Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Commuting Pain

    Commuting in traffic like this is very stressful

    It’s hard to believe that I have been running SQLServerCentral for almost ten years. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, hope I get to do it another ten years, and am thankful every day for having one of the best jobs in the world. It fits me well, and surprisingly, it’s a job I never expected to have as recent as 12 years ago.

    When I started working full time for SQLServerCentral, I also started my telecommuting career. I hadn’t ever worked outside of an office on a regular basis before that time, and now I wouldn’t want to ever go back to an office full time. Aside from all the benefits of a flexible schedule and more time with my kids, the most valuable part of working at home is the lack of a commute.

    IBM had a global commuter pain study recently, and this short video on eWeek highlights some of the results. I thought it was great that the study recognizes that there is pain involved in commuting, and the study talks about more than just lost time. There is evidence to support the idea that workers’ health is actually lowered over time from the stress and traffic issues in many cities.

    I firmly believe that investing in your health is very important for your future. If you can reduce the stress and the time spent on unproductive actions, like sitting in traffic,  you might actually find that you enjoy your job, and your life, more.

    Many managers don’t want to let employees work remotely, but you should try to convince them to let you try it. Gather stories that prove remote workers are productive, or ask to implement a pilot program. Try to prove to your manager that you can be effective a day or two a week. After all, many of you are effective away from the office when you’re on call. Why not get permission to  extend that to a few other time periods during the week.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • Have an Extra Beer!

    Fat Tire is Steve's favorite beer

    Today we have an editorial reprinted from Dec 13, 2005 as Steve is on vacation.

    Geeks,

    Have an extra beer tonight. Or your adult beverage of choice to relax and unwind after a long day. After all, it appears that caffeine helps your liver, so don’t worry about damaging it with a couple relaxing frosty mugs.

    The study from the article linked above apparently says that coffee and tea can help reduce the risk of damage from alcohol. So maybe that coffee you drink trying to sober up does more good than just keep you awake?

    As with any study, you should be careful of reading too much into this and don’t go out on some great 12 pint binge and expect a few extra cups of coffee in the morning will repair the damage. After all, in another year we’ll be reading that beer undoes the good that coffee does to your liver 🙂

    But for the geeks in the house that enjoy a cold one, this is certainly welcome news.

    Steve Jones

    (published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72349/)

  • What Sarbanes-Oxley Won’t Do

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    This is interesting. Another case of corporate fraud under the title of “What Sarbanes-Oxley Won’t Do”. Apparently someone got loans, blah, blah, fraud, blah, blah, etc. You get the idea and I’m tired of having to hear and write about it.

    But since S-O affects most IT groups and many of us are dealing with it, it’s worth talking about and writing about. S-O has required more documentation, processes, and accountability for how corporations deal with their financial data. It is intended to prevent another Enron or MCI like occurence by making high level executives accountable for the company’s actions.

    But it doesn’t prevent fraud. It doesn’t prevent dishonesty, and it certainly doesn’t guarentee that your investment is safe in some company. It should make it easier to send people to jail, but even that hasn’t been shown to be the case yet.

    It does, however, make a lot of work for many companies. I was talking with a professional services company recently and they said that many of their clients, public and private, are trying to adhere to S-O because public companies have to, but private ones are either looking for an IPO or to be bought by a larger company, and S-O compliance is often part of the due diligence they’d need.

    If you’re an ISO company, you probably can use one set of docs for both certifications, although you’ll need to dive deeper in certain areas for each one. That’s the good thing since we know how much you IT folks love documenting your processes, procedures, and environments.

    I’m just happy to say that SQLServerCentral.com is not complying and I, for one, am thrilled 🙂

    Steve Jones

    (published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72358/)

  • Careful Blogging

    The Supreme Court Building – Will blogging rules get decided here?

    Today we have a reprint of an editorial from Sept 22, 2005 as Steve is on vacation.

    There are official blogs, like Jonathan Schwatz of Sun and others that are corporate preaching/marketing/promotional efforts. Not that this blog or others aren’t what the authors think, but I feel that they are probably checked and monitored by someone at the corporation to be sure that the message doesn’t bring any liability or unexpected issues out.

    Then there are unofficial blogs, like the guys at MSDN that are handled by employees, they are asked to post, but they are not really monitored. I’m sure there are guidelines and regulations, however, that have been posted, emailed, snail-mailed, etc. to everyone.

    I ran across this article on potential legal isues with blogs. It doesn’t appear the courts have been involved yet, but I’m sure it’s coming. At some point there will be someone that sues or gets sued over a posting and then we’ll really find out how “private” those blogs are.

    I made a note on the SQLServerCentral blogs page, but it’s something to think about whether you use a corporate site or your own private one. Be wary of what you post in a blog. To me the same rules that apply with you at Happy Hour apply on the blog. If you don’t want it getting back to your boss, don’t post it.

    Steve Jones

    (published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72348/)