My pick, your brain; let's dance

[Kevinatwork]

... and I promise to reciprocate if I can

Kevin here, I've been working in IT for x years +1, studied microelectronics and right now one of my responsibilities includes supporting 26,000 MS Access DBs for a North London Local Authority.

If you're reading this because I've upset you, I can only sincerely apologise, it's a bad habit related to a skewed sense of humour and a self-diagnosed tendency to let my brain wander too far down autism avenue.

 

[Minty]

Welcome to AWF ! That's a lot of databases...

 

[Kevinatwork]

Thanks Minty, thankfully I only get calls about a percentage of them, there are really only 350 on the 'fully supported' list, I was just looking for attention

 

[The_Doc_Man]

One would hope that MOST of those 26,000 databases are simple local copies of one DB, all for the same purpose but simply with local data.

According to the American Management Association, an ideal "managerial span of control" is usually 10 or less. If you are the sole support for that free-for-all, I hope you have "keep from going nuts" insurance.

 

[NauticalGent]

... "keep from going nuts" insurance.

I am thinking that ship may have sailed...

Welcome to AWF KevinInAStraightJacket!

 

[Galaxiom]

...a self-diagnosed tendency to let my brain wander too far down autism avenue.

You should fit right in here.

 

[Kevinatwork]

Thanks for the welcome folks

 

[Kevinatwork]

One would hope that MOST of those 26,000 databases are simple local copies of one DB, all for the same purpose but simply with local data.

Rats, busted! That figure gets me major eyebrow elevation at work, I can see I'm going to have to work a bit harder around here! The 350 DBs 'on the list' are proper DBs, and about 50 of those are sophisticated, but I regularly get calls about DBs which missed the list but are used to manage scarily critical data, legal, court related, financial etc. Believe it or not there is a management structure here, and their greatest wish is that IT could divest itself of any responsibility for MS Access. They rightly argue that critical data should be in the commercial applications (and there are over 300 of those...) I get called into rooms of furrowed browed people, who go away and come back to say that actually the commercial apps are missing required functions, but that is the ultimate goal.

According to the American Management Association, an ideal "managerial span of control" is usually 10 or less. If you are the sole support for that free-for-all, I hope you have "keep from going nuts" insurance.

Maybe I've been misreading it and those furrowed brows are directed at me rather than Access

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

If you're reading this because I've upset you, I can only sincerely apologise, it's a bad habit related to a skewed sense of humour and a self-diagnosed tendency to let my brain wander too far down autism avenue.

Most people here have a sense of humour. There are some here who don't upset people accidentally, they go out of their way to do it on purpose. I don't think anything you do will be much of an issue!