10th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day

jonk689 writes "Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year. This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe will be showered with large piles of cash and expensive sports cars in appreciation of their diligent work. But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgment. It's the least you could do."

Comments

"But we did all the work!"

[raddan]

Yeah, sysadmins get shit on. But hey, we all knew it came with the territory before we got into this job. Part of this is due to the fact that people seem to think that computer run on magic or something, so they have no clue what we do.

As an aside, the IT department at work has kept a running tally on how long it's been since we've been thanked for our work at the company picnic. I've been here for 6 years... nothing yet. Meanwhile, the lowliest assistant gets a mention (and even sometimes [some assistant's] husband or wife, "for moral support").

Re:"But we did all the work!"

[Brian Gordon]

Here's the more famous homage to sysadmins dealing with lusers :)

How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[Brian Gordon]

It's the least you could do

What, paying you isn't enough? What makes you more deserving of appreciation than any other profession?

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[sys.stdout.write]

Actors have the academy awards.
Physicists have the Nobel Prize.
Computer programmers have furry conventions.

Why not give sys admins the same respect?

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[Anonymous Coward]

Power-plant engineers, electricians, and A/C maintenance folks do not get appreciation days. And without their work, no servers would be up and available.

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[Corbets]

The fact that without the servers being up and available, most other professions do not continue to run.

Yet without other professions to do the actual work of your company, there's not even a need for you and your servers.

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[geekoid]

Believe me, I give the sysadmins the same respect I give furries~

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

That's on October 10th.

Thank God, I hate memory leaks.

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[Hatta]

What makes you more deserving of appreciation than any other profession?

Who said anything about being *more* deserving of appreciation? Every hard worker deserves some appreciation.

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[nizo]

That's right; sysadmins are part of a team of people required to keep the business running smoothly. But how many other folks in the company need to get up at 3am to do their jobs? Many sales guys have an emergency sales meeting at 3am? How about the secretary, does he get paged and need to come in with no notice so he can file some documents at 3am? Not many other professions would put up with the lack of resources and total ignorance of planning that a sysadmin puts up with all the time. Yet since the sysadmin isn't doing anything that can have a simple metric applied to it (number of sales closed, number of documents filed), people just assume they aren't doing anything useful.

Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day?

[Romancer]

No, the point is that the people who know how to make the integral parts of the system that glues all of the other positions together and lets it function, should be getting as much recognition on a company wide basis as say, the secratary. Who has an appreciation day.

To say that the people who spend years carefully crafting systems that have contradictory requirements and multiple departmental roles are just and only as important as every other department in a company is overly idealistic. Yes, everybody should be equally appreciated. But that's not the real world and you should be ashamed of using that fallacy of an argument on slashdot.

The point is that there are people that get blamed if something goes wrong but not congradulated if everything works perfectly for months on end. There are jobs out there that the sole purpose is to make it seem like the position is not needed by making the system have no problems on the user side. There are jobs where people work until the 7am hours of the morning monday so that everybody can come in and not notice that the entire server cluster has been moved to a new version since the old one had security holes and Microsoft released an updated OS.

Saying things like:
"IT is no more or less important than the functions of a company that produce, design, and sell their product."

Is like going to your boss and saying that their job is no more or less important than the custodial crew and why are they compensated so much more than them.

You really think you'll have a job if they don't think you're joking?
Are you that out of touch with the real world that you think that those idealistic arguments hold any water?

The stock holders know nothing about what OS service pack or Linux Kernel the servers are running. They see the reports of other departments sometimes blaming the IT department for downtime or cost overruns. Unforseen increases of budget, without the explination of what worm, patch, or user error caused the initial problem.

This is the problem with the industry. The whole job of the sysadmin is to make him/herself not seen. To make it look like the systems are fine and running smoothly. Any reports that there are problems are like any other department reporting that something they are doing broke and is going to cost the company money. Like the marketing department comming the the president and saying that the next few weeks are going to be problematic because the graphics department is not working on new designes since they all need to be replaced with designers with faster fingers so in the future they won't be too slow.

There's usually no middleground between the IT department having a problem and the boss/users seeing it immediatly. It doesn't get to go the the IT manager and get fixed at that level. Everybody sees or hears about the problem when it happens. Very publicly. But when was the last time you heard anybody say that the IT department at your work did a good job upgrading or migrating a server?

You are probably just as guilty of widening the devide between departmental appreciation.
Most businesses that are not completely computer centric are guilty of this. Since I know quite a few sysadmins and I haven't heard that any of their jobs were appreciative, I'd say that your statements and theirs help to prove that this day is not even given the lip service it was intended to create. Is it too hard for you people to admit that the ones who make everything easier should get a little nod, instead, we get the arguments and belittling that our jobs are just the same as everybody elses.

