March 27, 2014 at 7:55 pm
Well my last position I was the production DBA as a member of the Networking team. An application upgrade didn't go quite right. If you ever tried to do Dynamics GP upgrade -- it took both days of the weekend and was barely ready to go on Monday.
So I was put on a 45 day probation for it.
Then in that time the senior network guy that had converted us to VBS from batch scripts left the company. So it fell to me to upgrade client inventory reporting SW using VBS and I admit I screwed up the script. The 48 sub DC's took almost 4 hours to get to speed and allow network logins again.
They wouldn't accept that my inexperience was an excuse and I was fired.
I'm still split on their decision. I understand the Networking Lead's decision to make the IT department look more professional. But at the same time this was my initial VBS experience and we didn't have a side domain to practice on so my screw up couldn't be found ahead of time.
But in the long run it worked out for me. I had five weeks off. My leftover vacation days paid for most of it. And now I have a job that is paying $20K+ than the old one. The former company (a mid-size bank) is mostly closed and bought out. I am now able to telecommute and my new company was bought out about a year ago and I have opportunities to grow and expand that were not even on the horizon.
When I was first hired by the new company I worked with their SW to turn around support issues in 24 hours or less compared to the prior 3-7days. That got me brownie points beyond measure. I also automated backups, reporting and error checking on the hosted servers to the point clients that they never even knew there was an issue.
My networking experience has given the middle company a boost in controlling stuff on our hosted systems. And the company that bought us out depended on me to convert from our SW to the new SW. I have it so efficient for our conversion team the the new company had to come up with new practices to efficiently import all our data that we give them.
So on balance -- I can deal with being fired. It broadened my horizons. It allowed me the ability to go from one of the team to be the go-to-guy on just about anything. And I have the respect of my co-workers compared to the old team where I was the odd man out.
And then the thing I really loved -- they hired the "consultant" that the Networking Lead (a friend of hers) had brought in to check that I was doing things right. I taught him several Excel tricks in the process of the evaluation. He was fired within two months. Then they hired an outside consultant/monitoring company to do my job. The consultant company would not do a single change without written permission from the IT CEO. That lasted about three months. After that I didn't care. Let them suffer through the clustered SQL servers; disk level replication and the rest of the stuff I had built and worked with.
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Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
March 28, 2014 at 7:13 am
Jim P. (3/27/2014)
...But in the long run it worked out for me. I had five weeks off. My leftover vacation days paid for most of it. And now I have a job that is paying $20K+ than the old one. The former company (a mid-size bank) is mostly closed and bought out. I am now able to telecommute and my new company was bought out about a year ago and I have opportunities to grow and expand that were not even on the horizon.
...
Of the half dozen companies I've worked for in the past, only two of them are still in business. The important thing is that we as IT professionals don't take any of this stuff personally. It's rarely about us. Even when there is a personal conflict with management, it's really just a surface level symptom of a deeper systemic problem with the organization itself that trickles down to the server room and cubicles.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
March 31, 2014 at 9:22 am
Jim P. wrote:
... in the long run it worked out for me. ... The former company (a mid-size bank) is mostly closed and bought out. I am now able to telecommute and my new company was bought out about a year ago and I have opportunities to grow and expand that were not even on the horizon.
That's great news. It's nice to know there is some justice in this world, after all.
March 31, 2014 at 6:29 pm
Jim P. (3/27/2014)
So I was put on a 45 day probation for it.
I think I'd have started looking for a new job at that point. I'm in my 30s. I might make mistakes but to treat a job like a schoolyard with timeouts and detention... forget it 🙂 I guess some people are used to that kind of bureaucracy but I'm not.
Eric M Russell (3/28/2014)
Of the half dozen companies I've worked for in the past, only two of them are still in business.
I love how, to an outside observer, it would appear a good employee has left a trail of devastation and dead companies behind them 🙂
March 31, 2014 at 6:42 pm
Cody K (3/31/2014)
I think I'd have started looking for a new job at that point. I'm in my 30s. I might make mistakes but to treat a job like a schoolyard with timeouts and detention... forget it 🙂 I guess some people are used to that kind of bureaucracy but I'm not.
I was already looking for a new job for other reasons. The reality is that looking for a job while you are employed is hard unless you are a thumb that sticks out (i.e. special skills).
I look at a job search as a 40 hour/week job in itself. Putting a resume out on Monster, Dice and Careerbuilder isn't going to guarantee a call from anyone.
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Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
April 8, 2014 at 10:28 pm
I was let go of a company when I first started as a programmer because I fall a doze of in a meeting... truth to be told I have been diagnostic with a sleep disorder so even if I sleep a lot I am sleepy at times.
I can understand their reason and contrary to other countries dba job in mine its like... well a myth, at the moment I am very happy with my job its challenging and I am learning a lot each day.
April 9, 2014 at 7:36 am
enriarg (4/8/2014)
I was let go of a company when I first started as a programmer because I fall a doze of in a meeting... truth to be told I have been diagnostic with a sleep disorder so even if I sleep a lot I am sleepy at times.I can understand their reason and contrary to other countries dba job in mine its like... well a myth, at the moment I am very happy with my job its challenging and I am learning a lot each day.
I pour a fresh cup of coffee about a half hour before a long group meeting. If it's later in the afternoon, then I try not to drink it. Sometimes I'll just smell it, because there is something about the smell of hot coffee that triggers my brain to wake up.
But I can't drown boredom with coffee. If the daily routine is what puts me to sleep, then I know it's time to move on.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
April 9, 2014 at 7:39 am
Outside of prescription coffee doesn't really help my case, I was on the dark about my medical situation at that time.
