Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Missing the Office

    Recently I traveled to visit a customer who has an in-the-office culture. They have multiple large buildings outside a major US city and almost all their employees (7000+) live nearby and are expected to be in the office the whole week. More senior people can opt for 4 10-hour shifts rather than 5 8-hour shifts, but with few exceptions, they have people in the office.

    I hadn’t seen that in a long time. Almost every customer is mostly remote or some level of hybrid (usually 2-3 days a week in the office). What’s more, they have an open culture, with rows of desks for teams and spaces between the rows for managers and directors. No cubes!

    Everyone below a senior VP/C-level is at a desk. There are conference rooms and smaller quiet pods, but mostly everyone works in wide open spaces. From developers to sales to finance to human resources. It’s both chaotic and loud, but also refreshing. I also loved seeing so many people wearing company logos on t-shirts, jackets, hats, and more.

    The environment reminds me of my time at JD Edwards. We had cubicles, but mostly open ones with half walls to the side and one full wall at the back where two cubes met. However, it was a very strong culture of comradery and closeness that I hadn’t seen at any large company before or since: until now. Teams might be close in some places I’ve worked, but the entire company at JD Edwards felt like a family of people who were working together. We didn’t always get along and argued, but we were all united. It was a great feeling.

    I miss that. Redgate is a great company, and I enjoy my co-workers, but I miss going to an office and seeing everyone inside it. Most people come to the office once or twice a week, but I miss my visits when most everyone was there every day. I’ve worked remotely for over twenty years, but I do still miss the office some days. Certainly my visits to the various Redgate offices, while good, have me wishing I saw more people there every day. I’m heading there tomorrow, and I hope I see lots of people.

    I don’t know that mandating everyone in the office is a better choice, but I do know there are good things about gathering groups of people together. Strong leadership, empathy, a clear vision, and a balanced workload are important for any organization, but especially important if you want everyone in the office these days. This customer did a great job with it, and I think they would still have a strong culture with remote work, but their choice works, and I’m a little jealous.

    Steve Jones

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

  • When Are Your Breaks?

    As I work through 2024, I found myself doing a little more vacation planning this year than in previous ones. In 2022 I traveled quite a bit, but my wife went with me often. We went to Europe 5 times that year and added quite a few vacation days around my work trips. My wife thought that was a great year.

    Last year, 2023, was different. I traveled more (36 trips), with most of them being short. When I traveled that much, I wanted to end trips quickly and get back home. I learned that was too many, and also too disruptive for life. I got behind on things I needed to do at home, my wife went with me less because many trips were all work, and I lacked energy from the pace of moving all over the world.

    As a result, my boss and I are more closely watching my travel schedule, and I’m consciously working to ensure I take some breaks between trips. Part of that is doing some planning. So far this has me reducing the number of trips (10 in H1), but also including 3 good-sized vacations away from work during that time.

    Note: don’t feel too sorry for my travel load. I’ll get a holiday each in the US, Europe, and Australia.

    I know a lot of people like to schedule their vacations at similar times each year. The end-of-year holidays are often a time when many people travel, but I know some people who take time every June, others every August, often corresponding with school breaks for children, family reunions, or some other event.

    When do you like to take your vacation? Are you a many-long-weekends-through-the-year person? Do you go on one long trip a year? Love holidays to get away or stay home and work because work is quiet?

    I don’t know if it matters, but I’m always interested in what others do and why. I prefer more, shorter vacations, but convince me why your long trip is better. Tell me the amazing things/places you’ve done/seen. Maybe I’ll get some ideas for a future trip.

    Steve Jones

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

  • The Code Freeze

    One of the ideas behind DevOps is that we minimize the time between code commit and deployment to production. We want to avoid work-in-progress and bottlenecks to getting our software into the hands of customers. This has led a lot of companies to release more often, albeit with smaller sets of features. The total number of things delivered under DevOps might not be greater, but it often is more targeted to those things our customers want/need/use.

    However, the idea of releasing often means that we try not to stack up too much work before deploying it. What does that mean for holidays and the code freezes or no-deploy periods that many companies have? How do you implement a code freeze under DevOps?

    I read an interesting series on code freezes (partially paid content: part 1, part 2, part 3), and it looks at some of the implementations, data from surveys, and pros/cons of implementing a code freeze.

    Two things here. First, I like code freezes as it gives staff a break. Two, doing this in a way that doesn’t just shift work (and stress) is hard. Do you have code freezes or deployment restrictions at your company? Do you like them?

    The post has lots of metrics from various companies, some known, some anonymous. It seems that for those companies using code freezes, they help employees take a break, but not everyone takes a break, which means some work is done and merges after the code freeze are problematic. For those who don’t mandate a code freeze, less work is done when people are gone, but some work continues and is released.

    I think the natural flow of work is that when fewer people are available, less work gets done. Poor management (or a hero complex) might overload the staff still working, but that doesn’t work long term. It might work now, given there is an oversupply of tech people and fewer jobs, but when things change, people will leave those positions, and lower quality, or at least less knowledgeable people, will cause problems for those firms.

    I’m not a fan of code freezes, but I am a fan of understanding that staff needs a break. Lots of people want to take time off during holidays, especially those with children who want to celebrate or travel. Others might be fine working and want to catch up on work, refactor things, or maybe address tech debt. I’ve been in both situations, and I hope organizations can adapt to both situations, though without sacrificing quality. We still need good code review and testing, and if there isn’t the staff to do those things, then delay merging code.

    The one thing that stood out to me was the learning that changing the pace is good for humans. If you’re in the habit of releasing every week (or day or whatever), moving to a different cadence for some time is good for you. Just as high-pressure work can’t be sustained for a long time, very slow periods aren’t good. However, both have their places as a change of pace. A high-pressure situation might be necessary to meet a business goal (or solve a problem). A low-pressure time might be a good time to think, experiment, and perhaps innovate.

    Or just fix and refactor some poorly designed technical debt.

    Do you want a time when you aren’t trying to get code to production, either as a dev or operations person? Or do you like to have your job predictable and work in the same pattern year-round? Let me know today.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Republish: The First Rule

    I’m finishing up a volleyball tournament in Salt Lake City today, on holiday until I get home late tonight.

    You get to re-read The First Rule while I’m taking stats and trying to win a few games.