Re: DBA - Job boundaries & perks

Sean,

Great question, especially since I was nagging, er, lecturing, er, discussing this same point with a friend just last night (he knows who he is)

And the answer is, as with everything Oracle, "it depends".

Depends on:

1. your internal sense of responsibility
2. your tolerance for guilt (internally or externally generated)
3. your belief that the company will fall apart if you don't do everything everyone asks immediately
4. whether or not you are getting paid by the hour
5. how sure you are of yourself and your ability to get another job

for me, I have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, a Jewish mother so I guilt very easily. I know, as another friend has told me, that there is only one DBA job in the world and I have it, and if I don't do everything that everyone wants, they'll get rid of me.

Seriously.... you say "I'm going home". You remind yourself that the world will not end if something is done tomorrow, not today. You get them to get you other people so you can take turns being on call.

And you remember that if you should get hit by a truck, the company will survive.

>From: "O'Neill, Sean" <Sean.ONeill_at_organon.ie>
>Reply-To: ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
>Subject: DBA - Job boundaries & perks
>Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 08:39:09 -0800
>
>How do you protect your "private life" time from your role of DBA?. Do you
>have formalised detailed job contracts with your employer covering such
>issues?. What perks/incentives do you receive for going that bit extra or
>being on call "just in case". Do you get to take your holidays or is that
>a
>ficticious clause in your job contract?. It seems to be that DBA's are
>expected to "be there" whenever required, but heck there is life outside
>Oracle DBAing (for some of us at least I hope!). I'm not griping here, as
>I
>know there is usually satisifaction in resolving problems and recovering
>the
>database if required yada yada yada.
>
>Sean :)
>
>Rookie Data Base Administrator
>[0%] OCP Oracle8 DBA
>[0%] OCP Oracle8i DBA
>[0%] OCP Oracle9i DBA
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>Author: O'Neill, Sean
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