Never be responsible for something that's only valued when absent

I wish I could follow this advice. I heard it from one of Google's CIOs. He said he never wanted to be a CIO because you end up being responsible for things that are only valued when they are unavailable.

Like email. Or worse, voice communications. There is a 100% expectation of dial tone. So people don't care about you meeting your 99.99% SLA. No, you are at risk of getting fired over the .01%

When in IT Operations, I used to whine that nobody notices when the train runs on time. It is only that one, cold, rainy morning that it was 20 minutes late that is remembered. Of course in the US, this is a bad example. The trains running on time would actually be notable. But you get the idea.

I sometimes envy actuaries. They make great money and can't be proven wrong until they are long retired. In IT, you can be proven wrong instantly and publicly.