Ruth: “In 2008 we cut the DBA. Then we hired six consultants.” — We need to cut costs. Where do we start?

We need to cut costs. Where do we start?

We need to cut costs. Where do we start?“In 2008 we cut the DBA. Then we hired six consultants.”Ruth Lindqvist, The Maintainer

💡 WHY RUTH IS RIGHT

Cutting the people who quietly keep systems healthy looks like the fastest saving, because salaries are the largest line. Their work, though, is mostly invisible prevention: index tuning, backup verification, upgrades done before they become emergencies. Once they leave, the knowledge goes with them, and the first serious incident gets bought back at consultant rates with none of the context. Cuts that remove maintenance capacity tend to reappear later as outages, emergency contracts and migrations nobody can explain.

✅ RIGHT WHEN

The role being cut owns maintenance work nobody else understands or has documented.

🚩 TOO FAR WHEN

Every proposed saving is blocked by an anecdote about a company that no longer exists.