Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day!

saintp writes "In case you forgot, today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Be sure to appreciate your sysadmin with some sweet schwag, a LOPSA membership, or even some theme cupcakes. Here's to all the sysadmins out there! Now I've got to go fix the mail server...." Update: 07/28 17:44 GMT by H :And remember that you can vote/nominate them for SysAdmin of the Year.

Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[lecithin]

A paycheck is all the appreciation that I expect.

Today is Payday.

For some reason, I don't think that this is going to get as big as mother's day.

I know that there is going to be some bitching about how many sysadmins aren't appreciated. Well, you could always work at Mcdonalds.

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[Qzukk]

A paycheck is all the appreciation that I expect.

If the worth of your life is a paycheck, then I'm sure you're pleased with yourself, and I'm happy for you.

Personally, I believe that I shouldn't have to negotiate with HR for "perks" like "treat me like the human I am".

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[0racle]

Your not a human entitled to respect, you are a human resource no different then any other resource to the company.

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[ConceptJunkie]

The day I meet an HR department that acts like it is capable of recognizing a human, then I will agree with your statement.

Personally, I believe that if the HR department isn't actively trying to sabotage your job, you're ahead of the game.

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[lymond01]

That's funny. My brother manages a team of a dozen or so employees for a large Canadian-based networking company (any guesses?). He was telling me that after he went against HR's recommendations, and got burned, he now listens to them. The guy he wanted had the skillset my brother was looking for. HR told him he'd be a bad hire, that he just wouldn't put in the time you want him to. Hired him anyway, and fired him in 2 months and started the whole process over again.

HR has its moments, good and bad.

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[kin_korn_karn]

Thank you. I get so tired of people in IT acting like they should get all of these perks like it's 1998 and nobody with money knows what to throw it at. I have never had an employer that treated me like anything more than a necessary evil, and I don't expect that I will until I'm self-employed.

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[RobotRunAmok]

For some reason, I don't think that this is going to get as big as mother's day.

Ya think?

Personally, I'm saving all my Good Will For No Good Reason At All for "Marketing Chippie Day." When is that again... third Thursday in September? Or is that "Accounting Niblet Who Stamps My T&E Day"? I get these three holidays mixed up for some reason...

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[mebollocks]

Obviously you're not a sysadmin. Payday is the day employees of a company get paid for their time and labour. All employees have payday. A sysadmin's job however is one of constant battle with people's over-expectation. The cleaners and janitors are more appreciated and get more polite conversation from other employees than sysadmins.

Well yes it's what I asked for but it's not what I wanted!

There is a strange sense of over-entitlement for employees of a company when it comes to IT, this goes for programmers as well as sysadmins.
Of course it will never be as big as mother's day. Mother's are far more deserving of appreciation than any employee.
So those that have arranged a response to the lack of human empathy to IT workers should get a job in McDonalds? Well done, you've solved the problem, congratulations.
If you're a sysadmin, no doubt you're familiar with the phenomenon of 2 different people coming to your desk at the same time and talking over each other, at the same time, about 2 completely different requests, never once acknowledging each other, both completely convinced of their enitilement to whine at you about how their laptop isn't bling enough or their quota is too small and their time is too valuable to clean up.
Nowhere else would such behaviour be tolerated.
Has anyone ever approached their facilties department and asked for a bigger desk because they don't have the time to tidy it?
Sure, you've got some admins that subscribe to the book of bofh, never realising that maintenance of productivity is their sole reason to have a job but these are the exception especially more recently, as management get more clued in to IT.

Ask any employee, Finance, HR, Corporate, if they think they're appreciated enough and the answer will be no. But none of these groups are expected to be available 24*7, train themselves constantly, be on-demand during office hours to all and sundry, behave as if they're responsible for everything that happens within their department, always be patient, take time away from their complex SAN restructure to show how to re-sync a wireless mouse... blah blah... I could go on forever.

This day exists for a reason since 2000.

