July 16, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Salaried for 40 hours and most of the time that's how it works out.
I work with the principle that if I (we, the dev team) have stuffed it up, we should put the effort in to fix it.
If the extra hours required are because the boss or the client stuffed it up, we should be paid for those hours.
My boss agrees with me - even better.
Flexi time is the best. I leave early every Wednesday to pick up my son and am late the next morning after dropping him at school. The company has no problems with this as the others days I make up the hours.
Give and take.
July 21, 2006 at 1:02 pm
I work 7.5 hours/day - for the state government. I make less money than I did as a contractor, but you can beat the benefits and holidays.
SELECT work FROM All_Jobs WHERE Stess_Level < Fat_Orange_Cat
July 26, 2006 at 8:35 am
I work the usuall 40 hours a week. 9-5 Monday thru Friday.
However, as we run Oracle & SQL Server, we have 2 SQL Server DBA's and 2 Oracle, so I'm one week on, one week off for out of hours support.
So on hours varies from maybe a couple hours to 20-30 hours a week depending on system changes, failures etc. Fortunately, we do get paid for OOH, but I generally only put it down if I need to work for over 30 minutes.
I don't mind out of hours so much (although the wife to be can get a little grumpy) but it can be a pain when you work the entire weekend reindexing, restoring reporting db's etc etc...Fortunately, work are flexible enough to allow me to work from home on the Monday (when I surface, that is).
July 27, 2006 at 11:54 am
My philosophy regarding DBA work is:
If you have too much work to do, you need to review your work process model, and see whether some componets of your daily work can be automated, and you will be only involved / notified when the result is not satisfactory to your pre-defined threshold.
July 28, 2006 at 5:50 am
It's funny how the working environment and company procedures influences the productivity and time requirements of staff...
I used to work for a company where I had only 2 databases on 1 server - but I was on standby 24/7 - worked at least 12 hours a day - and all of this was caused by management who didn't believe in procedures. Changes were made on the fly on PRODUCTION environment - EVERYONE had sa access to the DB's so developers made changes without consulting with anyone, documentation didn't exist and the list goes on...
I have recently(4 months ago) started with a new company. Now, I am still the only DBA, with over 20 SQL servers and over 50 databases - but I get everything done in 8 hours a day! Processes and procedures are followed accordingly and although it seems that these "extra steps" slows the process down, in the long run - it's definitely worth it! (for both the company and the staff)
I agree with Jeffrey. If you work long hours, try working on better processes/procedures. If there's no assistance from management in making your live easier - get another job!
August 4, 2006 at 8:22 am
A very brilliant, successful and wealthy man named John Sestina once said to me, "If you can't get it done in 40 hours a week, you are doing it wrong!"
I believed him then and I believe him now. I work 40 hours a week. However, I agree with a lot of the "team" comments made previously regarding putting extra time when required to keep everything up to snuff. I have been working with computers since 1982 and with databases since 1990. I remember only a few "crisis" periods in all that time which required a few 16 hour days.
Here's a few thoughts I have found to be true:
1. Make sure the current information is the most correct information.
2. Sometimes, close is good enough!
3. Show up to work the same time your body does!
4. Work as hard as you can but when you go home leave it at work.
Approaching 60, I find that there are many far more important things in life than computing!
August 6, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I work 38 hours a week with flexi-time. Life is more than work alone.
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