[MAD-SAGE] work ethics

[robin stubbs mstubbs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

http://www.usenix.org/sage/publications/code_of_ethics.html

Wow there's some pretty interesting stuff in there, eg, 
"A system administrator must maintain an
exemplary work ethic. System administrators must be tireless in their
effort to maintain high levels of quality in their work." 
"Dealing with recalcitrant users, upper management, vendors or
other system administrators calls for the utmost in
patience and care to ensure that mutual respect is never at risk."

Sure this didn't come from the Management Guild (without the
"System" part :-)? 

Seriously though I don't think we can take one single type of position in an
organization and apply some high-falutin' standards that are many orders of
magnitude more stringent than any other position there. Either
everyone gets on the "exemplary behavior" boat or nobody does, IMHO. 

This reminds me of a job interview I had once that went 
"something" like this: "What if you archived some files and then a very
important user got extremely angry and demanded the root password?" I mumbled
something incoherent. "Then what if they then grabbed your leg". Mumble.. "Then
what if they started biting your ankle?" Mumble Mumble. "And then they started
biting your arm?" Mumble! "And then they lit your office on fire" Mumble!!...
and on and on it went. Did the job-from-Bad- Place people really believe that it
SHOULD be that way? I assumed
the all-male interview brigade was just hamming it up to give me the message to
shove off. The thought never crossed my mind that they were actually SERIOUS
that the sysadmins must always keep a stiff upper lip
regardless of any acting out on the part of users, rather like those
Tower Guards in England.
 
I certainly do not put my seal of approval on such an ultra-conservative
document. I guess I'm in the wrong guild. Where can I sign up for the "System
administration is fun and profitable" guild?

BTW I note there is nothing in the ethics about equality and diversity in hiring
and dealing with other sysadmins, but plenty as regards users. 
Women and minorities are admins too NOT just users.