Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Less Pay, More Convenience

    Would you want to work here instead of your office?

    Would you take a pay cut to be able to telecommute? I would, and I have in the past. I took a pretty substantial pay cut to work full time for SQLServerCentral almost a decade ago. It was an impact to me life, both positive and negative, but overall I think it was for the better. We had less money to spend, but I got more time with my kids, which was infinitely more valuable to me.

    It seems that I’m not alone as over a third of IT professionals surveyed would take some pay cut to stay home. The quality of life increase, lower costs, and less stress are definitely worth the trade off and I think more and more people are starting to try to convince their employers to allow remote work.

    However employers are slow to catch on. Most of the jobs that are posted don’t have telecommuting as an option, and many managers are reluctant to allow remote work. I know that I interviewed for two jobs in 2002/2003 and in both cases, they were reluctant to allow me to work at home. For one job I offered to take less money and work from home 4 days a week, but my offer was refused.

    I think we are a long way from telecommuting becoming a common way of working in IT. It will likely take a newer generation of managers and directors that have grown up with the idea of working remotely and with the technology that allows effective work from home to change the prevailing attitude.

    Not everyone wants to telecommute, which is fine. However for those people that do, I think you should make a case for remote work, show examples of how it can work and maybe even decide on some SLA for the way you work. Show your manager that you are willing to work with them to prove it can work and maybe you’ll get the chance to perform an experiment.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • Life is Short

    Dave McIntosh, RIP

    I woke up on Easter morning to an email. A good friend, someone I’ve known for years as a fellow parent in both Girl and Boy Scouts, had

    passed away on Saturday in a plane crash. It was shocking news, made even more sad knowing his family had been present and had seen the crash. My friend, David McIntosh, is survived by his wife and four children and may he rest in peace.

    Over the last few years I have written quite a bit on taking charge of your career, on making an effort to improve your technical skills, and learning to better market yourself. My goal has been to inspire and motivate others to pursue a vocation they enjoy.Ā  I have noted many times that life is too short to take a crappy job, and if you find yourself in such a situation, take steps to make a change.

    Along the way I hav

    e also tried to caution people to find a balance in their lives. Remember that while you invest for the future, you should also live for today.

    Enjoy your life, and embrace it. Smell the roses, and look for the positive side to situations.

    Life can be short. I was reminded of that this weekend in a shocking way.Ā  I hope that you all enjoy long, healthy, successful , and happy lives. I also hope that you remember to appreciate and enjoy the good parts of your lives every day.

    Steve Jones

    My apologies for the lack of a podcast today. The audio and video podcasts will return tomorrow.

  • Happy Easter 2011

    Happy Easter

    This weekend is the Easter holiday weekend around the world and with today being Good Friday, it’s a vacation day for me.

    The ski slopes are closing this weekend and if the weather is good, I’ll be heading up for one last day of sliding down Copper mountain today. Winter is when I tend to take a lot of vacation and this weekend is the end of that season for me.

    Hopefully everyone is having a quiet day if you are at work, with nothing broken and no deployments scheduled over the holiday. I know that holidays are often the best time for deployments to occur for the business as there are less people working on the systems. When I worked as a production DBA, especially in places where the systems were usually in use 24 hours a day by other employees, holidays were the only time we could schedule extended outages.

    As much as that can be frustrating to IT people that want to get a break on the holidays, I think that the IT business, like some other businesses, require you to trade some holiday work for time off at other parts of the year. My previous careers in the restaurant and hospitality business had me working many holidays, and I know that many people in retail positions also end up working holidays like Easter.

    My advice to find a balance in your life is to negotiate a rotation for IT covereage on holidays and perhaps even ask for two days off if you have to work this one holiday. There are lots of progressive companies that do recognize a hardship for holiday work, but plenty of others that don’t have an IT policy since most workers take the holiday off. People that work on an hourly basis usually get twice their rate for holiday work, why not salaried IT workers?

    Enjoy the weekend and enjoy the blooper reel today.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • Saying Thank You

    This plane left without me šŸ˜¦

    Recently I had problems with one of my flights. That’s nothing new, and as Grant Fritchey noted, I tend to anger the travel gods for some reason and often find myself in situations that make me regret ever leaving the ranch. In this case, I flew to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, which was fairly close to SQL Saturday #63. I attended the event, and drove back early Sunday morning in time to have some coffee before my flight. I walked in, went straight to security with no bags to check and a mobile boarding pass. I scanned my phone 4 or 5 times before the security guard told me to leave.

    Actually he didn’t tell me to leave, and was very polite in asking me to go check with the airline for a new boarding pass. The airline agent informed me that my flight was out of Love field (new service starting that day) and despite my early arrival, I wouldn’t make it to Love field in time.Ā  I was stunned as I had booked a flight like I normally do: pick an outbound flight, then an inbound one. IĀ  have never been presented choices from a different airports for the return flight, but in this case that was what happened.

    I could have gotten upset, especially after spending 5 hours in the DFW airport waiting for another flight. Instead I tried something else. I sent a nice note to Expedia, letting them know that despite my issues, I am pleased with the way that they provide a booking service on the web. I have used their site for years, and it’s been a nice tool for me, allowing me to keep all of my data in one place. Their services have expanded over time and I like their service. I then told them of my issue, and noted that it might have been a bug or a glitch, but in any case, it was an inconvenience for me.

    It was a strange situation for me, and a convergence of a few things. My inattention to detail, new service for an airline, and a large city with multiple airports. I rarely fly to cities with more than one airport to choose from, and was willing to accept some of the blame. However I also know that application developers try to build applications that work, and a little praise is always appreciated.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts