Hi Steve:

>You see what I'm saying?

I see exactly what you are saying. The difference in the data types could be handled with a column indicating the intended data type and a varchar column for the actual data itself. This is similar to how some audit log tables/products are created ie., retaining a textual representation of the before and after data. Its not a bad suggestion and merits some further thought.

>BTW, what kind of jobs are these (if you don't mind sharing)?

Print jobs.

Are you still Codemining ?