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[FST777]

Has anyone ever approached their facilties department and asked for a bigger desk because they don't have the time to tidy it?

For some reason, folk at work think I'm the facilities too. And yes, they keep bugging me to change their desk (in height) whenever they feel like. Maybe it's something in our genes (crosslinked with capability for being sysadmin): Bug me! I want it!

Sidenote: you are absolutely correct. Sysadmins are undervaluated. Secretaries get more day-to-day appreciation, and yet secretary-d

Re:Payday = Appreciation Day where I work

[geekoid]

oh please.
"A sysadmin's job however is one of constant battle with people's over-expectation. "

just like every other service job.
Yes, sysadmin is a service job.

Also, if your responseabilities includes dealing with the PC perphs, then you are a tech support person, and not a system admin no matter what title they give you.

Schwag? What about Nugs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Be sure to appreciate your sysadmin with some sweet schwag...

Uh, I am thinking you do not know what that word means. If I gave my sys admin some low grade cannabis [urbandictionary.com], I'd probably be fired.

You see, my sys admin would probably only accept some high quality nugs [urbandictionary.com].

By the way, you forgot to mention that ThinkGeek, Inc. is an OSTG Company and so is Slashdot. Nice self-Slashvertisement there.

Re:Schwag? What about Nugs?

[really?]

Of course you would be fired. As you should. (One gives the admins good stuff, and there is nothing better than BC bud.)

from your source

[rodentia]

1. Any free or extra goods, usually given to employees or workers.

I appreciate arguing about slang semantics is a good way to look stupid, but schwag had been free promo gear for at least twenty years prior to the stoner connotation. To avoid confusion, we've taken to referring to the grade formerly known as schwag as *the Imperial*, with all the connotations of cheap liquor upbranding itself with transparent puffery like *her majesty's imprimatur*, etc.

Re:from your source

[geekoid]

not to be confused with Swag...

Variant forms,

[rodentia]

same word; if one considers slang first-class sema and not mere affectation.

Re:Schwag? What about Nugs?

[GoodNicsTken]

You call that high quality nugs?!? How about some Sensimilia! [cannabisculture.com]

Moderators Are Irresponsible

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only are the editors idiots about grammar and word definitions but also all the people with mod points!

*sigh*

What next? A story about "synergy" in the IT corporate world?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

404 not found?

[Anonymous Coward]

The requested URL (it/06/07/28/1418242.shtml) was not found.

If you feel like it, mail the url, and where ya came from to [e-mail].

Guess who's not getting nominated for SysAdmin of the Year...

I can tell...

[__aaclcg7560]

All the system admins are kicking back my help desk tickets and telling me to do their job.

Re:I can tell...

[__aaclcg7560]

Actually, I worked on a help desk for a living. I'm well familiar with cut -&- paste and I typically work 500 tickets per month when the average expectation is 100 tickets per month. But one of the things I'm seeing a lot more lately is that the help desk is doing more work that used to be handled by a larger team of sys admins.

I tried to send my sysadmin a thank you e-card.

[Spazntwich]

But the network was down.

Re:I tried to send my sysadmin a thank you e-card.

[sharkey]

No, it's because we block all that e-card shitware at the network edge. Intestinal parasites dug up from the festering bowels of the Internet do not belong on my network, thank you very much.

Show your sysadmin your appreciation by NOT slumming through the sleaziest shitholes on the 'net using his resources.

Re:I tried to send my sysadmin a thank you e-card.

[14CharUsername]

Show your sysadmin your appreciation by NOT slumming through the sleaziest shitholes on the 'net using his resources.

Well, so much for browsing slashdot today.

Re:I tried to send my sysadmin a thank you e-card.

[geekoid]

great test though! if you are a sysadmin, and you get one of these cards, then you are not a good sysadmin.

Of course, if I had a sysadmin with your attitide, I would make it my life goal to get one of these past your 'defences'.

