Excellent write-up. My experience mirrors yours to some degree. (apologies for the impending ramble, I'm 31 hours into a 36 hour shift). I started as a Dev way back when, doing Perl and Classic ASP. My first real on-site gig, I remember fully breaking down internally, full panic attack, went to my girlfriend and stated categorically I couldn't do it. Wasn't capable. It was too much.
She dismissed that notion, at the time I think that was her kicking the can down the road to my first day, which turned out to be fine. Looking back, I'd already established myself as a competent Dev by the time I'd bagged my first role.
I then went into the realm of the SysAdmin at a FinTech start-up, that's where I cut my teeth as a NetAdmin, beautiful experience. Had an incredible boss. The budget was endless, a marginal improvement in latency was always congratulated irrespective of how much you spent to lab up the idea and then implement it. Not something you see in many environments.
The stress of that environment got to me, I burnt out. I then went on to the world of broadcast media, as a NetAdmin/SysAdmin.
Eventually winding up creating my own business, almost a decade ago now. Network Administration, ISP, Systems Administration in a box, I'd worked up enough contacts in various industries, and enough folk wanting such a thing. I now employ a modest staff, we're all fully aware of the financials of the company, we all know what each other are paid (amongst the techs, myself included, there are only 3 pay rates, on-site, off-site, and junior).
My team all know they can come to me any time, in person, by phone, by IM/Email, with anything no matter how trivial. I empower all my techs to make decisions, if they turn out to be boneheaded, that's between themselves and I. Rarely happens. If ever it does, it's usually tracked down to a miscommunication on my part or the client's.
Our on-site NOCs are always kitted out in a similar fashion (environment permitting), couch/sofa, smart lights connected to our monitoring system, and alarms, thus the room lights up according to alert level, and a noise occurs. If you're on-shift and sleeping in the 12 hours, that's fully catered for... Being in a NOC of a well maintained network can be tremendously boring. Food is almost always provided or comped. Alcohol is always on-site too.
I only ever work with/employ folk I vibe with. If I couldn't imagine rigging a new network/new production with them for 16+ hours a day without having a proper laugh with 'em, they're not for me.
Most of my techs have side-gigs they work on whilst in their respective NOCs/sites or at base. Providing they're getting our work done first, all good.
Pay rises happen pretty routinely, and ubiquitously, everyone across the board gets a raise. It fosters community. My techs see it, our clients see it, I see it.
Doesn't work for massive companies, but we're in a niche market, there are only 3 other AIO network/ISP solutions as capable as us, albeit without the same amount of fibre as us (and we work with all 3), it works really well for us.
I realised long ago, techies get in to this career because they're ardent nerds, they love tech. The thing that kills that vibe is the bureaucracy and cognitive overhead of dealing with superfluous shite. My techs all know they just have to say my name to whoever happens to be giving them unnecessary shit, and it's dealt with. The technical prowess of my team is phenomenal, they'll get shit done ASAP and always better than expected. Anything that isn't their remit gets cast by the wayside, dealt with either by me, or it'll be me telling the client "That's not what you hired us to do."