Are understaffed departments and unrealistic project deadlines the norm? 57

[LukeBizzy]

Hello,

I work for a mid size OEM. I feel like my work environment is extremely stressful. If anything it just gets worse as the years go on. Our company has been busy for years. New large scale projects pop up all the time and we make no realistic effort to schedule them. They just get thrown on the pile and often share the same deadlines as the projects we already have. Our manpower is much less than the workload, so we all just run back and forth between projects, putting out the fires of the day. The only way we survive is by cutting corners and releasing minimally checked and subpar designs. I would say that our overall quality of work is not that great, but luckily we haven't had any catastrophes. Our sales numbers increase each year, but our staff levels remain the same or even shrink (i.e. people leave and never get replaced).

I make due working in this environment, but it's takes its toll. I've read many threads on eng-tips and I feel like this topic pops up every once in a while. It seems like a lot of other people are in the same boat. I especially saw a lot of structural engineers complaining about this sort of thing; which shocked me. I naively assumed that companies would not skimp on designs with so much at stake.

Do you guys feel like this is the norm these days? Is this something you'd expect to see in certain industries and not in others? Do you feel like company size plays a role?

I'm looking forward to an interesting discussion.

Thank you.

 

[CELinOttawa]

We pay a corporate tax rate, and there are some minor employer obligations (like WSIB), but for the most part the employee related deductions are taken from the employees.

Our corporate taxes are on corporate income.

I am OVER simplifying this, but it helps as a contrast to why we can do this kind of model and successfully whereas I don't think it would work in the USA.

 

[BUGGAR]

"They are not my concern as they are deducted from the employees."

That's what most of this topic is about.

 

[CELinOttawa]

Bugger: We never, ever, overwork anyone. Fair wages for fair work is a cornerstone (or, at least, is MEANT to be) of Canadian Engineering.

 

[moltenmetal]

Payroll taxes here in Canada are much lower than those in the US, even if healthcare is not considered. WITH healthcare considered, payroll taxes in Canada are TINY compared with those in the US...

What CELinOttawa means is that taxes deducted by the government directly from his employees' salary are not his concern as an employer. He has no power over how much income tax or other such at-source deductions (CPP, UI premiums) are taken by the government from his employees' salary. Unlike payroll taxes, which are taxes on the EMPLOYER and hence act as a disincentive toward hiring.

Payroll taxes here are small but not zero, and they are not the only costs of employing someone. Payroll burden, meaning the total of all costs to the business as a fraction of the person's salary, includes such things as vacation pay, benefits (here that's typically a little life insurance, dental, LTD, prescription drugs etc. that are not covered by the government plans), retirement plan contributions AND payroll taxes, and for us in very round number terms amounts to something like 30% of salary in total.

 

[weldstan]

Back to the original question, Yes!

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I seriously question the magnitude of the impact payroll taxes have on limiting hiring. In engineering, the margins are so large that an employer will only run into problems with bad project management or buying work. Even that said, all taxes and other burdens on employers ultimately are passed to the employee in form of low raises,wages, and benefits. Everyone on the board wants to look good and hit their projections. Engineers will be employed if there is demand for their work irregardless of any tax.

 

[KENAT]

Well, the tax may be an incentive to outsource/offshore.

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[weldstan]

KENAT,
Which has been done in abundance in Engineering, especially to India.

 

[KENAT]

Tell me about it. Now in fairness if they can do the same quality of work at a lower price then in a free market etc. all power to them. However, when you're the one being - or potentially being - impacted it's harder to keep that in mind.

Also frustrating is when they aren't doing the same quality of work, aren't really costing any less by the time all the overhead folk take their cut, and then you're stuck trying to make it work and clearing up the mess...

However, me belly aching on here isn't going to help with my being overloaded (if anything the opposite as I'm arguably 'wasting' time) so back to the grind stone.

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[Terratek]

The key is to accurately assess (easier said than done) what level of production you can sustain without being at risk of loosing your job during slow times. Once you have a reasonable idea of what this looks like, you have a benchmark that, if you meet it, you won't be afraid of loosing your job - even when you draw the line and go home for the evening. This is often a moving target. With less of this fear, you should have less stress.

