Re: Top Ten Things You'd Like To Tell Engineers

[TechComm Dood <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Bob, 

Thank you for the detailed (and very long) reply. I've decided not to
copy in portions of your post, mainly to keep this e-mail from growing
exponentially. ;-)

It sounds like the environment you described was suffering from a few
nasty symptoms. My apologies if this does not reflect your
perceptions, however this is how I've interpreted things as you've
laid them out.

Before I begin I want to say that I have never worked in a hardware
manufacturing environment. I'm a software engineering wingnut. ;-)
However, there are similar divisions of labor and roles, so I'm hoping
the general indo I share will be useful at least for reflection
purposes (for anyone).

First, some environments are too deeply rooted in how they work to
change, at least not change quickly or drastically (without force, as
we've seen in cases such as GE, IBM, and such where new upper
management comes in with a cleaver). I understand this and have been
there myself. I noted the chaos and bettered myself as a result by
learning from that environment how NOT to work. I hope that you can
also apply what you've learned from working in such an environment to
bettering your current and future professional situations.

It sounds like you really had some serious social rifts in your
environment. You mentioned several times how the engineers "couldn't
be bothered" spending time on the floor and how they'd rather not deal
with that side of the business. But, and please don't take this wrong,
it also sounds like the same sentiment was on the floor, that perhaps
because of this attitude from engineering, the floor workers would
just assume the engineers keep out, but would be quick to point out
their absense at the same time. This is what I interpreted from what
you described and how you described it. I'm not calling you to task
for it, but from my experience, apathy breeds apathy and resentment
breeds resentment. Negatives tend to feed and grow, and the more there
are, the quicker they grow and thrive.

It also sounds like you had a communications break. It appears that
there was not a parallel reporting structure for assembly and
engineering. Therefore, there was a physical break in communications
channels. What I mean is, if sounds like the levels of management in
both assembly and engineering were different, and the levels
throughout each division were not seen as peer levels (that is, a
senior assembler was not a peer of a senior engineer, and a manager in
one group was not a peer of a manager in the other. This causes a very
real break in the communication channels.

It also causes a break in accountability. It sounds like engineering
was able to hold assembly more accountable than the inverse. This can
also have very negative effects, because problems in this case usually
are then addressed via finger-pointing and not via open dialogue and
mutual desire to get things right. I can see this clearly in what you
wrote.

I could go on and on, but in short, it sounds like a logistical mess I
would not ever want to be associated with. I strongly suggest you work
to destroy any biases you may have picked up as a result of this
environment and use it as a prime example of how a company should NOT
function, and that it makes you more proactive to do things and go
about inciting change in a logical, fair, and productive manner.

Thanks for sharing, Bob!

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