. Besides, HP's are the only laser printers that you can refill with the cheap-shit toner and still have your printouts look stellar!

I'm glad SAAD is on a Friday...

[dino2gnt]

...so for the first time this week, I can drink away my day and not have to be at work hungover the next day. Happy SAAD.

free tshrit!

[bob_deep]

http://www.sysadminoftheyear.com/

Re:free tshrit!

[empaler]

http://www.sysadminoftheyear.com/ *grumblegrumblegrumble*stupidUScentrict-shirtgiv eaways*grumblegrumblegrumble*.

Oh, and remember: next Friday...

[markov_chain]

is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

I'd like to

[gelfling]

But I don't speak Hindi.

Re:I'd like to

[PlatyPaul]

It's "dhanyavaad", or "shukriya" if you're in an area which is largely influenced by Urdu. :)

Re:I'd like to

[Anonymous Coward]

No problem, Habib down at the local Hadji Mart will be happy to translate for you.

Re:I'd like to

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that's spelled "Habeeb"

I Choose Not to Participate-Bathroom Day.

[Anonymous Coward]

"As the entire IT department for a small/medium business, even a general "IT Appreciation Day" would be nice."

Wanna trade? I get to push a broom and mop around and clean the bathrooms. Where's my day?

Re:I Choose Not to Participate-Bathroom Day.

[ReverendLoki]

You must not be familiar with the blurring of job descriptions that happens in a small business. On the bright side, you have no 2 AM phone calls over emergency network failures to deal with. But sorry, no trade from me...

Don't go thinking that, because I have a Shiny Red Ball* and you don't, that means no one should have a ball. Go find your won Shiny Red Ball. I say you should go forth and press for your own day. "National Janitorial Services Day", or whatever you want to call it. Hell, I'd support it.

* Or Shiny New Car, or Fancy Career, or Higher Education, or whatever spiffy neato that you are coveting.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate-Bathroom Day.

[Angus McNitt]

Small businesses don't have the 2 am calls and network failures? Way to generalize there. So next time my boss calls me to tell me that the email doesn't work a 2 am when he is trying to check it, or the website doesn't respond, I can say "We are a small business. We don't have these problems. Call the hosting provider." and hang up. Ok, fine by me. You gonna pay me once I get fired?

I used to work major corporate installations with an admin and staff for everything that had a cord. I've worked small tech and non tech companies. And the work level, stress, and abuse is just about the same. They just apply it differently. I get just as many calls and emergency pages at odd hours in one as I did the other, and just because the services may not be on "your" server, it is still the IT guy/girl's responsibility. I've spent as much, if not more, time tracking down issues with remotely host mail as I have with locally hosted.

By and large the job, from a interpersonal relationship point, sucks. Most "professionals" think of you as little more than a high priced mechanic. When I first got into doing the network and server side, it was a a programmer attached to the IT department because the programmers and IT were at each other's throats. So if you admin 1 box on your desk devel work or play, or run a multi-national server farm; just take the day, smile at your brethren and trade stupid user stories. The user's will still hate you in the morning.

If you want to argue, there are always the standard /. agruements of Windows/Anything else, Mac/PC, and StarWars/StarTrek that we have all come to love.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate-Bathroom Day.

[empaler]

Whoa there, Perdita, you missed a point in the discussion. He was saying that janitors don't get called up at 2 am to mop the kitchen floors.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate-Bathroom Day.

[ReverendLoki]

Parent poster got it correct. The "no 2 AM calls" was in reference to the janitorial position. Lord knows I've had enough "emergency" calls myself at this position. Sorry if there was any confusion.

Re:I Choose Not to Participate-Bathroom Day.

[Angus McNitt]

Apologizes.

experts-exchange

[midwestnets]

I guess experts-exchange.com took SAAD off. I haven't been able to use the site all day.

Thank me, you and other sysadmins and it'ers of

[unity100]

the other related fields that goes into sysadmining from time to time.

thank us, you and others for making things work as they should.

Huh?

[DoofusOfDeath]

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day

This is such a stupid celebration. Like anyone has ever seen a Happy System Administrator.

Oh, wait. I see how you meant that. Uhhh... Happy Sys Admin day to you too. (Ah crap - there goes my beeper.) DAMMIT!

Appreciation?

