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RE: Remote DBAs

sanderstad — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 22:56:33 GMT

In my current job as a DBA I can work several days from home. The way it works is that my employer trusts us that we deliver what we say.I've worked at multiple companies where managers indeed want to see you as a false insurence that you do the work you're supposed to do.This isn't the case. If you give somebody the responsibility and the trust you'll see that the employees get more productive, get more feeling with the company and have a mindset set to achieve a common goal.Ofcourse there are people who abuse the system and these people are out of the picture.I think it's really good that DBA's can work from home with the technology nowadays there's no reason not to work remote.

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:49:22 GMT

[quote][b]Also keep in mind that not all remote dba work means that it is being offshored to people with lesser skills.[/quote]This all depends on who you are talking to at the time and what the company's economic situation is at the time as well.. A DBA, or an IT manager, or the CIO, or even the CEO may give you surprisingly different responses to that statement. A DBA or even an IT manager may not be concerned with the company's bottom line, instead focusing more on skill set. CEO's and CIOs, however, might be focused on "more bang for the dollar" and less on skill set. Particularly, in these times.. :-D

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLRNNR — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:18:41 GMT

Remote DBA work is something that more employers need to evaluate as a legitimate option. Whether that remote work is a staff employee or some other company works for me. DBAs are typically remote to the server but the warm fuzzy of a body in chair in office is often more important to management.Also keep in mind that not all remote dba work means that it is being offshored to people with lesser skills.

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:57:53 GMT

[quote] the person taking over your job in India (or wherever) does not have your skills, experience and relationships, its just not a valid conclusion to make. [/quote]True, but that's not the main reason, or really even a concern, that most companies offshore IT jobs nowadays. It's all about their bottom line. They can hire 10 Indians to our one IT worker and work them 14-16 hours a day and stick the difference in their pockets. Our experienced skill set is the least of their concerns in most cases.:w00t: People need to wake up with what is going on with companies being allowed to offshore American jobs while almost 25 million Americans are out of a job right now....WAKE UP AMERICA! :-D

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLWorks — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:55:03 GMT

[quote][b]cs_troyk (10/3/2012)[/b][hr][quote][b]jay-h (9/19/2007)[/b][hr]Remember...If your job can be done from home, it can be done from India.[/quote]I suppose Steven King could write his next novel from home, and Tim Burton could draft his next screenplay from home (or anywhere else, for that matter). Doesn't necessarily mean their jobs are in danger of being offshored:-D.Nice choice for a resurrection, Steve! Looking back, I've worked remote probably about 50% of the time over the past 10 years, with some positions being full-on remote, and others partially remote, traveling occasionally to be onsite. I primarily live on the "development" side of database work, so making effective use of online collaboration tools is essential. (I'm not convinced, though, that there is any more or less collaboration required for an operational DBA, as has been opined in some of the other comments).-TroyK[/quote]I agree, the presumption that your job can be outsourced if it's something that you could do from home doesn't really make sense, the person taking over your job in India (or wherever) does not have your skills, experience and relationships, its just not a valid conclusion to make. I would encourage anyone looking to work from home to give it a shot, it's one of the benefits I value most about my current job. <shamelessplug> Just did a quick couple pages on how to approach your manager about making the jump to telecommuting on my new blog, link in sig </shamelessplug>

RE: Remote DBAs

cs_troyk — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:50:03 GMT

[quote][b]jay-h (9/19/2007)[/b][hr]Remember...If your job can be done from home, it can be done from India.[/quote]I suppose Steven King could write his next novel from home, and Tim Burton could draft his next screenplay from home (or anywhere else, for that matter). Doesn't necessarily mean their jobs are in danger of being offshored:-D.Nice choice for a resurrection, Steve! Looking back, I've worked remote probably about 50% of the time over the past 10 years, with some positions being full-on remote, and others partially remote, traveling occasionally to be onsite. I primarily live on the "development" side of database work, so making effective use of online collaboration tools is essential. (I'm not convinced, though, that there is any more or less collaboration required for an operational DBA, as has been opined in some of the other comments).-TroyK

RE: Remote DBAs

wayne_hudson3 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:52:30 GMT

I like managers who insist that you be in the Office.It means that my job can't be outsourced easily.There is no reason why a DBA needs to be in the Office all the time and it can be very cost effective.With telecommunications improving all the time, it gives the ability to get the best staff at a reasonable cost.

