Source: Own illustration
Today, July 31, marks another SysAdmin Day, a day on which we’d like to thank system administrators for their important work. From workstations to servers, networks, and applications, sysadmins ensure that everything runs smoothly every day and often solve problems before anyone even notices them. Our colleague Peter took a lighthearted look at the daily work of an IT admin. Was it satire and what is reality? Much of what he describes is actually closer to everyday work life than we’d sometimes like to admit.
A Perfectly Normal Workday
An IT administrator’s typical workday usually doesn’t start with a problem, but with the deceptive illusion that maybe today will be a quiet one. That thought lasts about as long as a Windows reboot.
As soon as you arrive at your desk, you first check the state of the systems. If everything is working, that’s generally a suspicious situation in IT. Because every admin knows: If nothing seems broken, it’s just that no one has noticed the problem yet.
Before the first cup of coffee even has a chance to kick in, the ticket system fills up with the usual issues. Computers aren’t working, printers are refusing to print, the internet is especially slow today, and programs are supposedly just closing on their own.
Priorities and Minor Misunderstandings
A particularly fascinating phenomenon in the day-to-day work of IT support is the perception of priorities. What looks like the end of the world from the users’ perspective often turns out, upon closer inspection, to be a misplaced desktop icon, missing shortcuts, or a slightly altered layout following an update. For those affected, however, their ability to work is at stake in that moment.
Add to this the widespread belief that IT tasks can generally be completed in a matter of seconds. Granting permissions, replacing hardware, or configuring access rights often seems surprisingly simple from the outside. The fact that processes must be coordinated in the background, documentation maintained, security policies complied with, and multiple systems must communicate with one another usually stays hidden from view. Only the result is visible. And when everything works, the impression quickly arises that it couldn’t have been all that complicated.
IT support also consists of spontaneous visits. Although ticket systems and established communication channels exist, people still often opt for the classic approach of briefly stopping by a colleague’s desk or, in a hybrid work environment, sending a spontaneous Webex message. Things get particularly interesting when someone says, “I didn’t want to open a ticket. This will definitely be faster.” Experience shows that at this point, the duration of the task becomes completely unpredictable.
The Little Mysteries of Everyday Office Life
Nothing creates more suspense than receiving a message stating that “everything has been deleted.” Within seconds, an administrator’s mind begins to picture corrupted databases, failed backups, and tedious recovery processes. In many cases, it turns out that only three desktop shortcuts have disappeared or that a folder was accidentally minimized. Still, that dramatic opening is simply part of the ritual.
Passwords are also a common part of the workday. They get forgotten, mixed up, or denied with great conviction. Things get particularly interesting when users are convinced they’ve never changed anything, only to find out that yesterday, out of curiosity, they did “click around a bit.” Password resets are therefore about as much a part of the day as coffee.
Classic IT Problems
Printers, on the other hand, are in a category of their own. They have a special ability to refuse to print when someone is watching, and to work reliably the moment an admin steps in. Sometimes there’s simply no paper, or the wrong printer was selected, and sometimes a document has been waiting for half an hour just for the print job to be confirmed. Nevertheless, one regularly gets the impression that the admin has just pulled off a technical masterpiece.
Even computers that are supposedly running extremely slowly often turn out to be surprisingly hard-working machines. Browsers with lots of open tabs, large spreadsheets, video conferences, emails, and an update running in the background, all while the user insists that hardly anything was actually open.
The little surprises of everyday office life are particularly charming. Microphones suddenly stop working until you realise that you were muted. Cameras show only a black screen until you notice the small cover over the lens was still on. Keyboards don’t type what they’re supposed to until you realize the language setting has been changed. And there’s always someone somewhere who’s convinced their screen is broken, even though the brightness has simply been turned all the way down.
A special moment always arises when we work together to find a mistake and, at some point, the phrase comes up: “Oh, now I see it!” Not because something was done wrong beforehand, but because technology is sometimes surprisingly creative in making very simple things look very convincingly complicated.
And that’s exactly what makes everyday IT work so appealing. In the end, it’s rarely about preventing major disasters. Much more often, it’s about solving little puzzles, laughing about them together, and realizing that sometimes devices just want to be turned on or plugged into the power outlet.
Time to clock out? Not quite!
Every now and then, IT admins attempt to draft documentation. It’s an endeavor about as successful as trying to sort through fall leaves on a stormy day. Just as you start to focus, a new problem is bound to pop, which, of course, will “only take a minute.” In reality, however, these quick tasks often take on a surprising momentum of their own.
And so, the end of the workday usually approaches slowly, but rarely in a straight line. Just when the computer has already been shut down and the bag is packed, that one small request pops up. These last five minutes of the day have an almost magical quality. They reliably turn into an extra hour.
In the end, though, you’re left with a good feeling. Because despite all the support tickets, password resets, printer problems, and inexplicable error messages, the company keeps running. Somewhere between reboots, updates, cable checks, and a dash of superstition, you’ve once again prevented the digital world from falling apart.
Tomorrow, it will all start over again. Most likely with a printer. Because while servers can be replaced, systems modernized, and networks upgraded, one thing remains surprisingly constant: printers have a character all their own.
Thank you to all SysAdmins!
On SysAdmin Day, we’d like to thank all system administrators from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for your daily dedication, your patience, and your sense of humor. Your work behind the scenes ensures that our digital infrastructure runs smoothly and that many people’s daily work can continue without a hitch.
To everyone else: please remember to open a ticket whenever possible when you need support from your fellow IT administrators. And if you ever have to stop by in person because there’s simply no other way, keep this unwritten IT rule in mind: snacks are always welcome and help every admin get through the day. Experience has shown that chocolate and cookies are always a hit.
Responsible for the content of this article are Stéphanie Bauens and Peter Watzlawik.
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