djackson 22568 (7/9/2012)

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Steve,

I agree with the point that I believe you were intending to make. No arguments whatsoever.

However, a lot of people are worried about losing their jobs, and the reasons are similar enough that I expect to see some contrarian positions here. For example, a lot of highly educated people end up losing their jobs as part of cost cutting measures, only to be replaced by less costly, younger workers. The H1B visa is an atrocious attack on American high tech workers, sold to the public as a way to fill jobs "nobody wants" and "nobody is qualified for", and has been shown to be causing a decline in college students pursuing tech.

Am I afraid of technology replacing me? Not at all.

Do I understand why a lot of people are worried about thier jobs, oh yeah. Those who do may or may not benefit from improving themselves. It is possible to improve oneself out of a job as the cost to employ is raised.

Dave

Jeff Moden (7/8/2012)

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Excellent editorial, Steve! I wish I could give it a hundred stars because it really hits the nail on the head. There're too many people that spend way too much time doing the "Chicken Little" thing.

djackson 22568 (7/9/2012)

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I agree with the point that I believe you were intending to make. No arguments whatsoever.
...

Doctor Who 2 (7/9/2012)

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Bottom line: if the agency is small enough, they don't want a DBA. They're not willing to pay that "DBA tax". They'll make anyone who has any IT experience be the developer, administrator, PC tech, help desk, network engineer and of course DBA.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor (7/9/2012)

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Good points, and I won't argue with you on this. There are any number of managers who do think the DBA is a tax and shouldn't be paid. They are happy to get by with less. Nothing to be done there, except to prove you're an asset, not an expense.

The idea is that you want to prove you have value to the company, whatever your position. Make sure they see you as valuable, or I would advise you move on.

jfogel (7/9/2012)

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If your employer doesn't know what you do and why they pay you then you have already lost the battle. Get out while the getting is good.

TravisDBA (7/9/2012)

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I totally agree. I once had a IT Director say in a very large meeting "I'm not sure what our DBA's do here." I could not let that go, and I immediately replied, but respectively. "Well sir, if you attended our Change Control meetings every week you would definitely find out. You get the invitation in Outlook every week.." The moral of the story is don't say things about the DBA's if you don't know or care what they do for you.

TravisDBA (7/9/2012)

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I totally agree. I once had a IT Director say in a very large meeting "I'm not sure what our DBA's do here." I could not let that go, and I immediately replied, but respectively. "Well sir, if you attended our Change Control meetings every week you would definitely find out. You get the invitation in Outlook every week.." The moral of the story is don't say things about the DBA's if you don't know or care what they do for you.