Re: DBA Team Communications

From: Andre Maasikas <amaasikas_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2020 11:03:34 +0200
Message-ID: <CAL5UisfOhoYXjTK8PEMTppMQdhwQEU0oQ94XxxG+zz6sCm1cAg_at_mail.gmail.com>


On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 5:17 PM Freeman, Donald G. CTR <donald.freeman.ctr_at_ablcda.navy.mil> wrote:
>
> Haven't contributed anything in a long time. I had to send this to my team
> this morning and thought it may be useful for other dba team leaders.

Apologise for the personal style of this message, this is not directed to YOU personally,
as english is not my native language i don't exactly know how it may sound :) just provides my views.

As people are different, have different personalities and communication skills:
>
> Rule 1
> If I ask you to do, look at, provide, review, fix, report, respond,
> create, delete, or move something in an email or other communication respond,
> with an affirmation that you have received the direction.
>
> Answer, OK, Got It, Roger, Will Do or something indicating you have received
> the communication. Because when you don't do that I am left wondering if
> you got it. I don't want to wonder. It makes my head hurt and forces me to
> ask you again, "Did you get that?" That's inefficient.

I consider email nearly 100% reliable transport and view such responses as spam. I'm a grown-up and if I'm told something - i do it or provide reasoning/suggestions if i don't.
I can see if feedback is needed if i finish the task(e.g to communicate back to customer/other team) Last time when I was needed to reiterate something was in child care or maybe middle school.
I also do not work to make YOU comfortable or to be a slave to you if that was implied, I work
9 to 5 to support my family.
If you feel that your team is unreliable or doesn't make you feel good maybe HR can help, in the
end you don't _have_to work together.
I personally have no trouble following-up if needed. But then again, I don't work in a field where miscommunication can cause people's lives.

> Rule 2
> If I ask you more than one thing in an email then in your response
> answer all the questions, not just the first one. Take as many emails as you
> like, but answer all the questions so I don't have to circle back and ask
> you again.
granted, sure, but have no trouble following up.

> Rule 3
> If it's important, I'll put in a ticket. Then nobody has to remember because
> the ticket won't go away by itself.

Your choice, if it's important I expect to talk to me personally or in a meeting. Then we can
be sure that everybody understands what needs to be done, when, and has the resources needed for the task.
I have another page of thoughts about usual "tickets" for maybe another time:)

> Rule 4
> Be thoughtful in dropping people off an email thread. When I send an email
> with a distro list to you carefully consider before you turn a public
> communication into a private one. I know you don't know all these people and
> are nervous about being judged by a bunch of random people on an email. I
> generally don't lard up emails with people who don't have a need to know about
> the subject.
>
> If you turn it into a private one and give me information that
> everyone needs to know then I have to send ANOTHER email to the same list of
> people to communicate your thoughts. So, if you have questions you don't
> want to viewed by all then call me on the phone or send me a chat. Or, you
> can decline to answer it to everybody and say something like, "I'd like to
> take this off-line before I answer" or, "I'll call you," but don't break the
> chain. Got it?

Ok, but again, if there are no company/team rules for this - I'm a grownup and perfectly
capable of judging myself whom I communicate with. If i write an email this is MY
message/communication and I decide to whom i speak to, e.g If i feel you included 10 managers in the CC to show that"you work" and left team members
who might benefit from the information out I don't hesitate to drop the CC and add people.

Andre

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Received on Wed Nov 11 2020 - 10:03:34 CET

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