[PPH]

If it wasn't for all of these #$(&%% users, we'd have a really smooth running operation here!

Re:Appreciation?

[techpawn]

To paraphrase Clerks:
This Job would be great if it wasn't for the Fucking users.

I really do appreciate myself!!!

[Ang31us]

I thank me for selecting dual-core, dual-monitor, 2 GB RAM desktops and laptops for all of my staff. I thank me for keeping my cell phone on all times of the day and night, in case one of the hot college aides is in the mood for a booty call. I thank me for keeping technical services vendors and central IT honest, by constantly calling them on all of their bullsh!t. Most importantly, I thank me for being the pioneer in my large government agency, who went against what that the CIO wanted in terms of running Microsoft servers and databases and instead running Linux, Apache, Tomcat, Axis, and JBoss (Oracle is my DB)...our uptime, reliability, and performance are the best in the agency. When I submitted a request for a server with 64GB of RAM for my huge-mongous database, the CTO said "but Windows can only address 16 GB of RAM...oh yeah, you're running Linux." Damn right I am!!!

Re:I really do appreciate myself!!!

[smithcl8]

I'm certain that you, indeed, self appreciate yourself often while thinking of the hot college aides.

Re:I really do appreciate myself!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

"When I submitted a request for a server with 64GB of RAM for my huge-mongous database, the CTO said "but Windows can only address 16 GB of RAM...oh yeah, you're running Linux." Damn right I am!!!"

Windows only addresses 16GB of RAM...methinks you are not quite the savvy, wise, and technologically proficient sysadmin you claim to be.

Re:I really do appreciate myself!!!

[turbidostato]

"Windows only addresses 16GB of RAM...methinks you are not quite the savvy, wise, and technologically proficient sysadmin you claim to be"

It was the CTO the one who said it.

Well, not quite surprinsigly.

Sysadmins do not deserve

[Anonymous Coward]

These people hold unnecessary power over our lives, make incredibly poor choices and get in the way of work and productivity. They are absolutely worse than unions. Even worse it is very hard to find a competent sys admin who doesn't ignore the pleas of their users.

Today should not be sysadmin day, it should be FIRE A SYSADMIN DAY. Enough! Take the power back! Get rid of these incompetents!

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve

[SatanicPuppy]

Anyone else notice it's almost all Anonymous Cowards who are anti-sysadmin?

Do not meddle in the affairs of System Administrators, for they are quick to anger, and have no need of subtlety.

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll post as anonymous, for simple fact that I read things here more than reply, but felt compelled to reply. I'm a system/network administrator and can tell you, from my experience, we don't get much appreciation/respect. I'm currently trying to find a company that would appreciate me more. Right now, I'm underpaid by $20-$30K, treated like dirt and undervalued by my employer. Since I do support end users however, I admit they show more appreciation to getting a problem fixed for them than my employer.

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve

[geekoid]

That was lame.
Please try again... then stop.

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve

[Anonymous Coward]

Wondering why SysAdmins deserve recognition???
Try this...
I work in a team of 2, the other guy is my TL. "We" support 220+ Windows servers spread out over the country, deal with Comms issues which are "server related", Project Mgrs with great ideas, but little funding, a Business which expects us to work twice as hard, even though they never seem to get out of second gear - oh yeah and I get to be on call 1 week in every 2!

And all we're really asking for is that when you come to us and ask our opinion, that you consider this prior to dismissing our answer...
a) we are uniquely qualified as we know our environment better than anyone
b) when you don't listen, we have to fix the problems that follow - which will cost you more!

a gift to find...

[Corpuscavernosa]

I'm gonna leave a fun bit of porn somewhere on the system for the sysadmin to find...

Re:

[operand]

The appreciation is paying their $150 per hour invoice.

I Choose Not to use a drop cloth.

[Anonymous Coward]

Michelangelo thanks you.

[sarcasm]

[ReverendLoki]

Eh, we'd just have to come in on Saturday to fix the crap that broke while we were out on Friday. [/sarcasm]

Irony..

[msimm]

It gives us a reason to laugh at ourselves. Oh! And read BOFH (I mean, weekly, but today more then most!).

And if your boss likes sushi nearly as much as mine...maybe lunch and a couple of Asahi's. Need I say more?

Wrong site

[ReverendLoki]

Ah, you must be looking for slashdot.co.uk .