If you are going to act like a prima-donna, you had better well be a prima-donna.

You haven't seen Apple's iCards, have you?

[Foerstner]

They're tasteful photographic postcards. Ordinary JPEGs: no animation, no MIDIs. Free, and no ads. You don't need a Mac, or an account or anything but a web browser.

They're on the .Mac page, but you don't need to log in to send them. [apple.com]

Re:I tried to send my sysadmin a thank you e-card.

[apt142]

You should follow that up by dropping an internet in a tube. He may get it in 5 days but, he'll know you thought of him.

Re:I tried to send my sysadmin a thank you e-card.

[apoc.famine]

Don't send a card - point them to the System Administrator Song [deadtroll.com] instead. They'll like it better, I promise.

A good quote from "The Incredibles"...

[Anonymous Coward]

Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: Which is another way of saying no-one is.

Ceili Rain sang it best...

[The MAZZTer]

"I wanna be different / just like everybody else!"

Re:A good quote from "The Incredibles"...

[freeze128]

If there was a way to make nobody special, my system admin would certainly find a way to make it happen.

Making nobody special

[morcego]

# usermod -u 0 nobody

My office remembered!

[TrippTDF]

I got a card and $20 at Au Bon Pain.

Re:My office remembered!

[larkost]

Lets see... you can almost afford a coffee there!

Re:My office remembered!

[GungaDan]

It's true, man.

But only the first two words are in French.

Hard to Find a Good SysAdmin

[airrage]

This is definitely an area of IT that has suffered lately with outsourcing. I find that the issue is really that, at least in my experience in Corporate America, that the SysAdmin role has a interesting career ladder. Generally, my biggest gripe is finding someone who is well rounded in experience. Somehow, seems people are missing some major skill set like the ability to talk to another human being or empathy (just kidding). Actually, what I find is a big reluctance to change.

Alas, we suffer on.

Peace O

Ooooh I knew forgot something ...

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Thanks for reminding me, I have to fire the sysadmin today

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Ooooh I knew forgot something ...

[Dr Caleb]

For a manager? 'password' or '12345'.

Re:Ooooh I knew forgot something ...

[rufty_tufty]

Hey my keyboard is broken! All I get are *'s in my password field...

Re:Ooooh I knew forgot something ...

[Kimos]

For a manager? 'password' or '12345'.

That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!

Re:Ooooh I knew forgot something ...

[geekoid]

Come into my office tomorrow and I'll tell you. BTW, you'll need a box as well.

I wouldn't give a LOSA membership if it were free

[winkydink]

A SAGE [sage.org] membership on the other hand... that I would give

Re:I wouldn't give a LOSA membership if it were fr

[pilgrim23]

Not http://www.archive.org/details/OnGuard1956 [archive.org] S.A.G.E.?

Re:I wouldn't give a LOSA membership if it were fr

[Miniluv]

My initial reaction was the same. But then I read http://lopsa.org/about_history [lopsa.org] and am considering killing my SAGE membership (sadly) and instead becoming a LOPSA member. I always did kinda wonder about USENIX as a parent organization to a generalist sysadmin focused group.

Re:I wouldn't give a LOSA membership if it were fr

[winkydink]

Reputation of the two organizations and quality of the management of same. LOPSA will be dead, or at least much more dead than BSD in a year. Remember, you heard it here first.

Re:I wouldn't give a LOSA membership if it were fr

[winkydink]

Why did they mess with a good thing? Because a few crybabies on the then-SAGE exec committee (now LOPSA board) continually blamed USENIX for their problems and kept lamenting about oh how things would be better if only they were independent. After listening to this bullshit for years, USENIX finally took them up on their offer. And when LOPSA's separation wasn't moving quickly enough, USENIX had enough and let the door hit the malcontents on the ass on their way out the door.

LOPSA's in a world of financi

That "not really sure" cupcake...

[Qzukk]

I'm fairly certain that that cupcake is supposed to be the ZoneAlarm traffic meter from the systray.

