This article was originally titled:

Y2K HEROES
by Judy Backhouse

Not sure where it was first published, but it is sure making the rounds.

>Got this today from a mate in the industry - I think it makes some valid points.
>
>To the I.T. professionals out there who worked on the Y2K issue, this is for
>you (The following message was compiled by an unknown author):
>
>'The truly crazy headed for the hills with fortified bunkers and ammunition.
>The more cautious bought water and tinned food. Even the most optimistic
>drew some extra cash the week before. Everyone speculated about the
>outcome.
>But in the IT world, we worked.
>We checked code.
>We corrected code.
>We tested code.
>We rolled dates forward and backward and forward and backward until our
>nerves were paper-thin.
>We upgraded hardware.
>We upgraded operating systems (to cope with the new hardware).
>We upgraded compilers (to cope with the new operating systems).
>We modified more code (to cope with the new compilers).
>And then we began the cycle again of testing and rolling forward and testing
>and rolling backward.
>We initiated great, complex Y2k projects.
>We compiled project plans.
>We filled in endless forms about the state of our Y2k projects.
>We wrote monthly reports about the progress of the Y2k projects.
>We went to meetings where we were told how the future of the company
>depended on the Y2k project being completed in time.
>We dealt with panicked business people.
>We soothed troubled nerves at dinner parties.
>We were asked to predict the outcome by distant cousins who knew we were 'in
>IT'.
>We became overnight experts in the working of diesel generators,
>photocopiers, motor vehicles and washing machines.
>And, collectively, we averted the disaster.
>Like superman of old, the IT professionals of today managed to intercept
>nothing less than the end of the world. In an industry where projects run
>notoriously over the most pessimistic time estimates, we met the deadline.
>The clocks ticked over to the year 2000 with nothing more than minor
>hitches.
>And were they grateful? Did the world thank us and laud us as the heroes we
>quite clearly were?
>No!
>They turned around and called it "all hype".
>They questioned the money spent.
>We did our jobs so damned well that the only question remaining was whether
>there had been any need to do the job at all.
>So, to all those IT people out there who slaved away at the Y2k problems
>over the past few years, who endured the pressure of fearful but helpless
>managers; who lost endless sleep testing things at night because there
>wasn't a separate test machine; who cancelled their December leave; who
>couldn't be in exotic places to welcome the start of the new millennium; who
>stayed sober on New Year's eve because they were on standby; who went to
>work on the 1st and the 2nd to boot up the machines - I say put your feet
>up, pat yourselves and each other on the back and go and get some much
>needed sleep with a smug smile on your face.
>We did it.
>The IT people across the planet are heroes - even if unsung ones. Like
>housework, what we do is not appreciated unless we don't do it. But like
>the housewives of old we go on doing it, knowing that it is good, honest,
>necessary work - and that it gives us inordinate power.
>So, my fellow programmers, system administrators, database administrators,
>operators, analysts and support staff - congratulations on a job well done.
>Ours may be the youngest profession on the planet, but this 21st century
>belongs to us.