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There is a certain class of work in the IT/software world that is utterly thankless - nothing goes wrong and people wonder what they pay you for, something goes wrong and the very same questions get asked.

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All of your successes will occur in the dark of night and all of your failures will occur in the bright light of day.

Welcome to most enterprise IT shops.

It's not IT/software, it's in every field, it's called shitwork, that you don't get credit for, but catch hell if it isn't.

e.g. "what do we pay all these janitors for when this place looks spotless?"

I don't think that's true. I've never heard that about any other industry. Certainly not about janitorial work. Doctors curing a patient, lawyers winning a big case, secretaries keeping the schedule up to date, teachers with kids who pass their tests, truck drivers who deliver on time. all of that is plainly visible. IT is a field in which few people see the results or understand the effort required.

it's true of any industry or organizational structure that is considered a cost center.

As for your examples, those are all boolean - they either do it successfully or they don't, and if they do, it's what they are paid for, and if they don't, they catch hell. There is nothing intrinsic about IT that differs.

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