Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • The Work Life Balance for Men

    A great piece by LZ Granderson, and one that really make me stop and think a bit. Work and life is always a balance, and men certainly don’t have it easier. We make different choices, or we set different priorities. It’s worth the read, and as you do, before you dismiss it, consider this: how would work life look if women had been a part of business and work for all of history?

    I sometimes look at the way I do things, and wonder if I’m balancing too far one way or the other. Ultimately I don’t know if I’m doing it right, but I keep an eye on it.

  • Writing

    This was originally published on May 9, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is at the Red Gate free Micro-Event for Database Professionals.

    One of the great things about SQLServerCentral.com is that so many of you in the community share your work with others on a regular basis. We get articles from all shapes, sizes, and skill levels of DBAs, on all manner of topics. And most of the time, these articles are inspired by things that actually happen in your jobs.

    They’re not contrived or made up examples, or situations that only mimic a portion of the real world. You’re writing about things in the real world.

    With that in mind, we have an easy poll for you this week:

    Why Do (or Don’t) You Write?

    I expect that if you don’t want to write articles you might not respond here, but I’m still curious to see what thoughts some of you have.

    For me, it’s an easy question to answer: I really enjoy writing. The challenge of coming up with new thoughts, new ideas, trying to explain things to people, getting feedback in comments, it is just very exciting..

    Often my wife will look up and see a goofy smile on my face after I’ve read some comment and ask me about it. I’ve even laughed out loud at times. And I’ve been ready to curse people at others.

    But overall, the thing that I hated most in high school has become the thing I enjoy doing most of the time. I think about writing all the time and spend almost every day working on some editorial here or there.

    So let us know why you write, or why you don’t. Maybe I’ll be able to convince a few more of you to participate and share your knowledge in the next year.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

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  • Productivity and Accountability

    I think Yahoo's blanket policy was a mistake, but I can't say it was wrong.
    I think Yahoo’s blanket policy was a mistake, but I can’t say it was wrong.

    Recently Yahoo decided that remote work was no longer an option, requiring all workers to either begin coming into an office, or terminating their employment. As expected, it seems many tech workers were outraged, though more than a few noted while working at home is great, it isn’t the best thing ever. There is no shortage of articles that support the decision, and ultimately I think, as with most things in the database world, what you think about this “depends” on your situation.

    I’ve worked at home for over a decade; my wife for over two decades. In that time we’ve learned a few things. One of them is that telecommuting isn’t for everyone. It’s hard. We alternately struggle trying to stay motivated with understanding we need to stop working. We realize that the ability of telecommuting to work is job dependent. The more your job involves just you, the more likely it is that you can do it remotely. The more it involves collaboration, the more you’ll struggle to get things done. We have also learned that periodic face-time is important in almost all situations.

    There are numerous challenges that others have elicited with telecommuting, but the success or failure of remote work is measured no differently than it is in an office. If you are accountable for your productivity and complete all your work, you’re a success. If you don’t, you’re not. It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter if you work in an office or never leave your house. It’s about getting work done.

    The people that do well as telecommuters typically do well in an office. They’re just happier at home where they can juggle tasks. The people that slack off in offices, won’t do well at home. We might blame slacking off on being away from supervision, but my experience is that people that don’t want to work hard, don’t.

    I don’t think the Yahoo decision was a good one for everyone, but it probably was for some. I think telecommuting is a great way to build a small team, and get work done in an efficient fashion when jobs are discrete and easily defined, but ultimately employee success comes down to each person being held accountable for their work.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Two Plugs Away

    The office at Valve. Notice the wheeled desks.
    The office at Valve. Notice the wheeled desks.

    I’ve always enjoyed smaller environments, where people are more free to work in the way they want to, when they want to, as long as they are productive. I applaud the efforts of small companies to design offices or spaces where employees feel comfortable working and enjoy spending time. Some large companies do this as well and maybe this is necessary to offset the grind of long hours, but I believe the owners and founders of smaller companies often cultivate a friendly, close atmosphere and they hope their people to want to come to work. After all there are plenty of places one can work that will exact and demand long hours, often without any recognition of the hardships or without any additional benefits for your efforts..

    I ran across this piece on the culture and hiring at Valve, a gaming company that makes Steam and Half Life. They have a very free flowing culture, depending on the individuals to make good decisions for the company and their own teams. I’m not sure how scalable this is, or even how easily this can be replicated to other companies. As I’ve watched Red Gate grow over the years, it’s been an amazing place to work, but it’s not without some pain points. We’ve done well, though I don’t know that the ideas from Valve would work there.

    At the bottom of the article, however, I was struck buy this quote:  Everyone’s desk is on wheels. “There are only two plugs that need to be unplugged in order to shift from one team to another.” That’s an interesting way to design an office setup. Your desk is your desk, and you can customize it for you, but since it’s on wheels, you can move it if the need to change arises. That doesn’t happen too often in larger companies, but I do think the idea of virtual teams that come together for projects and then disband would work well in this environment.

    Even in the operational world, the option of periodically moving my desk and changing neighbors without the hassles of packing up lots of stuff, would be interesting. It would also make weekend practical jokes much more interesting. Imagine coming in Monday morning and having no idea where you desk, with all your stuff, might have moved.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.