Realistic Sysadmin Workload for a Company of 30? 181
An anonymous reader asks: "My company was recently sold to a new owner. Currently I am working as a programmer using a number of languages (Java, C, C#, PHP). I am the only maintainer/developer on a number of important code bases. The new owner wants to add 'Network Administration' to my list of responsibilities. We are moving locations and our infrastructure needs to be rebuilt from scratch. He claims that after being set up (something I am also responsible for) our company IT needs can be met using only 1% of my work week. Our user base will be 30 people, mostly programmers, with a minimum of non-techie staff. I am a professional programmer, but have no real sysadmin/network admin experience. His solution is 'We'll get you a book'. Learning new things is great but, I just want to be a programmer. I'm worried that this network admin responsibility will become my new full time job. Does this 1% statistic hold water?"
I know a guy (Score:4, Informative)
The boss likely doesn't want to hire a separate admin since that person doesn't make direct money for the company. A programmer makes software which brings revenue. An admin makes computers work, but doesn't bring in any direct revenue.
If you are moving there will be a lot of up front admin work. If you can set something up that is really kickass from the get go, then you can probably keep the amount of admin time per week in the future really low, but not down to 1%. Of course, this requires basically not programming for awhile just to plan and set everything up. But if you don't then the admin work will be this ghost constantly haunting your higher priority programming.
More money than brains PHB? (Score:5, Informative)
MOD PARENT UP! Very true, but a little too mild, in my opinion.
The job that is mentioned in the Slashdot story would take an already skilled person 50% to 100% of his time. That's because it is not serving regular users, it is serving programmers, who expect a lot more from their computers.
Computer administration is not just administration. There a many lengthy one-time projects, like finding better backup methods, or dealing with the latest vulnerability. Fixing and cleaning after a serious security breach can take a month, for example.
Anyone administering Windows computers must deal with the fact that there are people with huge amounts of money who want to exploit Microsoft's (deliberate) sloppiness. One list of major investors in spyware [benedelman.org] companies shows a total of over $139 million in venture capital. Remember, Microsoft makes more money if a user becomes tired of slowness and problems caused by spyware and buys a new computer, which is how most resolve such problems. If you administer Windows computers you have the richest man in the world and his rich think-alikes riding on your back.
It sounds like the old story. People with control over more money than brains buy a successful software company, figuring that they can extract more that ever before from the customers.
We already have enough information to predict that the company will go out of business. Because it is a reasonable assumption that the person who submitted the Slashdot story isn't the only one being abused, we know that the company has already begun dying; the abuse is killing the company right now. It may, however, be a slow death, sometimes old customers are reluctant to change to new software, and try to live with the new stupidity.
There is a reason why Dilbert [unitedmedia.com] is one of the most popular comics in the United States. The real bosses are actually worse than the pointy-haired bosses in the comic. The real PHB's abuse everyone, take more than their share of the money, and destroy [cnn.com] the company [google.com], too.
The new owner of the company is wanting to test the limits to see how much he can abuse the Slashdot story writer. He is: 1) wildly out of touch, 2) ignorant, 3) self-destructive, 4) arrogant, 5) abusive, 6) seriously abusive, and 7) lacking in social skills.
What may happen is that not enough time will be spent on computer system administration, and the programmers will not be served. That's the self-destructive element.
Re:Programmers (Score:1, Informative)
In my shop, the programmers are 95% "self-service"; if they change a setting that screws something up, they know enough to change it back. Sometimes an intern screws themself though. We point and laugh enough at them then that they learn to be more cautious....
For us, it's the sales folk who create the biggest problem; they get the most spyware, viruses, browser-jackings, etc... And there's a running pool when each salesman leaves and turns in the laptop; how big will the porn cache be? (And what fetish, if any? So far, nothing illegal...) The 2 issues are obviously related...
Re:Get out, get out NOW. (Score:2, Informative)
This exact thing happened to me. I was hired on as a programmer, they moved me to Windows/UNIX Administration saying "It will only take a few minutes a day".
2 weeks later, I was spending better than 50% of my day working on "minor IT things".
6 months later, I was fired because "I was not making all my programming deadlines". Never mind that I had physical proof that the IT job they stuck me with was the cause, they wouldn't hear me out.
Dude, my only advice is, RUN. Polish up your resume and start sending it out, make a post to Craigslist, just get out of that company.
You have been labeled as the "IT guy" by your boss; Refuse it and you won't be a team player and you're screwed. Take it and you won't make you're deadlines.
You are really screwed.
Sorry man, been there, done that, got the unmployment to prove it.
Re:If you don't know, how would he? (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, bottom line is that 1% is a fantasy especially if you use Windows and are connected to the internet. You May get it down to 5% which is 2 hours a week, but I doubt it. It takes almost that much to deal with software updates, monitoring security bulletins, etc. never mind user demands.