Slashdot Mirror
System Admin's Unit of Production?
RailGunSally writes "I am a (strictly technical) member of a large *nix systems admin team at a Fortune 150. Our new IT Management Overlord is a hardcore bean-counter from hell. We in the trenches have been tasked with providing 'metrics' on absolutely everything from system utilization to paper clip recycling. Of course, measuring productivity is right up there at the top of the list. We're stumped as to a definition of the basic unit of productivity for a *nix admin. There is a school of thought in our group that holds that if the PHBs are simple enough to want to operate purely from pie charts and spreadsheets, then we should just graph some output from /dev/random and have done with it. I personally love the idea, but I feel the need for due diligence, so I put the question to the Slashdot community: How does one reasonably quantify admin productivity?"
of Jolt Cola consumed.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
If the productive workers in a company never see or need to talk to a sys admin it's been a productive day for the admins. Bingo. So here's what you do:
Leave for a week.
When you get back, after you've managed to suppress the fires and riots, fight your way to Mr. Bean's office, talk him down off of his desk, get him to put away the spear, and tell him "that's why you keep us around." If he wants it quantified, write it up as "Number of Cannibal Insurrections Suppressed Per Week (Estimated)."
Thomas Galvin
>you just saved two full weeks of your live by passing 'that guy.'
What? Since when is going fast a time machine?* It just means you got some where quicker, and could start being an asshole to someone at your destination earlier.
* Ignoring special relativity.
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
I worked at one Fortune 500 company where everybody in the dept had Double E's.
Excellent. Tell me, how is Mr Hefner?
Hmm, thats true lets see now.
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su username
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not there.... hmmm
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launch gimp, batch job import, crop
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copy rename alter datestamp chown
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hmmm ok found it tsk tsk tsk, and he seems like such a nice young man.
Cows???? oh good lord
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mail "my vacation photos" all
/ tip of the hat to the BOFH
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23