I got a message today thanking me for keeping the web servers running well the last few months. Being thanked for keeping the system up and running had never happened before. I have been yelled at, questioned and blamed when servers went down, but never for ensuring that it stayed up for a long time.
We remember and document the moments when things go wrong. If there is downtime, people are blamed, the processes are blamed, and tools are blamed for why the system was not working. Very rarely, though, we look through all the above and thank the previously named when things are working well.
Maybe, we should. Thank people when things have been working well. When they have no reason to call you, yet they do. They have no reason to shout you that breakfast, yet they do. They have no reason to plan a trip with you, yet they do.
