Evolution is finely tuned, revolution is almost invariably bloody.
What's happened with Digital is that there's been a revolution. The old establishments are fighting hard to last long enough to evolve some new method of staying in business (and employing people) and continuing.
In the meantime, we have a fight with lawyers, as people try to hold on to the old ways (same as happened with the introduction of the printing press).
The simple press of reality will eventually force the matter, and digital will start to be what it should (i.e. very low cost, almost zero scarcity). What's good for society at large is a slow, planned migration to this, rather than a quick scorched earth approach.
That being said, I'm not saying "Suck it up", otherwise the extremely conservative may well get legislation in place that will effectively break progress for a long, long time.. We all have to keep fighting the abuses that are laid on by the corporations to obtain the freedoms that society needs to flourish. It's an eternal fight.
That's life though.. Without the struggle, there's no progress.

Although a union to say "You don't have to be forced to give up having a life, just so someone can get their spreadsheets at all times of day" would be nice.
Everyone wants a 24x7 IT system. There's a way to do that; lots of money on the hardware, and three complete teams of core staff who work shifts (with the commensurate shift salary augmentation).
But no, what business wants is a group of IT staff who work the same hours as everyone else, for the same kind of salary as the average pen pusher, who will then, at no notice, respond to a phone call at any time of day or night and get to site (or at least connect up remotely) and spend hours diagnosing network/server/PC/application problems (possibly calling up other IT staff), and then being in for work the next day as if nothing happened.

I've been in a few similar situations over the years. The first thing you put on the table is "This is not an acceptable situation. Your risks are .".
If they don't cover this, then that's really not your problem. I've coding for 32 years, and doing sysadmin stuff as well for about 20 (among other strings to the bow), and live in despair of people who really don't understand that this stuff doesn't happen by waving a magic wand, and there is more to it than making pretty buttons appear on a screen.
At interview, if someone said they'd reverse engineered and documented a system in this environment (and yes, I interview people for dev/admin jobs from time to time), I would seriously ask them why they didn't get management a junior to cover the paperwork and cover duties, while they dealt with the heavy lifting of reverse engineering and planning. I want someone around who will grok the risks, take responsibility and come up with a resilient service (not just a few machines that may be able to fail over). Budget isn't always easy to come by, especially if there are political axes to grind.
I'm with the AC on this, from the limited info available. Either get them to get you a second, or get out. If the business is thriving, they can afford it, and they're just being cheapskates (and in many years, I've met quite a few like that) if they don't. You don't want to work for a cheapskate.

The time to take this kind of work on solo is if you're part of a startup, when you've got a lot invested in the success of the company. You live or fall on your wits, capability, and ability to lose every evening, weekend, and many a night too, on keeping this up and running as cheaply as possible.
Once the 'thriving' level arrives, you'd better make sure you're not still carrying that load alone, otherwise your own lifespan (as well as that of the company) may be quite severely limited.

Your money gets there via a payroll department. HR don't usually get to play with financials..

Definitely with you on that. I'm a pretty private person (well, apart from those minor rants I have on the 'net now and then, but hey, those are opinions I choose to share), and like to keep some things about me quite quiet.. I'd assume others are just the same..
If someone chooses to share, then fine.. But things work best if you leave people their privacy..
As an added bonus, if (in the UK at least) you're in a sysadmin post, and are caught with your fingers in the metaphorical cookie jar, then you'd better have a good backup career planned.. People tend not to take too kindly to that, and rightfully so..

Did processor design a LONG time ago (forgotten most of it).
You can get benefits by having a compiler that makes most use of it, and schedulers that know how to eke out the last ergs.
If you put a radically different design out there that a base OS wasn't designed to handle, then it's no surprise that things don't quite work out..
It's easy enough to tweak the software to get the gains (as long as you have enough leverage with the OS vendor, or can make the patch yourself); why allow things to stagnate, and force optimisation of a legacy system when you can start doing things for the future?

Oh, I'd love to see that. A server that has bandwidth to cope with a duplicate of all the EU traffic.
I can see a big spike in the tax bills...

