Seven (more) things I wish I’d known before becoming a sysadmin

Let me start with a brief background to give my stories some context. I worked in desktop support for a couple of years before becoming a technical trainer on various platforms (Windows Server, different Linux distributions, Cisco, etc.). Eventually, some former students approached me to work as the network/systems administrator for their small organization (about 65 users). I worked there for a couple of years—an experience that inflated my already robust sense of cynicism. I freely admit that many of my observations are based on very small organizations (fewer than 100 users) and companies whose cultures did not easily embrace technology. I later returned to the training industry, though I did various consulting projects on the side. From those years come these anecdotes.