October 5, 2007 at 1:08 pm
First of all I would like to thank Steve for making mention of SQL on Call.
I admit that a remote DBA is not always 100% of the time the best way to go. Developers for instance that may need some face to face time learning their ways around SQL. When we speak to a perspective client we try to make sure that we express that we are a tool that they can use so that the other resources they already do have can be used more efficiently.
Think of it this way. You had a staff of 2 DBA's but one of them is spending most of the work day checking backups, error logs, jobs, replication and so on. Then that same DBA is creating user accounts and completing work that really is not helping the company "make money". If you could free up this DBA's time so that they are focused more on the aspect of moving the company forward while someone else helps to "keep the lights on". You now have hired an on call DBA that will help you produce more.
For single DBA shops we are the backup or even the assistant. Or a sounding board to help with issues that come along.
Thanks,
October 5, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I could not tell you too much about on call DBA in my former company. Even the on call DBA supposed to be on call 7/24, first not one single DBA answered the phone immediately, even they answered the phone, it might be hours later. One time it was production problem and no one answered the phone, I tried to call every hour. The next day the DBA manager said they had an off site team meeting. I was about to kill him. I should go and talk to his boss but I did not.
In my old days when I was on call programmer (I was talking main frame IBM COBOL time), I got call 3 am and there was no VPN. I had to go to the office and fixed the problem, then went back to work at 8 am.
Time had changed or just me ??
October 5, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Times haven't changed, its just some people don't accept responsibilty for the their systems after hours. at my last company we had an on-call rotation with three individuals. There was one individual when first on-call was never available, it always fell to the 2nd or 3rd on-call developer for production issues (yes, we were developers and production support; with the small team we had, that was the way it had to be).
😎
October 6, 2007 at 7:46 am
At my last "real" job with JD Edwards, our on call was paged out by the help desk (24x7). If they didn't get a call back in 15 minutes, they re-paged the person and paged the manager. If they didn't get resolution within a reasonable time, the manager's manager could be paged.
Tended to get people to answer their pages 🙂
October 2, 2012 at 6:52 am
It's interesting reading the posts from 2007 on this re-run article...I have worked as a DBA, DBA manager, and warehouse development manager over the last 5 years (same company) all exclusively from home, as do most all my colleagues. We work at a global bank, so security is an issue but plans were made and the rate of incidents has been extremely low. Anyone finding a different attitude toward working from home now compared to 2007 when this was published?
I think its a great incentive to retain employees, the thought of commuting every day makes me nauseous after 5+ years of working at home.
October 2, 2012 at 7:40 am
eye_speye (9/19/2007)
Ilike to think that managers who can't manage people who are working from home are bad managers.
In my former job, I had to take sick-leave one time because my wife's pregnancywasn't going as planned and she had to be admitted to hospital. I had to be at home to watch over our oldest one (3 years old at the time). It was a bad time because we had several major projects going on at the same time and all the work culminated in this period. So I organized a VPN connection to our company network from my home PC and managed to setup the ODBC connections I needed. Luckily, the company had installed web-based e-mail a few weeks before and I was allowed an account. For three weeks, I did all the work I would normally do at the office just using MS Query. In fact, I got more of the structural work done because nobody was bugging me with issues all day and I was able to save those things for the evening hours. When I came back to the office, I discussed this with my manager but there was no way to convince him. He just didn't TRUST me doing my job remote and he wasn't able to define the criteria whether or not I had been productive enough.
.
Exactly right Eye, once again this is "real" world, not "ideal" world, and as long as this mistrusting attitude dominates among many managers in our industry (and believe me it does) it will be hard to convince them of ever allowing this.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
October 2, 2012 at 8:49 am
By the way - the link to the case study isn't working... It says the document may have moved.
October 2, 2012 at 9:06 am
Its a matter of educating managers how we work, and I think the message is spreading. I have worked remotely for 10 years as a developer. In fact, our entire company is virtual.
October 2, 2012 at 9:25 am
bkowald 51666 (10/2/2012)
Its a matter of educating managers how we work, and I think the message is spreading. I have worked remotely for 10 years as a developer. In fact, our entire company is virtual.
completely agree, it will only grow. The occupancy costs of an office or cube, plus the liability of having people in your building will drive more and more companies to offer remote work options I think. No one can slip and fall on your sidewalk if they are at home.
October 2, 2012 at 9:32 am
I work as a remote dba but one important thing i have noticed recently is companies are looking at moving the entire DBA part of the job to the cloud. A lot of my customers have been insisting on moving to sql azure and RDS to avoid having to worry about the DBA and focus mostly on the development.
While there are other considerations it make sound business sense to have a team of experts at MS and Amazon worry about things like HA and security and allow the product development to continue as is. Most times they are happy with remote database than remote dba except when they want specific server/database level features.
October 2, 2012 at 9:39 am
Unfortunately its not as simple as that. There are so many other factors that come into play with working remotely that you are not taking into consideration.. Just a few that have been mentioned in the past by others are:
“What if…you are talking to someone from work on the phone and your dog barks?”
This is the top complaint I hear from managers about their employees who work from home: background animal (and kid) noises. I’m not sure why this drives them so crazy other than it’s a red flag that says "I'm not working in an official office," and they don’t want clients or customers to know that. In the spirit of creating as seamless a transition as possible, try to keep your pets and kids separate from where you're working.
