Jerry put forth on 11/15/2010 5:00 PM:
I am not here to placate the company's employees.
Whether you think so or not, you indeed are there to meet the needs of the user base. A lot of SAs often learn this lesson too late. Without users there is no need for your position. And that fact usually _doesn't_ cut both ways. Think about that for a second.
As I said, at many places this isn't an issue. At others, usually the large enterprises, IT staff are perennial fodder for the meat grinder, mainly because personal relationships with users can't be established simply because of scale.
You never see most of the people who rely on you, yet, they know exactly who you are when things you are responsible for break. They _will_ find you. If the wrong things break, or break too often, whether it's your action or lack thereof that causes the breakage, or equipment failure, etc, it doesn't often matter. Someone important who relies on that system can snap a finger and you're gone, often without ever meeting the person who snapped the fingers, even after 5, 10, 15 years with the place. :( It simply matter who in a position of power is having a really bad day/week/personal life/whatever, and decides to exact some form of revenge on the world that day, when a failure of _your_ system causes s/he to go over the edge. This phenomenon isn't isolated to IT. But, for the past 40 years, IT systems have replaced the functions of huge portions of the office staff functions, so IT is far more exposed to wrath. :(
-- Stan