Obsessive behaviors in system administrators [closed]

I have been told by colleagues (mainly non-technical) that some of my admin behaviors border on / cross the line between normal and obsessive, which sometimes leads me to wonder how screwed up I really am (read "how screwed up everyone else really is").

What are your obsessive behaviors when it comes to your sysadmin tasks and job functions? What do you do religiously that would make you twitch if you didn't do it or that others just roll their eyes at?

I have reasons for my actions. I want to prove to my coworkers that I'm not alone.

Solution 1:

There are two levels of obsessive - good obsessive and pointless obsessive.

The guy who defrags three times a day is pointless obsessive, because he's not worrying about things that actually matter. The guy who denies user's permission to change the wallpaper on their workstations via Group Policy is pointless obsessive, using his technological advantage to control others to satisfy some ego issue.

However...

The guy who locks his workstation, enforces a strong password policy, keeps firewall rules tight enough but not insane, audits the infrastructure every so often, etc., is good obsessive.

I'd like to also point out that another term for good obsessive is professional. :)

Edit: Also, good obsessive provides a strong and solid infrastructure while not inhibiting business needs. I think that's a key difference.

Solution 2:

I get really panicked about locking doors and security alarms. I always check critical doors several times to make sure they are locked. I have been known to drive back up to the office at 1 A.M. to check the alarm if I don't remember setting it. I am not alone, right?

Solution 3:

It could be suggested that sysadminning is a job that benefits from (or even requires) a level of detail-orientedness that would be considered "obsessive" by societal standards.

(Clearly there's a point where you can become too obsessive, manually defragging the drives multiple times a day instead of doing something more necessary, or spending hours color-coding your CAT6 cables instead of helping users.... haha)

Solution 4:

$ pwd

$ /usr/dimitri/junk

$ pwd

$ /usr/dimitri/junk

$ rm *

$ pwd

$ /usr/dimitri/junk

Solution 5:

Whenever I'm working on a client's computer, I end up running CCleaner and Malwarebytes as well as disk cleanup and defrag.

And as of late, serverfault.com.