Walk a mile in our shoes.

Consolation Prize!

[Aldenissin]

If you haven't been there, then this is for you! http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/

Piss off

[Anonymous Coward]

But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgment. It's the least you could do.

Why should you get a gift for doing your job like everyone else does?

Summary of the Article

[neonprimetime]

Sysadmins setup the web server to host www.sysadminday.com
Sysadmins setup the networks that allow you to view www.sysadminday.com
Sysadmins protect your networks to make sure you're really viewing www.sysadminday.com
Sysadmins make backups of www.sysadminday.comin case it has issues.
Sysadmins ensure there is no viruses on the www.sysadminday.com
Sysadmins wakeup at 2am to reboot the servers and ensure www.sysadminday.com is up.
Sysadmins would will gladly help you navigate to www.sysadminday.com
Sysadmins really just want a friend, but if that's not possible they are satisfied with you going to www.sysadminday.com
Sysadmins would also be very happy if you post a link to www.sysadminday.com on other sites

Re:Summary of the Article

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. Let's show our appreciation on this special day by slashdotting their servers....

Re:Summary of the Article

[Xtifr]

The rant above assumes I have any interest in visiting sysadminday.com, but we'll gloss over that for the moment. :)

Sysadmins setup the web server to host www.sysadminday.com

A web server that was created by developers.

Sysadmins setup the networks that allow you to view www.sysadminday.com

If you mean the physical infrastructure, then no; otherwise, yes, using the software created by developers for that purpose.

Sysadmins protect your networks to make sure you're really viewing www.sysadminday.com

ITYM "try to protect", and again, using software created by developers.

Sysadmins make backups of www.sysadminday.com

By running scripts and applications created by developers (and hardware provided by...another kind of developers).

Sysadmins ensure there is no viruses on the www.sysadminday.com

ITYM "try to ensure", and again, using software created by developers, assuming that the sysadmins or their bosses were foolish enough to select virus-prone software in the first place. (Otherwise, they try to ensure it by selecting or installing systems which aren't virus-prone, the solution used by my company.)

Sysadmins wakeup at 2am to reboot the servers and ensure www.sysadminday.com is up

That one I'll give you, although if it still has problems after rebooting, who do the admins call? That's right--the developers.

Sysadmins would will gladly help you navigate to www.sysadminday.com

Using software created by developers.

Sysadmins really just want a friend, but if that's not possible they are satisfied with you going to www.sysadminday.com

In my experience, I have to say I think you're overgeneralizing, but some admins are friendly enough. Others follow the advice of the BOFH, though...
(I'm tempted to inject something here about "some of my best friends are...", but I'll resist the urge.) :)

Sysadmins would also be very happy if you post a link to www.sysadminday.com on other sites

Except for the ones that have enough sense not to support link-spamming. :)

So, as near as I can figure it, sysadmins should be worshipping the ground I walk on. Yet that doesn't seem to be happening. Oh well, maybe I'll take one out for a beer later in any case.

Maybe we could couple it with Guy Fawkes day

[Garbad Ropedink]

My sysadmin tattled on me when I played a prank on a co-worker by changing his wallpaper to look like his computer had an error. The admin took half a second to figure out what was wrong. Then he went off and told my manager and they sent out a company wide email saying that the sysadmin was owed an apology. I've also had a number of run ins with previous sysadmins. Blocking web access randomly and refusing to allow me to change my mouse to left handed mode.

I think it would work better as a holiday if we could couple it with Guy Fawkes day. Maybe burn a few effigies.

I know there are probably a lot of sysadmins on this website so I didn't post anonymously because I know how you people take such pleasure in getting your petty petty revenges. So that's my gift to you on your special day. :)

A nice token gift and some public acknowledgment?

[exley]

Actually, the least I could do is nothing.

I've got really bad news for you IT guys and gals

[Overzeetop]

This just cements you in place as being very low on the corporate totem pole. Every hear CEO appreciation day? Management appreciation day? Doctor appreciation day? Engineer appreciation day (engineer's day in India doesn't count)? Lawyer appreciation day?

No?

How about teacher appreciation day? Secretary (or, ahem, administrative assistant) appreciation day? See where I'm going with this? I wouldn't take this as a compliment.

Re:A nice token gift and some public acknowledgmen

[Fyzzle]

Actually, the least I could do is nothing.

You sir, are ready to be a Sysadmin. Welcome.

It's today?

[elvum]

If /. had run this story yesterday, many more sysadmins would have been appreciated...