This month the T-SQL Tuesday invitation comes from 
Tamara Clark. I strong-armed Tamara last fall, along with her husband, into hosting this year. She came through, with a great topic given the state of the world.
She asks us to write about what we’d put in time capsule, the items or information that goes into a #sqlcommunity bucket. In some sense, this invitation reminds me of Brent’s reminder post to himself.
Memories of 2020
What do I remember about this year? First, a lot of vacation for me. My employer, Redgate Software, gives a sabbatical every five years. It’s a great perk for employees that stick around, and it has helped me recharge and refresh. I think I was the last one to get a sabbatical this year while the offices were open, however, there are other companies that take care of employees, and my first memory is a reminder of this. Maybe some future person opening this capsule will think about asking their organization for this.
The second thing is that I won’t go into an office this entire year. I didn’t get any visits before lockdown, and we’ve closed our offices for the year. That’s a first for me in over a decade. However, the next thing I want to remember from this year is that so many companies are realizing that work from home (WFH) not only works, but lots of people are very productive. We can rethink our costs in buildings, commutes, living locations, and more. Redgate has traditionally not allowed anyone to avoid the office. There are a few of us that have been exceptions over the years, but 90% of our employees have been expected to show up at the office every week.
That’s changed, and it will change our culture and organization in the future.
The last thing to put in this time capsule is the importance of social contact and togetherness. I’ve missed a lot of this across the five months, to the point I work to see some people locally every couple weeks. I love my family, but I miss the social contact I used to get regularly, whether traveling to a SQL Saturday, visiting an office, maybe working in a library or Starbucks for a few hours, or just at a movie theater.
We need more social contact, or at least, I do.