Stress
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Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/awarren/2557.asp
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Becoming a contractor/consultant rather than an employee can be a good way to reduce stress!! Although I will admit you get a whole load of new factors it does take away some of the office stress factors that may distract you from being efficient.
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/ -
I think that depends on how steady the cash flow is!
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Good pointers Andy, stress is one of the much hidden killers
I will add something from experience though, in your "rumors of layoffs" examples you say "companies usually lay off the bottom tier of employees first". Well usually they do, in one role I found my self being in the unusal category when the company decided that the network admin and a developer could do the DBA job.
The best part was about 4 months after being laid off when they me asked back to do some DBA consulting/cleanup work. Their database backups had been failing for weeks and no-one had done anything about it and they consequently lost a pile of data. After sucking them dry for a week or two I knocked back their offer of my old job back
On becoming a contractor/consultant rather than an employee to reduce stress. Well I suppose that really depends on how you feel about contracting and what sort of contracts you get. If you're only getting short 3 month contracts, then I'd say you're more likely to be adding to your stress. On the other hand if you get a nice long 12 month contract, well need I say more ... $$$ ...
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Colt 45 - the original point and click interface
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Thats the rub, logic doesn't always apply...and of course being close to the problem, it's not always possible to know if our logical assessment is biased overly for/against our own survival. I'll probably due a follow up to talk about layoffs more...an interesting if stressful subject!
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Loved the article and glad to have the information from another point of view. I have been in the field for over 30 years and have seen people come and go. Many left early and went into other lines of work. Burn out was a problem and still is.
As professionals we need to realize that a shooting star is bright and folks see it but is short lived. And remember that it is better to take time now rather then meds later.
Yes I have worked more the 40/week and been on call, developed business critical, realtime projects in very demanding situations, and through all that I have learned if I do not take the time I need for myself and my family then I have nothing to give to any one.
After all this maybe I should take the rest of the day off.
Later...
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
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I think it is important to note that stress can cause physical sickness. To get technical, mental stress causes oxidative stress, which can cause premature aging, reduced immune system effectiveness, and is the leading factor in most degenerative diseases. This can be combated by a good solid nutritional program including a good balanced diet, quality nutritional supplements and plenty of extra anti-oxidants. So diet and lifestyle choices can have a major impact on how mental stress affects your life long term.
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I agree that being a contractor has less stress at work. I don't have to worry about company politices, gossip (usually no one cares about contractor), review, competition except I worry about the length of my contract and if I will get another contract if the existing contract ends.
The best thing is if the company want me to work overtime, I get paid. Now being an employee, I don't get a dime even I work 60 hours a week.
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Yeah it's a funny old world. I recommend a diet of strong coffee, choc bars, snacks, fast food ...... but seriously folks .. I think recognising the signs of stress is important - if you can do that you're half way there!
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/ -
Its always useful to allocate sometime (as our usual work - without complaining NO TIME) to do some sports activities that are inetersting to you... (Badminton, Swimming etc). You may meet some people in a sports complex from other fields (Non - IT) and talk about something other than technology, which will relief you a lot from stress.
Doing Yoga and Meditation early in the morning before office hours help a lot for the whole day to work smoothly and challenge anything without stress..!!!
-Sen
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Not always that easy, I enjoy surfing and sea kayaking but I'm a very long way from the surfing beaches - and then there's always the problem the surf always dies at weekends !!! or the traffic jams to the coast !! more stress. I've actually been commuting by train to my latest contract, an hour each way, I've actually found that it's an ideal chance to chill and maybe listen to music if too many people are using their mobiles. Sadly I'll be back to driving to my next contract as there are no public transport links - for all the talk about using public transport I don't see any real efforts to encourage it. Housing, shopping and work are all in neatly seperated silo's with most work and shops out of town where you have to drive ( talking about the UK here ) despite the rhetoric the government still pay homage to the motor car.
ps don't you find non IT people largely boring ??
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/ -
For me, changing jobs has been a great stress reliever. I left a company where I was wearing many hats (DBA, SQL Developer, backup systems admin, managing the data team and the helpdesk department, project manager, customer/vendor manager, etc.). I estimate that I probably spent less than 20% of my time doing my actual job as the DBA, which means that I wasn't permitted to do it effectively, and that was very stressful.
Now, I'm at a company that allows me to be the Data Architect / DBA, and I don't have to fill other roles. Plus, they're paying me a whole lot more. The pay difference is irrelevant though. The previous employer offered to match the salary I had been offered, and I told them that to get me to even consider any kind of counter-offer, they would have to hire at least 1 more database developer to work on my team.
>> ps don't you find non IT people largely boring ??
Umm, no, I don't. In fact, I married one. As a whole, I find them to be extremely not boring.
My blog: SQL Soldier[/url]
SQL Server Best Practices: SQL Server Best Practices
Twitter: @SQLSoldier
My book: Pro SQL Server 2008 Mirroring[/url]
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, Data Platform MVP
Database Engineer at BlueMountain Capital Management[/url] -
>> ps don't you find non IT people largely boring ??
was a joke - proves a point that many IT people are perceived as lacking a sense of humour!! Dilbert where are you?
A line manager used to tell me to remember the following ( and I was a contractor at the time )
- It's only a job
- Don't take it personally
- Just do it
Perhaps one of the advantages of being a contractor is that you don't have to put up with c*$p there's always another contract.
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/ -
Sorry, I never did get British humor!!!
(just kidding, I love Benny Hill!!!)
My blog: SQL Soldier[/url]
SQL Server Best Practices: SQL Server Best Practices
Twitter: @SQLSoldier
My book: Pro SQL Server 2008 Mirroring[/url]
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, Data Platform MVP
Database Engineer at BlueMountain Capital Management[/url] -
Actually that does raise a valid point - the cultures of international companies can cause stress - managers and above - can sometimes be difficult to adapt to.
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/
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