1. I listen to my users. I listen to what they are saying and how they say it. I understand their frustration and try to empathize with their problems. I try place myself in their situation and thus have a better idea of the urgency of their issue.

2. I speak in terms they can understand. If there is no way to ‘dumb it down’ I tell them an anecdote or story that has similar structure, causes or outcomes that relates to their issue. Ex. Telling them this particular issue happened last year to so-and-so and explained how everything was ok (or not).

3. I make daily backups on tape, twice daily hard drive images of all servers, hourly backups of databases, remote to ftp backups, etc. I have a chart with the type of failure and the recommended action should I be inaccessible or recently deceased. NOTE: This is a serious issue. What happens if you are the only system administrator and you die in a car accident on the way to work? It is unlikely you can be replaced so soon, and even if you are, a new sys admin may not know the entire structure of your systems in time before a catastrophe happens. I had a system fail on me the FIRST day of work at a new job. I was being introduced to people in the office when it happened; I hadn’t even taken my coat off. Luckily the previous administrator had a somewhat planned system in place so I didn’t appear inept.

4. I ask others what they want. Someone needs a new keyboard, I ask what they want! They want a dvorak or a qwerty keyboard, one of those angled ergonomic ones, who cares, they are all the same price. It pays off to have the user happy.

5. I try my best to no make people feel dumb.

6. I continue my education.

7. I bite my lip when people are frustrated and take it out on me (see previous post). I realize computers are a big part of most businesses, and if they do not work properly or at all, users get very frustrated. Sometimes they cannot help becoming irritated. I tolerate a certain level of dissent, but I’m not a pushover either. A support role or service role requires a higher than average tolerance for confrontation.

8. I don’t use TLAs in the presence of non-techies. (TLA = Three Letter Acronym)

9. I try to standardize my equipment for ease of replacement.

10. I give users the option of teaching them how to fix an issue, or just to have me fix it. Some people like to learn.

11. I am firm about policy when I need to be.

12. I hold all users to the same standard, regardless of place in the company. Watch out for this: you may get fired. But the reasoning is because if I let certain people get away with certain things, it may cause irreparable damage to the entire system. If I let management get away with downloading torrents of something, and they open a file up and it wipes their hard drive, it’s my butt on the line. Sometimes a good scare will get these free-willing people in line.

13. I love my career.

Related posts:

1. Rules when dealing with the Corporate Nerd (IT/Sys Admin)
2. Email Address Specifications

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