Well Jack Wallen, I can see that you being a "writer" and not an IT person "do not know" a lot about about IT work. From all the people in the IT business who work 24x7 sometimes are the computer systems administrators as the duty is rotated on a per week basis and the person, SysAdmin, does not get called every single night and sometimes don't get called at all. Also, support technicians at companies such as Oracle sometimes get called in the middle of the night but rarely this is the case. Now, here is the big difference with SysAdmins and Support Technicians: Support Techs get handsomely paid for the extra time and driving they do; however, SysAdmins do not and that is against "The Labor Law". The problem is that SysAdmins just take it and do nothing about it. Also, SysAdmins work extra hours without getting paid and again the company is breaking "The Labor Law"; how do I know that? Simple, I sue the company I was working for after I resigned on basis of unpaid over-time and I won. Also, I know of technicians who sue the company he was working for the same reason and also won the case; so, bottom line is that the SysAdmins do not have to take it.
Regarding being current with technology is not true either as I have worked for different companies and my co-workers were not competent technologically at all and they had been working for the company for a lot of years...they just learned one OS and that is it! Also, a lot of techs and SysAdmins do not even have a college education and have learned an OS by doing it and probably take a training course (2 weeks) and probably pass the certification tests but even so they are not competent...I been there so I know. As for myself I have all my life being competent as an electrical/electronic/systems/IT engineer and UINIX administrator and in my spare time I always hit the books but so far I have not met any other guy hitting the books as much as I do but I know that it is not a requirement. By the way, I have more than 20 years??? experience in engineering and about the same as a UNIX administrator as I did both simultaneously since the early 80s.