Ok, so all those companies that provide a product for free are going down the pan? High grade support is where the money seems to be for a lot of things.
Sure, some things help to have the IP paid for, but some find other avenues. Knowing the price of everything doesn't necessarily imply you understand the value of anything.

Talk to your current employers, let them know the score.
If you're happy where you are, then you may just be taking a leap to somewhere more stifling (larger companies have a different feel to startups when you work there). That's an 'if' though, it may work better for you.
If they get shirty about the info, then you can always leave to the new job (no risk to you). If they really value you (and can afford it), maybe they'll match or exceed the new offer you have.
That's the thing with conversations, you rarely know how they'll end before you start them. You'll learn a lot by talking to your current employers, that'll direct your actions once you know the results.

Informative Post over Anonymous Coward?

I suspect you weren't listening. It was pretty clear to me.
In a free society, you are free to do things. However, you are also responsible for the things you do (with freedom comes responsibility). Your implied concept that freedom must mean the abrogation of responsibility, then you're building the foundations of a lunatic asylum. There are already a whole slew of things that you're free to say, but reap the downside of (slander etc.).
I suspect the intention of "free speech" was to prevent the government repressing the people, not being able to speak out against tyranny and being forced to be mere silent pawns of the state (you know, kind of how the peasantry of England was at the time of the war of independence).
Instead, you now have abusive petty tyrants in the thousands who believe they have the absolute right to bully, demean and abuse people by way of words and expressions, and somehow, it's magically OK to do this because they're guaranteed freedom of speech, supposedly with no repercussion or consequence to their actions? This is definitely not the utopia imagined; more of a dystopia that wasn't even imagined back then. Actions have consequences.
The idea of freedom is you get to choose the consequences, good or bad. Same as you get the choice about whether to pick a potato from the fire with a toasting fork, or use your bare hand.
If people listen to the words, that's up to them. It gives you no real idea of their thoughts on it. As soon as they act on it, you know, and that's when you punish the illegal. However, incitement to crimes doesn't let you walk away free, as far as I believe.. Same as you'd be unhappy if someone kept threatening (in a serious way) to kill you, and asking people around to rough you up. Would you be happy that he was perfectly free to pursue this activity as 'just words' and fight for their freedom to say them? Or would you turn round and say "This guy's nuts, this is just plain dangerous and insane" and request that the cops do something?
Know what I'd do.. Request that this loon reap the consequences of their actions (speech is an action).

"There mere expression of an idea cannot hurt anyone"
Interesting theory. It does fly in the face of psychology, but hey.. Sometimes, expressions of ideas are the most harmful things around.. And they leave scars you don't get to see, which makes them really convenient if you want to hurt someone and get off free..

Interesting. Emotion doesn't make internal combustion engines run, or the world turn on its axis. Or keep the bits running through the network, keep logistics chains running or anything else that allows a civilisation of the nature of the world today to keep running.
Of course, you'd be right if everyone was happy to return to a small, hunter gatherer tribal society (perhaps even an early agricultural level).
Emotion makes you feel good though, which is what makes the subjective world for you. Objectively, logic makes the world go round.

And that's not to the idea of the tiles, which seems to me to be great and laudable, it's a "wow" to the nit-picky posts that seem to have proliferated about "oh, they're stealing my energy from walking, who will pay for the extra effort" and such like..
Seriously people! The body is designed to absorb shock from walking (all that cartilage in the joints and such like). Hey, to improve on that, shoes were designed to help absorb impact, and let the joints last even longer. Anyone ever thought of asking Nike etc. to pay your food bills for the extra energy that's lost from the soles of their trainers/sneakers?
5mm is a fair old deflection, but I very much doubt that this is a plan 'free fall' level; I'm anticipating quite a 'spongy' feel to it. Like treading on moss, or loosely compacted earth.
Rather than slate, or go all evangelical about it, I'm marking it firmly in the "very interesting tech" drawer, and I'll be making a point of visiting that mall to try out out for myself, then make my mind up..

If you're disabled and in a wheelchair, as long as the ramp is sane (it needs to be) there's no reason why you're any different to anyone else. Got a few friends who are wheelchair bound, and some of them are a damn sight fitter than I am!
They're not invalids. They just have a disability, and these wouldn't bother them at all.