Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Union Benefits

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 19, 2009. It is being re-run today as Steve is away at SQL in the City.

    I know lots of you don’t think unions are good, they create inefficiencies, etc., etc., blah, blah. We’ve debated that topic before and I’m not sure that anyone would change their mind.

    Suspend those thoughts for a moment. Not because you’re wrong, but because I want you to have a bit of fun this Friday. For this Friday’s poll:

    What benefits would you like if we were unionized?

    Stop and think about it for a minute. If you could argue for better benefits in your job, something that you think would make you more productive, or your company more productive, what kinds of things would you want your union to get?

    For a few thoughts, I was thinking along the lines of these things:

    • Retraining – Some guarantee of xx days of training for every xx years of service if they get rid of your technology?
    • Ergo Chairs – Or any other equipment that might make you more productive for your whole career
    • extra vacation – The US standard is still 2 weeks, though many companies combine sick and vacation time as one 3 week block. What would you want? 4 weeks? 5?
    • Medical benefits – Perhaps some base level of benefits that’s higher than you normally get?
    • Telecommuting – Some guarantee to commute xx days a year?
    • Professional Advancement – Certification payment with no penalty? Something else?
    • Overtime – Should we get paid for extra work?
    • Holidays – More holidays?
    • Retirement – Pensions?

    I’m not necessarily thinking that we’d get all these things, but it would be interesting to think about what benefits would benefit the group as a whole. So let us know what you think, and what might improve if we had a union. I’m not asking you to support one, or even calling for one, but just thinking a little outside the box.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

    The podcast feeds are now available atsqlservercentral.mevio.comto get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

    Overall RSS Feed:  or now on iTunes! 

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.

  • One Down

    Yesterday was our first 2013 SQL in the City event in Pasadena, CA. I was excited and nervous, with 3 talk and a keynote that I needed to integrate and work with two others on. We practiced 3 or 4 times on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, trying to get our timing, and our lines down. It felt appropriate that we’d scripted out most of what each of us needed to say and produced this like a mini play or movie. I’m glad we practiced because the first few times were rough, but when it came time to deliver this Wednesday morning, it seemed to go over well.

    Tuesday was also setup day. We had plenty of Red Gater’s from the UK over to help. There were booths to be set up and laptops checked

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    There were plenty of bags and badges to be readied and organized

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    There was even one guy with a red shirt.

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    On Wednesday it rained in Pasadena. I was surprised and unsure of what was going on as I drove in the early morning to work out. At first I thought the rain might be an issue and then I realized I was being silly. I have planned on swimming, so what’ s a little rain going to do? Get me wet?

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    I had a nice swim, getting some laps in as the sun rose on the west coast.

    Then it was off to the venue, a touch more practice and as people trickled in, we opened with the keynote. The demos all worked, we took turns speaking without any pauses, and I think it was a good story. We got good feedback later in the day, which is always nice.

    I had my version control session up first, and it went well. Quite a few people were using version control for databases, which was good, and I had some good questions on how to get teams to start working together with VCS. No one even argued with my “shared development databases are bad” section.

    I also had an encryption talk later in the day, and then a backup common mistakes talk where my demos didn’t work well. I’d set up the VM, but for some reason my licensing expired on the local server. I think I must have snapshot’d it. Grrrr. Still, it was a good talk and I’m glad I included the backup description. Quite a few people had misconceptions on how a full backup actually runs and works.

    Everything ran smoothly, thanks to our amazing organizer, Annabel. You can see she was very relaxed throughout the day as the event went off without any issues.

     

  • Manners

    This editorial was originally published on Apr 6, 2009 and is being re-run as Steve is away on the SQL in the City 2013 tour.

    I’m not entirely sure of what to call this rant, but I settled on “Manners” and am going with that. This was inspired after some recent events both on SQLServerCentral and other sites around the Internet.

    We have “The Thread” on the site. I won’t link it in here since if you haven’t heard of it, I see no reason to disturb it with lots of extra reads. It might be the longest thread on the Internet, and certainly is the longest one here at SQLServerCentral. It’s got thousands of replies and tens of thousands of reads. The thread started when someone asked the regular contributers on the site if it seemed that the questions being asked were getting worse. The first poster wondered if people were trying less, unable or unwilling to search, and unwilling to try and help themselves before posting a question.

