My challenges supporting simulation engineers 2

[ParabolicTet]

I was recently laid off after 17 years as an FEA support person for a large automotive OEM. The company had several hundred simulation analysts performing FEA ( structural, fatigue, CFD etc). My role was to help the analysts use the structural simulation software as well as manage the High performance computing environment . Last I was also involved with software development and assisted developers with writing their custom code to execute on our high performance computing environment.

The role was more a support role. Looking back I faced many challenges trying to gain respect from the large group of users. There would always be a group of users who were not satisfied with my support and would complain to my manager. Typically they wanted someone with deeper expertise in FEA. It is impossible to expect me to be an expert in FEA since it encompasses so many complex disciplines. My background was a MS in Structural Engineering. So I had no PhD. Even with PhD, no one person can be a master in all areas of FEA. Unfortunately, I had a very hard time explaining this to my bosses. They just saw the complaint and would assume it was due to my incompetence.

Another group of users expected lots of hand-holding due to their inexperience with FEA. Unfortunately, I simply did not have the time to do that. With hundreds of users to support I can not spent my whole day teaching someone how to do FEA. I would be very honest with these users and tell them they have to learn on their own by reading the documentation. Again, this created some unhappy users who would complain to my boss.

Last, there was another type of user who would use overly aggressive tactics to get immediate support to their issue. They would CC managers about any minor issue and expect me to "send the army" to fix their issue. They take full advantage of the fact that in corporate culture "the squeaky wheel gets the oil". Unfortunately my personality is such that I do not respond to this type of nagging. In fact I sometimes would drag my feet so they get the message that is not the way to communicate issues to me. They have to be respectful of my time and not expect me just to drop everything I am doing. So some of these folks would complain to my boss.

While most of the users I supported were happy, it was those tiny few who caused me a lot of issues. What should I have done to improve how I handled those folks?

 

[MacGyverS2000]

If you did the job your boss asked you to do, regardless of what else you were doing at the moment, that would satisfy the squeaky wheel types.

Holding hands with the folks who needed it may be a time drain, but that would be obvious to your boss when you're constantly pulled away from their jobs to do the squeaky wheel jobs. So that's two problems resolved.

Explaining to the first group that your calculations are based upon non-specific details that you cannot fathom without their input, well, that should resolve remaining group issues.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[GregLocock]

"Unfortunately my personality is such that I do not respond to this type of nagging. "

In that case you were in the wrong job. I don't respond to that sort of nagging, but I have a different job. From a user's perspective you are stopping them from doing their jobs, and if they are on pay for performance, or have any sort of pride in their work, being unable to do their job because the main tool is broken and the guy who can fix it, won't, is not acceptable. I'm a bit surprised a large organisation doesn't have direct vendor support as a first line of attack.

If 20% of your several hundred users were disgruntled I'm not surprised you weren't the golden boy.




Cheers

Greg Locock


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[MikeHalloran]

Call your former boss and ask.

Also find kindred spirits on Tek-Tips.com.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[drawoh]

ParabolicTet,

Were you laid off, or fired? I like to think there is a difference.

--
JHG

 

[IRstuff]

We often lay people off instead of firing them. There's less paperwork required and less likelihood of being sued for wrongful termination. The added cost on our unemployment insurance is negligible compared to the cost of even a single lawsuit.

Most of the time I've seen people actually get fired was when they were watching or doing porn during work, but I wasn't watching them ;-) We've had a few occasions where massive beheadings occurred at the corporate level, but those are rather unusual.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[ParabolicTet]

Were you laid off, or fired? I like to think there is a difference.

Laid off. There were many let go so it was nothing personal.

 

[ParabolicTet]

In that case you were in the wrong job. I don't respond to that sort of nagging, but I have a different job. From a user's perspective you are stopping them from doing their jobs, and if they are on pay for performance, or have any sort of pride in their work, being unable to do their job because the main tool is broken and the guy who can fix it, won't, is not acceptable. I'm a bit surprised a large organisation doesn't have direct vendor support as a first line of attack.

When I have to support many users I need one policy and apply it consistently. Just because someone is aggressive it doesn't get their issue to become my priority. When I was laid off we were in the middle of launching a "ticketing" system. That would have helped a lot. But the damage to my reputation was done .

I know the simple answer is just to never say "no or wait" to anyone asking for your help in corporate culture.

 

[KENAT]

Actually, I'd think the answer is make sure your manager either sets your prioritization or is aware and consciously delegates this responsibility to you.

Never saying no just isn't realistic, getting your manager to say no for you or at least back you in your 'no' responses is better.

However, still imperfect because you can't keep all the people happy all the time - only all the people some of the time or some of the people all of the time IF YOU ARE LUCKY.

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[TheTick]

Sounds like a poorly constructed position with the wrong person in it. Can't imagine who the right one would be.

 

[ParabolicTet]

Sounds like a poorly constructed position with the wrong person in it. Can't imagine who the right one would be.

I agree. Just before I was laid off my boss was looking into seeing if my FEA support duties could be handled by someone else with a PhD. So my responsibilities would have just been the high performance computing environment.