(OK, so it's a squatter site right now...)

parsing error...

[martyb]

I had a little trouble parsing the article title, at first:

• (Happy System Administrator) Appreciation Day is NOT the same as:

• Happy (System Administrator) Appreciation Day.

Maybe more System Administrators would be happy if we appreciated them more?

Hey, I know! Let's have a Happy System Administrator Appreciat... Ummm... Oh. Darn.

<grin>

cmdrTaco, CowboyNeal, Zonk, et all

[tempest69]

unlike the parent poster I appreciate the uptime.

Anyway, with a good sysadmin, all the other stuff can be managed to some degree.. just not as pretty. unless you share admin aesthetics.

Wearing the admin hat is easy, wearing it well is a total pain in the rear.

Noticing a master is the trick

Anyway, thank you slashdot admins for a rock solid site.

Storm

Re:cmdrTaco, CowboyNeal, Zonk, et all

[pipingguy]

Yeah, even considering all the bitching from the peanut gallery, Slashdot is quite the amazing piece of stable technology. Even the complaint about slow comment previews seems to have been fixed just recently.

Now where's my unlimited mod points?

I Choose Not to Code.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't care for this. They get paid for their job. They get a 'thank you' from me and other people. They don't act like my servant, they give me more crap than I give them, they're not here at all hours of the night when I'm coding to help me, they don't care whether I succeed, etc. It's not like they're an administrative assistant (Secretary's Day) to one person who needs to show them some appreciation once a day."

Happy OSS coder Day!

The barbarians didn't notice

[HitekHobo]

...So, the gf and I took ourselves out for Thai. Thankfully, the local Thai place has some of the best food and service you can get for a $12 lunch. Maybe we should go home early too. After all, these systems run themselves.

Heh - missed something else too:

[Penguinisto]

rm -rf /usr/staff/eldavojohn
mkdir /usr/staff/eldavojohn
wget http://goatse.cx/hello.jpg > /usr/staff/eldavojohn/hello.jpg
chown eldavojohn hello.jpg

"Hello, Human Resources? There's something about one of your employees that you need to know about..."

and they look at the file to see it's just the output of wget.

...and that /home/eldavojohn is still just fine and chock-full of normal stuff.

I mean, cripes, can we at least avoid tempting fate @ the server by not mucking around in /usr here?

Here... I'll fix it for 'im:

mkdir -p /home/eldavojohn/\!special cd /home/eldavojohn wget -m -nH http://barnyardlovers.com/pix/?N=D && chown -R eldavojohn:users /home/eldavojohn/\!special echo "Dear Barnyard Lovers \n I'm having trouble renewing my subscription for next year. Please reply and tell me how I can change my credit card info. \n Thank you,\n eldavojohn" | mail -s "subscription renewal trouble, plz help" HR_Droid@company.com

I mean, sheesh...

(okay, okay - I'll go back to work now...)

/P

Free lunch :)

[Isaac-Lew]

We (the UNIX sysadmin team where I work) were treated to Mongolian barbeque for lunch. (In keeping harmony with the irony of the day, it's neither Mongolian nor barbeque - nevertheless, it's good eating). Between this & the Simpsons movie premiering, it's turning out to be a good day!

Re:Free lunch :)

[geekoid]

I assume you take all the secretaries to lunch a on secretary day, all the black people to lunch on MLKjr day, all the bosses to lunch on boss day?

no? what a fucking mooch.

Re:Free lunch :)

[ben there...]

Between this & the Simpsons movie premiering, it's turning out to be a good day! That was last weekend. Well, at least it was here in the real Springfield. Doh!

Obligatory

[CautionaryX]

I believe you have my stapler.

Happier now that I'm a developer

[pileated]

I spent about 10 years as a SysAdmin. But since I did a fair amount of scripting in that job, and found it the most enjoyable part, I was finally able to get out of it and do nearly full-time development.

Who cares? Well I just mention it since I think I'm fairly objective in comparing how the two are valued in the company. Since this isn't primarily an IT company neither fare well, but I have to say that SysAdmins seem to be at the bottom of the barrel. For whatever reason the work they do, the dollars and behinds they save, are rarely appreciated. I've always found it very odd.

I'm not complaining, esp. as I'm really no longer involved in it. But I do think it's sort of foolish for companies to hold them in so little esteem..........

Re:Happier now that I'm a developer

[bladesjester]

For whatever reason the work they do, the dollars and behinds they save, are rarely appreciated. I've always found it very odd.

The problem is that the people you're dealing with only see the money being spent. They don't see that the sysadmin keeps things from breaking. In their eyes, things working is the normal state of the world, and they only really notice the sysadmin when things are going wrong.

In effect, they see the sysadmin as just sitting there costing them money unless something breaks (and then he's associated with bad things). By contrast, they can actually look at what the developer does, so it appears that they're getting more for their dev money than they are for their admin money.

Re:Happier now that I'm a developer

[pileated]

I think that's pretty close to the truth. When I used to be a sysadmin I was under the impression that only "projects" were of any importance to the people in charge of the company. The projects were visible, talked about, and maybe made a little money. But the sysadmins saved them money every day by getting the product out without technical problems. But sysadmins were seen as just a cost, and one that was already paid for. Why should they be congratulated for doing their job? Well I'd say: because they just saved the company thousands of dollars by fixing a problem in an emergency and getting the product out the door on time. It reminds me of people who say relief pitchers shouldn't be paid much because they work so little, never realizing that without them much of the other work is for nought.

And all the more reason to actually have a SysAdmin appreciation day, though as many sysadmins have said: they'd rather just be appreciated than get a mug, free coke, or whatever.

And yes now I'm happily involved in "projects" and appreciated because of it. If I'd ever been appreciated for being a sysadmin I might have stayed with it.

Re:Happier now that I'm a developer

[bladesjester]

It's something that I've learned over the years. One of the other things is that companies tend to value your opinion more when they bring you in as a consultant as opposed to you just being a regular employee because they are paying you for a specific thing.

I find it kind of funny that I have been paid for my services just to help design an expansion plan for a network and IT department and pitch it to the suits. The reason I was called in was because they wouldn't just listen to their IT staff, so we worked together, it got pitched, and they got to go on with the plans.

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve...lusers like you!

[Peter Simpson]

>These people hold unnecessary power over our lives, make incredibly poor choices and get in the way of work and productivity. They are absolutely worse than unions. Even worse it is very hard to find a competent sys admin who doesn't ignore the pleas of their users.

Did you ever stop to consider that maybe *you* are the only user whose pleas they ignore?
Now, take a look at your posting, and see if you can figure out why that might be.

Me? Well, *I* bought a bag of muffins for my sysadmins. That, and following the 10 commandments above, seems to get me pretty good service when I really need it.

Good luck. I hope you find a sysadmin who will listen to you.

This is perfect

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent all morning trying to come up with a reason to drink tonight.

Happy Sysadmin day.

Re:This is perfect

[Notquitecajun]

Other than the reason that it's freakin' FRIDAY??

It's simple really

[Anonymous Coward]

Do your job just like everyone else or stand on the corner asking for spare change.

"Today is the day that we wish everyone would considering the daunting tasks, small budgets, and ridiculous timelines..."

Yeah, it's called real life. Welcome to it.

Tis not easy

[Daishiman]

I don't know about you guys, but as a UNIX admin I'm on call 1 out of 4 weeks, work frequently on Saturday and Sunday nights during maintenance windows so as to not bother anyone who might be working with those machines and have to work holidays if the systems go down, have frequent upgrade and maintenance cycles, etc. It's not an easy job when an entire organization is breathing down your neck to get things working as quickly as possible. Some appreciation is indeed welcome. I know some devs have to work on the deadline and all, but generally speaking they don't seem to have as much pressure (I'm generalizing; I'm sure there are lazier admins and weird-working-hours programmers too).

Why bother complaining?

[HitekHobo]

*shrug* In ten years the only time anyone has actually said to me 'happy sysadmin day', its been my gf who also happens to be a unix admin. It's not like anyone except sysadmins even realize there IS a sysadmin appreciation day. Hell, I never even notice unless I happen to wander over to slashdot on the appointed day.

Yep!

[Romwell]

In Russia, nearly every profession has an appreciation day =)

Welcome to the club

[HitekHobo]

At least you happen to know there is a day. Unless you happen to be trolling slashdot during work hours on the appointed day, odds are you've never even heard of sysadmin appreciation day. I know I'm not going to head over to our CTO and ask for some sort of special recognition. In 10 years, the only one who has ever said 'happy sysadmin day' has been my gf who was obviously trolling slashdot instead of working. She damn sure doesn't have it marked on her calendar.

Deja Vu and Secretaries

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm getting a strong sense of deja vu....oh yeah, I think my secretary had the same rant a few weeks ago.

Admin. Appreciation Day - "For the secretaries of tomorrow!"

Really, both develop god complexes, whine about not being appreciated, spend large portions of the day doing relatively little, are largely overpaid compared to skill and you don't want to piss of either of them as they are vindictive. In all honesty, at least the secretary knows somewhat about navigating office politics; the only requirement for system admin. seems to be literacy.

Happy "Ima Potsmokin Slacker" Day

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever- enjoy your made-up day.
Go hook up a printer and stfu now- mmkay?

(Off topic to the deep end)

[empaler]

(..) So many frackin' people (..) Minus points for using "Poot!" style cursing. No more BSG for you.

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve...lusers like you!

[geekoid]

This only means you are their bitch, nothing more.

Unless you put a laxative in the muffins. I find writing letters of commendation when they do a particularly professional job gets me excellent service.

It's tells them exactly what is good customer support, and looks a hell of a lot better at review time then a bag of muffins just for 'being there' does.

Feedin the troll.s

[SatanicPuppy]

Happens I am a designer...I know, I know, how is it possible that someone who can code is not also helpless at the server level? Just gifted I guess.

The real truth of it is that all the things that are produced by all those different people do not play well together, and that a person who can take poorly documented, often poorly written, pieces of code, often with conflicting system requirements, and make them live together happily in the same environment is far more valuable than a prima donna who always insists that the host of errors produced whenever the program he crapped out is executed are all the fault of the person who is running it, and in no way the fault of the programmer, and who would gladly show you how to install it correctly only your system isn't configured the way he likes it, and he has an appointment to get his nails done.

I've worked both sides of the fence...Hell, right now I'm working both sides at the same time, because no one appreciates the value of a dedicated admin enough to actually budget for one. And I'll tell you, the administration part of the job is where all the pain comes from. My code breaks? Big deal. I wrote it, I can fix it in minutes; I've dictated code fixes over the fricking phone while lying on the beach to people who don't know what a compiler does.

But rebuilding a system from scratch after a hardware meltdown, a system to run legacy code or a proprietary app? That's fucking hard. There are a million things that you have to know, seriously special purpose knowledge that you have to have memorized because it's not included in the instruction books, and if you don't know it your only other option is to post your problem on a developer list, and hope they know what the hell you're talking about.

The only satisfaction that you really get as a sysadmin is the sure and certain knowledge that the guy who downsizes you will be paying you or someone just like you 500 dollars an hour to "consult" the next time any significant system craps itself.

Re:Sysadmins do not deserve...lusers like you!

[Anonymous Coward]

I find writing letters of commendation when they do a particularly professional job gets me excellent service.

As a Sysadmin, I can agree with this. While I try to treat everyone at my company with respect, it is always nice to recieve a simple email saying thank you when you go above and beyond for someone. Several of my coworkers make a point of emailing my senior managers describing the services I provided and why they are happy about my work every time I go beyond the call of duty for them.

It is much appreciated, not only because it shows me that people do appreciate my work, but it also helps inform my managers
about the work I do so that I can keep my job for another year.

Happy System Administrator Day

[onkelonkel]

It ain't workin' for me. Been looking all over for a happy system administrator so I can appreciate him, but I haven't found one yet. Not one.

Another ironic indicator...

[idontgno]

of how the balance of power has shifted:

I click da linky to read TFA and am greeted with:

The Site You Are Trying To Access Is Prohibited

Category of Blocked URL: "Entertainment/Recreation/Hobbies;Humor"

How the mighty have fallen.

re: good points, IMHO

[King_TJ]

Disclaimer here: I *am* a systems administrator for a small business.

I think some software developers do really have it tough. Much depends on the programming language they use and the environment they're coding in. I've watched some senior developers look like incompetent fools when forced to implement Microsoft technologies in the past (things like SOAP, MSDAC objects, etc.). The obscure bugs and problems encountered when various workstations were on different revisions of the technologies made coding stable, reliable apps a nightmare. On the flip-side, some of the Unix coders can basically sit around throwing paper airplanes at each other, waiting for one of only a few small change requests to come in. Their app(s) often "just work" and don't need much attention.