    There have been a lot of people who are regular contributors here, Gilamonster, Jeff Moden, RBarryYoung, LynnPettis, Bob Hobvious, Grant Fritchey, and more (apologies if I’ve missed people that post a lot), have been going through this thread, often venting and complaining about the way questions are asked, joking with each other, and providing examples of problems they see. It’s been a fun ride for those participating in the thread, or at least I think it has.

    None of these people are paid for their time and efforts, at least not directly. I guess I get paid, but I don’t have to be in the forums helping people as much as I am. Most of us do it because we want to help others, teach them something, and give back to the community that helped us grow and learn earlier in our careers. That was the reason I started this site with Andy and Brian: to help others.

    What’s amazing to me is how often I feel that I’m babysitting someone on this site in trying to lead them to an answer. I feel like I’m trying to teach 5 year olds about SQL Server some days.

    I know that people don’t like it when I don’t just give them the answer. I get frustrated sometimes when I post on other subjects, but I also understand I’m getting free help, and as long as I get “help”, I can deal with the hints and links given. I expect I might have to do a little more research or reading to figure things out. That’s what I try to do, give people hints, references, and links, to help them learn. I expect them to do a little work as well. I’m happy to help, but I don’t think I should be giving out free consulting to people.

    Why the rant today? I had someone post offensive language in a thread that I removed. I posted to say that we don’t like unprofessional language or personal attacks, but I also added I felt that the person responding to the thread hadn’t really provided enough information. The person got upset with me, which is fine, but they also frustrated me a bit in that they refused to acknowledge that they might be in the wrong, especially after multiple others agreed.

    The bottom line is that you should treat other people the way you want to be treated. You may get into an argument with someone and that’s OK. Keep it professional and respectful. However if 3 or 4 people tell you that you’re approaching something wrong, or behaving badly, perhaps you ought to stop and consider if you are in the wrong, or acting inappropriately.

    Steve Jones

    Note: I started this rant as a podcast, and then wrote the editorial from that, so to see the raw footage, watch the podcast. It’s why this rant goes a little off-course.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

    The podcast feeds are available atsqlservercentral.mevio.com. Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

    You can also follow Steve Jones on Twitter:

    Overall RSS Feed:  or now on iTunes! 

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.

  • Letting People Go Securely

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 15, 2009. It is being re-run as Steve is away on the 2013 SQL in the City tour.

    The world economy appears to be in shambles, with many companies cutting back in all facets of their business. We hear regularly in the US that people are being let go from their jobs as positions are trimmed and companies look to save money.

    When someone is let go, typically they are asked to leave the premises on the day. I’ve seen escorts that walked people out or watched them pack up. In some extreme cases I’ve seen people escorted out the door while another employer packed their things and brought them out. For IT workers, it’s a little different since they often have privileged access to systems. In addition to removing their personal belongings, having  an IT worker leave means that passwords and possibly accounts need to be changed to ensure that the company is safe.

    However when someone resigns and gives their two weeks’ notice, I often see that many people are expected to work their final two weeks, brain dump their knowledge to others, perform documentation, or even continue doing their job. In all of the positions I’ve resigned from I’ve worked out my time, even doing some last minute SQL Server development on a Friday afternoon, my final day of work, with plans to leave town the next morning for a new job.

    There was only one place that I worked with a different policy. In that company, if someone with above normal privileges, which included upper management and IT administrators, they were escorted out of the building immediately if they gave notice to terminate their employment. That surprised me, but I understood it. People were paid for their two weeks notice, but management didn’t want anyone to have access to company funds or systems if they planned on leaving. I saw an article recently that provides some justification for this, with a survey showing 59% of people leaving a company steal data.

    On the surface this makes sense, but does this help prevent data loss? I don’t think so. What happens is that employees that are likely to steal data will just take the data before they give their notice. You haven’t changed their behavior, but by not allowing them to work out their notice, you punish the remaining employees who have to suddenly pick up work from their ex-colleague.

    There isn’t a good way to protect data from employees that want to steal it. But you can put in place auditing, and smarter systems that allow monitoring and auditing of your systems. They won’t prevent issues, but hopefully they’ll allow you to detect and respond to them.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

    The podcast feeds are now available atsqlservercentral.mevio.comto get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

    Overall RSS Feed:  or now on iTunes! 

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.