1

I have always been of the type that if I can fix things, and automate enough, my job is done here. if you work yourself out of the job, you won.

im starting to think that this is a quickly dyeing breed and not really sure where I picked up that mentality. am I malfunctioned or are there others out there?

109 Spice ups
2

No. This is what efficiency is supposed to look like and why you may be getting paid a bit more than the guy who continues to do stuff manually and repetitively.

62 Spice ups
3

Its too bad there aren’t more like you

Automate the manual repetitive tasks work on the cool and interesting things that are out there

41 Spice ups
4

Wait, you mean data entry and repetitive tasks aren’t the cool and interesting part of the job?

25 Spice ups
5

Yep. That’s my take on things. If I can outsource my job to a script, I’m happy. Every month I can get away with it without the management knowing is just an added benefit.

Of course, this does lead to some days of boredom and the occasional frantically trying to look busy when the CIO passes by. I guess that’s why I’d love to find a place in an MSP somewhere. If I have multiple clients (thus multiple IT environments), the odds that something will break in an interesting way increase drastically.

13 Spice ups
6

Re-frame your skillset. Idea is not to do maintenance, rather innovate & advance.

Doesn’t make business sense to eliminate the architect of the automation. There will always be revisions, refinements, updates, refreshes, and technology changes. Related, there is ever the big item most often missed: documentation.

Automation shouldn’t make the company or the sysadmin complacent. Along with documentation, there is keeping up with technology; training users, admins, & executives; optimizing systems; reviewing systems & logs; and so forth.

Consider Google, Facebook, etc, have not been titling their engineers “syadmins”, rather "SRE"s (site reliability engineers).

25 Spice ups
7

I think our rol as sysadmins is to keep systems and information available most of the time, and keep me available most of the time too. I try to automate everything I can, so i can save my time, and also avoid mistakes.

6 Spice ups
8

I personally do not think that you are malfunctioned. I have seen people like you around at times, but alas it is few and far in between at times. You’re the type that gets the job done and done right. Heck, that’s what we need, but not what the companies always want since…well, they’d have to pay you more. So don’t think that you’re the person that’s really in the wrong. You’re doing the right thing.

3 Spice ups
9

It’s all about getting out of being reactive and moving to the proactive/preventative way of doing things.

Instead of reacting to problems as they happen, you’ve got your scripting and monitoring humming away in the background which will alert you to potential issues, hopefully before they become user-noticeable events. This frees up your time to be proactive - look at replacing that aging server before it goes kaput. How about upgrading the firewall? More time to research that next, cool, new widget that’ll save you even more time and the company even more money.

4 Spice ups
10

I just did this. Everything I came accross I just fixed and it ran. IT didn’t drive the business because they’ll be doing business the same way they have done it for the past 15 years, until they close their doors. Not much to even automate really. I worked myself out of a job, felt guilty about staying, started becoming stagnant as a result. I had to go plus I was the only IT person there. When you start getting no calls in a 24x7 shop in a 2 month period it’s time to move on. I need projects to stay alive and I wasn’t getting them so it was time to go.

I think you have the right mentality. I know I can’t sit in a chair and rot. I have to be on something. Hell, I had almost resorted to doing pushups at my desk…

7 Spice ups
11

IT is about setting up, maintaining and growing the nervous system of an organization.

4 Spice ups
12

If you are doing your best, need not worry about anything else. Your on the right track. It will bear fruit in future. Don’t give up.

2 Spice ups
13

No good job lets you “work yourself out of it”. There is always more to be done and new things to do. It should just be working yourself out of reaction into proaction.

33 Spice ups
14

Sadly some of them don’t automate, they let things break, then bill to swoop in and save the day. Then you as the tech are trying to explain why IT could not prevent an easily preventable situation. :slight_smile:

1 Spice up
15

Unfortunately, I guess I had a case of this.

Did such a good job that they are like, we’ll call you when we need you… :cry:

So my hours got cut to nil… What about getting unemployment under these circumstances?

Technically i’m still working there… Occasionally they need me to do things.

16

I actually did work myself at of a job about 15 years ago. I was the network admin for the south-east US, and had to make regular visits to exotic places like Norcross GA, Mobil, AL, and LaFayette, LA. I decided that these areas were not high on my list of places to go to, so I ended up installing DRAC and remote control software on everything in my region. The corporate office noticed this and figured they could do everything remotely in Boston without the need of someone in Texas. Doh!!

When I am in an interview I am often asked what my dream job would be. The answer I give is somewhat unorthodox, but it has worked very well for me. My answer is that I want to be a bored IT guy. If an IT guy is swamped and running around, that means that their business is losing money and not running efficiently. I understand that this will never happen as there is always something to do, but it is a noble goal to work for. If you are a company owner, seeing your IT department with nothing to do should make you smile with relief and not lament the expense.

14 Spice ups
17

I wouldn’t consider it to be ‘‘working myself out of a job’’ but automating things certainly makes MY job easier. Yeah you can automate stuff but when something breaks (and it will) they still need someone around to fix it.

I automate the repetitive tasks and the tasks that CAN be automated but there still needs to be oversight and monitoring of those tasks.

In any case, as long as there are end users there will always be an I.T. dept to deal with them.

3 Spice ups
18

Just dont tell the boss its automated and let him think you are awesome

2 Spice ups
19

It’s about making your job easier so that you can focus on new, better ideas. So if you automate all the things, you can find new ways to automate things, or make them better, or whatever. Worst case get involved with network security - that’s an area where the job is never truly done.

6 Spice ups
20

Clearly, you’re not working for the government.

4 Spice ups