Do you remember when work was fun? 1

[ajack1]

I work in the UK for a fairly small company that designs and manufactures tooling and special purpose machinery almost exclusively for the automotive industry. I have done this for all my working life and have always enjoyed the challenge and the variety as in a small company you have to wear many hats.

However things just seem to be getting worse over the last few years. I have never enjoyed paperwork and have turned down offers to go into managerial roles because of this. Whilst my job (designer) has always involved some paperwork it was not that much and just part of the job, but this is changing almost daily, with customers demanding constant progress reports, ISO standards demanding that everything has a paper trail a mile long, certificates of conformity and the like.

Add to this everyone wants everything done for nothing and with near impossible deadlines and however much you try to trim things down someone often (but not always) in a developing country is happy to do it for next to nothing.

This leads to having to get numerous prices in for everything and even more paper work and then having to ring around to try and get even bigger discounts, often from small companies that I have dealt with for years, knowing that I am contributing to their going out of business, which many already have.

I know this makes me sound like a lazy, ill-disciplined worker who fights change but that really is not true, I just enjoy making things work far more than reams of paperwork.

At 47 I am not sure I want to do this for the rest of my working life, but have no idea what else I want to do.

Do others feel the same, has anyone found a successful alternative or should I just stop moaning?

 

[rerig]

HgTX,

"I gotta question the economics of such decisions. At what point is the savings in overhead of eliminating those "pink-collar" positions used up by paying an engineering manager a much higher wage to do the same task?"

Managers are Salaried, and as such they can be pushed to accomplish as much as requested until they revolt about the free overtime. They get the high pay for their managerial skills...the Secretarial skills come with the free overtime.

I averaged 63 Hrs a week. After changing jobs, I am holding the line at 49 Hrs. I hope it doesn't annoy my employer, but I'm getting too old (57) to wear myself out making some unappreciative bunch of Investors richer.

Some attitude for a Monday!!!

Rerig.

 

[vonbad]

There are many insights and observations in this thread. I like the ISO reference. Initially, I was opposed to the concept and requirements because of the issues colleagues mentioned. However, after researching and many discussions regarding ISO I have concluded my own opinion. ISO can be beneficial IFF written by people who have to use it. I wrote several directives for ISO standards within the company. I think that the biggest problem is ISO (and QC included) is that they are:
1. Written by people that have no idea of the process or any of the problems that can arise
2. Governed by people not qualified for the position
3. People with agendas
4. The dollar

I wrote our procedures to work within our process and flow, not writing the procedure then making our process match. Of course, by writing it myself I could govern the amount of paper work I wanted to generate

 

[MadMango]

A star for you. The ISO900 QMS is as restricitve or complicated as people make it.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[jsummerfield]

jlwoodward and others complain about typing, etc. I type well enough, thus find the change to be rewarding. With a secretary you draft something, check the typed work, mark for editing, check, ... Also, the pink collar secretaries were replaced with women engineers. That's a fair deal.

John

 

[EngJW]

I don't complain about the typing. Actually I think you can do a better job in less time if you do your own.

For example, my first boss, before we had computers, dictated everything to a secretary. His brain was so scrambled that he had to have her read it back several times while he worked out his thoughts, then after it was typed he would send it back a number of times for changes.

I like to thrown my thoughts down quickly before I forget them, and then go back and arrange and rethink things. If it is not urgent I can go back the next day and see if it still makes sense. Finally, check the spelling and grammar.

Anyone remember typewriters, carbon paper, white-out, lining up margins, splitting words, and all that? We really can work more efficiently today.

 

[epoisses]

True... emails, procedures and other info appear to be more easily written than read. It can be a real change to deal with the information overload.

I understand you ajack1 but as suggested earlier I think the key is to take control of things and not let your professional life be run by certain people who want this and others who want that... Actively try to change what is bothering you, try not to get frustrated = stressed.

Fun is in your head... or it isn't. At 33 I have fun every day but that could be different at 47, no guarantees that I'll reach that age still smiling, but will try.