On one hand, companies will seemingly let go of personnel at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, management does not want the hassle of new hires.

Also, I have found the less money I owe and the more money I have in savings, the less stressed I am about everything, esp. my job.

 

[moltenmetal]

Terratek: the last sentence- bingo. You need the freedom to walk if things aren't going well. It also makes you more resistant to harm if you are sent out to walk involuntarily, which these days can happen to anyone any time.

Scott Adams made the point abundantly clear: all the extra effort you put into your job will be accepted. Not necessarily compensated for, or acknowledged in any way, or even NOTICED, but it WILL be accepted. Best to understand your compensation scheme up front, and not imagine things to be part of it when they aren't. If you think that your unpaid overtime is buying you job security when times are tough, think again. Your current boss may go before you and the new one won't know a thing about you. Storing up good deeds for future consideration may work with your favourite deity but it's a poor employment strategy.

 

[glass99]

After having been laid off twice, the last company I worked for I pretty much considered myself a one person firm with single client, not an employee. I now have an actual firm with multiple clients. If you are in a low margin business, your boss has relatively little flexibility to keep you on when you work slows down.

 

[KENAT]

"Storing up good deeds for future consideration may work with your favourite deity but it's a poor employment strategy. "

May be a poor employment strategy on average but doesn't mean in the right situation it can't work out, I'm pretty sure some of the compensation items I listed much higher up in this thread are in part related to 'past good deeds'.

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[ajack1]

Sometimes employees will store up good deeds and it will count for nothing when push comes to shove.

On the other hand sometimes employers will keep employees on when they really should let them go due to a down turn in work and then the employee will leave when there is an upturn.

Life isn’t fair and every case is different and what is right or wrong will really come down to what you want to happen.

 

[moltenmetal]

KENAT: definitely it can work out. Obviously, job performance, attitude and dedication all matter. My point was that there's no guarantee that your self-sacrifice, skill and dedication will be noticed, much less acknowledged and compensated for, and that you shouldn't leave it to chance. Some people think their bosses are clairvoyant. Others seem to have so much self-importance that they are certain that the company MUST notice just how essential they are to its day-to-day function, and how likely the place is to go off the rails tomorrow if they stop working crazy overtime. Reality can lead to some very crushing disappointment. I was fortunate that mine came early enough in my career to learn from it.

 

[glass99]

I think the point is that working hard and being a good engineer make the same impression now that it always did. The difference between 2014 and 1954 is that it is a more entrepreneurial environment. In 1954 we could count on our paternalistic employer to give us a nice smooth career path from graduation to a gold watch at retirement. In 2014 you can expect your whole industry to implode and to join another which has been created entirely from scratch in the course of a career. My experience of declining businesses is that even when they are busy it still sucks and you need to get out. Having an MBA boss makes this whole process worse, which is why engineers should take control and start their own businesses.

 

[Tunalover]

Having an MBA CEO is certainly a single-edged sword. Engineering tasks are subject to so many variables that it's impossible to monetarily quantify what they add and subtract from the bottom line. That's why (in my experience anyway) the MBA (and non-engineer) top executives don't like engineering and tend to stay out of that department. They don't trust what they don't understand!


Tunalover

 

[geesamand]

"I naively assumed that companies would not skimp on designs with so much at stake."

In my experience this is an issue of the management culture. I have worked for companies who were operated by sales people, who never gained any useful appreciation for risk and the time required for accurate design work. The Engineering department gets pushed around to respond to the demands of the sales world and corners get cut.

Of course doing a job correctly involves planning, risk assessment, and other things. If your company's sale / design process does not plan, does not assess how schedule and technical risk conspire together, and does not consider current workload, then I would develop a strategy to manage this (with the best interests of the company in mind - not your own laziness) that reduces your stress and makes life manageable. For example, carry a notebook everywhere and note each fire drill, what you did to resolve it, how much time was spent on it, and roughly what caused the need for the fire drill. At some point you might be able to present to higher management how much time is spent chasing problems vs. completing designs. I'd also start shopping around for a company that has a more balanced understanding of execution.