"but coming in to save everyone from an explosion gets you more points than oiling the valve every day so pressure doesn't build up in the first place. It's a cultural issue that is very hard to combat."
The "hero" part of the firefighter comes from the fact, that they actually go towards real danger as part of their job, they often do unpaid and voluntarily. (A big fire out of control, is a very scary thing)
While the maintainance worker is usually not in danger, if he does his job right.
" It's a cultural issue that is very hard to combat."
So I do not really see a issue here to combat (when using this metaphor). The actual firefighters deserve their praise.
And if some companies are too shortsighted and praise the people heroically fixing their own mess, then I would use a different metaphor there, to adress this.
I guess firefighting is the right metaphor, to fixing big errors in live production environments: it takes a different skill and mindset, to do things under pressure, nothing wrong to praise that.
But I think it is wrong, to talk down the job of actual firefighters, because:
"Clearly there are companies praising heroic fixes, while not praising too much regular maintenance"
the fire metaphor still works: we have arsonists (that build up tech debt or just bad practices) that turn firefighters (by fixing in emergency mode).
Of course not all tech debt is bad, the trick is know when to use it to good effect, not building it up everywhere only to pay it back at the costliest moment. It's all a balancing act.
The "hero" part of the firefighter comes from the fact, that they actually go towards real danger as part of their job, they often do unpaid and voluntarily. (A big fire out of control, is a very scary thing)
While the maintainance worker is usually not in danger, if he does his job right.
" It's a cultural issue that is very hard to combat."
So I do not really see a issue here to combat (when using this metaphor). The actual firefighters deserve their praise.
And if some companies are too shortsighted and praise the people heroically fixing their own mess, then I would use a different metaphor there, to adress this.