A day in the life of a Database Admin (or, what we wish you knew!)

Published

Have you ever walked into your database admin's office, and gotten "the look"? You know the one. The "What now?" look. The "If looks could kill" look. This becomes especially prevalent at the end of the school year, if you work at a school, or the end of any particularly busy season in the life of your company. So, as a database admin, I'm going to let you in a little secret. Everyone wants all the things, and they all want them yesterday. This understandably causes a bit of stress in the daily life of the DBA.

If you've never worked at a company where you've been pulled in multiple directions by multiple departments, I envy you. I envy my past self, when I only ever had to answer to one department, in fact! I would get busy, but everything related to one department, and I could get things done even when people walked into my office, because it was all going to the same place, so an interruption was really only a brief detour into another part of the job. Now contrast this to my current multi-departmental job, and it devolves into chaos. Every department thinks that their job is the vital one that must be accomplished right now. People are pulling and pushing to get their project to the top of your list, and not super concerned about what else you might have been working on at the time.

So, on the (short) list of things we wish you knew! Or at least I wish my co-workers knew...
1. Please send me emails. Even if we have face-to-face conversations, email is how I keep track of the things I still need to do.
2. Please be patient. Yours is not the only problem I'm currently working on.
3. Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Please get me the info you need well ahead of time so that we both can be less stressed!

News Tips, Tricks, and Timesavers! 06/11/2019 2:19pm EDT

Added by Mary Zieten

7 Comments

Miki Martin Apr '21

Yes! If I don't have it noted somewhere electronically, I will forget! Sometimes I'll make a note in a team meeting but then it gets forgotten because I don't have it in an email or on my Google Keep. And #3 is so on point!

Sarah Stradling Sep '19

Yes, yes and YES! Well done! Number 3 has always been a pet peeve of mine.

Claudia Sauers Sep '19

I may or may not be forwarding this to my department ;)

Tami Goertzen Jul '19

Yes to the emails! I need it in writing to remember. I flag emails that require me to do something, so I can keep track.

Susan Cornforth Jun '19

So true -- and a corollary to point number three would be that just because you think I am the perfect person to do this task (because I have the right skill set or knowledge or whatever) does not mean I have time to take it on, especially if you need it done today!

Joni Marginot Jun '19

Yes! Please put your request in writing in an email. As we talk about your request, I fully intend to get-it-done. But if I don't write it down, chances are good that I will forget. As for suggestion #3, I'm often thinking that to myself and try not to say it out loud.

Janis Worley Jun '19

Amen to the "send me emails"!! Unless you see me writing your request down while we are speaking, chances are on a busy day it could easily be forgotten. It's not that your request isn't important, but a brain can only remember so many things. I completely agree with your list!