Voice of the DBA

Tag: business

  • Flexible Work Policies are Preferred

    The great post-pandemic, post-Great-Resignation, hybrid/remote/in-the-office work debate continues. It seems almost every week I see more stories that report on, hype, attempt to prove, or otherwise stoke emotions about whether the future of work for many people is more likely in any of these three situations. One company mandates everyone back in the office, another goes completely remote, and it seems many can’t decide and have some sort of hybrid approach.

    Your boss might have strong opinions on one of these situations, which may or may not align with your organization. I see CEOs wanting one thing and individual managers sometimes wanting another. As much as I like remote working, and I’ve been based out of my home for over two decades, I also like seeing people and I am regularly traveling to the various Redgate offices (along with Grant and Ryan).

    If you want to try and sway your boss to let you work more flexibly, which is likely remote or hybrid, perhaps this article will help. There’s research from at least one company showing that having a flexible policy has helped a number of companies hire faster in 2023. While this isn’t in any particular geography, industry, or role, it does show that finding employees seems to be faster with flexible policies. That makes sense as the more remote you are, the more people in your pool of potential candidates.

    Of course, this doesn’t say if these people stick around, or if they’re qualified. Certainly many of us in the tech industry see plenty of candidates (or even coworkers) that don’t seem qualified for many, or any, roles. Hiring faster isn’t always good if there aren’t good candidates, but having more choices of who to hire does give you an edge in finding qualified candidates.

    It also gives you more work to do in separating those you’d consider hiring from those you wouldn’t. The flip side as well is that if you are flexible, then perhaps you can convince some already employed, talented workers to come to your organization.

    To be fair, many of us with these options are very lucky. There are lots of jobs where this isn’t a debate and people must show up to work every day. Cooks, taxi drivers, retail workers, and many, many more. This is a luxury issue, but it is still an issue. My view is that lots of knowledge work can be done remotely. However, I also think that teams gain something when they bond and get to know each other in person. Day-to-day work is great remote, but brainstorming and creativity work better sometimes when people are in the same room. Not always, but there are times it is better.

    So let your boss know that they might be able to better fill their open positions if they’re flexible. Maybe you’ll convince them to be more flexible with you as well.

    Steve Jones

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

  • HIPPO vs. Data

    One trend for many organizations is to be data-driven. This means using data to make decisions at all levels, or at least support those decisions. This was popularized by many companies, and there is research to back up the claims that those organizations who do this have more success, more revenue, more profitability, etc. Much like DevOps, however, it seems many organizations don’t want to actually invest in making data-driven decisions.

    Instead, many opt to make decisions by HIPPO. If you’ve never seen this acronym, it stands for highest paid person’s opinion. Many managers will defer to whoever is above them in the org chart, often someone that is paid more money than them. Even when there is data to make a different decision, the HIPPO is still used.

    It’s not just management. I sometimes see technical people do this. In that case, it might be the loudest or most senior person rather than the highest paid, but the sentiment is the same. Rather than using a lot of information, someone makes a decision based on what they want/see/need/desire. I’ve seen this often with tooling, where one person likes Jenkins (or hates it), and the organization changes from  (or to) Octopus Deploy or Bamboo for no real reason. Lately, it seems some people are advocating moving from Azure DevOps to GitHub Actions because, well, I don’t know why. There’s not a good rational reason.

    The goal of collecting and using data is to do so intelligently and with purpose. And not just for big decisions, but for everyday actions. By senior managers and frontline people, to help guide a more efficient and effective company. This involves a lot of technical work, but also cultural change. We have to position data as a strategic and tactical asset that everyone shares and uses as the basis to make the entire organization better.

    Of course, these are similar to the concepts of DevOps. Let’s build software better. In practice, many attempts succeed initially but fail later as more and more groups fight individual incentives that promote one group’s goals over another’s. When silos aren’t broken down, we fall back into the same patterns.

    In this case, listening to (or lobbying) the HIPPO.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Startup Advice

    Many technical people dream of starting a company and having it grow to an IPO. The history of computing is littered with the successes and failures of companies that attempted this. As a young man in high school, I saw the explosive growth and success of Apple, dreaming of working for them or duplicating their success. In the late 90s and 2000s, I tried a few startups before I founded SQL Server Central with my partners. I had success with that company, though no IPO :(.

