Category Archives: Ethics

Careful, your contempt culture is showing…

I recently (I say recently…about 6 weeks ago…getting new blog posts out takes a while these days!) came across a tweet from someone I used to follow (who I’m now blocked by) that they thought was utterly hilarious: I, however, did not. I really really hate this kind of joke. And I’m probably more sensitive to it than most. I’ve… Read more »

Women’s stories from the tech trenches – and how *YOU* can help!

(Warning: this is post is LONG!) I gave a talk with this exact title at Ignite the Tour in Sydney, on 14th February 2019. It was a 15 minute lightning talk, and I barely scratched the surface of what I wanted to get through – but something is certainly better than nothing! So I then submitted it as a talk… Read more »

The ethics and morals of operations – how much access is *too* much?

A discussion in 2016 on Twitter & in /r/sysadmin made me pose this question: “How much access do you consider is too much? Is there such a thing as too much access? How much access is actually needed to do our jobs?” Not only that, but a few situations recently have given rise to the fact that a number of… Read more »

IT Pros – we need to take better care of ourselves!

Earlier this year I became aware of a movement within the Ops community – HumanOps.com This is something I’m fairly passionate about. Those of us who keep the lights on, keep the computers going, keep the servers whirring, keep the network lights blinking…we’re not machines. We’re only human. We are fallible. We make mistakes and hopefully we admit to them! We… Read more »

Ownership vs. Responsibility – the fine line of a sysadmin

One of the biggest issues I’m noticing in the industry is that we’re still seeing sysadmins taking “ownership” of certain things. For example, I’ll hear people talking about “my” servers or “my” service or “my” tickets. I know I’ve been guilty of this before (I’ve referred to the DC’s at work as “my DC’s” many many times) but I’m trying to… Read more »

What’s the point of doing the right thing?

This is a bit of a stream of consciousness post, because it’s something that monumentally frustrates me. This has been eating at me for a while. For those who follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some posts regarding this. May have seen me get a bit angry about a few things in relation to this topic. It’s something… Read more »

Scrutiny

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So, my “social media presence” (I hate that term, it just sounds like a haunting of some kind) has come under scrutiny from my current workplace. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this. I started off feeling a bit wary, because I know that some of the things I post are rants and crankiness. Then it morphed into… Read more »

Sexism rears it’s ugly head…again

DISCLAIMER – This is in no way a reflection on my current employer. I am not bad-mouthing where I work or the people I work with, as 99% of them are fabulous. I need to put this up, pretty much to cover my own arse, but I still want this story to be told – because I don’t think we… Read more »

The wedding ring saga

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As those of you know, I had a rather unfortunate incident regarding the ordering of my wedding ring. Now, I’m not a bridezilla – I’ve been extremely calm through this whole process, I’ve maintained my composure because, after all, it’s just more day in our lives. Sure it’s an important one, but it’s just one day. The ring, however, has… Read more »

“You can pry into anyone’s files or emails….right?” I really hate this question!

As a systems administrator, I have a higher level of access to people’s information – their files, their account details, their email. But, as quoted a number of times in SpiderMan, “With great power comes great responsibility”. Yes – I can pry into anyone’s files or emails *if* (big “if” here) I was requested to by a manager, in writing… Read more »