Chris Shaw (@SQLShaw|Blog) is hosting T-SQL Tuesday this
month. It has been a while since I
participated and this month sounded really interesting. So time to dust off the keyboard and get back
in! So Chris What are we writing on?
For this month’s t-sql Tuesday question I
wanted to highlight the need for Ethics in our industry. Don’t consumers
and business owners have to trust someone at some time with their data?
This month, take time to participate by talking about DBA ethics. I
really hope to see someone address topics such as:
· Should we have an ethics statement?
· Have ethics issues impacted you? What did you do about it?
· Security Audits: how do you police what you and others are doing
in the database?
· Does a Code of Ethics mean anything to anyone? How do we as a
community enforce a Code of Ethics?
· What do you believe our Code of Ethics should say if we the SQL
Server Community have one?
I think this is a good topic, and should produce a lot of
interesting reading. But Dear Reader
allow me to begin with a bit of a Rant.
ETHICS ARE
DEAD! LONG LIVE ETHICS
Screw Business Ethics.
“Balls,” you say, “SCREW ETHICS?!?!?”
I understand your outrage Dear Reader, allow me to explain.
I think Ethics may be an over-used
word. We all want something deep
reaching and soul searching that will put us on the same level. That will guide us to say this is right and
this is wrong, but Ethics has begun to mean “A corporations way of covering it’s
@$$ in the event of a lawsuit by telling employee’s don’t do these stupid
obvious things so when you do this (or something else like it) we are covered because
we have a sheet of paper that says we are ethical”.
Ethics are supposed to be convictions, things that you hold
so true that if something goes counter to them, they should sway your
argument. Ethics should go to the core
of our beliefs. Being Ethical should be
a deeply individualistic kind of thing, not a group thing. They should define YOU, they should help YOU
through troubled times, and only in times of great crisis do YOU question
them.
Instead Ethics are just another tool of doing business and advertising. Buy from this car company because we didn’t
take money in the Government bail-out look at how we didn’t partake of a
politically unpopular decision our Ethics.
Our Bank has been around for 130 years because we got lucky and didn’t
jump when all the others did of our Ethics.
We are focused on our customers because it is really popular right
now, and we are fighting tooth and nail not to lose market share of our
Ethics.
Ahhh Ethics. Ethics,
Ethics, Ethics. Ethics are important
there is no denying that. I like ethics,
as a father with a whole bunch of kids I hope I’m bringing them up to be
ethical and to live good lives in the future.
As a U.S. Citizen that has held positions in working with our Government
that required a high level of Security Clearance I think they are essential in
our work force. As a private citizen I’ve
also watched corporations use shotgun Ethics training to lighten their
liability from law suits, watch as high ranking government leaders committed
all kinds of unspeakable acts, and watch as religious leaders did the same or
worse.
Ethics should be a deep part of you. Ethics should be important to you, but they
should not be something that a business can identify on a sheet of paper. There are people out there that probably have
the same ethics I do, but have a personality that would grate on my nerves. We might not work well on a team together,
even though we may vote in the same block.
Using a sheet of paper to pair me up with these folks would probably be
bad. To be honest, I would like to see companies drop the
pretend focus on Ethics.
And as much as I would love to say that everyone involved
with PASS and myself shares the same Ethics we probably do not, and I wouldn’t
want to force mine on others. I would
hope that we are not so simple that a piece of paper would capture all of our Ethics
either. We probably have some core
beliefs we share, but there is nothing about our job that Ethics would instill,
that simply following the RULES wouldn’t put in place as well.
It is not a great leap of faith to think that destroying
data, hurting your company’s ability to do business, or risking national
security is against the rules. When I
see IT individuals that burn the barn down on the way out of town I think
WHY? Why!
I’m pretty sure they signed the Ethics form
for their company. I guess that piece of
paper didn’t stop them. Most were with
their companies for years. Striking out
and getting revenge in IT is no different from doing so in real life. If somebody makes a car accident happen
because they were driving like a fool, and I get out of my car and decide to
get revenge I’m probably going to jail.
There are rules against this, AHEM *assault* AHEM, just like there are
Rules against malicious hacking, data theft, and Identity Theft.
So forgive me for the rant, but I don't like buzz words that should mean something.
I like Rules. Rules are simple; people can have philosophical
battles on Ethics. What is right what is
wrong, what is perspective, blah blah blah.