Awesome co-workers

[wuie]

Last year, SysAdmin day went with hardly a word at my workplace. I heard about it on Slashdot, told it to my boss, and then we would randomly say it to whoever we helped that day, as a joke. Since my boss and I are the only two IT people at our workplace, things tend to get swamped from time to time.

Today, I was sitting at my desk busy with code for a new app when I'm handed a card. Inside are all of my co-worker's signatures, saying thanks for all the hard work that I've done over the past year.

I was utterly baffled, since I had no idea why I was receiving a card. It wasn't until I remembered last year, and came here to see if it was SysAdmin day. When I can get a card from my co-workers before Slashdot can post the holiday, that's an awesome feeling.

I'll probably be grinning ear to ear for the rest of the day. :)

Re:Awesome co-workers

[Otter]

When I can get a card from my co-workers before Slashdot can post the holiday...

Obligatory: That's because they already saw it on Digg!

Re:Awesome co-workers

[nuintari]

Wow, consider yourself very fortunate. So far I have celebrated this day by explaining that email is not instant communication, nor is it a good way to send massive files, to a guy whose every response has been, "how is that _my_ problem?"

Oh yeah, and some bitch yelled at me for suspending her account for _extremely_ late payment. Six months of service, has never even paid the install fee. I said if we didn't see money by the end of the month, I would dispatch someone to grab the equipment, and send their b

Maybe you'll get more cards, too!

[dmatos]

You'll be really impressed if you keep getting cards from your co-workers, then, everytime you check Slashdot, there's a dupe of this story on the front page.

Re:Awesome co-workers

[geekoid]

well, don't forget to get all your coworkers a card for doing the job there paid to do as well.

I wish the US had a day like this...some sort of day to celebrates wroking, labor.

A labor day of sorts...

Reward Your IT With Spam

[Cylix]

I started to nominate myself and then realized what exactly I was doing...

I decided to flip over to the rules section to see if they would respect privacy or at least attempt to lie to me. (It's the little things that count)

So, if you don't like your IT staff that much... go sign em' up. Reward them with 40 or 50 more personalized junk mailings!

W00t

[rmadmin]

In honor of Sys admin day, I'm putting in my 2 weeks and going back to being a sys admin. :)

No, I'm not kidding, finalized the deal last night. Ironic, eh? :)

Re:W00t

[afidel]

I gave myself a half day off. I worked till midnight last night with Veritas support including a handoff to Australia and once the users restore was complete this morning and I got through my short laundry list of todo's I headed home to be with the family. Best sysadmin day ever =)

Re:W00t

[$RANDOMLUSER]

In case you've forgotten, it's "Down, not Across".

History and Tradition

[stuffduff]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOFH [wikipedia.org]

Music for Celebrating Sysadmin Day

[scruffy]

http://www.deadtroll.com/index2.html?/sysadmin/~co ntent [deadtroll.com]

Be sure to leave something nice on Ted's Desk

[MrByte420]

http://www.sysadminday.com/Time.html [sysadminday.com] ..Because Ted just loves a good mystery.

To quote Jimmy Fallon

[CaffeineAddict2001]

*SIIGH* MOVE!

You can call me... Larry.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

You all know who to vote for, even if he is a self centered, totalitarian, overbearing perfectionist [wikipedia.org]. He's all that stands between you and a total cascade failure blue screen of certain death. Let's hear it!

And when can we expect to see a...

[Rellik66]

BOFH day?

Re:And when can we expect to see a...

[Attilla_The_Pun]

Every day is BOFH day. BOFH is a state of mind. It commands recognition EVERY DAY. Else I re-wire your network jack to 240VAC, then conveniently have run out of any spare PCs.

Site Access Policies

[ConnortheMad]

Thank you for the warm hearted appreciated. Your IPs are currently being tracked via the Squid Proxy and those found not compliant with the corporate internet usage policy will be subsequently brought before HR.

