Why are sysadmins like this

[u/Top_Bookkeeper9136]

In a now deleted thread, somebody posted asking about how to handle that rockstar employee who knows everything.

Of course everyone rushed into the thread, breathlessly proclaiming that they were indeed that indispensable admin. In predictable fashion, posters patted themselves on the back for being the only one who is curious and willing to see a ticket through, everyone else is an idiot devoid of curiosity, unwilling to learn and escalates everything beyond a password reset. Cross train? Document? You might as well be asking me to chew on broken glass.

But it got weirder than that, posters fantasized about AI taking their colleagues' jobs or even servicing their wives??

Why is r/sysadmin like this? Is this just a reddit thing? You'd think people would have the self awareness to realize if EVERYONE around you is an idiot, maybe it's time for some reflection, but nope. These same people also complain that their job is killing them and it's unfair that they are a single point of failure, yet they seem to relish it and do their best to gatekeep their role.

[u/RubberNikki]

Is this just a Reddit thing?

its an internet thing there is a signifiant amount of people use the internet to congratulate themselves.

It's also due to a lack of an ego contrary to popular belief the ego makes you a nice person its how you recognise that people are different from you and they have different wants needs skill sets etc. People who think like this are unable to separate themselves from other people they assume everyone knows what they know and thus they are stupid in not acting correctly on there knowledge.

Also holy crap that thread felt like a throw back to the bad old days.

[u/Top_Bookkeeper9136 → u/RubberNikki]

Why did it feel like a throwback to the bad old days?

[u/NickBurnsCompanyGuy]

First day?

[u/Top_Bookkeeper9136 → u/NickBurnsCompanyGuy]

I just don't get the IT guy ego thing, like no one cares

[u/iamMRmiagi]

Egos

[u/iamMRmiagi → u/iamMRmiagi]

PS: there's probably a shred of truth, but some people don't realise they make themselves the bottleneck. I know I do, inadvertently or through rushing and not documenting appropriately (if your sop can't be followed , its written wrong or the reader is illiterate). 

Zero humility in that thread. 

[u/Top_Bookkeeper9136 → u/iamMRmiagi]

I've been that guy too, until a mentor pointed out that I need to communicate and delegate better. It's not a point of pride to be completely unable to work with other people.

[u/apathyzeal]

I AM THE LIZARD QUEEN

[u/GarageIntelligent]

tldr, is there even a ticket open for this?

[u/Delicious-Ad2528]

There’s another recent post like this that wasn’t deleted, same stuff, probably the same people who commented on the post you linked

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/8zylZ7CCjv

[u/Top_Bookkeeper9136 → u/Delicious-Ad2528]

Wow not even 24 hours later

[u/KnowledgeIsDangerous]

Every sys admin is a shitty sys admin

[u/fennecdore → u/KnowledgeIsDangerous]

Except me.

I'm the best there is.

All my colleagues complaining are just sissy who can't handle valid criticism.

[u/igloofu]

I've always been the dumbest guy in the room. I have met a lot of sysadmins and other high level techs who think they are the smartest in the room. News flash guys, us dumb guys know who the actual smartest guy in the room is, and it is never you. And almost always, the actual smartest guy in the room is willing and even wants to spread that knowledge for the sake of everyone being smarter.

[u/Affectionate-Cat-975 → u/igloofu]

I'm the lazy dumb guy in the room - I openly admin I don't know everything which is why I ask a LOT of questions.....usually these are the questions that the know-it-alls squirm when pressed to answer. Oh and I'll happily train you up so I don't have to do <whatever task> any more :)

[u/Significant_Lynx_827]

I've seen enough people in varying roles convinced they were the single point of failure and that the business or organization would burn to the ground without them, move on or get fired to know that single point of failure notion in this case isn't true.

[u/notarealaccount223 → u/Significant_Lynx_827]

My goal nearly every day is to make it easier for the business to replace me, but harder for the business to justify replacing me.

I solve problems for my business and have a lot of knowledge. If I weren't here, business would go on.

Maybe that outage would take twice as long to resolve, maybe they need to pay a 3rd party, or maybe that rubber stamp on a permission change comes back to bit them. But at the end of the day, business goes on.

[u/Dynamic_Quest_Mod]

The best sysadmins always seem to assume they are missing something. The ones who announce they are the smartest in the room are usually the same ones breaking things and leaving the mess for whoever comes next. After enough years in managed services that pattern gets very familiar. Humility and solid documentation win far more often. 

[u/The-Sys-Admin]

Gotta stay humble. And I'm happy to help humble everyone else. 

Just kidding. I'm an idiot. 

[u/Icy_Payment2283]

I thought it was me because everyone is nice to me at work :(

[u/recoveringasshole0]

Because everyone in r/sysadmin looks like this

[u/judgethisyounutball]

God syndrome...

[u/Free_Cauliflower8251]

A hard lesson every one of them will learn is that no one is truly indispensable.

[u/CoffeeOnMyBeard]

Those types of guys are so painful to work with as a consultant. They get really paranoid and defensive when I am trying to work with them out of fear that I'm a threat to their job in one way or another.

One actually got fired because the problem my team was hired to solve cost the company ~$40k a month, and the internal IT manager kept trying to sabotage us while he attempted to roll his own solution that didn't meet his CIO's specification or goals anyways. I felt bad for the guy, but wtf, why did you think that *after* your CIO had already hired us and paid for part of the project, you would now impress him by coming up with a "better" (more complicated and slower to implement) solution that was "free" (cost $10k a week for every week until it was ready, and difficult to maintain afterwards).

[u/Massive-Valuable3290]

Why was it deleted tho