Re: how to prevent DBA burnout?
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:24:38 -0400
Message-ID: <ece8554c0903300724l749a07fay7464a7158fff437a_at_mail.gmail.com>
Opportunities to learn ... classes, conferences and the chance to share ideas with others dealing with similar problems and environments. Conferences and symposiums are beneficial on multiple levels - cutting training budgets is penny wise and pound foolish. Burnout and boredom go hand in hand. Doing the same thing the same way over and over again burns people out, as does dealing with the same problems day after day.
Today's card on indexed is perfect for this question:
http://thisisindexed.com/2009/03/ask-more-questions-youll-feel-better/
On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Jerry Cunningham <jerry59grp_at_gmail.com>wrote:
> Hi all...
>
> I came across this question on twitter (http://twitter.com/Michael_Corey).
> How do you prevent DBA burnout?
>
> I know there are a lot of smart people on this list - any thoughts? I
> replied via my blog (more than 140 chars!)... here are my 2 cents:
>
> ===
>
> 1) Communicate with them regularly. Forget business/corporate formality -
> everybody you work with *is simply a person*. From the security guard at
> the front desk to the CEO. How is life? Are you happy? What is stressing you
> out? If there are problems, what can I do to help?
>
> 2) Don’t forget how hard it is to find good people. At a previous job, when
> interviewing for a vacancy, I had interviewed for weeks without a promising
> candidate. This made me realize how good the people we had were, and I told
> them so. I told them, that while they were working harder due to the
> staffing shortage, I was not going to settle for less than the high standard
> they had set.
>
> 3) If somebody resigns (and you value them) - make them a counter offer
> immediately. It amazes me how often this does not happen. Or, the employee
> is asked “what can I do to keep you?”. Too vague - make a concrete offer.
> ===
>
>
> Jerry
> http://jerrycunningham.wordpress.com
>
>
-- I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. Douglas Adams -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Mon Mar 30 2009 - 09:24:38 CDT