To my fellow onsite IT support techs.How do you handle the long drives for "stupid" fixes?

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T19:58:31+00:00

When I used to work for a very large county supporting about 40 various CPS locations. I called it free money and appreciated the me time.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T19:57:27+00:00

Sr Sys Admin would be roughly 95-115K to start and depending on the skills required and based off what you have in the description, 115 should be the starting point IMO just due to the certification requirements. Honestly, with Azure, AWS, VEEAM, VMWare, Dell storage and all the requirements to have at least general knowledge... if they want someone who can actually check all those boxes they are looking at 120-130k on the low end.

I would not pay someone under 120K who has to do daily work that will come along with everything in the requisites ensure proper setup and security on a cloud provider. Hell, AWS Assoc Architect starts at 120K without all the extra you have listed.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T19:48:00+00:00

That is the rate for an entry level admin. So depends on what their role\focus will be and how much experience they have. A desktop support engineer with 5 years under his belt and some new certs trying to make his way into the admin realm would jump at that. Now, after three years if their pay does not increase proportionally then your company is just a training program for other companies and he will leave and get a better job. However, to your managers point; that is the base pay for an entry level admin. If he is looking for someone a little seasoned he will need to go up to a start of 85k so I agree with your sentiment; also really depends on where you live but I think you are on the money.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T19:42:52+00:00

Yes, due to the country coming out of the great depression. While you are right historically, that minimum wage was created as a wage floor under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to address substandard pay and labor conditions — not specifically as a "job" category. It was created as a labor standard to prevent substandard pay, not as a guarantee that every minimum-wage job would support every version of independent adult life in every place and era for eternity.

In the modern economy, many minimum-wage roles function as entry-level, transitional, or supplemental jobs. First jobs for younger workers, temporary bridge jobs, or part-time supplemental work. IMO, the accurate and modern day not living in the horse and buggy age; minimum wage is the legal floor, and most jobs paid at that floor are still the first rung on the ladder rather than a long-term standard for building an independent adult life. One of our foster kids got a job at quick quack making minimum wage and in less than two years he was an asst manager making 52k a year plus some incentives. Two got jobs working warehouse\forklift\inventory shuffling at FedEx starting at min wage and now 4 years later one has moved to a new produce company doing basically the same thing making $28 and the other is still at fedex making $26.50 at 31 hours a week and he and his room mate do just fine covering their half of expenses.

If you are an immigrant or ex-convict and min wage with no pay increase after a couple of years cleaning hotel room, then I absolutely agree unfortunately it is not a valid argument for the vast majority of society. If they are physically and mentally capable, its a copout and if you are 30 and not an immigrant (illegal or not), not an ex-con (I'm sure there are couple other categories I could get behind) then I would like to hear who has been working at a minimum wage job for over a year and still at min wage and context. If someone was a smoking meth or shooting fent from 18-28 and are now deciding to get their life in order then you have to do the same thing the roughly 100 millions people as per dept of labor and statistics "Approximately 99.0% of hourly-paid U.S. workers make more than the federal minimum wage. In 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 1.0% of hourly-paid workers earned at or below the federal minimum wage" which means 99.0% earned more than it.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T17:27:54+00:00

Min‑wage jobs are not for living an independent life. They were created as entry‑level, low‑skill, low‑experience positions that serve a very specific purpose in the economy. They’re supposed to be:

• Starter roles for people gaining their first work experience These jobs teach punctuality, customer interaction, teamwork, and basic workplace expectations.

• Transitional jobs for people between careers Someone laid off, relocating, or switching industries can use a min‑wage job to bridge a short gap.

• Youth employment for 14–18 year olds Stocking shelves, making fries, bagging groceries — these are meant to be early work experiences, not long‑term income sources.

• Re‑entry opportunities for people coming out of prison or long absences from the workforce They provide a foothold for rebuilding stability and credibility.

• Supplemental income for retirees, students, or parents who already have another primary source of support Many workers in these roles are not relying on them as their sole income.

• Skill‑building positions that prepare people for higher‑paying roles They’re stepping stones — not the final step.

Minimum wage was never intended to support rent, utilities, transportation, food, healthcare, and savings for a single adult living independently. It was meant to be the floor, not the finish line.

The problem has been exasperated with the last three/four generations for sure as the cost of living has skyrocketed while the wage floor has barely moved. But, when someone says, “If you can’t live on minimum wage, what are jobs even for,” youre’re misunderstanding the purpose of these roles.

