What are the pros and cons of working as a System Administrator remotely or on-site?

Remote work offers evident benefits that need no further elaboration. Its suitability depends on the nature of tasks and the individual preferences of the worker. If your role involves hands-on tasks such as replacing or troubleshooting hardware, remote work may not be ideal. However, for most other responsibilities performed primarily on a networked computer, remote work suffices and even thrives. As long as communication channels remain open for assistance, the physical location becomes inconsequential. Obviously exceptions exist but working remotely is a boon to the majority of those in the tech sector.

Remote work as a system administrator brings a range of benefits. Enjoy flexibility, cost savings, and increased productivity. Set your schedule, work from anywhere, and save on commuting. Experience autonomy, fewer distractions, and improved work-life balance. Expand skills through diverse challenges and technologies, enhancing professional growth.

Remote system administrators benefit from the freedom to work anywhere with internet access, allowing for flexible schedules and cost savings on commuting. This arrangement fosters a healthier work-life balance and opens doors to global opportunities, enabling collaboration with diverse teams. However, communication hurdles and potential isolation can be drawbacks. Security concerns also loom larger, necessitating diligent measures to protect sensitive systems and data in the absence of physical oversight. Despite challenges, the advantages of autonomy and global connectivity make remote system administration an appealing option for many professionals in the IT field.

The benefits of working remotely are that you can focus on more than one task at a time, knowing that there will be no interruptions from users around you, you can start work and not have to invest valuable time driving back and forth from location, time in which you may have an outage that could be resolved remotely. The "cons" are that on-hands cannot be done remotely (someone on-site may be able to assist, especially in locations that are not in your same state or country) and being unable to reach users or colleagues that may be on-site

I agree, I enjoy the savings of time & money by avoiding the commute, focus time and the work life balance. Collaborating is much easier with advances in technology like teams but there are times when face to face collaboration is best.

I work with people around the world. Being in an office isn't going to change the fact that the team is spread out across the country. The company network is segmented, zero trust is set up in every aspect of the infrastructure.

One of the challenges of doing remote work is you need figure out the solution by yourself most of the time because even if you're working as a team, there are chances that they will not reply to your email as quick as you expect even though they are online. To address this challenge, I usually give them a miss call to see if they are online or available. Also, you can message them on other platforms if you are close to your team mates which is usually did.

This type of work made me realize I can achieve my tasks. They helped me meet many people and respect my work times and my co-workers. The only risk I can find is that you can get used to this type of modality and not accept good offers just because they are on-site. As well, companies can lose good candidates for not offering this modality as an option.

A big drawback for remote work is bringing other team mates up to speed on systems and constantly having to watch a Teams chat window for notifications that apply to you. Having other family members at home can also be challenging to staying productive if they are interrupting a lot. Chat only goes so far, nobody likes using cameras to meet and missing that in-person collaboration can be huge to some.

Interaction with colleagues is crucial and unique. Important is to know site from inside out and understand week points and issues which can be identified by speaking with users directly and by analysing system logs etc. As long as work has been done on site then other aspects can be finished remotely. I think that best approach is hybrid when you have best of the both worlds. The key thing is accurate software or own custom scripts, policies etc. which will help with tasks to be completed. Security approach at the moment is not on the highest level and needs to be identified bit more and treated more serious.

I am not sure I agree with the more recognition if you are working at the office. As an Infrastructure Admin for the past 40+ years, as long as systems are working then nobody cares but as soon as something breaks then that is when they realize that we exist. :-)

Now that I work 100% remote, I see no upside to working on-site. As a system admin, I depend on the physical hardware less and less as workloads move to the cloud or other teams manage the physical infrastructure. I'm willing to go on-site for racking and stacking, but not to sit in a cube and take remote meetings all day.

I agree that most people don’t notice us in the corner unless something is gone wrong. We try to post updates from our departments and then sometimes they get a bit of attention however they just see us when there is an issue or needing help. I have been remote working since Feb 2020 and I prefer remote working and then if it’s serious then it’s a visit to site. Health wise it helps me because I have an immune system disorder and get chest infections really easy. I am in teams calls etc tho to keep my self mentality involved with the rest of the team and to keep myself from feeling alone. Either way I want to share massive appreciation for all sys admins in the world and sharing tech ideas and developments is the way to make us better.

People love a live body that they can reach out to. They feel better when they can go to you instead of hoping you answer the call. Being in the office makes people think you are more accessible but that depends on what you are working on. Interruptions can be a pain.