 

[IRstuff]

Seems to me your specific problem is over. If you are unlucky enough to wind up in the same job again, you need to institute a ticketing system, which you could have done in your previous job; I don't understand why that wasn't even implemented, ad hoc. First come, first served is even implemented in pretty much every restaurant, big or small. Line position can be changed, but that requires management approval.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[GregLocock]

The other thing to do, but this takes some effort, is to set up an internal community for product support. For example, I set up a wiki, and 4 other people run sites on our intranet, dedicated to supporting the program we use. I estimate that about half of each of those sites is dedicated to getting noobs going, where to get software, how to set your machine up, where's the on line training, tips and tricks, weird syntax demystified, etc etc.

" Just because someone is aggressive it doesn't get their issue to become my priority." I don't agree with that. One of my job functions is identifying roadblocks. It is in my Top 5. You think it is aggressive to be criticized, well you are taking it too personally. If I send a note cc ing your manager and mine, that means I want it escalated, there's probably a resource problem. At the very least by cc ing my manager he knows why I am unable to do the job I am being paid to do. That, as you have demonstrated, is not of much concern to you. But it is bloody important to me.




Cheers

Greg Locock


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[SomptingGuy]

I've never seen a successful role that combined IT with application support. Applications with a large user group need a champion who is a user and a problem solver. It works best when the champion has a stake in solving the application-related problems. For the IT person, problems are just problems, detracting from their primary roles of systems and software management.



Steve

 

[ParabolicTet]

I've never seen a successful role that combined IT with application support. Applications with a large user group need a champion who is a user and a problem solver. It works best when the champion has a stake in solving the application-related problems. For the IT person, problems are just problems, detracting from their primary roles of systems and software management.

Nowadays most simulation applications are run in the high performance computing environment. That wasn't the case ten or fifteen years ago. So to be able to troubleshoot issues you need application and IT knowledge. That's where I came in. I was the glue between these two fields, but not a "deep expert" in either one.

 

[TheTick]

Sounds like you needed a champion yourself.

 

[ParabolicTet]

One of my job functions is identifying roadblocks. It is in my Top 5. You think it is aggressive to be criticized, well you are taking it too personally. If I send a note cc ing your manager and mine, that means I want it escalated, there's probably a resource problem. At the very least by cc ing my manager he knows why I am unable to do the job I am being paid to do. That, as you have demonstrated, is not of much concern to you. But it is bloody important to me.

I see what you are saying. It makes sense if you do this when the situation really calls for it. However, from my experience there are a minority of users who ALWAYS behave like this regardless of the severity of their issue. They use a combination of aggression and ineptitude to get what they want immediately. As I mentioned, I worked in the company for 16 years. So I know who these folks were.

Is it right to CC bosses over issues that 80% of users would be able to find a quick workaround for?

 

[IRstuff]

"Is it right to CC bosses over issues that 80% of users would be able to find a quick workaround for?"

It's not nice, but irrelevant. You, and you alone, had the ability to defuse this problem after the first few times by instituting an ad hoc ticketing system, given that you were there for 16 years. It seems to me that had you done so, on your own, you would have demonstrated a proactive workaround solution, and provided a means for having your managers take the responsibility and ownership for changing priorities, and possibly avoided getting laid off.

Most employees, even if they're not total jerks, rarely know or care how their personal workflow stacks up in the global scheme of things. A ticketing system would have assigned a first-in, first-out priority that could have then been adjudicated for actual priority need for the company, which is what the manager should be doing, and not you.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[drawoh]

SomptingGuy,

Actually, I think I did fairly well at it. I was in charge of a UNIX network and quite a few of the applications running on it. My primary responsibility was mechanical design, using AutoCAD. I spent a lot of time writing documentation with WordPerfect. The key to getting support on any computer application is finding someone who gives a sh*t. As long as the problem was not with Lotus-123, I did. The OP's problem is that he was supporting too many people doing too many different jobs for him to develop expertise at solving their problems.

--
JHG

 

[ParabolicTet]

It's not nice, but irrelevant. You, and you alone, had the ability to defuse this problem after the first few times by instituting an ad hoc ticketing system, given that you were there for 16 years. It seems to me that had you done so, on your own, you would have demonstrated a proactive workaround solution, and provided a means for having your managers take the responsibility and ownership for changing priorities, and possibly avoided getting laid off.

In theory this is correct, however, I was against the ticketing system. In my opinion the ticketing system created too much bureaucracy. A large number of issues I could resolve in under ten minutes. To me it was not "value-added" to expect a user to spend ten minutes opening a ticket that I could resolve in less time it took for them to open the ticket!

So a ticketing system would help with the "aggressive" type of folks, but would hurt the average user. I preferred folks to contact me directly by phone, email or IM. Then I would work with them 1-1 to resolve their issue. The time spent opening and closing tickets was a waste.

That's why I wondered if should have brought this up directly with my boss. Or should I have just sucked it up and caved into these aggressive types? I feel if I brought it up with my boss, he would probably think negatively of me. In boss's mind, customer is always right...