Layoffs in IT

I was thinking something on the drive to work today about how electricity is sort of like IT. Nobody really notices the power companies until the power goes out. IT is very similar, no one really knows what goes on “down there” nor do they really understand what it is that we do, but lawdy when something doesn’t work, look out! I viewed it as something of a revelation to folks here that things broke while I was on vacation and they had to deal without a fix for a couple of days. Gave them a whole new appreciation for what I do and how quickly I really do get them back to work when there is a problem.

Then I started blog-surfing and found Michael’s tale of layoffs, and it sounds like the users at his company are about to find out just what all those folks “down in the server room” did for them and what doesn’t get done now that they’re no longer there! It’s always the people with no idea about this stuff that get to make those sorts of decisions, and it’s always those of us left behind in IT to make it work, regardless of how misguided those decisions may be. And we always do it too…

By the way, our part of Ohio was unaffected by the blackout, but Angela’s site was down because her brother hosts it up at his house in Mansfield. They had no power last night, but it seems to be back this morning. My employer’s website is hosted in Cleveland and is still down as of this morning. This site is hosted in Wisconsin and had no problems. Funny how all of that works across the web, isn’t it?

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