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."

"But we did all the work!"

[raddan]

Yeah, sysadmins get shit on [youtube.com]. 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: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:Even the nerds hate sysadmins

[Doug Neal]

The reason that sysadmins can be unpopular even with other nerds is because it's all too common for them to come across as having shitty attitudes, even if they are good at their job and do all the things you've just described. I've been a sysadmin for about 5 years and have worked both with developers that I'm supporting and with more senior sysadmins, so I'm familiar with both "sides" of the matter. Sysadmins are often in a fairly unique position in the organisations that they work for in that they are usually the only person there who can do certain tasks; everyone comes to them with requests, all day, some of them reasonable and some of them not; they have the final veto on lots of technical decisions, and they have their finger on the big red button both literally and metaphorically. This inevitably feeds the alpha-geek megalomania and bolsters the ego. Patience wears thin and fuses get short, and if you're having a bad day it's sometimes very hard to stop yourself snapping at your colleagues when you get a particularly frustrating request or interruption (which more often than not isn't even the other person's fault). I've been on the giving and receiving end of such behaviour before and either way, it's not pleasant for either party. A good sysadmin who's nice to people and not an egotistical dick* will get appreciated every day, not just on July 31st. If that isn't the case then you're probably working with dicks and might want to think about moving jobs.

*this isn't particuarly aimed at the parent, just a general observation.