This editorial was originally published on Mar 21, 2014. It is being re-run as Steve is on vacation.

We all have them. As DBAs, there could be many bad days in our career. We poke fun at one of them with our first humorous DBA Team story this year. Hopefully you enjoy that one and smile. I know I got a kick out of reading it when got the first draft.

However that's not a really bad day for me. I've had some bad days at work involving corruption, missing backups, hardware failures, viruses, and more. Typically they involve fewer car crashes and political games than the DBA Team deals with, but they're almost as stressful and more than a few have stretched well into the night.

This week, I'd like to commiserate with you. I'd like to hear about the hard stories that you can now look back on with a smile (or grimace), having managed to move beyond the situation.

What's been a really bad day in your DBA career?

Or perhaps you've got a bad development story, an administrator story or something else. What was a time when you thought your career might be over, or you might lose your job? When did you feel a high level of stress over a situation that you thought might overwhelm you? Was there a time you might leave this industry?

I'm not looking to bring up bad memories, and please remember to be professional with your stories. However I've found writing things down can be cathartic. Perhaps you've held onto some anxiety for years, or fear about a repeat. Perhaps a little sharing, and empathy from the community, will help you feel better about the situation. 

As always, if you'd like to share anonymously, feel free to send a note to sjones at this domain and I'll post your story without your name.