For me, as I always practiced and believed, we DBAs must stand firm in protecting the integrity of the data and a proper change management process must be practiced accordingly - no matter who the requester is and no matter how small or temporary the request might be.

It is not just about the job or being employed. It is all about integrity. Same goes when you are asked to recommend certain product while you favors a different one. Would you stick with your choice or the one that is recommended to you?

Well, back to the scenarios:

A) The DBA, may need to work extra hours to identify the problem and tune the database performance as necessary. But, make sure the boss aware of this effort officially so that the DBA will (hopefully) be rewarded accordingly for the efforts.

B) The DBA should make as many ppl aware of the man power issue to ease up the pressure. And, if he/she is up for it, take all the responsibilities up and do a good job at it, and ask for rewards (big bonus/promotion). If no reward is given what so ever, it shows that the company is lacking in staff recognition. Hence, if the workload pressure is too much and no one is taking care of the DBA, then IMHO he/she better seek for a new job.

One thing that many employers failed to do is to recognize the the importance of DBAs. Most of the time, unfortunately, DBAs are viewed as staffs with less importance with small and redundant job scope since the company already have maintenance contract with the 3rd party vendors.

I used to be treated as such but now not anymore. But one thing that is not changed is the pressure and the reponsibilities. No matter where I go, the pressure of being the DBA is mainly the same. But, I love my job and I accepted the risks that comes with my job. 🙂