I have had quite a few employers in my career. Of the ones that paid me for computer work, I’ll say that there were 3 great ones (1 I owned), 2 average ones, and 3 poor ones. I’ve had a few other minor times or contract situations where I didn’t really judge or care one way or the other. A lot of time is spent at work, but if it’s days/week/(few months), I can deal with most situations. That being said, even at the poor places, I learned a lot and I grew, so I don’t regret them or wouldn’t want them removed from my past. There are always good and bad things about any job. As I tell my kids, every job is a job some days, even my amazing position at Redgate.

Recently my employer, Redgate Software, was on a number of Best Places to Work lists in the US. We took 28th in the US (5th in Austin, 4th in LA, 10th in NY) with higher rankings when you filtered to mid-sized businesses. While I don’t work in those places, I do go to our offices, and I think we have an amazing culture, workplace environment, support, and training for staff. We’re a mid-sized company now with a bit over 500 people, which is amazing. I was person 146, but I’ve known the company since it was 8 people. As it’s grown, I think Redgate has done a great job under Simon Galbraith’s leadership of building a place to work that is productive and profitable, but enjoyable and interesting. Our current CEO, Jakub Lamik, has continued to help Redgate thrive, both as a business and as an employer.

Many of you reading this are data professionals in some way and likely work for someone else. Do you think you have a great employer? Are you happy with the workplace, be it in an office, at home, or some combination? Would you vote for your employer as one of the best places to work in your city? I didn’t here, but I would. We’ve regularly made similar lists in Cambridge, UK, where I’ve most often visited an office.

I worked at home for 5 years before I started at Redgate, and since then I’ve mostly worked at home. I regularly visit offices 4-10 times a year, mostly in Cambridge, but also in Pasadena, Austin, and New York. I appreciate that we built offices that are comfortable to use, with plenty of tech that makes life easy for employees. We are flexible with hours, and even the rules we set in place can flex or bend for individual situations. We hire smart, motivated people, and everyone learns how to both be supportive and accommodating while holding themselves and others accountable for work. I think we are sometimes too nice, but that might be my cut-throat US business upbringing compared to the UK style of work.

To be fair, Redgate isn’t for everyone, and we have had no shortage of people leave in our 25-year history. We’ve also had quite a few people leave and come back, realizing not only is the grass not greener elsewhere, there are plenty of worse places to work. I don’t love everything about Redgate, but I do enjoy working with a diverse group of people from many different countries and backgrounds, with a very wide variety of experience relating to databases. I learn from many, get ideas from different viewpoints, and get the chance to try and better explain databases (DevOps, monitoring, etc.) from my point of view and experience.

I loved working at JD Edwards, and I really enjoyed my partnership with Brian Knight and Andy Warren at SQL Server Central. Redgate is up there with those organizations as a great place to work and one I enjoy almost every day. Can you say the same thing? If not, hopefully, you find your situation more positive than negative.

Steve Jones

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