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:04:24 GMT

Thank you sir! I hope you are right, and that we are next, but i am not going to hold my breath waiting for them(managers) to embrace it either. :-D

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLWorks — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:01:15 GMT

Fear not Travis, there is hope...here are some good stats I ran across while writing a quick blog post about telecommuting [url=http://www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/telecommuting-statistics]http://www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/telecommuting-statistics[/url] it seems the Government had an explosive growth rate in telecommuting jobs recently, so maybe you are next...The company I work for employs more people than most governments, and 4 levels of my management all work from home exclusively...next time I have an opening I'll DM you if your interested...

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:54:06 GMT

The government industry (all levels) City, County, State, and Federal. Not limiting to just them though. I have seen this managerial mistrust of working remotely in many arenas, both public and private. I have been in the IT businuess for over 28 years and most managers in my experience in all that time do not trust people working remotely. That is just the way they are. They are kind of funny that way.:-D

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLWorks — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:49:18 GMT

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?

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:46:23 GMT

[quote]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.[/quote]Maybe, but dollars to doughnuts they don't, not anytime soon anyway..:-D

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLWorks — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:58:42 GMT

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 [u]everyone [/u]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.

RE: Remote DBAs

Miles Neale — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:47:41 GMT

[quote][b]TravisDBA (10/2/2012)[/b][hr][.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[/quote]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.;-)

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:39:47 GMT

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:[b]“What if…you are talking to someone from work on the phone and your dog barks?” [/b]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.[b]“What if…your babysitter gets sick or your kids have a snow day?”[/b]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.[b]“What if…someone from work (especially your boss) tries to reach you and you don’t respond immediately?”[/b]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?"[b]“What if…there’s an important meeting scheduled in the office on your remote work day?”[/b]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.[b]“What if…your internet service goes down?”[/b]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.[b]“What if…a last minute important project lands on your boss’s desk at the end of the day?”[/b]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. [b]“What if…someone from work calls and you’re putting a load of laundry in the washing machine?”[/b]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, [b]then work![/b] 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. :-D

RE: Remote DBAs

Jayanth_Kurup — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:32:40 GMT

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.

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLWorks — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:25:50 GMT

[quote][b]bkowald 51666 (10/2/2012)[/b][hr]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.[/quote]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.

RE: Remote DBAs

bkowald 51666 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:05:59 GMT

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.

RE: Remote DBAs

jkoon-760461 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:49:00 GMT

By the way - the link to the case study isn't working... It says the document may have moved.

RE: Remote DBAs

TravisDBA — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:40:22 GMT

[quote][b]eye_speye (9/19/2007)[/b][hr]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..[/quote]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

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLWorks — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:52:14 GMT

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.

RE: Remote DBAs

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 07:46:16 GMT

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 :)

RE: Remote DBAs

Lynn Pettis — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:42:27 GMT

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).:cool:

RE: Remote DBAs

Loner — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:26:24 GMT

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 ??

RE: Remote DBAs

SQLShaw — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:08:47 GMT

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,

RE: Remote DBAs

philcart — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:10:00 GMT

I've been working as a "Remote DBA" for the past nine months and we have clients across a very broad spectrum. Retail, Finance, Legal, Automotive, Travel, etc...Each client has their own requirements in terms of security. One client does not allow us to plug in any equipment or install any software. Another just hands us the proverbial keys to the server and expects us to deal with any issues that arise. We also use about five different VPN solutions, including ones with security tokens. A few of our clients also have us onsite on a regular basis.From my point of view this job has been the best move of my career. I've come across many varied installations of SQL Server, many of which I wouldn't have had exposure to in a regular DBA role. I get to look after a vast range of servers in many different environments. One client has a 24x7 db that is 100GB, another has 20 dbs with the largest being 2GB. Yet another client has servers in two countries with data replicated between them. We also act as a specialist support for companies that already have DBAs.

RE: Remote DBAs

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:20:00 GMT

I know the people running the company and they're solid DBAs. No idea on rates, so ping them and see what they offer.Search on Google as well and call a couple others.

RE: Remote DBAs

Maxer — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:50:00 GMT

I'm actually VERY interested in those on call DBAs.

I'm a single DBA shop and when possible prefer to handle development more than administration. I'm confident that my servers are safe and secure, but I KNOW that I'm working harder than I have to with tasks that should/could be automated and there are some areas related to analysis and integration services that I don't know nearly enough about.

