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'Sys Admin Day' Still Not A Hallmark Holiday

Companies spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on elaborate software packages, security technology, servers, and desktops. We talk about "pushing the envelope" and "best of breed" when it comes to tech. But how often do we talk about our systems administrators in the same way? Come on, admit it. Rarely, if ever.

And these are the people in charge of all this technology we're buying. These are the people keeping all the digital trains from jumping the track and taking out the sales applications or the inventory analysis package or system security with it. They're our high-tech version of firefighters, architects, and doctors. Face it, they hold all the company's critical information in their hands.

And how often do we acknowledge them for it?

Your own personal answer to that is probably pretty telling...and pretty sad.

That's the reason Friday, July 28, has been named System Administrator Appreciation Day. The largely unrecognized day is sponsored by the League of Professional System Administrators, Splunk, SourceForge.net, Digg.com, and the Network and Systems Professionals Association. And it's aimed at giving a much-deserved pat on the back to the men and women who keep our networks up and moving.

Secretaries have their own day. Teachers have their day. And now for the seventh year, systems administrators have a day to have someone buy them a beer or two, foot the bill for lunch, or even (and just imagine their shock) say "thank you." Obviously it's a good idea. Any time we get a reminder to be kind and respectful and thank someone for their contributions, it's a good thing.

But it may be disheartening for some sys admins out there. First off is the idea that they need a special day to remind people that there's a wizard behind the curtain. Normally the only time we think of our IT people is when something is going wrong with the system. E-mail down? Let's complain about IT. Can't get VPN access? Let's complain about IT. Your laptop died while you're 2,000 miles away from the office, and now it's the middle of the night and you have no way to get your work done? Well, you know the drill...

It may be even more disheartening to have a day that their co-workers aren't recognizing. I don't remember Hallmark coming out with a special "Love Your Sys Admin" card, after all. Teachers and secretaries have a slew of them. Not the sys admin.

I was IMing with Brian Robak earlier today. For five years, he was a systems administrator for the National Cooperative Bank, based out of Washington, D.C. Earlier this year, the company made him a network security analyst, but he's an admin at heart. He tells a familiar IT tale in which users think computer services are considered to be just another utility that just mysteriously works. They get up in the morning and turn the faucet on, and water comes out so they can brush their teeth. They get to work and turn their computers on and call up e-mail and applications like it's just more water out of the pipe.

"They don't think about the aquifers, the purification, the pumping, the distribution systems that go into it all," Robak wrote to me. "They just turn the tap, and water comes out. It's the same idea with IT. Click the button and it's 'just supposed to work,' not accounting for the very complex parts of what go into making a system actually work."

He says true appreciation would go a long way with him and his colleagues.

And Robak doesn't mind that Sys Admin Day isn't a Hallmark kind of holiday. Confetti and balloons aren't going to cut it for him. Actually, it may just add insult to injury. All he's looking for is some authentic, honest-to-God appreciation.

The sales team, he points out, gets raves and bonuses when they make the "big sale." Marketing gets the same thing when they pull in a new client. But Robak notes that without the systems running right behind the scenes, it would be hard to get any of that done today. He says it's time management pulls its head up and realizes what the IT men and women are pulling off every day--despite smaller budgets, crazy deadlines, ranting users, and new technology to learn.

"I think a lot of that comes from on high," he says. "If the upper-level management understands the value of the systems that are required to get the job done, then everyone else picks up on that too."

If you missed the official Systems Administrator Appreciation Day, don't worry. You have 364 other days to make up for it. Try a "thank you" just to get started. After all, if you're reading this at work, you have a systems administrator to thank for it. And there's no time like the present.

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