But on the whole, yeah - the sysadmin of a small to mid-size company has a rough go of things. Usually, the money's not there to purchase as many quality, reliable pieces of hardware and software as you'd like. You end up making a server perform a number of tasks, where a larger company has the physical space and budget to dedicate separate machines to the jobs. Then, uptime suffers when you have to reboot the server to perform maintenance on any of the 6 or 7 "mission critical" apps that might be shoehorned onto the one box.

I don't think anyone here is even remotely aware of a thing like "system administrator's day" - and I'm not going to be arrogant enough to point it out to them either. Really, I'm satisfied as long as they keep signing my paycheck and complaints are at a bare minimum.

The people who complain about System Administrator

[SARSpatient]

Either:

A) Have a crappy System Administrator who doesn't care
B) Are the type of user who writes crappy code and blames the system when it doesn't run, spreads bad rumors about IT when they don't get their 36-inch monitors, and screams at IT enforces policies which no one else has a problem following.

I'm gonna guess... B.

Last Friday in July?

[Anonymous Coward]

Last Friday in July? Not a very convenient date for sysadmins that work in public schools, who spend their summers there with no one around to appreciate them.

Well, I'm dating one

[coleopterana]

So said sysadmin gets a favorite band's CD, a card, a office cube toy, and a cutesy thing. It's usually something like that. I hope they don't read this, actually, until I actually do it. Beyond that, though, if we had one at our office, I'd do something nice too, beyond the usual stuff year round, because it's another way you can help someone stay motivated to commit more than just the required to their job, by making them want to do it.

Happy System Administrator?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shurely shum mishtake - happy system administrators do not exist.

Shut up! You'll ruin our scam!

[Anonymous Coward]

Having a specific day to "appreciate" anything is stupid, if you do a good job and treat people well you will be appreciated every day.

Dude, shut up already! I need any excuse I can get to do less work... and on sysadmin day you can get away with slacking off all day long. Oh, and usually some sort of free food! You're going to ruin the nice little scam we mannaged to get off the ground...

what!?

[Anonymous Coward]

...again??!

Would have been good to know this morning

[EvilRyry]

Today was a living hell for me. I really wish someone could have posted this before my morning slashdot run so I could rub it in my lUsers faces.

I never knew

[arrgster]

I had a day, figures I find out at the end of it....

A thank-you on SysAdmin Day

[netbuzz]

There must be a fine for failing to be cranky or cynical about this.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/17908

10 years in, and still no appreciation

[ejoe_mac]

So here are a few things to remember, as to why IT / SysAdmin / NetAdmin / Desktop support people should be appreciated:

1) At 2am, I have to answer my phone - only job in the company where the expectations don't end when you leave the office. Don't believe me, call your CEO at 2am and not get fired.

2) Service windows are in the middle of the night, and we are expected to do our major work at that time. Taking down the email server during business hours is not acceptable to anyone. But we still have to be in the office from 8:30-5, so why don't you figure out how many hours of OT you work. Thats right, we're "exempt" so no matter how many hours it takes, we don't get paid.

3) IT cannot be a line budgeted item. If we need something, waiting until the next years budget to get it isn't an option - no one asks you to band-aide you TPS reports. Technology and requirements constantly change, and new tech comes out all the time. Never mind we don't get $$ per each new hire for expanding our server infrastructure.

4) Complain about a $150 per hour bill rate? Try figuring out the cost to a business for a server outage. How about a network outage? 100 people at $25 per hour salary = $2,500 per hour of outage. Which is cheaper? Pay my rate, you don't pay for my education time, purchases of new hardware or software, or endless hours like spending the weekend setting up a SAN at home.

5) Never mind about the home computer questions you come and ask us about - we're here to help all your technology needs. Yes, its not work related, but damned if you don't ask us during work hours. And we have to keep current and remember that you have a wireless network with XXXXXXX WPA password. No one else is expected to keep such detailed records on you.

6) Developers, come on - you can do your job from anywhere. As long as you come in for meetings, you may have a better environment at home, and you will be more productive when you don't have others walk up and distract you. IT types have to be there to hold a users hand, and plug in the mouse that got unplugged somehow.