No love for helpdesk?

[SoundGuyNoise]

I emailed the founders of Sys Admin day a couple years ago, and asked if helpdesks were included in the appreciation. He said no, maybe we can get our own holiday.

We are the gatekeepers. We're on the front lines, sweating it with our phone headsets and standard issue network access. Meanwhile the big wig admins kick back in their air conditioned servers rooms.

Re:No love for helpdesk?

[Secrity]

Don't you have airconditioning in India?

Re:No love for helpdesk?

[Bandman]

you are....probably dreaming of being a sysadmin some day.

I was, when I was on the phones, for 3 years. Now I'm a sysadmin, and have been for 4 years.

You can get out! There is hope!

Re:No love for helpdesk?

[Attilla_The_Pun]

Exactly. Where else do you think us sysadmins learn our verbal kung-fu skills, and get our jaded, "thousand-mile stare" from? :)

Three years doing helpdesk was enough for me. The capper was realizing I literally could do the job while reading, drawing, just about anything short of holding up a conversation.....So I moved on into my first sysadmin job, and haven't looked back yet.

Re:No love for helpdesk?

[Bandman]

that's outstanding!

Yea, tech support really does allow you to get some useful skills. Holding multiple conversations at once is one I use about every day.

Re:No love for helpdesk?

[morcego]

My personal path:
Helpdesk -> SysAdmin -> Manager AND SysAdmin -> Company Owner AND SysAdmin

It doesn't matter what you do now. Once people know you are/were a SysAdmin, they will dump everything on your lap.

In any case, I would never hire a SysAdmin that didn't work on helpdesk for at least a couple years.

Re:No love for helpdesk?

[geekoid]

Maybe when the helpdesk stops being whiny and condesending.
OTOH that sure didn't prevent sysadmin from getting there own day.

I know some sysadmisn who aren't getting thanks...

[Attilla_The_Pun]

The Colorado DMV computer system was down STATEWIDE today. I'm guessing there are a few sysadmins working for the DMV who will be lucky if they can get time off for lunch, let along some awesome cupcakes from the staff. ;) (Okay, thanks Mr. Sysadmin, for making me waste two hours of billable time only to have the computers die on me right as my number was called!)

Apreciation

[McGiraf]

Excuse me while i go apreciate mylself .... hum that sounds bad.

We don't cotton to their type around here...

[Quiet_Desperation]

We hung our sysadmin by his ankles from the roof of our tallest building, and told him that we'd very much appreciate it if our network would have somewhat more network connectivity than a 300 baud modem.

Oh, and a specially hired dominatrix worked him over for making us use Outlook.

Ah, good times. :)

Thought that said...

[Dareth]

Oh, and a specially hired dominatrix worked him over for making us use Outlook.

I thought that said, "Oh, and a specially hired dominatrix who worked him over by making him use Outlook."

Now that would be sadistic!

Does anybody care?

[oyenstikker]

Did any of you who are system administrators actually have anybody else know about it?

Re:Does anybody care?

[tehshen]

Who cares? It's just a bit of fun.

how do you FIND your sysadmin

[Sebastopol]

Serious, my company has literally hundreds of thousands of machines, both Linux and MS.

The sysadmins hide behind a ticket-request system for filing issues.

They dispatch low-paid tech minions to fix issues.

How would I even find a sysadmin to thank them?

I would think anonymity is a virtue in this biz.

Re:how do you FIND your sysadmin

[gregarican]

The sysadmins are the ones stuck back in the server rooms trying to patch boxes, install new server software, script out client software pushes, working with network backups, etc. I froze my ass of in a 60 degree meat locker for 4 years doing all of this, plus administering the ACD phone system and managing all of my direct reports. It's not like I was hiding back there playing Freecell...

Re:how do you FIND your sysadmin

[Sebastopol]

Just to be clear: I was implying that "hiding" meant "avoiding every idiotic marketing drone who thinks a CDROM is a coffee holder...", not "hiding cowardly."

