November 21st, 2010 | 
Author: Before i got fired the one and only time in my life: My two genius bosses configured a virtual server with 512Mb and were planning to run W2K3, IIS, and sql 2003. I told them at least three times they should consider upping it to 1Gb. I had experience with this, made the same error, and learned from it.
Using ‘Like’ in a query is never good practice, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. This was the case on a join with two tables each containing about 200 records each. They came from difference db’s. This was a one shot query for data checking only. The query, run in SMS, took 24 seconds. I said, “guys, we have a problem”. Rather than admit he made a simple error or at least try adding the extra memory i was told the reason was my use of Like in the query. I was totally shocked and expressed my disbelief at what i just heard. I argued with him. I’m not prone to argument, but this was a huge exception and well warranted! The next day ‘Boss#1’, #1 for short (you got kids? Think about it), publicly reprimanded me not for arguing, but for not accepting #2’s #2 type answer. As I said, I am not prone to arguing and I will not waste my time and emotions on a futile shouting match with an obvious outcome. I came to this conclusion when I opened my mouth to suggest a “possible” reason, and was all but told loudly to shut up and then loudly told, “No #2 said you are wrong. Kurt, don’t talk, I, #1, say YOU ARE WRONG! And “THE” #2 said YOU ARE WRONG” We will never know if I was right, #2 was right, or if we were both wrong because the physical server hosting the VM died due to a hardware failure on the following Monday. For all I know the guy took a degaussing magnet to the server. I sincerely do not believe this, but for the first time in my life, with 12 years of SQL experience mostly doing complicated queries on stock market data I was just publicly reprimanded for not accepting the conclusions of #2. After that I was ready to believe anything was possible from #1 and #2. Here is an interesting side note they both forgot. I had worked there about 2 years earlier (I was asked to come back by #1) and they both were talking about “Update Joins” not being possible. The concept of aliasing a table was considered confusing and bad practice by them at that time, so of course they couldn’t do it. In less than 1 minute I showed them both how it was done by giving them an example.
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Such is real life.
Being right brings strength and boldness to one’s presentation.
Arguing points with one’s employer is seldom wise. Especially when they obviously do not want an explanation but only someone to blame. Been there. Extremely difficult to keep one’s tongue still at such a time, but none the less required if continued employment is desired.
However, if freedom to persue a new beginning is desired, then GIVE
‘EM HELL!
They were both idiots. #1 was the second worst boss i ever had. #2 was THE worst. What was amazing was how much the work environment changed. I worked under another guy the first time and it was great. He had problems, but by and large i’ll put him in the top 10. However, who knows, may be he was feeding them “Intel”. The place was whacked in ways i never thought possible.
The worst of it was the VP who kept insisting #1 was a great asset to the company. He’d say it all the time “He’s getting much better” It was weird., like living in North Korea or something. Every one automatically had to answer, “yes, much better, real good, the guys great..” Hell i even did it and even while i was getting fired. Honestly the guy had some good point. #1 wasn’t all bad, but as a supervisor he was a huge mistake.
The real incompetency was expressed by upper management. This was inexcusable. You give powers to a 5 year old Billy Mummy in that old Twilight Zone episode and what do you think would happen? ..And so it did!