    I’ve seen many friends start companies, often consulting ones, though a few have built products. Building and running any enterprise is hard, and startups are no exception. There was a post on Hacker News looking for advice and business lessons from others, and I enjoyed reading the responses. I wouldn’t read much deeper than the first level of responses, as many of the subsequent comments are less interesting.

    This response was something that caught my eye, especially as someone that’s had to do more than the technical part of running a business. A lot of the challenges I find in startups are business related, especially when technical people are in charge. It’s good for them to understand that core business, especially sales, skills are important. Even more important, home life matters.

    It’s easy to assume that your technology matters. Is the bidding technology at eBay better than uBid or eBid or even Craigslist? They are now, but 20 years ago many of these sites were similar, and some had arguably built better systems. Was the tech behind Amazon in 1999 that far ahead of Barnes and Noble or Borders? Certainly, Amazon continued to invest in technology at a scale that exceeded many other companies, but they built their success because of execution in business, not technology.

    Starting a company is hard, and it takes a lot of work. Whether you create a product or you are the product. I’ve seen many over the years, worked with some, and often the best products, tech, or people aren’t the ones that succeed. The ones that are best at running a business succeed.

    If you want to try and start a software company, go into consulting, or perhaps create another business, I urge you to learn a lot about how to run a business. Basic sales, marketing, and accounting skills will go a long way towards helping your endeavor succeed. For many of you, the tech is the easy part, so don’t spend all your time there.

    Steve Jones

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

  • The Survivors

    The last year has seen a number of large tech companies lay off large numbers of staff. The list for 2023 includes large companies, like Google (12,000), Amazon (9,000 this time), Microsoft (10,000), and Meta (10,000 this time), but also small companies like Zoom (1,300), Rapid (115), and Roku (200). It’s not just tech companies, however, as Disney (7,000), Gap (500), 3M (6,000), and David’s Bridal (9,236) are letting people go. There are plenty of other companies who have let people go, which is interesting to me as the economy has grown in the US, though profits were down. It’s hard to know whether these layoffs are really important for all these companies or whether these layoffs are management’s decision to group their bad news with everyone else’s and take advantage of the opportunity to shrink labor costs.

    In any case, layoffs are sad and stressful. Certainly, the people being let go are traumatized and I don’t want to minimize the impact to their lives, but this can be hard for the survivors as well. This isn’t just a Silicon Valley situation, but one that affects many employees all over the world. Whenever there is a large staffing change in an organization, those that remain can be traumatized and unproductive. This is one reason that public companies must notify and disclose layoffs to investors.

    This article looks at how some tech company employees react after surviving a layoff, and it reminds me of some of the layoffs I’ve been through. While I haven’t been let go in a layoff, I have had to deal with the aftermath of some friends losing their employment while other friends try to cope. I’ve felt sad, angry, upset, concerned, frustrated, and more. Even as one of the lucky people that kept their jobs, I found myself unable to cope with the changes on the fateful day and for some time after. I struggled to focus during the next few weeks, while also being stressed as I realized the workload grew unexpectedly. There was still lots of work, but less staff to do it.

    Anytime you survive a layoff, I think it’s natural to question whether you want to continue working in the same organization. Is business that bad that we need to let people go? Will there be another layoff? Is our leadership actually doing a good job or have they made mistakes by hiring unnecessary people? Am I unnecessary? Are managers appeasing investors who care more about their return or even worried about their own bonuses? All of these thoughts swirl through my head and others’ heads as we move forward. I don’t want you to feel bad here, but to think about your situation as someone that might get laid off or survive one.

    Most of us don’t experience layoffs, and if we do, it’s not often that these happen. However, they are always possible, which is why I advocate for all of you to keep learning, regularly grow your skills, keep your resume up to date, and be aware of how your organization is operating. It’s good to work as if you’ll continue in this position (if you enjoy it), but my motto is: hope for the best, plan for the worst.

    Of course, if you don’t like your job, you should be working to find another one. The best time to find a new job is while you already have one.

    Steve Jones

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