Voice of the DBA

Tag: vacation

  • Recharge and Relax

    My boss informed me a couple months ago that I had 30 days of vacation stored up and needed to take some. I mentioned this to my wife and she scolded me for not taking enough time off the last couple of years. Laughter ensued when I reminded her that she struggles to find even one day off every two week as she grows her horse training business. At least I take weekends off.

    Most of the time.

    I scheduled a few days in August and September, and enjoyed the time off, but I put off any more scheduling until I got another note from my boss two weeks ago saying I needed to schedule at least 16 days off before the end of the year. I’ve got a busy schedule, with 3 more trips between now and the end of 2013, along with a few other work commitments, so it’s hard to actually find that many days in my schedule. I somehow managed, and while it’s all in one and two day segments, I did schedule 17 days before the end of 2013.

    I do know vacation is important. Life is short, and even though I really enjoy my job, I do need to get away and spend time living the rest of my life. It’s entirely too easy to get caught up working too many hours in the technology business, voluntarily or involuntarily. We need to make sure we take advantage of our time off and get away from the stress of our careers. I encourage each of you to make sure you are taking your vacation each year and getting time away from work.

    This starts tomorrow, with two days off this week, and continues through November and December. As a result, I’ll be gone quite a bit through the end of the year. I’ve got a few guest writers and some re-runs, and I hope that people still enjoy the newsletter each day. If not, let me know, and we’ll make better plans for next year.

    Steve Jones

    As a side note, I’ve had 4 friends pass away in the last 3 years. All were under 50 years of age. Life is truly short.

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  • Time Off

    I’m booking vacation. I know I recommend balance, and tell people to take vacation, and that I’m bad at it. My wife is right there with me. I’m not sure who’s worse, but we both struggle to make time away from work. It’s good and bad. We enjoy our careers, but we do need time away.

    My boss told me a few months ago that I had 30 days on the books. I can carry 5 and sell 5, so I needed to take some time off this fall. I did manage to book 4 or 5 days, but I heard from her last week that I still needed to take at least 16 more.

    So….

    Today I went through the calendar, looked at commitments, and decided to take some time off. No full weeks, since my schedule makes that hard. Long periods away from work end up compressing my work into before/after days, which I don’t like. I also have DBW commitments that are hard to move since they impact others.

    However I have a list of 17 days to take off in 1 and 2 day increments.

  • A Vacation and Traveling to Sacramento

    I’ve got a couple days off, starting today after my webinar on Preparing for When Disaster Strikes. I’ve got some family in town, and since I haven’t taken vacation in some time, I’m looking forward to being unwired for a couple days.

    On Thursday my daughter and I head to Sacramento where we’ll have a SQL in the City Seminar on Development Friday before we attend SQL Saturday #222 in Sacramento. I have a session there on Full Text Search before I take a few more days off and spend some time with my daughter in the Bay Area.

    It will be a quiet blog for a week, and I’m looking forward to it.

  • Recharging Again

    I’m off again, taking a week in Steamboat Springs with my family for the Christmas holiday. We’re spending a week up there, including my oldest son who came back from Seattle to see us.

    It seems like I’ve been gone a lot, with guest editorials and re-publishing old pieces in 2012. That’s good as it means I’m taking most of my vacation. At least I think so. When I look back I see:

    • a few days with my wife in the spring
    • a couple days to work around the house on projects
    • four days for camping
    • seven days of skiing around the holidays
    • four ski days in the spring
    • two other ski days this fall

    That’s not quite all my vacation, but it’s close.

    I wanted to get through all my vacation this year, and really make sure I took time away from work. It’s easy to get sucked into work, especially when you work at home and work on a flexible schedule. However I truly believe that getting away from work and spending time enjoying the rest of your life.

    If you haven’t taken your vacation this year, make that a goal for next year.