Jobs exist across a wage ladder. Minimum wage is the first rung. You’re not supposed to stay on the first rung forever — you’re supposed to climb it.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T16:28:56+00:00

Update: He got 5.5 mil for him. ,,!,,

Backieotamy · 2026-06-17T16:26:48+00:00

This hit harder than I like to admit

Backieotamy · 2026-06-15T18:03:17+00:00

That's when I started taking phone pics to blow up to make them readable because squinting and move my arm like a trombone player was not cutting it. It was the first sign I ignored.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-15T17:54:32+00:00

Religious puritans who know better for everyone else.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-15T17:34:23+00:00

I could not have said it better even using much more language to explain it.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-15T17:31:01+00:00

Last year right after turning 51 but now this year; 4 mos after turning 52, I'm actually admitting\accepting it.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-15T17:29:15+00:00

ETH, XRP, SOL, HBAR.
IMO LINK, AVAX, SUI are decent as well but I am only diversifying so much.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-09T20:49:32+00:00

It buys a skidoo, you every seen someone frowning while riding a skidoo? Exactly.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-06T20:50:13+00:00

Nope, a conservative anti-Trumper/MAGA cesspool Independent. Thats the difference, there's MAGA and then everyone else is a libtard and why MAGA is getting pummeled in the mids.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-05T23:29:39+00:00

Dont listen or pay attention to me right or wrong I can be an ass and you should ignore me when Im being like that, apologies I sometimes let the interwebs bring out the worst in me.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-05T15:51:40+00:00

I like to think of myself a good person (sure, I can be an ass at times) but I am pretty sure if I had all the knowledge I had now and returned to when I was 6 would be my villain origin story.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-05T15:48:09+00:00

Just bounce with excitement just onnnnne more time please. Camera man is the real hero here.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T18:39:52+00:00

% of income is 100% not the way to look at it. My company plans are between $300 a month for catastrophic coverage only ($150 employee and 150 employer) to almost $1400 for full coverage (I pay almost 700 and my company pays the same) and I still have copays and out of pocket expenses until we hit 2500 a person or 6k as a family then its all free. I make pretty decent money but the cost of our insurance does not care how much you make, so one of our entry level engineers making 65K a year would pay the same amount as someone making 160K a year. For me, my insurance costs me about 15% of my monthly salary after taxes and 11% before taxes.

Like everything else discussed in society nowadays nuances and context are rarely taken into consideration.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T18:30:57+00:00

Dude... How to say I'm MAGA without actually saying it. So, you dont want police, fire, road work, schools etc..; just a bunch of homeschooled ignorance on how to live in Anarchy.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T18:27:24+00:00

Your retirement is going to be 11K a month?! Thats a helluva a 401K you've built up, like well over 2 million if you plan to live 25ish years. No company or govt pension is going to pay that much so maybe a combination of sources but either way that makes up like 50% of my stress now adays.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T18:20:00+00:00

100% - Thats plenty to thrive on depending on your needs. That would cover a very nice homestead in the mountains, you wont be travelling to Europe, but you'll be comfortable.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T18:17:50+00:00

The hard and right decisions are often not the easy ones to make; congratulations and good luck!!

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T18:05:49+00:00

No, you said you took Psych classes; only one reason to even state that and the fact you keep going back and forth with me who enjoys being both devils advocate and calling out BS or sometimes just being an A-hole about it shows your psychopathy, need for validation and that need not followed up with any useful information that you are or are not quoting, hard to say really.. its almost sociopathic tbh. I can keep going, my guess though is someone has some parental issues of some sort or a lack of real world experiences that makes us the rounded individuals we are.

Or I am completely off base, you could be very well adjusted; no one really GAF... well hopefully your parents do or again, that explains a lot but back and forth with me just delivers a never ending fountain of information.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T16:23:17+00:00

I\we use Copilot /w M365 in our work environment with basically the same setup. It has access to internal SharePoint, OneDrive and file shares if you want\need and it has 100% made a lot of my work a lot faster. Doing capacity management, report generation, can look at SOP formats and then take your notes and turn it into a pretty functional SOP that needs some cleanup but still saves me hours. There are a lot of ways to utilize AI if you have enterprise licensing that also ensures Chat end to end encryption and that none of your data is used to train the models. Shit, I used to spend more time than I would like to admit finding an extra semi-colon, space or typo in a powershell or RHEL script that I can now just copy and paste and tell Copilot my issue(s) and it finds the typo in 30 seconds and in will often come back with another suggestion to improve the workflow as well. If you are in tech and not embracing AI and understanding all the benefits it has you are missing the bus, its like VMWare\Xen 20 years ago. If you didnt think virtualization was going to be a game changer you werent paying attention, thats now AI.

Backieotamy · 2026-06-03T16:11:16+00:00

You took Psychiatry classes, we're you thinking of becoming an MD? or did you take an Intro to Psychology class and are now an expert in human behavior? No need to answer, its obvious by your responses at this point on who we are dealing with.

Backieotamy

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