This is something that I’m seeing more and more in business but historically has always been a problem in IT,
It is the little known and little appreciated individual doing a sterling job and no one noticing them.
Now before I get started on this, I’m going to differentiate between them, and the rest of us, We all consider ourselves underappreciated, and we could all do with a pay rise or a promotion or whatever. but if your boss knows that you consider yourself underappreciated or you complain about it, then you are not one of these people. I’m talking about the database admin that does their job each and every day without a complaint. I’m talking about the firewall person who makes sure all of the tables and all of the structures are working for all projects without being chased, so that a working network is taken for granted, the person that manages something buried deep that everybody uses but is unaware is vital for the state of the nation.
XKCD did this excellent drawing which visualises the issue from an IT perspective, but I personally prefer the term: ‘manhole admin’, which harks back to the old Nintendo game and watch. It was an awful game, I hated playing it, but in it, you control a person leaping around trying to cover up every one else’s problem. No one notices anything when he does a successful job they just go on their way with no thanks, but when he screws up Ohhhh does he get blamed. Such people exist all over the place. Often they are dismissed with a ‘no one is irreplaceable’, and while it is true, such people deserve recognition. and if they got such recognition on a regular basis, the roles they play would be revealed to be vital.
However there is a slight twist to this lesson, when you acknowledge such work don’t do the knee jerk reaction of “oh this is suddenly important, we better outsource it to a team and thus if it fails it wont be my fault; it will be someone else’s”, keep that person in charge of the deliverable and acknowledge their value, yes put in contingency, and backup people, But don’t take this persons work that they take pride in away from them.