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August 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Balancing Work and Study... and more Work

TAGS: General Database

I got a comment from a reader that addressed an interesting topic. The point he made was that I’m sitting over here making comments about how you should study and keep your skills up, and still find time to do your job. Not only that, but you should also be testing your backup restores, etc. And of course he was absolutely right. It is easy for me to sit here and write out this blanket policy of what DBAs should be doing. Then again, I also practice what I preach, so here’s some advice on how to deal with the time constraints of doing your job, and making sure you’re covered when things don’t get done. Just for kicks, here’s the comment, and you can see it on this post.

Thinking, researching 'what if' questions, studying for the worst case scenario, all great advice, and for any IT specialist, even the generalist technician I've been most of my career.

But in the real world, I'm tasked with being 'productive' continually. From being 120 miles North at 0800, to finishing at 6:30pm an hour from home, a field technician has little spare time. And those techs that work for 'one' client, many have a solid 60 hours of to accomplish in their 40+ hour week. I suspect many DBAs also have full plates.

How do you find time to practice restoration, resolving corruption problems as quickly as possible, and testing all this if your boss has you busy 5X8?

You do give great advice, but how about which way to dodge the frying pan when your boss finds out you've never actually tested a full restore...?

OK, now that it’s been said, here’s what I’ve got for you.
#1—As a DBA, your job isn’t necessarily to make sure the restores get tested, or that the systems run efficiently, or even that code gets churned out well. Your job is to inform your boss of the dangers and getting then doing what he feels is the most important. Quite often managers won’t even know that backups need to be tested, so how can they make it a priority? So you present him with the options. If you tell him the backups need to be tested, and he says good, go do it… then you go off and do it. If before you get started, he says, I need you to go off and do this other thing, then you tell him that you were in the middle of the restores, and ask which has the priority. If he knows that the restores aren’t being tested and he opts to not do it in lieu of other things, then that’s his call, not yours. There are only so many hours in a day, and no matter how long they want us to sit there and work, there are still going to be things that don’t get done. Your job is to inform and to advise… not to be a superman and get everything done at any cost.
You’re a professional DBA. Act like one. If they tell you that they want a full DR scenario, but never give you time or money to do it with, then what are you supposed to do… pull a full DR site out of your posterior? You’re a consultant… even if you’re a fulltime employee. You can’t tell them how to run their business. You’re there to advise and to help, but you can’t do it all. In short, tell them everything that needs to be done, and then let them make their own priorities. If they give you too much to do, just say, hey, I can do that, but you already told me to do this other thing. Something has to give, so you tell me which one is more important. If they don’t understand that, then get a new job.

#2—It really isn’t that hard to improve your skills no matter how busy you are. I know it sounds really simplistic, but just make the time for it. I get about 4 newsletters every day that I actually read. The two SQL newsletters I get are SQLServerCentral and SSWUG. Every morning, before I do anything else, I sit down for 30mins and go through my newsletters. None of you can tell me that you don’t have a few minutes every day to read something. We all know what it’s like in an office. Most of your time is spent screwing around with one guy or another. The same goes for learning something new. Take a couple days a week and either study through lunch, or only take half a lunch and study the other half. In a month you would have learned something significant even though it’s not as much as you could have. A little progress is better than none at all.
Another good method for studying is to agree with your wife that for 30mins a night you’re going to study. Don’t take any more time, or any less time… 30mins on the nose. It’s a good arrangement. If it’s not good enough, then agree to only 2 nights a week… whatever. The point is that it’s easy to make time. I’d be surprised if any of you were busier than I am. If you saw what I got done on any given day you would get tired just watching me. Yet I still find time to pick up a book every single day and read for 30mins… and go through my newsletters. In a nutshell, I hold down a fulltime job where I provide 24/7 support, do private consulting, write two blogs, write review articles and features for the magazine, review books, cook dinner for the family, play with my 2 kids, answer around 30 emails, meet with vendors on review topics, teach kenpo, study and play chess, and train my hard-headed sheepdog. And I still find time for a little Colbert Report. It’s all in time management. So don’t any of you tell me you’re too busy to pick up a book a couple times a week.

Anyway, I know this is getting kinda long, but the point is that you should make time to study, and let your boss make the decisions on what gets knocked off your task list.

Posted by Sean McCown on August 9, 2006 06:58 PM

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