Has anyone used this consulting firm, or have a rough idea of their prices?

I wouldn't be against calling them and having them remote in and go over some server configuration, and "double check" my servers to make sure I wasn't doing anything blindingly career endingly stupid

RE: Remote DBAs

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:36:00 GMT

Some great points being brought up and I agree there are definitely problems and challenges. However picking a remote DBA firm isn't like hiring an electrician or plumber for the day. It's something you enter into for the long term, with the idea you'd use the group regularly.And for smaller environments, even if they don't know everything, they can provide some valuable peace of mind for a DBA going on vacation (for both the company and employee), especially if he/she's one of 3 or 4 in the IT department.

RE: Remote DBAs

Loner — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:44:00 GMT

I think remote DBA would be much better solution and I would trust them to do a good job than some internal DBA, at least they would response much faster, otherwise they would lose the contract. As for the confidential data concerned, they had to sign the confidential agreement just liked the rest of the internal employees. My former company had three SQL Server DBAs. They had a schedule that every week one DBA on call, one DBA worked at home for two days and another DBA worked at the office the whole week. So if something happened it was off hour, we called the on call DBA, since all the developers could not see touch the production database, that meant we could not even see the DTS packages, jobs and anything, we depended on the on call DBA to find out what happened, the average time that the on call DBA returned the call was 45 min to 1 hour !!!!! How efficient!!!!! The other two DBAs supposed to be the backup, you could never find them, especially the one worked at home, you could not even able to contact him even at office hour. One time the whole department had a "OFF SITE" team building meeting. One of my production job went down. We tried to call every DBA including the on call DBA for four hours, and no one returned any phone call. Of course I could not fix the production problem. The next day I went to complain to the DBA manager and he said I did not follow the production problem tracking procedure. I went to find the person who took care the problem tracking system and he said I did the right thing but the DBA manager insisted that I did something wrong. When the on call DBAs did not return the call, the DBA manager actually was on their side. Yes he was a good manager, lousy to the users though. Ironically the DBA manager wrote a book called 'You're Fired! Firing Computer Professionals: The IT Manager Guide for Terminating "With Cause" '.

RE: Remote DBAs

rlondon — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:26:00 GMT

In my past job for a large global company, I exclusively worked from home for 7 years. I was both a development (application) DBA and a production DBA. We also had development DBA's in India and all over the world. The fact that we had many people in many places made it easier to work from home because the infrastructure was in place for security, conference calls, instant messaging... I think that if the infrastructure is there and management supports it then it is worth it. However many small companies do not have this benefit, so it all depends.

The one drawback is that everyone knows you work from home so they always call you even when you are not supposed to be working. However, I don't know many DBA's who are not supposed to be working.

RE: Remote DBAs

noeld — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:31:00 GMT

A remote DBA IMO is valid only for non-confidential *and* stable environments. Most places I have seen have one or the other but never *both*. The weakest point of hiring an "external" firm (in my view ) is that still you will have to train that DBA in the processes and workflows of the place and if the location is very dynamic the costs will be considerable. In otherwise very slowly changing environments it does makes sense *as long as confidentiality is *not* an issue.

RE: Remote DBAs

jay-h — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:29:00 GMT

Remember...

If your job can be done from home, it can be done from India.

RE: Remote DBAs

Carl Kepford — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:38:00 GMT

Works fine for a stable software enviromnent, but who has that?

One problem is that, like it or not, most development projects include meetings with a mixed bag of systems engineers, developers, business managers, and a dba or two. Usually somebody gets up and starts drawing servers, databases, code, business processes, etc on a whiteboard. OK, OK, there are technical workarounds, but having a dba physically present is a good thing.

Another problem is that sometimes developers or systems folks need a very quick answer to a question to keep everybody else on a team working. My experience in working with remote consultants is that they are often committed to other customers as well. Phone calls, emails, IM's are not returned within a couple of hours. A couple of hours times each person working on a project equals a lot of team hours.

RE: Remote DBAs

Michael Earl-395764 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:56:00 GMT

I have been a DBA / Developer for about a decade. During this time I have been on both sides of the fence - a manager of up to 14 people, and a (happily) simple employee with my head down doing work. From a management perspective, I have never had a problem with people working from home on a regular basis. I have one consultant workng for me now that is home three days a week. He is good at it and gets his work done.