There's definitely a benefit of being in the office, providing co-workers and customers with the ability to stop by with questions or issues. The days of needing to physically touch hardware in most enterprises ended for the most part, a decade or so ago. The person that can multi-task the remote site scenarios alongside the on prem scenarios while in the office, showing face at meetings and being available to all, is going to have a better chance to advance than the remote worker.

On-site challenges include endless meetings, people walking up to your desk to ask you to drop everything and come help them. Distracting noises, smells, conversations. Colds, flu, coughs. The extra 1-4 hours a day in prep, commuting, and winding down. Keeping a closet of work clothes.

"War room" meetings were too frequent. They rarely resulted in quick solutions but killed the day for the too many people involved.

Frequent interruptions from coworkers is a big challenge. Focus is diverted when you are dealing with critical issues and someone jumps in to know what's going on. This slows down the overall process.

One of the most common things that kept me from moving forward on projects was folks knocking on my door asking me to come fix their desktop issue. When a C-Suite member knocks, you have to go, even though your rookie helpdesk tech is likely going to fix it faster than you, for some reason the execs want "the best". Sometimes you just wanna say, "boss, I haven't installed RAM in like 8 years, let the young guy do it, he can actually see them screws!"

I have to admit that the most critical part is to strictly divide job and free time. It will not always be possible, however you always should try it. Another negative effect is lack of live communication. While is does not effectiveness directly, it does affect yourself. Or if you have unstable internet or do not have separate room for your work (rather common case) it will bring obvious discomfort and maybe will spoil the whole impression. Always have tested and working backup internet channel, so you can switch to it fast.

Hybrid is my preference, it’s nice to have company and bounce ideas off of my colleagues in person. It’s also great to have the balance to socialise after work also.

After working onsite for over thirty-six years in positions that include systems admin and infra planning/management, I've been able to work remotely for a few months now. Full remote has its challenges that dont come up with onsite - needing to been physically at the equipment when it's after hours and rest of the IT team are heading home. Timing has it that you are already there most times. Mondays are always Mondays Working remote for the middle of the week and being onsite for beginning of the week provides a good balance. You don't get distracted by office culture and happenings and get work done. Being onsite allows you to feel connected to the people, place, and machine. The hybrid allows a refocus of your responsibilities.

Hybrid is nice, except if you have to maintain two workspaces, there's always the possibility of leaving something at the other space. People's hybrid schedules may be unpredictable or may not align. It can be the best of both worlds, or the worst.

Being hybrid has many benefits when it comes to communication. Being able to talk to coworkers face to face gives the ability to allow you to feel the emotions in the room. Where as an email or teams call helps with quickly understanding the direction of conversation. Being able to talk to people in person and to talk online is a skill and knowing which way to communicate and when greatly benefits the hybrid role.

You need to be honest about what you want. Remote work doesn't suit everyone. Working remotely doesn't mean you're not working. Some people still think that if you're working remotely you're not working, you have endless free time. Working remotely, I work more hours than if I were in an office and commuting.

Generally, I see more advantages in remote work - the most is avoiding street jams and more free time for the same salary due to this factor. Also, you can save a lot not buying office-suited clothes (and another important thing is that you can wear anything that is comfortable for you). Good or bad, cloud migration will sooner or later make sysadmin/devops jobs mostly remote, excepting those related to datacenter maintenance. As of tendency to force everybody work from office, I suppose it is not effective, but surely brings more confidence to managers. I am a bit worried about tendency to force everybody work from office, I suppose it is not effective, but surely brings more confidence to managers.

The choice between working remotely or onsite as a system administrator depends on your personal preferences, the nature of the role, and the specific organization's culture and needs. I, as a fierce advocate of work life balance, personally in million times will go for the remote option and accept to go onsite only if necessary to avoid commute,less flexibility, office politics and limited work-life balance. While others thrive in a structured onsite environment with Face-to-Face Collaboration and Immediate Access to the infrastructure. It's essential to evaluate your own priorities and career goals when making this decision.

Lets face it guys & gals, this role has changed significantly. As with many other IT roles... and really this occurred without many realizing it. You/We don't need to physically be anywhere but butt in chair at our computer, remoted in using the VPN. If you need hands on, there are plenty of options at the sites generally that we should be able to leverage. In the event it is hardware, that is what vendors are for. So, really, you need a competent set of hands to have vendors do what they need to do and that same set of hands to push the button physically at the location(s). The transition has happened and corporate in general isn't happy about it. They can't keep an eye on us in our 8x8 prison cells they put us in 8-12 hrs a day...