Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 1

And now I have a long weekend without plans because I'll travel until next week. I'm not sure if it's good or bad luck.

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

SQLBill SSC Guru Points: 51440 More actions · Answer 2

Glad to hear it was only minor damage and no injury.

-SQLBill

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 3

Informal survey before I make a fool of myself in an article (again)

Do you get the feeling that IT people, especially ones at the top-end of the field, are too reluctant to ask for help?

I don't mean technical help, I mean with stuff like burnout, depression, etc.

I keep seeing it locally, the belief that we have to be superheroes to work in the field, must be able to work all-nighters, heroic long hours, don't take time off sick, never admit weakness.

Local thing, or more widespread?

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 4

Personally, yes. Do I see it others, frequently but not always.

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 5

Well..... I am experiencing some issues. Considering I was twisted around to look over my left shoulder so I could move across several lanes of traffic to make a left turn at the very next light. But I am getting the care I need.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398694 More actions · Answer 6

I'd say this one is hard to define, but yeah. A lot of us just have a hard time saying "no" when people ask for stuff. It builds. A lot.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734459 More actions · Answer 7

Widespread.

I had to seriously argue with my people to go home during crisis situations so we could have someone to rotate in fresh. Same with other people in dev, SAN, sysadmin, network, etc teams.

I've seen plenty of people get frustrated as well with the way things work, but they keep it inside and get resentful and more stressed. As a manager, I learned I needed to pull this out of them regularly or they'd get worse across time.

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 8

It was common when working at the bank, but not when I was working as a contractor. It's something many programmers brag about, though. In Mexico, however, it doesn't seem to be exclusive for IT http://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/04/21/these-countries-have-the-most-annual-working-hours-infographic-3/

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95409 More actions · Answer 9

Absolutely.

As someone that suffered a burnout a while back, I'd be happy to review your article, or even chat with you about my experience.

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

If you can't explain to another person how the code that you're copying from the internet works, then DON'T USE IT on a production system! After all, you will be the one supporting it!

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SQLRNNR SSC Guru Points: 281334 More actions · Answer 10

Widespread.

I don't know if it is trying to be a superhero or just the thought of not getting it done - especially in crisis. But it does apply to more than just a crisis situation.

Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
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Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86908 More actions · Answer 11

My feeling on this is that if you get to that tier in the technical world, you should probably have realized what you were getting into long before you get there. Now as to whether that ultimately leads to depression or burnout, I think that's going to depend on the individual. There should have been enough early warning to prepare yourself to avoid it (although it is likely many do not).

I would say that the thing that mortifies me the most, and it is an issue that continues year after year after year, is dealing with all the new newbies learning the same lessons over and over again. Things like how to troubleshoot, make code changes without causing side-effects, or at least knowing where and how to look for side effects, etc. Each new wave of newbies goes through the same learning process while the old-timers end up having to deal with the fallout. Now that's depressing.

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
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Ed Wagner SSC Guru Points: 287024 More actions · Answer 12

Definitely widespread. Thankfully, I haven't experienced anything more than a minor case of it myself, and that was due mostly to office politics.

I've seen it in others where they quit their job or had a marriage end. There are warning signs, but I think they're seen by others long before the individual seem them. Of course, if you're depressed, you tend to listen to others less, which does nothing to slow it down. Since you think they don't know that their friends are trying to help them, they throw themselves into their work. The whole work/life balance is an important, albeit sometimes difficult topic.

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Koen Verbeeck SSC Guru Points: 259085 More actions · Answer 13

Widespread. Belgians are modest people, and we mostly keep to ourselves.

IT is also (unfortunately) a men's world nowadays, and men do not talk about their feelings 🙂

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MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

BrainDonor SSCoach Points: 19252 More actions · Answer 14

Widespread and not improving.

Quite a few years ago I was off for a few months due to this, and more recently my wife was off for almost a year. Then there's the time it takes to get back to a decent 'speed' and confidence when you return to work.

I now make the effort to talk to people where I believe they're heading the same way.

It still seems to be very much a taboo subject, so congratulations on writing something about it.

If you want anybody else to cast an eye over the article, I'd be happy to help.

Steve Hall
Linkedin
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TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 15

I've seen it now and again, or maybe a bit more often than just now and again. But not really a lot of people get like that, but enough of them to be noticeable.

The all-nighters and heroic long hours can sometimes be cured by a bit of help so that the work gets done faster and the long hours aren't needed - and that's sometimes technical help. Some technical people get really hung-up on some of the non-technical aspects of their job, like careeer development planning for their subordinates or mentoring or preparing pitches for potential customers or composing press releases and usually (but not always) that requires a different sort of help.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that all-nighters are always a sign of problems, or long hours (how can long hours be "heroic"?). At one point when very young I preferred to put in my 37.5 hours each week in 3 long shifts instead of 5 short ones, because that gave me two more days at home each week. When I was younger than that I used to prefer working midday to 10pm with a 2 hour early evening break instead of 9 to 5 with a 1 hour lunch break. In both those cases there was no bother from my employer. Later on I occassionally found myself in a situation where working silly hours was a good idea but in compensation when things were quiet I could go and work from home for a couple of weeks or take a few days off altogether without using up any leave time, so working silly hours wasn't a problem.

Tom