Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

A Big Year on the Road
Someone asked me recently about my travels this year, and I listed out the trips I’ve taken. So far, I’ve been to these airports on trips away from home:
- LHR
- SYR
- LAS
- ORD
- RNO
- LAX
- JAX
- LHR
- BRU
- AMS
- AUS
- AUS (2nd trip)
Today I’m in Austin for for the second week in a row, this time visiting the Redgate office space.

Still to come this year, that I know of, are these:
- EWR
- SEA
- LAX
- HNL
- LHR
- SYR
- YYC
- MCO
- MCI
- SEA
There are a couple other possibilities,. including 1 or 2 more LHR trips. I’ll also likely get another LAX and AUS trip in somewhere to visit Redgate offices.

I don’t know if this will be the biggest year of travel for me. In 2019, I flew 144k miles in the air. My current total from this query of data I keep:
```
SELECT top 10
  YEAR(u.Transaction_Date) AS FlightYear
  , SUM(u.PQM)
  , SUM(u.miles)
  FROM dbo.United AS u
  WHERE u.Activity_Type = 'Airline'
  GROUP BY YEAR (u.Transaction_Date)
```
is 118k, but this is with a lot of bonus miles. I’ll need to parse out some of the bonus stuff to figure out how much I fly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up with around 100k miles this year.

Unfortunately, the downloads from the airlines don’t separate out bonus miles, so I think I need a little data modeling adjustment to figure out my trips.

With things reopening, this feels like a big year, and I am looking forward to all of these trips.
June 22, 2022
Onboarding Remote Employees

I guess that I was a remote employee that needed to onboard at a new company at one point. When Redgate Software bought SQL Server Central, I lived in Colorado and the company was (mostly) in Cambridge, UK. However, I was hired mostly to continue the same work I did at SQL Server Central, so I didn’t really on board with the company. I signed a contract, and set up payroll paperwork, and that was it. I used my same workstation and laptop, albeit with a new account, password, and VPN, but almost everything was the same for me.

Over the last two years, we’ve hired many people at Redgate, with most of them being brought onboard remotely. Plenty of them have never seen any of our offices, and quite a few didn’t meet any other employee in person for months. Our blog posted a couple of stories from people we’ve hired in the last year about the remote onboarding process.

The stories are a bit light on details, but I know that we send out packets of info and boxes of equipment to people, and we use Zoom and Slack extensively to help people get themselves configured and set up for work. I also know that our managers are good about regularly reaching out to people and connecting them with resources if they need assistance.

For many technical people, I think getting a pre-configured machine and then credentials would allow us to get working easily. A URL or path to source code and server names ensure we can work on a database or a set of code. Asking a few questions of current employees should solve any minor issues with connecting to development resources.

I don’t envy anyone that starts a new job without being able to see or talk to someone in person at a new company, doing new work. However, I do think this is a process that is likely to continue for some time. Even those companies that have open offices and employees available likely have learned how to send someone packages and get them productive quickly without needing to schedule everything face to face. Even most signatures can be handled electronically these days.

I do think we miss something by not getting together, at least periodically. I know I enjoy traveling to the Redgate offices, and I think most people would gain something from being in the same room as their co-workers some of the time.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

June 22, 2022
Daily Coping 22 Jun 2022

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to take time to notice things you find beautiful.

This probably doesn’t look like much:

It’s a new manure spreader. It’s a work of engineering and art, at least compared to the old one. We’ve had the same one for 15 years, and it was small, the bottom rusting out, the wire cables that operate it were frayed a bit and I’ve had no shortage of scratches and cuts while using it.

I didn’t use it often, but each time I did, I wished we had a new one. Or that I’d have time to take things apart and replace them. I never did, but it eventually rusted the bottom and we bought a new one.

Seeing this in action is beautiful, and while I don’t relish the chore of spreading manure, I am think it will be more enjoyable when I do need to use this device.

June 22, 2022
Daily Coping 21 June 2022

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to speak to others in a warm and friendly way.

I’ve been traveling a lot lately. This means I’m running into lots of people I’ve never met, and a few I have. Last week I started this tip while at VSLive in Austin.

I do remember that many people can be introverted and shy, and others are ignored. I usually try to be polite and welcoming to people, even when I’m introverted and tired. Specifically, I made it a point to be polite (please, thank you, excuse) me to staffers at the hotel. I’ve done those jobs, and I appreciate how they can be stressful.

I also made an effort across just two days to greet, smile, and be polite to other attendees. Hopefully setting a good example of what I like to see from others at events, where they have opportunities to network.

June 21, 2022