“What if…your babysitter gets sick or your kids have a snow day?”
Remote work can’t be a substitute for child care. I’m consistently surprised by how many people struggle with this. The rule of thumb I follow is to handle child care the same way you would if you worked in an office. Have a contingency plan in place for what you will do if your sitter calls in sick or your kids have a snow day. For example, identify someone in advance who can come in to cover, and don’t assume it will be you.
“What if…someone from work (especially your boss) tries to reach you and you don’t respond immediately?”
I’m somewhat mystified by why managers expect immediate response from remote workers since people working in the office aren’t always at their desk. But for many managers, quick and easy access to you is a clear sign that you’re working, not watching The Price Is Right (which is their deepest fear). If you happen to miss a call or IM from someone at work, reply as soon as possible. Don’t offer a lot of excuses, just explain what happened: "I’m sorry; I was on another call," or "I stepped away for a moment. How can I help you?"
“What if…there’s an important meeting scheduled in the office on your remote work day?”
Be flexible with your flexibility. In today’s volatile, ever-changing global economy, change is inevitable and we have to roll with it. This includes being willing to alter your remote working schedule periodically to accommodate important meetings or projects that require face-to-face interaction in the office.
“What if…your internet service goes down?”
Reliable technology is one of the keys to successful remote work. That includes a reliable internet and phone connection. If your mobile phone has spotty service, install a land line. If your internet service is unreliable, get a backup mobile wifi card. You may decide that these investments are valuable insurance that supports your ability to continue to work remotely. Then again you may not.
“What if…a last minute important project lands on your boss’s desk at the end of the day?”
Back in 1975, when critical customer information could only be found in paper files, last-minute projects had to be handled in an office. But today, most of information that you will need to respond rapidly to an important problem or opportunity can be accessed or shared remotely from the cloud. The challenge now is for your boss to think of you as these issues arise if you aren’t physically present.
The trick is to communicate often when you’re working remotely without being annoying. First, let your boss know that even though you are working remotely you’re available and happy to step in and help anytime. Second, periodically (once or twice a day) touch base with a quick email or IM just to check in. That keeps you in the front of her mind should any challenges arise.
“What if…someone from work calls and you’re putting a load of laundry in the washing machine?”
I mention this scenario because it came up on a recent manager webinar I conducted for a client. The manager said, “I was on the phone with an employee who works from home and all of a sudden I hear a splash and a scream, then the line goes dead. I’m thinking ‘What the heck?’ Then she calls me and apologizes by saying ‘I was putting a load of laundry in and dropped the phone into the tub.’ See, this is why I hate people working from home.” The moral of this story is that if you're working from home, then work! Yes, throw a load of laundry in, grab a sandwich, go to the bathroom, but make it fast and don’t do it when you’re on the phone with your boss or a client.
So much of this is common sense but surprisingly few people think these situations through beforehand and end up sabotaging their ability to work remotely. Now you can begin to understand why a lot of managers currently feel the way they do about their critical personnel working remotely. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
October 2, 2012 at 9:47 am
TravisDBA (10/2/2012)
[.Exactly right Eye, once again this is "real" world, not "ideal" world, and as long as this mistrusting attitude dominates among many managers in our industry (and believe me it does) it will be hard to convince them of ever allowing this.:-D
Travis - Both you and Eye are on target here. The mistrust however may be deeper than we realize. Managers who have not done DBA or development work who do not understand the ins and outs of what we do have no clue as to how productive we are.
I think that the prevailing attitude is that since managers do not know what is being done that the only way they can measure that work is being done is to see the DBA or other IT professional at their desk driving the keyboard. They equate productivity with you being at your desk.
How then can they believe that an IT person is working unless they can see them?
Really your manager will either trust you or they will not. And they will allow you to remote as long as it does not set a president for others that they do not trust. And yes this means that you may not have the privileges you could have because of others, but that is how some managers work it.
Sorry for the random thoughts intertwined in this.
M.
😉
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
October 2, 2012 at 9:58 am
I've been with the same company for 12 years, 6 in official IT as a SQL Server DBA and developer. We have made the transition from zero work remote policy, to an almost exclusive work from home policy for technology, all the way up through senior executive levels. Every one of your concerns (well, maybe not yours) were concerns that came up while this was being piloted, and you know what, its not that big of a deal after all, especially when everyone works from home. Now this is easier to achieve in a large corporate environment where you are not dealing with external customers or clients, just other internal teams, but once everyone started working from home the little stuff like dogs barking and kids yelling just became part of the landscape, and its really nothing compared to the benefits in productivity, availability and cost savings to the company.
I feel for you guys and girls who have managers that think a dog barking is a big deal, or really even worth mentioning, but I bet they come around eventually.
October 2, 2012 at 10:46 am
I feel for you guys and girls who have managers that think a dog barking is a big deal, or really even worth mentioning, but I bet they come around eventually.
Maybe, but dollars to doughnuts they don't, not anytime soon anyway..:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
October 2, 2012 at 10:49 am
Now you have me curious Travis, what type of company or industry are you in where telecommuting is seen so negatively? Or do you think its just the decision makers at the particular business where you work?
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