System Administrators: Are you chilling with no tasks all day or constantly on the run?

Posted by Big_Elderberry_8064@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 47 comments

Genuinely curious — are there sysadmins here who barely have anything to do during the day? Like, you’re just monitoring stuff, sipping coffee, maybe watching logs scroll — and still getting paid decently?

On the flip side, are there admins here who are always on the move — patching, firefighting, answering users, fixing things nonstop, with barely a minute to sit down?

If you're on either end of the spectrum (or somewhere in between), how did you end up in that situation? Is it the company culture, the size of the org, good automation, or just bad luck?

Would love to hear how life is on both sides. No judgment — just trying to understand how different sysadmin lives can be.

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ohiocodernumerouno@reddit

Last time I had nothing to do. I was summoned to the owner's mansion to setup a gaming PC and get both kids Roblox accounts in order.

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Consistent-Taste-452@reddit

Hahaha this one's awesome, I was asked to setup dsl at the ceo beach house in Maine. I said no though, was too far, they sent the other tech.

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serverhorror@reddit

How many variations of this will you post?

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Consistent-Taste-452@reddit

As many as it takes to get info from someone specific....

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serverhorror@reddit

You got specific answers, just not the answers you liked.

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Consistent-Taste-452@reddit

Well I'm not the OP but im suggesting perhaps they are trying to uncover why their coworkers or employees do what they do when they do work.

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serverhorror@reddit

Or they want validation for doing what they do, which I suspect is the case.

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ITLevel01@reddit

Lately it’s been pretty nonstop. My team has been pressured into filling up as much of our time with tasks because our C-suites have been in a mood lately. Likely caused by the tariff shenanigans and overall economic outlook.

Micromanagement has gone up exponentially. The lack of praise we had before has turned into a weekly “what we’re doing wrong” during our update meetings.

It’s almost feels like they’re setting us up to fail. We used to have a good balance. I’d even have time to study during my shift on a regular basis. Now I get home and don’t want to look at a computer.

I’ve been lucky enough to get interviews, but competition is high. Hopefully I get a gig where I can regain the balance I had. It makes a huge difference if you work somewhere where IT is respected and isn’t a punching bag for shitty management with near sighted decision making.

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ClamsAreStupid@reddit

Some rare days, yeah, I get to chill. But mostly it's putting out fires created by others.

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Brilliant-Advisor958@reddit

Those rare days I get to work on back log stuff .

Updating documentation, update scripts that I know work but are inefficient. I never have a "free" day, but days where I don't have to deal with end users is real nice.

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Fatel28@reddit

Treat yourself every once in awhile, set your own fire

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timbotheny26@reddit

I just woke up from a nap, and I initially read this as:

"Treat yourself every once in awhile, set yourself on fire."

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Fatel28@reddit

Sysadmins can have a little self immolation as a treat

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Dsavant@reddit

YEAH ok SCCM

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TheMysticalDadasoar@reddit

You take that back.....unless you are updating it

Or adding drivers Or an application Or updating an image in a Tas sequence

Alright as you were.....

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IStoppedCaringAt30@reddit

The first 6 years of my career, I spent cutting my teeth and running around fixing things all day. The next 5 years had much less running around and small problems. The next 5 years I set my own daily tasks and really just do what I want unless there is some big project going on. I like to think the longer you've been in it the less bullshit work you should be doing.

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rodder678@reddit

I've worked for tech startups for a long time. We're always slammed. There's inherently massive technical debt when you start at zero, and IT is a much lower priority for resources than building product and revenue. The business is constantly changing (and hopefully growing!) and priorities and business needs change frequently. It's fun when you have enough resources to make regular progress on that debt--an endless supply of cool projects to work on.

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wrootlt@reddit

Depends on the time of the year, situation with projects, company strategy, etc. Also, i hate downtime. So, usually i am doing something. Sometimes it is hectic, but manageable. There are times when i can let my self chill, scroll my phone or go for a stroll, get a snack, etc. Most days probably 80% work - 20% chill, sometimes could be 50/50.

How did i end up this way? As i mentioned, hate downtime, i need to be doing something or it gets extremely boring. And i also tend to get involved in many things and it could be not really some work i am doing, but just responding to messages from co-workers who need help or to consult about something.

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rosseloh@reddit

I'm in the middle. There's always tasks to do but many of them are either waiting on someone else or too much to do as one person so working on them constantly would just overshadow other things that also need to be done.

If I was constantly on the grind I'd be burned out in a month. Never ignore the idea of taking a break.

