Ticketing systems are great for quantizing what people do, how often, how fast, etc as has been mentioned. Having a target for availability and meeting or exceeding it being tied to performance reviews also works. Then again, when people question a need for me, I go on vacation. I turn my phone off, never check email, etc. When I get back and they're crying that they're so happy to see me, I guess they learned what my value is as someone nagged them instead of me when something broke. I've also heard mention of a well architected system (app to network, etc as I am a network focused engineer that covers interaction of apps and servers as well) need less immediate attention as things are redundant. I reply many times to such questioning (though it happens less and less the longer I stay at any job as they get used to how and what I do) that the thought put into the architecture in the beginning is why theres less pain now. Make a list of things you've done, explain them. Think of yourself as a product, the manager needs to be convinced to make the purchase, same with interviewing. Or, get a job where the management staff are more technical and don't ask stupid questions, I need a good unix admin, send me a resume.;)
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Ticketing systems are great for quantizing what people do, how often, how fast, etc as has been mentioned. Having a target for availability and meeting or exceeding it being tied to performance reviews also works. Then again, when people question a need for me, I go on vacation. I turn my phone off, never check email, etc. When I get back and they're crying that they're so happy to see me, I guess they learned what my value is as someone nagged them instead of me when something broke. I've also heard mention of a well architected system (app to network, etc as I am a network focused engineer that covers interaction of apps and servers as well) need less immediate attention as things are redundant. I reply many times to such questioning (though it happens less and less the longer I stay at any job as they get used to how and what I do) that the thought put into the architecture in the beginning is why theres less pain now. Make a list of things you've done, explain them. Think of yourself as a product, the manager needs to be convinced to make the purchase, same with interviewing. Or, get a job where the management staff are more technical and don't ask stupid questions, I need a good unix admin, send me a resume. ;)