Snark and sarcasm aside, I am impressed with the level of detail that the IT department is sharing; it is refreshing to see such a disaster being discussed so openly and honestly, while at the same time treating customers like adults.
I once worked as an admin on Solaris boxes at a big pharma company. There were ~77,000 users in their LDAP directory. I was very careful.
This was a small college, so the IT guys just went round explaining and told us to log out and log in again. Applications re-installed. No data loss and so no shouting.
Stuff happens. We did 'assignment action planning' that morning: mind maps, essay plans and research ideas. Results better than normal anyway
First are the people who believe in the mission. They are really good, and are willing to take a cut in pay for some combination of social good, great working environment, etc. These kinds of people tend to be forthright about problems.
The second group are people who would struggle with the demands of the normal corporate world. They are getting paid less in higher ed and are worth what they are getting paid.
Furthermore, the profs were always happy to see me coming because I fixed their broken stuff without pointing any fingers.
It was heaven.