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No_Resolution_9252@reddit

If you don't have anything to do most days, its because you aren't looking hard enough

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Temporary_Werewolf17@reddit

I recently had someone tell me “You do not get paid for what you do, but what you know how to do.” That has stuck with me and I tell myself that on the slow days.

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mrdeworde@reddit

It varies; these days on the run is the norm.

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BoogerInYourSalad@reddit

yeah especially if there’s a change freeze

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ranthalas@reddit

Change freeze starts every Thursday at noon until Monday at 0600.

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Bondegg@reddit

Changes all the time, I’ve been flat out for about a month now, but before that it was decently casual, had time to get on with some stuff I wanted to do, tedious tasks like cleaning up the AD etc

But then other times, like this month, you’re constantly running around, pure pressure.

Both have their pros and cons

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almightyloaf666@reddit

It should be the first, sadly it's the second.

Reasons imho are: company greedy big time, massively undestaffs everywhere and everything is urgent.

This way you end up with lots of "quick and somewhat dirty". Also, loats of scope changes during and after deployment, instead of planned ahead, thoughtfully designed and correctly sized systems that will run basically unchanged until the operating system goes out of support.

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Taavi179@reddit

Working for MSP, often get hammered with loads of tickets. When i don't have any tickets to solve i just chill and enjoy the moment. Scrolling some logs or trying to create tasks for self in any ways feels pretty self destructive.

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drunkadvice@reddit

Depends on the day. Our systems are usually stable. I was sitting for a month without much to do, but in the hot seat all last week and got pulled out of bed 3 times this weekend for 2+ hour issues. I’m the lucky guy that was on call for the 4th.

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Smtxom@reddit

There were weeks where I don’t think I did 10 hours of real work. Then there were months where I swear I did 80 hour weeks three weeks in a row. If the infrastructure is good, it usually evens out 60/40 with more downtime. If it’s not, it’s more 80/20 high on the crisis mode.

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Sushi-And-The-Beast@reddit

In any given week, I only do about 30 minutes of real work.

Making close to $200K a year. Im just good at what I do.

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Consistent-Taste-452@reddit

Tons of technical debt by prior staff has me running non stop to fix fires that should have never started , had they been addressed properly years ago before I worked at my current gig.

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SignificanceIcy2466@reddit

Chilling WITH tasks all day.

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saysjuan@reddit

Why choose one when you can have both? That’s what the work day is like with ADHD. Your best work comes only during a constant deadline to achieve that dopamine hit. No impending deadline or emergency and the rest of the day is looking busy, walking around the office like the mayor of IT town kissing hands and shaking babies.

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DogThatGoesBook@reddit

Even when the sky isn’t falling there’s more than enough BAU/service improvement work to keep busy. Add in the constant pressure of large projects and even training is a luxury nevermind actual downtime!

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JollyGiant573@reddit

I know both types. Basically it's hurry up and wait until patch week or hardware refresh or the next Zero day.

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anonpf@reddit

It comes in waves.

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TriccepsBrachiali@reddit

70% of all days are chill, 30% are pure pressure

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oubeav@reddit

This tracks

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throwaway133731@reddit

Please stop giving people false perceptions of this field

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doubleUsee@reddit

I've never worked anywhere where there wasn't years worth of technical debt and years worth of prjects that I could do if the urgent projects and the tickets ever ran out. Usually they didn't. So whenever I can and want to work, there's always work, not unusually there's urgent work. Sometimes I can't work, ADHD is a bitch. Sometimes I don't want to work, and I'll go and chat up someone or I'll take a strut to the store room or the server room, tidy something, set up something for testing and 'self learning'. Can't always run around, I learned that from my first burn-out.

I don't think I'd do well at an MSP where you have to log all your time as productive time. I can work double time sometimes, and not at all other times, in the end i'm as productive, if not more, than the next guy.

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d3adc3II@reddit

Dont be shy when you are free, it means your network/system work smoothly.

If someone asked me, i always tell them: its the life of IT, im free/nothing to do when others are busy, and im busy when other ppl relax at home lolz

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xtigermaskx@reddit

Feast and famine. I'll have weeks where either feels like every system is fighting against me having breathing room and then weeks where I wonder if ill keep my job because everything is fine.

I do my best to make famine time feel like a reasonable work load so I'm not as stressed when it's panic mode time.

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Server admin making 54.5k here.

Community college.

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Striking_Cut_2285@reddit

Some days your the hammer and some days your the nail. Just depends on how much the users are actually doing lol