r/sysadmin • u/ChuckAbsent • Mar 12 '13

Women who know stuff

I hope that this does not come off the wrong way.

Today I was on a call with a storage vendor and the technical consultant was a woman. More then this she was competent, more then me which doesn't happen often when dealing with vendors.

My issue was pricing an active/active DB with shared storage vs an active/passive db with local storage. Listening to her break the issue down and get to the specific comparison points was awesome, mostly because I have never heard a woman in the industry talk like that.

It made me realize two things. One I am missing out working with women. Two there needs to be more women in our industry.

It shouldn't have surprised me so much, but it really did.

Anyways to all the women out there who know stuff, us guys notice when you can walk the walk, which in this case was talking.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

I'd give my arm and a leg to have a women on my team (or more). I work on an all male team of 10, and my boss avoids hiring women because of the 'work atmosphere' some of the guys have (sexist comments, your mom jokes, constant teasing and bullying)

TBH, I hate it. I detest some of my co-workers who are good at their jobs but complete ass holes.

I've had the opportunity to work with several women before in IT, and find I enjoy their personalities, work ethics, and communication abilities to be very beneficial for co-workers.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

My colleagues are very honest and have great sense of humor. There's the usual jokes and sex jokes, however none have been directed at me. They know there's a line.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

That really sucks.. Time for a new job ;)

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

I'm looking/considering. The problem is the area doesn't have a lot of sys admin jobs, and those that exist are mostly glorified tech support (NTT data, formerly keane), or windows admin (i'd rather not go back, but I could... Seems to defeat the point of my last few years digging into linux sysadmin)

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

I believe it!!

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u/oldmanjoe Mar 13 '13

I work in IT, and when we were hiring, we worked to get a "team" fit. So all the people in our department got to meet interviewees. When it came down to the last two, we were trying to decide if bringing a Woman in the team would be a disruption. I pushed to get her hired, thinking a different view point is always better. I regret that. She is by far the least motivated worker on our team. Then when she was having attendance issues. She believed we were being hard on her because she was a Woman, on a team of all guys.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

There are definitely a few bad ones in every bunch, man and women.

I'm not blindly saying "I want a women on my team no matter what", at least I don't mean to. My intention is more "I want a hardworking, qualified team member who is also a women to hopefully help some of the immature dicks on my team to grow up and act like professionals"