Recently Bill Graziano posted some interesting lessons from a SAN failure to help others to learn about what preparations they might make for an unlikely, but very possible, disaster. It's worth reading, and it's interesting, but there was a very interesting quote in the post that caught my eye.
"From a personal standpoint this worked out poorly: I was out with friends and after more than a few drinks. "
Bill wasn't on call, but he ended up needing to work. I can appreciate that, but I also think that this is a place where someone shouldn't be pressured into working unnecessarily. Being a little tipsy could result in more mistakes, or even longer delays in service restoration than necessary. It could also open you up to some level of liability if you made a mistake while impaired.
Doctors, pilots, and all sorts of other professionals are not allowed to drink when they are on call, and I'd say the same thing goes for DBAs, system administrators, etc. If you expected to respond in the event of an emergency, you should be responsible and be ready to go to work. That is part of being a professional.
But what if you aren't on call, or if your boss expects you to be "always" on call? It's unreasonable to expect that someone doesn't have downtime, or that they might enjoy a few adult beverages with friends and family. I'd argue, though not recommend, that you should even be allowed to have a few too many, as long as you are being responsible and not driving.
That responsibility, however, extends to work. If you aren't capable of working, whether that's from cold medicine, alcohol, or anything else, you shouldn't allow yourself to be intimidated into going into work. Especially if you aren't fit to drive! I'm not saying Bill made a mistake here since he had to judge his level of impairment, but I am saying that any of you ought to be able to refuse to go to work when you are not capable of doing the job.
Be a professional out there sometimes means not working. After all, we want to avoid those TSQL-WIs (T-SQL coding While Impaired)
Steve Jones
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