Mistakes happen

Hey there, so today, it’s not that I’m overjoyed it’s Friday, but hey, I’m happy about it. Today’s a shoutout to the wisdom of Grant Fritchey (blog/twitter). Now, Grant didn’t exactly swoop in to solve any of my problems, not directly at least. I mean, I’ve never even met the guy in person, so don’t go thinking I’m some internet stalker or something. I just dig Grant’s blog and his Twitter musings. The dude knows his SQL stuff, and as a DBA, I’m all ears for those sharp insights.

But today, it’s not about Grant’s tech smarts. It’s about the wisdom he shares on improving relationships between DBAs, devs, IT, and business peeps. With COVID-19 throwing everything for a loop, my workplace priorities have been shuffled around like a deck of cards. Amidst the rush to tackle tech and business challenges, the IT crew hasn’t had time to smooth things out for a seamless experience.

So, this week, I kinda lost sight of the bigger picture. My ego and self-importance took the wheel, and I let it show during a SCRUM call. My rant about connecting to cloud instances and clunky access seemed a tad too harsh in hindsight. It was a wake-up call when someone pointed out that my frustration could’ve come off as hostility towards the IT team on the call.

Own It

Today, taking a page from both Jockoand Grant’s book, I decided to own it. I chose to apologize for any ego trips, intentional or not, and work on fostering a better bond between the IT squad and the Data Team. Instead of brushing it off as a minor hiccup, I took 20 minutes to shoot out an apology email, owning up to my part in the mix-up. This ain’t me trying to show off some newfound empathy; it’s a reminder to myself to do better in public and internalize the lesson.

Lesson learned: staying humble and approachable beats creating barriers to getting stuff done over some unspoken expectations that neither side had agreed upon. I’m on the path to improvement!