by So, I was reading through the May ’06 LOPSA Live transcript and came across a curious statement.
[5:04p] chrisd: One of the things we can all relate to is the fact that,
when everything goes right, nobody knows your name.
[5:04p] chrisd: But when something breaks, everybody hounds you.
[5:05p] chrisd: It’s a thankless job.
Why does it have to be a thankless job? Why do you have to live in the Tomb of the Unknown Sysadmin?
To some degree, yes, you have to enjoy doing the craziness associated with being a systems administrator. Yes, you have to put up with the 4am pager alerts. Yes, you (often) have to pull a Macgyver moment out of somewhere dark and deep. And yes, occasionally, you have to jump on that landmine and take one for the team in order to better the lives of everyone else. But guess what? Even non-sysadmins have to do something like this at some point.
I’m going to whip out an evil word: customers. Yes, yes, I know, it makes me sound like I’ve had that marketing lobotomy, but I don’t care. I don’t have users. I have customers. I belong to a service organization. It’s my job to make my customers’ jobs easier. The only way I can do that is by working closely with them to understand what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, why they’re doing it, and how quickly it needs to be accomplished. It’s symbiotic. Without them, I have no one to serve and, ergo, no job to complete. Without me, they might (or probably will) have a harder time achieving their own goals because they likely will not have the smooth running resources they require.
While I have to deal with difficult situations, there’s an upside to this: exposure. The more customers know what you do, the less thankless (or, more thankful, if you prefer) the job becomes. Here’s another upside: the more exposure you have with your customers, the more understanding they have when something bad happens to your environment. Yes, you’ll still get hounded by some, but they’re less likely to see you as “Bob, that useless guy in the back, who never does any work” and more like “Bob, the IT guy who keeps the place running smoothly.”
But what does this have to do with LOPSA? Here, let’s break it down: League of Professional Systems Administrators. Yes, right there.
pro·fes·sion·al (pr-fsh-nl)
adj.
1.
1. Of, relating to, engaged in, or suitable for a
profession: lawyers, doctors, and other professional
people.
2. Conforming to the standards of a profession:
professional behavior.
2. Engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or
as a career: a professional writer.
3. Performed by persons receiving pay: professional football.
4. Having or showing great skill; expert: a professional
repair job.
And part of being a professional is making sure people know what you’re doing. This is how people recognize you as an expert.
In the end, the only person that can make the job thankful is you.
(Oh, and yes, I do get thanked by my customers for the work that I do. Not by all. It only takes one person to make it a thankful job.)