August 23rd was the first proposed date for DBA Day since, apparently, DBAs were left out of the Sysadmin Day this year — http://www.sysadminday.com/ explicitly mentioned DBAs last year, but not this year.
I do not necessarily take it as a snub; I would rather have people treating me with respect all year round than have cake on one day. To be fair, my company has a big cake monthly for all the birthdays in the month, and my coworkers and I have mutual respect for each other.
However, I will happily partake in a celebration of me, or a celebration of what I do. So even though http://www.dbaday.com/ remains undefined, I suggest that people do something nice for their DBAs. But not something token, make it genuine. It does not even have to be monetary, or tangible. Tell your DBA today a specific instance that you can think of where s/he made a positive difference.
I have folders called “smiley” — in my work e-mail, my personal e-mail and in my filing cabinet. In those folders I put words of praise, or thank-yous, or anything that makes me smile, feel respected and loved, etc. So give your DBA a “smiley” today, on DBA day.
I got a smiley from the sysadmin yesterday, so I’ll share it here:
[boss has] been impressed
and i know he never mentions it to you
but you’ve allowed me to not have to worry about the db side in all this
and thats a major component
(it was from IM and he was sick yesterday, hence the capitalization/spelling not being perfect).