/var/log/manager: Career Preventative Maintenance Inspections

Every good sysadmin knows his systems, understands her role, maintains competency and fluency in current and new technologies, and knows that without a real system administrator on the job the business will ultimately be less effective. Most sysadmins consider all the extra things that go into having a job with a large company to be unpleasant or painful, yet it is attention to the non-technical, the “little things,” that can clear the path for a good sysadmin to be a great contributor to a large team. Not tending to meta-tasks can create a culture of frustration and eventually lead to unemployment. While these scenarios are specific to my own experiences, every business has its own paper cuts.