However, I have found it difficult for myself to work from home more than one day a week. I feel I lose a sense of urgency that comes with production issues. Yes, from anywere I can see it is important when a server is down, but if I am not in the office listening to people, I don't get a good feel for which applications are not working well.

Working remotely is a great perk for the type of work we do, but I think it really needs to be handled well and at least some time every week needs to be spent in the mix wih the users or work product degrades very quickly.

RE: Remote DBAs

kpsqlcent — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:27:00 GMT

I have worked from home in the UK (more systems DBA than applications) since 1999. It wasn't seen as a big deal as my work had become remote even when I was office based. I like working from home although it doesn't suit everyone in the long term. I still feel part of a team even though my closest colleagues are 3 hours away. The phone, IM and netmeeting type tools help, we've been using them for years with company approval, so there are some enlightened companies out there. Referring to the previous post I don't see security as being an issue providing there is appropriate technology in place (VPNs / secureid cards etc) to track remote access. If I hacked my companies systems I would be traced.

RE: Remote DBAs

John Reid-322103 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:58:00 GMT

Let's not forget the issue of security. Do you really want highly confidential information left on display in the kitchen of your remote DBA while he runs to help a child with a cut finger? The simple fact of the matter is, people will have a more relaxed attitude to security when they work from their own home, because it is only human to believe that home is the most secure place on earth -- by definition.

There is still no affordable and 100% reliable way to guarantee that when you see "Bill" remotely logged in on a server that it is in fact Bill sitting at the screen, whereas if Bill is in the office and you've implemented physical access controls, you just go and look.

RE: Remote DBAs

eye_speye — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:35:00 GMT

I like 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 pregnancy wasn'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.And that's the whole thing: It all depends on defining the right goals and the right criteria to measure if these goals are met.Typically, salespeople are allowed to work from home easier. Not just because they need to be mobile, but also because it's easy for them to demonstrate their effectiveness. Sales and profit are being measured everywhere. How do you define the effectiveness of a DBA ?

A second point here is that salespeople are more used to having to account for their well doing. They can sell themselves as easy as the products or services they're selling. For us techies, that's not really part of our nature, at least not for most of us.

RE: Remote DBAs

Jeff Moden — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:35:00 GMT

Then we have some fairly quiet periods where we work on tuning things that don't work well.

Heh.. thought you didn't spend anytime tuning... thought you always bought hardware so you had time to ride your horse

I agree... if you're a "Systems" DBA, then there's no reason why you can't tele-commute except for the obvious periods of duress...

But, if you're what I call an "Applications DBA", then you need to be at work as a mentor to the Developers and Systems Analysts (the kind that define what a project will consist of).

We have both... our main "Systems" DBA actually lives way out in Oregon (we're in Michigan and North Carolina) and our "Applications" DBAs are on site most of the time.

Remote DBAs

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:41:00 GMT

There's still hope for all you DBAs out there looking for a telecommuting job that allows you to work in your pajamas. Someone sent me this case study about remote DBAs and I decided to pass it along. It's a one page PDF, and it's a fluff piece to some extent for Bluewolf, a company that has outsourced IT staffing, but has a section on remote DBA work as well.

I've wanted a remote DBA company for a long time. It's something I thought was easy to do, most all DBA work is remote to the server anyway, and we tend to work alone. It's a specialized skill and for the most part, a production DBA is an insurance cost.

Face it, as a production DBA, I've typically had periods of time where we work really hard on upgrades, stabilizing systems, responding to issues, etc. Then we have some fairly quiet periods where we work on tuning things that don't work well. There are definitely exceptions for environments that are understaffed and have perpetual problems, but a lot of the time we are insurance for the bad times.

Which makes for a pretty good job.

I've usually enjoyed my jobs; they haven't had too much stress on a daily basis, and I could handle the tedious nature of production systems. If I had 4 or 5 of these jobs I did from home, that would be amazing. I've just struggled finding managers that were comfortable with a DBA working from home 3 or 4 days a week. For some reason they just want to see you there every day.

There are definitely jobs and companies out there making this work. A few friends of mine from Colorado Springs even have a company that does this: SQL On Call. They can help in many areas, but they're happy to fill in for a DBA on vacation. If you're a one-DBA shop, give them a call. I know, it's a plug, but I have no affiliation. They're friends of mine and good DBAs.

If you want to telecommute, especially on a part-time basis, be sure you save the case study link along with any others you come across. A lot of preparation and good evidence that it works will go a long way to convincing your boss to let you try it.

Steve Jones