Well, pager (or mobile for that matter) going off all the time, applications crashing at times when normal people don't even think about confusers anymore, and people expecting the IT personnel to know everything about phones and copiers - that sounds very much like my job, and I'm (unfortunately) a windows admin...

But then, every user is potentially (and probably) dangerous. So, be prepared. They will ask you questions when they see you on Sunday morning in town. They will leave their password-protected screensaver on, go for a coffee and expect you to repair their machine in the meantime. And true, you don't learn Unix from books - but they may save your life, so keep them where you can get them quickly.

--cs