So you're the guy they're outsourcing to?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Maybe the system admin should implement sane rules and a good password training document?

That would be lovely. For systems where you CAN do that (not everything is a workstation). Password training documents get filed in the circular file (the trash). And they STILL forget passwords that are the same as the username on accounts of little value (highly restricted AS400 account, and you CAN'T prevent it from locking them out after a few wrong guesses).

> Why? they hired you for that.

No, they hired the office staff to refill it with paper. You probably think I'm kidding. I don't think you're an SA.

> Even if it come in an email? even if it might be a pop up? No user should see that. and competent Sys Admin will to the installs through an automation system. remove updating completely from the user.

This one they don't screw up. But that's because I have it set to install the updates for them, whether or not they like it.

> In other words "Prevent all crime near you" WTF?

Uhh, no. It means "Don't leave your company laptop unattended in public." TSA will think it's a bomb and blow it up if someone doesn't steal it first.

> If your users can use root, you are a fuck up.

Even on developer machines? Not everyone has an excuse for being clueless.

> Yes, but that doesn't mean it was something the user could control, or even knew they did. 1 week on the job and two brain cells to rub together would have made you realize this.

Yeah, but they ALWAYS know about it even if they didn't do it. They just "didn't think it was important." A few years on the job, and you might find out just how often they're not telling you things.

Oh, and I fixed your spelling when I quoted you, but it's pretty bad when you have that many typos in a sentence insulting someone's intelligence and use "now" instead of "know." It makes your ire ironic. What are you? Someone they outsourced to in India?

> 7. Check to make sure its plugged in.

Even you don't disagree with this one, so there's some hope. I still can't believe how many calls I get over this.

> 8. RTFM
> What M? Is there an M? Does the M make sense to someone who isn't technical?

Hell yes there is. And they've been given training classes where they can ask questions.

> 9. Don't open that .exe your nice new stranger friend sent you.

> Even if it says "Critical System Updates Available" don't contradict yourself when making rules.

Real system updates don't come from some "stranger friend" you know. I realize that reading comprehension can't be your strong suit given the literacy displayed in your slapdash post, but still.

But yeah, updates are all set to automatic here.

> 10. If its 4:55 pm, let it go. It can wait until Monday.

> Well, it's 4:55 here but only 2 at the company that needs my information for a contract... but if you say it's alright... this also indicates that you have never worked in a 24/7 environment, or a critical environment. Not to mention the lack of backbone to tell the person it will have to wait, assuming it is non-critical.

Right, of course I don't keep an industrial plant online... And I'm sorry, but they always love to misrepresent just how critical things are. It's also kinda hard to show "backbone" when you don't even get the request in person.

Besides, the requests mentioned here are usually "I need this information by Monday" and the person asking you could've done so hours ago. I have things I want to do, after all, and working late because someone else was inconsiderate isn't one of them.

Learn something new every day!

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know janitors posted on /.

Re:Learn something new every day!

[TheAverageGuy]

For some people, a job doesn't define your life.

OK, you boys have fun tonight...

[Anonymous Coward]

but please leave the gerbil in it's cage, ok?

Why SysAdmins tend to be underappreciated

[dkleinsc]

Like janitors, CIA agents, and many other professions, when a sysadmin does their job well they tend to go unnoticed, because everyone in upper management in particular just assumes the computers will work just fine. When anything in IT hits the fan though, you can be sure that the responsibility will be propelled straight down to the sysadmins (preferably junior level). In short, only the mistakes are noticed, and thus sysAdmins are often poorly treated.

Re:Why SysAdmins tend to be underappreciated

[geekoid]

"...when a sysadmin does their job well they tend to go unnoticed, because everyone in upper management in particular just assumes the computers will work just fine..."

Then the manager of those sysadmin have failed them.

pffft My friday

[marcushnk]

My friday was spent from 8am right through till midnight trying to do a Dynamics AX 4.0 upgrade and recompile.
It failed.
I'm about to head back in at 7:30 am sat morning.

Obligatory song

[dysfunct]

System administrator song

And don't forget: SAAD is an important day. Go on, blame us for that 0.01 percent of time things don't work, as long as once in a while you thank us for running incredibly complex stuff perfectly 99.99% of the time. Because that's what we actually do. Even if you don't see us "doing" anything at all it's not because we're lazy or redundant, it's because we're good at what we do.