Rules you can follow, like them or dislike them you know what they
are. “Don’t jump on the bed”-Don’t like
it, but I make the kids follow it…on occasion.
“Eat your dinner before dessert” – Didn’t used to be a fan of this but
13 years and 4 kids later you don’t get dessert unless you eat your dinner. Football
has rules, Baseball has rules, Heck DODGEBALL has rules.
And let us not forget Businesses are all run by Individuals. Let the Individuals be ethical, and the business with follow, and we start by following the rules.
What we should be looking for are people that use the same
Rules to govern themselves with that we use for us. Personalities may still conflict, but as a
Rule I believe in rewarding hard work and respecting intelligence. We might not have Christmas at the family
Casa together, but if we believe in the same things we can work together just
fine.
And while I would love to say that there should be a common
DBA or Data Personnel form of Ethics, (complete with a pledge, secret decoder
ring, and Top Secret membership into our club of sorts), I would much rather
have a couple rules to follow. And I’m
pretty sure anybody breaking these isn’t in the club, and gets their decoder
ring taken away.
1. DON’T STEAL, COPY,
OR PLAGURIZE
Blog after blog has been stolen, and the SQL people that you
would have to face are legion. You want
to see a ravenous Twitter feeding, watch for the next time some IDIOT, steals a
blog post, and then attempts to defend it. You'll hear me say it again and again, the SQL Community as vast as it seems is a small one. Blog posts take time and effort, and it is a terrible way to get your name known.
2. GIVE CREDIT WHERE
CREDIT IS DUE
If you read a post and get an idea from it, make sure to
give the credit where it is due. The good
folks over at SQLSkills.com are
constantly doing things that I love.
Jonathan Kehayias (@SQLPoolBoy|Blog), Joe Sack (@JosephSack|Blog), Glenn Berry (@GlennalanBerry | Blog), Paul Randal (@PaulRandal|Blog), and Kimberly Tripp (@KimberlyLTripp|Blog), in the last month I’ve
used great scripts from every single one of them. When I do I send people to their site.
I post links to the MCM videos, MCM
Videos You Should Be Watching These, I get ideas I work up a demo I put a
link in the header of the script, as well as the name of the blog post, and I
cite the author. I appreciate what they
do, and I use it to learn. And I would
never, ever want credit that doesn’t belong to me. And besides see Rule 1.
3. DON’T BE A
JACK@$$ RUDE
I have met so many people in the SQL Community that are just
really nice people. They make time for
phone calls, they reply to emails promptly, and I’ve never met one that isn’t
incredibly polite. The SQL Community is
not a large one. There are several
hundred people that you see over and over again. And you will be amazed how polite each and
every one of them are.
Maybe it is my background in sports, but being humble is something
I need to work on. My wife has been
working on me for years. I get too
prideful at times, I like to compete and I like to win. Everyone has their moment good and bad. If you’re like me just do your best, and it
will shine through.
4. DON’T LIE
This will do nothing but hurt you and your credibility. Remember small community, eventually we all
come in contact with one another.
Everybody starts out somewhere. You do not need to impress anyone. You need to be yourself. You don’t have a certification in SQL 2003,
you don’t have a MCITP in PHP, and none of us are perfect.
I’ve locked out the production SQL Server Service account
before…during the middle of the day, as
a Jr DBA I ran a profiler trace from the GUI against production (if you don’t
know why this is bad, google SQL
Server Side Traces and start using them), and I once crashed a cluster that….ask
me and I’ll tell you in person. The
point is we’ve all done things wrong. A
lot of them taught us things that defined our careers as DBA’s. The scratches are war wounds, and if you
haven’t screwed up don’t feel like you have to invent a story to fit in. Just remember rule #3, because one day you
will screw up.
5. HELP WHEN YOU CAN
Every rule so far has been a DON’T, I wanted one that was a
DO! One of the great things about the SQL Community is that we love to help, we
love to share knowledge, and we love to learn.
Depending on how long you’ve been in the game or how much you’ve been
participating you will help and contribute somewhere and in some way. You could be a community evangelist, you
could be a forum moderator, you could just be the member that posts occasionally
when they have time, you could be a SQL Saturday volunteer, or a conference
attendee. What you do matters, and it is
what makes us a #SQLCommunity.
WRAP IT UP
Thank You for stopping by Dear Reader and putting up with my
rant on Ethics. The ones that have the
most substance are the ones that you already thought were important. Now let’s all follow the Rules and get on
with the community!
Thanks Again,
Brad
