Sysadmins aren’t your beotches

I work in information technology and I often have to deal with system administrators of various forms: Unix admins, database admins, network admins and so on. Sometimes they can be a pain in the ass. Sometimes they can have superiority complexes.

When they act up, let them.

Simply put, admins make sure your shit works. If you are a developer, integrator, architect, analyst or manager working on enterprise systems, admins take whatever havoc your latest project is wreaking and make sure it works. If they have delusions of godhood, cut them some slack.

Admins are not your beotches. They may support your stuff, but they do NOT work for you. You need them happy with you, not pissed off.

Show your sysadmin some love. The next time you need a system recovered at 3 o’clock in the morning, they’ll remember it.

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  • chrisrunoff

    Amen to this! I've been working in network/sys admin for years and from our side of the fence, there are few things more frustrating than a user that seems to feel we work for them.

    Thank you for saying this! You're absolutely right. We remember those that are kind to us… and those that aren't.

    This post totally reminds me of yesterday's xkcd.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Glad you liked it! Really, a lot of this applies to all kinds of business interaction. People don't remember exactly what you say, but they do remember how you treat them.

  • http://therunoff.com/ chris runoff

    Amen to this! I've been working in network/sys admin for years and from our side of the fence, there are few things more frustrating than a user that seems to feel we work for them.

    Thank you for saying this! You're absolutely right. We remember those that are kind to us… and those that aren't.

    This post totally reminds me of yesterday's xkcd.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Glad you liked it! Really, a lot of this applies to all kinds of business interaction. People don't remember exactly what you say, but they do remember how you treat them.