Happy National IT Professionals Day to the IT pros out there. This important day of recognition started in 2015 and is observed on the third Tuesday in September. It’s designed to celebrate and show appreciation toward the IT superstars for keeping everyone safe, secure, connected and productive. Today is a day to honor network engineers, system administrators, developers, IT support technicians, database administrators, and information security professionals for all their hard work.
The other week, I was chatting with a colleague of mine who is a network engineer during lunch. I was highlighting my recent travel nightmare starring two missed flights and my baggage not showing up. I commented that the airline baggage staff must have the most thankless job in the world because everyone only seeks them out when something is wrong and when they want to complain. No one ever stops by and says, “My luggage was on time, thanks.”
My colleague laughed and asked me, “When do you think the last time anyone sent me an IM and said, ‘Hey Tony, just letting you know the network is working perfectly, keep up the good work’? He answered, “It hasn’t happened in four years.”
After reminiscing over our wildest experiences as IT professionals, my colleague then proceeded to recite some of his favorite IT questions and comments he’s received over the past many years, including but not limited to these gems:
“The Internet is down!” (his personal favorite).
“Why is it called a wireless router when there are wires connected to it?”
“If I roll down my car window, will my cell phone get better reception?”
“Where is the ‘any key’? What other key is it next to?”
So in the spirit of our National Day, don’t just complain to your company’s IT team when something goes wrong – give them a shout out when things are going like you expect and for doing an outstanding job.
Or, if you feel you must complain, please give your colleagues a crazy, “what are you thinking” IT-related gem of a question or comment so they can laugh about it when you leave.
What are some of the wildest experiences you’ve had as an IT professional? Leave a comment below and share your story. I’ll send out an Infoblox t-shirt to the best comment that I haven’t heard before or gets a good laugh from me.