Your First Repo in Azure Data Studio or VS Code (2022-05-11)

Daily Coping Tip

Look for people doing good and reasons to be cheerful

I also have a thread at SQLServerCentral dealing with coping mechanisms and resources. Feel free to participate.

For many of you out there working in a new way, I'm including a thought of the day on how to cope in this challenging time from The Action for Happiness Coping Calendar. My items will be on my blog, feel free to share yours.

Living Up To Your Word

My well-worn Travelpro carry-on bag was getting a little old, and I've been jealous of the 4 wheel spinner bags as I roll my somewhat heavy bags through the airport. I looked at a few different bags but was interested in trying a hardshell bag. I was trying to decide between Away and Monos and ended up choosing the latter to give a highly rated smaller company a try. They offered a 100-day trial with this verbiage on their product pages: "We offer a 100-day trial on all our luggage. Take some time – make sure you’ve picked the perfect travel partner. If you don’t love it, send it back!"

I ordered the bag, had it arrive a day before a trip, and so I packed the new bag and headed to Chicago. I spent 3 days with the bag, after which I decided it wasn't quite for me. I went to return the bag, only to be told that since I'd "used" it, it wasn't eligible for a return. In looking over the other companies that offer 100-day trials, both Away and TravelPro (and others) will let you use the bag and return it for any reason. Monos somehow thinks giving you 100 days is great marketing, though their restriction is you can only "use" the bag in your house. Something you could do in a couple of hours and without really understanding how the product might work for you.

I feel this is quite deceitful and fraudulent and let them know. I'd also caution you and recommend you not purchase anything from Monos.

Clearly, I didn't read the fine print on the site on other pages, and that's my fault. However, being open and transparent in your business dealings is important if you want to build trust with colleagues and business partners.

A friend told me that this story reminded them of a person they work with, who will word their communications in a way that implies one thing but allows them to avoid meeting an obligation or deadline if they are struggling. This person will often accept a specification and argue later they met the letter of the document even though they failed to work together with others whose code was affected by their work. Over a few months, various teammates avoid working with this person and feel they cannot count on them as a teammate. That's a poor situation, but it's also likely to continue. After all, the team wouldn't disclose there is an issue since they would prefer this person be able to gain employment elsewhere and take their unreliability to another team.

Life can be chaotic, and despite the best of intentions, we may not be able to meet a commitment. I don't expect people to be perfect, and I know that sometimes our plan falls apart. A quote I love is "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

We can, however, communicate openly and with the best of intentions. We can let others know when we realize something isn't going well, and we can treat others in an honest, open fashion. We should be the type of person we'd want others to be towards us, or maybe the type of people we hope our children will become.

I don't think Monos does that, and I've certainly learned that I don't want to work with people that operate in that way. I avoid them in my life, and I'd suggest you do the same.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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