Time to Get Yours

The topic of pay scale has smacked me in the face once again. I realize that some careers just natuarally pay more than others, but sometimes it’s just ridiculous. I recently read another article where a big company executive was given a $35mill. bonus. What the hell?!?

OK, being in IT there aren’t many opportunities to do whatever it is that these guys think they do for this kind of money, but I, and a few others I know have come pretty close a few times. I’ve personally saved companies hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of my employment, and what kind of bonus do I get? I usually get the standard 5-6%… just pathetic. Now, I realize that if pressured about it, these guys will tell you that they make the company a lot of money with their decisions, and they can show you an actual profit margin that they’ve effected. However, if a penny saved is a penny earned, then I’ve got a profit margin to show too. Why doesn’t my bonus reflect the money I’ve made the company by saving them license fees, and server costs? Why does the executive who says we need a data warehouse get a HUGE bonus for coming up with the idea, and the guy who puts it together and makes it work gets almost nothing? I guarantee you that in this sense, the DBA is just as good as his bloated executive. Do you think a DBA couldn’t come up with the idea of a warehouse? Of course he could, and in fact, he’s probably been telling the company for months they needed one. The difference between the two is that the DBA can code his own ideas while the executive it merely a windbag without his IT staff.

I’ve made decisions that have kept companies out of lawsuits, allowed them to service more clients to generate tons of extra revenue, and even gotten HUGE refunds on bad software that had been purchased over a year prior. And in all of these decisions, there’s not a single board member I’ve ever worked with that I could even explain these things to in an entire day. Don’t get me wrong now. I realize that every ship needs a good captain, and a company needs good leadership, and these guys are necessary. The decisions and deals they make give all of us our jobs. But it’s time you guys stopped burying your heads in the sand and pretending you’re the only ones who make the company millions. It’s funny isn’t it? Your bonuses are merited on the money you bring in and safe, while mine is based on how much I shut up and do my job. As long as nothing breaks, or the breaks are fixed in a timely manner, I’m expected to sit here at the kids’ table when the bonuses are handed out.

I’ve blogged before that DBAs don’t get any respect because it’s not good enough to be excellent in our jobs, we also have to know the business side of it, and many companies are sending us to business school to make us more useful to the business, and not be just a bunch of dumb bit jockies. Well, here we are guys… making business decisions that effect your bottom line. Now that you’ve drug us into the business side of things, it’s time to start giving us those business-level bonuses. You can’t have it both ways. Eventually the DBAs are going to wake up and start telling you no. No, we won’t put up with the lower salaries. No, we won’t put up with the lower bonuses. No, we won’t work all night, and every holiday while you sit at home and ignore your family so you can count your money. Hey, we want to ignore our families too.

So it’s time for a reform. DBAs are no longer the janitors for your bad decisions. Your business is completely dependent on your databases, so it’s really high time you realized that keeping us around for a long time is worth your while. And it won’t be too long before the general DBA community wakes up and discovers that we’re making huge decisions and saving the company thousands, if not millions, and we deserve some of that big bonus money too.

Think about it, or you’ll find yourself in database school trying to figure out how to get your systems back up, and wishing you’d listened while you had the chance.