Re:how do you FIND your sysadmin

[geekoid]

World of Warcraft.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Four Days Late. 24/7 would have been better.

[onetruedabe]

It seems to me July 24th ("24/7" as it's written in Europe) would have been more appropriate.

:- Dabe

I think my workplace dodged this one....

[King_TJ]

Despite being the systems adminstrator, I was given the official title of "Network Manager" instead.

Go figure.

DBAs are excluded for the first time ever

[vallee]

And something got to be done about it.

Raj Thukral at Pythian, in a fit of righteous indignation, has registered dbaday.com [dbaday.com] and is going to doing something about the Sysadminday DBA Snub [pythian.com].

Paul

Re:DBAs are excluded for the first time ever

[Miniluv]

Uhm, right. How exactly do you "exclude" people from a fake holiday perpetuated by geeks on the Internet? And for fucks sake, who DOES something about it?

How come

[JustNiz]

Sysadmins have their own day? Does god not want to loose his internet access or something?

System Administrators Day? WTF?

[Petersko]

Who the hell thinks there ought to be a system adminstrators day? If they get a day, then EVERY profession should get a day.

Seriously. Do you all think the job is more noble, or deserving of special recognition than, oh, let's say, that of paramedic? Or fire fighter? Or homeless shelter worker?

Get a grip. It's a normal job, it pays okay, and it doesn't need its own day.

Re:System Administrators Day? WTF?

[geekoid]

I agree.

If only the US had a day to celebrate all the laborers...

What an awesome sys ad day!

[tpjunkie]

As a super special thank you, the higher ups decided to tell us at 3 pm that we had about 35 installations that had to be completed by 4:30 pm, and we had a grand total of 4 people (including interns) to do this in. It was so much fun, I crushed a few network port boxes in my unbridled joy, and didn't even give two shits that every single desk was missing a vital piece of equipment needed for logins! /sacasm

Re:What an awesome sys ad day!

[dlb]

"network port boxes"

That would be called a "hub" or "switch" here in the real world.

Re:What an awesome sys ad day!

[geekoid]

I had assumed he meant the cardboard box they came in!

35 installs, bah. If your system is set up correctly, then 35 installs should be a snap.

Re:What an awesome sys ad day!

[tpjunkie]

actually, each desk space in the building has a 4 port rj-45 box underneath it, with 4 cables snugged together in heavy gauge wrap which run to one of the closets on each floor which contain the routers, which are connected to the fiber network for the building, and then the corporate fiber WAN. Trust me, I know what I'm fucking talking about, and exactly what I did.

Happy Systems Admin Day!

I'm in Australian timezone...

[thrill12]

...you insensitive clod !

I get the whole day off!

[dbIII]

Oh wait - it's Saturday over here, I managed to take a day off on Saturday a few weeks ago too. If sysadmins were paid overtime rates instead of salary we would be expensive beasts.

You've got it backwards

[btarval]

No, no, no. You're supposed to LIGHT your cigs using the CPU, not put them out!

I'm jealous!

[Quiet_Desperation]

some muppet at work hired a couple of "sys-admins"

You have muppets where you work? COOL!!

Are they "Sesame Street" level or the wicked keen "Farscape" level?

Re:The article yesterday wasn't good enough?

[maxwell demon]

And tomorrow we will get an Ask Slashdot: "Yesterday was sysadmin day. What appreciation did you sysadmins receive?" :-)

Re:APPRECIATION?

[geekoid]

I can add code that will destroy the machines on 15,000 customers PC's.
And destroy all the company data, and I am not a sysadmin.

A CEO can completly and permenantly destroy a company.
A lawyer can loosa a case and thus loose the company.

The maintenance staff can put chemicals in the ventilation that will kill everyone.
So with thos listing, sysadmin is near the bottom of what they can do(within the scop of their job) to harm the company.