Hug Your IT Person, It’s ‘System Administrator Appreciation Day’

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What started as a joke holiday back in 2000 is now celebrated in several countries all over the world: System Administrator Appreciation Day.

The holiday’s inventor, Ted Kekatos told Networkworld, “Overnight I set up a website. It was tongue-in-cheek. I sent out an email to my friends announcing the holiday, directing them to the website. It mushroomed and the website started getting a lot of traffic. People were sending the links to other people, and it took off from there.”

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While it may not be all that well known here in the U.S., apparently it’s a big deal in Russia, “where SysAdmin Day has evolved into an outdoor festival,” Kekatos told Networkworld. He warns that not everyone’s on board with the holiday, though, saying, “Every now and then I’ll receive an email from someone saying, ‘[expletive] you, do your job, that’s what you get a salary for, if don’t like it, find a different job.’”

Ah, yes, the surly and unhelpful IT person. They definitely exist. I’ve worked with them as a system administrator myself back in my younger years. Computer problems are like the mail. Mail never stops. No matter how much mail you deliver, there’ll be more mail tomorrow.

Likewise, computer problems will never cease. People will unwittingly download viruses, servers will crash, and most of the time it’ll take you longer to fix something than you think—which screws up the rest of your day and, by extension, everyone else’s. That’s the job, though.

So the next time you see one of your IT people today, give them a big, long hug. It won’t be awkward, I promise. They’ll know exactly why you’re doing it. If they start to say something, simply touch your index finger to their lips and whisper, “Shhh. Let’s just have this moment.”

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day!

(via Networkworld)

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