When is BOFH appreciation day?

[ZWithaPGGB]

Call me a troll, but this proliferation of Hallmark Holidays is out of hand.

Those who don't know what a BOFH is don't belong on /.

For me, it's "thank god i'm no longer a sysadmin..

[AmazingRuss]

..day".

Sysadmin has to be one of the most boring, frustrating, thankless jobs out there...and since the dotcom crash, the pay is for shit too.

My heart goes out to you poor souls.

oh yes .. HP laserprinters are still quality!

[freaker_TuC]

I just bought myself an older 2600DTN second hand ; it worked immediately under CUPS and my current 4MV printerdrivers; I sure do praise HP printers; not Compaq or HP workstations but that's another aisle. If I have to choose between any brand printer it'll be HP first, because they just work. Only had problems with the 4500DTN serie because of overconsumption in toners and drums.

Not to mention the different problems I had with other brands like Kyocera Mita, Brother, Lexmark and others because of all the bling-bling on them devices.

LJ4 was great, 4200s were good, now HP makes trash

[innatetech]

The old LaserJet4's were great printers. I still have a bunch of them. IMHO, the 4200DTN was the best of its successors. What HP is selling these days is total crap.

Wake Up

[Anonymous Coward]

The job title "System Administrator" is obsolete. This is not 1995. It takes more than one person to administer most IT systems. Have many of you even have or know a "SysAdmin"? Not me. There's a whole IT office (and I work in it). SysAdmin Day. Please! Like this mythical person, if they existed, actually worked harder at their job than anyone else? The "fuckem" tag is the most correct. Everyone does their job, everyone gets a paycheck, and I'll recognize SysAdmin Day right after the SysAdmins recognize Janitor Day and Programmer Analyst II day and....

good things don't stay alive

[freaker_TuC]

I had similar experiences with HP. I am very selective in which I buy. I buy double-time with my mind first before I will open my wallet.

The 4MV was marvelous and the 3P was good (one of my first personal printers). The product lines still stay stable somewhat. If you select very carefully you will still get a very good branded printer out of the dozens. Society pays it toll with throw-away appliances which fail after 2-4 years of heavy usage.

A TV is not like it used to be 10 years ago. A Sony was good quality while most televisions now are made with worse quality, save spacing and so restricted with pioneer technology most has to fail in such class of devices. My Sony still works, it's 15 years old, it has 6 inputs including 3 SCARTS; it costed some money that time but it was worth it. Now-a-days you got to select very carefully which to buy because you get screwed where you stand at.

Laptops have similar experiences with the companies...

Compaq; they had very good LTE series, then the Armada series came out and everything was blasted. They merged with HP and had a Compaq EVO serie were even more crappy. Never needed customer service until the devices kept failing on me and I can say with total honesty that laptop gets only used when needed and does normally not move location unless there is an emergency.

The problems I have had since HP came in were troublesome; the Armada had overheating, connector and lcd-transformer problems. The EVO was a total disaster with overheating, it needed to be cleaned every year at Compaq to have a rendable way of working with it. It crashed multiple times; every time it went into "meltdown" mode it destroyed the CD (drive) with it. The second laptop which was for an employee of us had similar problems but was slightly less used than within my realms. It took HP 2 f*ck*ng years before it was really FIXED and acknowledged that the laptops had some """"minor"""" issues. *laughing out loud* The list was 2 pages long, don't get me even started or I get migraines again, suicide attempts, high usage on alcohol and totally depressed using their equipment ;) [1]

Well, the problem is solved by an Apple Powerbook ; this thing just works. No further comments.

It's a never ending battle; whenever I buy my servers I will do my market research; I will have to see them and see their organs, else I will not buy. Why? Quality gets mostly recognized; compatibility and rendability is certified mostly, Linux works on almost anything you can imagine and you won't buy a cat-in-a-box.

To get back to the printer .. Look at the outside, look to the specifications, compare everything; most printers are the same quality (but with a lower price; branding costs money). There are brands like Kyocera Mita that are quite worthwhile to look at, but still, HP has some good selections but you have to compare, observe and relativate and wellllll ... pay ..

ps:

[1] Note the sarcasm. I guess they got it right..
  - "PC users swear at their PC; Apple users swear by their Mac"

I again had too much time on my hands ;)