Teambuilding and Bonding

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Teambuilding and Bonding

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TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 1

Well an e-mail is a record of what the client said, but it does not say what he meant. 😀

He can't deny that he did say it if you got it in email. The problem with just the spoken word is it is just too easy to refute.:-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"

Ivanova Ten Centuries Points: 1320 More actions · Answer 2

The other great advantage of email is that I get to choose when I answer it (assuming it's not truely urgent, which very little of it is). Phone or visit is an interruption, and too many of those in a day wreck it. Yes, granted we're in an industry where we should collaborate and share info, but the flip side is that you can't always spot the time wasters before they open their mouths......

niall.baird Hall of Fame Points: 3468 More actions · Answer 3

jay-h (5/10/2012)
TravisDBA (5/10/2012)
Thanks, I love dogs better than most people I know.:-D
Forget 'take your child to work day', I'm pushing for 'take your dog to work day'

+1

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 4

djackson 22568 (5/14/2012)
Same here, and the ones who complain about using email so much are ALWAYS the ones who like to blame others for their failures!

If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and take grand exception to that.

Once the bloody task has been assigned, I don't need for the nimrod in the next cube to keep asking me questions on how to do something via an IM every 30 freakin' seconds for a half day when a 5 minute conversation would solve his or her problems and they could actually do some work instead of pecking out feeble and incomplete thoughts in IM or Email.

Get a grip people! CYA is fine until it becomes the only job you have in mind! 😀

--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)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 5

TravisDBA (5/14/2012)
CYA is very practical.

Nah... CYA is all the cruddy emails that happen when you haven't done your job and provided or demanded proper documentation to begin with. Continuing conversations of supposed agreement/disagreement without modifications of specifications fly in the face of a million ISO specs and basic common sense. My stance is strictly MIL-TP-41 (Make It Like The Print For Once!).

--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)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 6

Ivanova (5/14/2012)
The other great advantage of email is that I get to choose when I answer it (assuming it's not truely urgent, which very little of it is). Phone or visit is an interruption, and too many of those in a day wreck it. Yes, granted we're in an industry where we should collaborate and share info, but the flip side is that you can't always spot the time wasters before they open their mouths......

I guess I'm different. As a DBA and a Sr. Developer, I figure it's a part of my job to enable others to do theirs better. I'd also much rather them ask me a 10 minute question than to travel down the primrose path for 2 days.

--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)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 7

Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/14/2012)
I have found documentation to be key in my career for CYA, but mostly for just being aware of what was agreed to. My memory has proven to be as fallible as others, so I request things in writing, just to be sure that I know what I should be doing.

Yes! I absolutely agree. Documentation in the form of specs, lists of deliverables, performance requirements, etc, etc. Not a 1,000 CS IM's or emails from the nimrod that hasn't read that documentation or is too bloody lazy to come see me to learn how to use some coding technique. 😀 When I get to 2 IM's or sometimes just 1 email on something complicated, I tell people to come see me and then I stop answering their electronic pleas. Waiting for others to type out a single sentence in IM takes forever and usually takes longer than for someone to walk to my cube for a 5 minute conversation that allows someone to work for 2 days with no IMs or emails.

--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)

Ivanova Ten Centuries Points: 1320 More actions · Answer 8

Bear in mind that none of us would operate 100% in one mode or the other. Yes, of course I take face to face or phone questions and ask them when I think it's appropriate. My preference is for email for the non-urgent stuff because minimising interruptions makes for more effectiveness in my (non operational) role.

We have something of an emphasis on email in my organsiation because people are geographically dispersed to the point where some sites' working days barely overlap.

TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 9

CYA is fine until it becomes the only job you have in mind! 😀

I take it you have never worked for the government? CYA is almost policy there. CYA is fine when you want to keep the job you already have. 😀

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

TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 10

When I get to 2 IM's or sometimes just 1 email on something complicated, I tell people to come see me and then I stop answering their electronic pleas. Waiting for others to type out a single sentence in IM takes forever and usually takes longer than for someone to walk to my cube for a 5 minute conversation that allows someone to work for 2 days with no IMs or emails.

I work with alot of people that have disabilities, and also, I have many people that work in different geographical locations as well nowadays. So. for them, "walking down to your cube for a face to face" is not always very practical. Please don't assume everyone has got your mobility or your centralized location:-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"

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 11

TravisDBA (5/15/2012)
When I get to 2 IM's or sometimes just 1 email on something complicated, I tell people to come see me and then I stop answering their electronic pleas. Waiting for others to type out a single sentence in IM takes forever and usually takes longer than for someone to walk to my cube for a 5 minute conversation that allows someone to work for 2 days with no IMs or emails.
I work with alot of people that have disabilities, and also, I have many people that work in different geographical locations as well nowadays. So. for them, "walking down to your cube for a face to face" is not always very practical. Please don't assume everyone has got your mobility or your centralized location:-D

C'mon, Travis. Of course I don't expect someone with that type of problem to walk down to my cube. I also resent that you think that I would make such an assumption that you've stated. I'm not talking about such exceptions. I'm talking about the 99.9% of the people that are just too bloody lazy or too worried about CYA.

--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)