April 9, 2014 at 7:44 am
Eric M Russell (4/9/2014)
enriarg (4/8/2014)
I was let go of a company when I first started as a programmer because I fall a doze of in a meeting... truth to be told I have been diagnostic with a sleep disorder so even if I sleep a lot I am sleepy at times.I can understand their reason and contrary to other countries dba job in mine its like... well a myth, at the moment I am very happy with my job its challenging and I am learning a lot each day.
I pour a fresh cup of coffee about a half hour before a long group meeting. If it's later in the afternoon, then I try not to drink it. Sometimes I'll just smell it, because there is something about the smell of hot coffee that triggers my brain to wake up.
But I can't drown boredom with coffee. If the daily routine is what puts me to sleep, then I know it's time to move on.
Sometimes smelling or drinking coffee just doesn't cut the mustard (basically, it doesn't work - interpretation of colloquialism for you talented multi-linguists out there!!!). I have personally experienced both in myself as well as a few others who have had extended periods with an injury which has caused people to "drop off" either due to a lack of a proper nights sleep, medication or even pain.
Boredom is a different issue. Sleep due to boredom suggests that you have already missed the most professional and optimum point of moving on. Of course, it still may not be too late!!!
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
December 20, 2017 at 3:56 am
Even with the smallest of changes I document it and use my corporate change control system. I not only do it because of company policy. My changes would not pass to the implementation phase if I did not have a backup plan, did not anticipate whether a system requires a reboot, even the smallest change must be verified. In so many cases I have recommendations that a system has to rebooted I always take that into account and plan for a short period of downtime. Just because you think something does not happen it does not mean it WON'T happen. Too many times my colleagues dismissed the fact that a reboot was needed after a change and the next day we would find something not working.
You also have to take into account that if something does go wrong you need to provide evidence you anticipated all the impacts your changes would have.
You would not be sacked by me, but you would have received a warning.
December 20, 2017 at 9:13 am
Steve, you are correct that occasional mistakes should not warrant dismissal. There are various forms of a quote that go something like: If you're not making mistakes, then you're not working on the hard problem or taking risks, and that is an even bigger mistake. Also, I agree that no one knows everything, and a smart person can be easily trained on any aspect of their daily job. Trainability should be a requirement.
However, in addition to illegal activity that you mentioned, in my opinion another rationale for firing a DBA (or basically any employee) is if they somehow undermine the efforts of other team members or the organization. This could perhaps be something like harassment or passive aggressive undermining. There are actually a lot of smart IT folks out there who have negative net worth to the organization because of the ways in which they routinely disrupt team productivity in general. I'm not saying I've personally worked with anyone like that, and I don't think it's common, but based on anecdotal evidence, I'd say this type of person certainly isn't rare.
Another reason to let a DBA go is if they are simply too expensive. It's not that the DBA isn't worth $$$,$$$, it's just that due to circumstances like changes in the financial situation or the IT plans going forward, they just aren't worth that much to your organization.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
December 20, 2017 at 9:21 am
I worked for Sports Authority corporate headquarters -- on average, they fired someone in IT about once a quarter. As you can imagine this cultivated a culture of fear. Many times we would see a person at their job on a Friday but their cube or office would be completely vacant on the following Monday; and no one below a manager level was given a reason for the person's departure. This went on for years. I witnessed a lot of lowered productivity because everyone spent a lot of time 'covering their butts'. But there is some good news (sort of) -- this particular problem took care of itself.
December 20, 2017 at 9:25 am
jjelinek - Wednesday, December 20, 2017 9:21 AMI worked for Sports Authority corporate headquarters -- on average, they fired someone in IT about once a quarter. As you can imagine this cultivated a culture of fear. Many times we would see a person at their job on a Friday but their cube or office would be completely vacant on the following Monday; and no one below a manager level was given a reason for the person's departure. This went on for years. I witnessed a lot of lowered productivity because everyone spent a lot of time 'covering their butts'. But there is some good news (sort of) -- this particular problem took care of itself.
The problem finally took care of itself how; certain members of executive management with questionable approaches to HR were fired due to a merger or intervention by the board of directors? 🙂
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
December 20, 2017 at 9:54 am
The problem resolved itself by Sports Authority going out-of-business due to bankruptcy.
They went out-of-business primarily because of bad management.
It was bad management that led to so many firings.
So many firings led to the culture of fear.
The culture of fear resulted in decreased producitivity, no innovation and no risk taking.
No innovation or risk taking resulted in stagnation - thus no adapting to change.
If you don't adapt to change then you go out-of-business.
December 20, 2017 at 10:58 am
Eric M Russell - Wednesday, December 20, 2017 9:25 AMjjelinek - Wednesday, December 20, 2017 9:21 AMI worked for Sports Authority corporate headquarters -- on average, they fired someone in IT about once a quarter. As you can imagine this cultivated a culture of fear. Many times we would see a person at their job on a Friday but their cube or office would be completely vacant on the following Monday; and no one below a manager level was given a reason for the person's departure. This went on for years. I witnessed a lot of lowered productivity because everyone spent a lot of time 'covering their butts'. But there is some good news (sort of) -- this particular problem took care of itself.The problem finally took care of itself how; certain members of executive management with questionable approaches to HR were fired due to a merger or intervention by the board of directors? 🙂
The problem resolved itself by Sports Authority going out-of-business due to bankruptcy.
They went out-of-business primarily because of bad management.
It was bad management that led to so many firings.
So many firings led to the culture of fear.
The culture of fear resulted in decreased producitivity, no innovation and no risk taking.
No innovation or risk taking resulted in stagnation - thus no adapting to change.
If you don't adapt to change then you go out-of-business.
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