Voice of the DBA

Tag: vacation

  • The Traveling Data Professional

    It’s summertime in the Northern hemispheres, and a time when much of the world takes their holiday time away from work. Most kids are out of school for at least part of the June/July/August time period. With many of us workers trying to spend time with our families, this is the part of the year that we schedule trips and events.

    Taking time away to be with family is important, but just getting away from work is healthy for all of us. Whether it’s a planned trip to some new location, visiting relatives in another city, or even just taking time to enjoy a leisure activity, we all need a break. Some of us will try to do too much during our break, arriving back at work physically worn out. Even in these situations, it’s still nice to get your mind away from the environment you face most days. I think any break is good, and especially in the era of smartphones and nearly ubiquitous connectivity, time away is good for your health.

    This week, I’m wondering if any of you have plans for an adventure that you’re excited about. Are you going somewhere new or engaging in some activity you look forward to? Perhaps you don’t have big plans this year, but something you’re working towards in the future? Make us jealous and let us know what holiday break might be coming your way.

    I’ve been more of a winter person for most of my life, looking to take time off from work when there’s snow on the ground, but I’ve had my share of summer trips. Usually my family will camp and take a few trips. With my children getting older, I expect to take even more trips when it’s just my wife and me. Since I can work from anywhere, I can follow along on some of her horse adventures.

    This year we had planned on a long trip to Glacier National Park, but with older kids, scheduling looks to be a bit of an issue, so we’ll likely stick to camping in Colorado. However, I am honored to have been chosen to speak at the Data Platform Summit in Bangalore, India, so we’ll all have a bit of a vacation in August as we travel to a new country.

    Enjoy the weekend and let me know what your plans are this year.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

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  • Back After the Break

    Refreshed and back to work today. After a week at Redgate Software for SQL in the City, I took a week to travel in Ireland with my family. In that time, I really ignored almost all email and didn’t manage SQLServerCentral at all.

    Well, I did fix one article bug and replied to a couple comments, but mostly I ignored things. Even over Christmas and yesterday, back in the US, I tried to really ignore most work. I spent about an hour doing some SPAM cleanup, but that was early morning because my body clock was still on GMT time.

    However, I’m back at it today. Up at almost a normal time (no kids to get to school, so slightly late), I wandered to the office, made coffee, and got back to editor duties.

    I feel nice and refreshed. Being disconnected in Ireland for most of a week, I really had a nice chance to relax and not think or worry about computers and technology. I even avoided most Twitter/news on my phone, just getting away.

    Now it’s time to get back on track, and I’m a little overwhelmed as I’ve been out of touch for almost two weeks. Feels like I have a lot of editing to do and plenty of scheduling and certainly need to get back to learning more and improving myself.

    Hope everyone else had a great holiday break.

  • A Well Deserved Break

    This week I’m on vacation taking a bit of time away with the family after a week in the Redgate offices.

    I hope everyone has a great holiday week and an enjoyable Christmas.

  • Time Off

    This editorial was originally published on Aug 20, 2012. It is being re-published as Steve on vacation.

    As a US citizen, I’m lucky to work for a UK company. I get a generous allotment of vacation, and desperately try to use it all each year. I haven’t been successful yet, but I’m getting closer. If we could only get a little more snow at the beginning and end of the season…..

    Last year a friend told me that they lost 6 days of vacation. Over a few years this person had accumulated extra vacation by basically working too hard and when the year ended, some of their vacation was lost because of carryover limits. This person vowed to change this year and use all their vacation, but with a busy job at a small company I’m not sure that will come true. Unfortunately, I’ve all too often seen this same behavior from many people in IT.

    This piece shows that all too often people are not taking their vacation, or they’re not taking it as a complete break from work. I’ve been in both situations, and over time I’ve learned that I’m not being more productive in either case. I’m unbalanced, and over time I become less productive. That’s especially true if I’m doing creative work, like writing, or developing code.

    There’s no shortage of poor managers out there, and there are plenty of them that will work you as hard as you allow. I don’t have any great solutions for dealing with them other than scheduling vacation every year, insisting you get to take it, limiting contact with work, and if all else fails, looking for another job.

    Life is short, too short to spend more of it as work than you have to. Take advantage of your vacation to relax and recharge, even if it’s a stay-cation at home. Getting away from work is not only important, it’s something you owe to yourself and your family.

    Steve Jones