Help Others, Help Yourself

  • dma-669038 (1/20/2010)


    Hi Lynn, I didnt think i was..who you are in an organisation is a combo of what you think and what their values are. I was in a position where i needed the job, not that i would not find any other but for other reasons. I didnt think twice about training these guys and they used them against me. I have to say being a very value oriented person in an organisation that is very cut throat and opportunistic is more than likely to work against you than for you. In simple terms the values you have about sharing knowledge have to be practised from top to bottom and not just one or two people.Survival skills are as important as values and do not necessarily make an individual mean especially when the environemnt requires them.

    First of all, I apologize if you felt I was saying "you" were hoarding information. In the context of my post, that "you" was generic. I fully believe in sharing knowledge, and a good manager will recognize that and should support it fully. I will say that I don't go out of my way to share knowledge. It sort of leaks out when people come to me and ask questions, but that is more due to the nature of our department and the work we are doing, not a lot of time for general sharing of knowledge. I'd like to change that, but it comes down to time and priorities.

  • Wow! Your boss lets you spend working hours answering questions on forums like this and you get paid for this as well? Man! Where do I sign up for that kind of work? 🙂

    As a couple others said I consider coming out to some sections of this forum to be training. Maybe not Editorials 😀 but articles and forums for sure. One thing that always interests me is to compare our in-house coding style to those of people on this forum. Can learn a bunch just from looking at some different techniques.

    Ken

  • Jeff Moden (1/19/2010)


    But there is another, often unplanned, effect: when you spend time helping others, you also improve your own skills.

    By golly, Tim... truer words never spoken. Excellent editorial by one of those "seasoned professionals". Should be required reading for everyone on SSC. Now, if we could just get txtPost_CommentEmoticon(':-)');people to understand the notion... 😀

    I owe most of my skills to users I have helped, it keeps me learning and finding out in most cases the docs and implementations are not related.

    🙂

    Kind regards,
    Gift Peddie

  • José.Cruz (1/20/2010)


    Hi there,

    First of all i'll like to say that i complettly agree with your article, i've been helped so many times in this public forums, that now, a little bit more experienced, i feel that's time to give something back, and help others who seek for help.

    José cruz

    C'mon in! The water's fine... 🙂

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • David Korb (1/20/2010)


    This is why the one-room schoolhouse is a superior model for education: the older kids solidify their knowledge as they pass it on to the younger.

    I actually went to a one room school house when I was a kid... and that's exactly what happened.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • rick-507511 (1/20/2010)


    I still believe in delivering MORE than is expected and sleeping well at night.

    The "Law of Success", "Lesson Nine", Napoleon Hill.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • I couldn't have said it better myself. This very notion is evident in SSC with some of the heavy hitters constantly giving of their time to help others.

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • Comments regarding working at home remind me that my suggestion several years ago that our 4 DBA's take a rotating day each week to work at home during high fuel prices has actually backfired on me. It has become a 'reason' to not show up at work ANY day you have a dental appointment, auto repair appointment, sniffle, whatever. Yesterday. I was the only one of 4 DBA's present at work due to weather. I'm going to be 67 years old in a couple months, but I was the only one who could manage to make the commute and be on-site. OK, so I only have to travel half as far, but GMAB. I've had times when I slept a couple nights on the warm computer room floor because we were snowed in at work. I guess maybe I'm the crazy one.

    And again, it's 6:30 AM and I'm writing this on MY time.

  • hey, SSC-enthusiastic, if you trained your replacement in 6 months, I'd guess the company 'did it' to themselves. What is 6 months training for a DBA? A good start. :>)

  • rick-507511 (1/21/2010)


    hey, SSC-enthusiastic....

    No one here by that name Grasshopper.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • rick-507511 (1/21/2010)


    hey, SSC-enthusiastic, if you trained your replacement in 6 months, I'd guess the company 'did it' to themselves. What is 6 months training for a DBA? A good start. :>)

    You're right, 6 months of DBA training is just a start.Turns out that person I trained ended up leaving the company when she got all the responsibility handed to her after I left. She couldn't handle it from what I heard from a co-worker and ended up screwing up a multi-million dollar database. The company had planned this though from the beginning because they thought that they could bring a junior person into that job at $45K a year and save some money. It ended up costing them much more in the long run though. If they would have just kept a competent DBA on instead of trying to save $30-40K a year and end up messing up a multi-million dollar database in the trade-off. Sometimes, with an experienced DBA you really do get what you pay for. 🙂

    "Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"

  • Jeff Moden (1/20/2010)


    David Korb (1/20/2010)


    This is why the one-room schoolhouse is a superior model for education: the older kids solidify their knowledge as they pass it on to the younger.

    I actually went to a one room school house when I was a kid... and that's exactly what happened.

    That is so cool. I didn't have that as a kid, but figured out the dynamic shortly after becoming a math tutor in community college. That's when my math grades shot up, so I did the same thing as a computer science student. It's too bad schools are so political that we can't improve them in fundamental ways like this.

  • talltop-969015 (1/21/2010)


    rick-507511 (1/21/2010)


    hey, SSC-enthusiastic, if you trained your replacement in 6 months, I'd guess the company 'did it' to themselves. What is 6 months training for a DBA? A good start. :>)

    You're right, 6 months of DBA training is just a start.Turns out that person I trained ended up leaving the company when she got all the responsibility handed to her after I left. She couldn't handle it from what I heard from a co-worker and ended up screwing up a multi-million dollar database. The company had planned this though from the beginning because they thought that they could bring a junior person into that job at $45K a year and save some money. It ended up costing them much more in the long run though. If they would have just kept a competent DBA on instead of trying to save $30-40K a year and end up messing up a multi-million dollar database in the trade-off. Sometimes, with an experienced DBA you really do get what you pay for. 🙂

    Very True.

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • rick-507511 (1/21/2010)


    Comments regarding working at home remind me that my suggestion several years ago that our 4 DBA's take a rotating day each week to work at home during high fuel prices has actually backfired on me. It has become a 'reason' to not show up at work ANY day you have a dental appointment, auto repair appointment, sniffle, whatever. Yesterday. I was the only one of 4 DBA's present at work due to weather. I'm going to be 67 years old in a couple months, but I was the only one who could manage to make the commute and be on-site. OK, so I only have to travel half as far, but GMAB. I've had times when I slept a couple nights on the warm computer room floor because we were snowed in at work. I guess maybe I'm the crazy one.

    And again, it's 6:30 AM and I'm writing this on MY time.

    1. Rick, I know you are the crazy one..

    2. They should be letting you guys work from home 3-4 days a week anyway with rotating days in.. There is no reason to be in the building..

    CEWII

  • Hi CEWII. You're right, I'm the crazy one. But only for another 9 weeks. Then I'm off to the high country for the summer. I'll probably do some miscellaneous stuff, like continuing to develop DBA_Rep. BV thinks I'll be lookin' for work by fall.

    We had fun with DH this morning when she dropped a production FleetProfile db. This was her initiation into a restore with tlogs.

    Wishin' you the best, and let's keep in touch.

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