Professionalism abused? 24

[KENAT]

One of the replies to thread765-195797 got me thinking.

Why is it that whenever professionalism is brought up on this forum it's basically used as a reason to take whatever your management/employer decides to dish out and not complain/stand up for yourself.

They may be making you work long hours, accusing you of not being a team player for taking vacation, taking credit for your ideas or making life miserable in some other way but the professional thing seems to be to suck it up and take it.

I suppose the professional thing to do if it causes you too much concern is just find alternative employment.

I get sick and tired of professionalism being used as an excuse for employers to treat us poorly without any comeback, am I the only one?

Not sure this is the right forum but didn’t think it belonged in ethics either.


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[epoisses]

KENAT

"If being professional means letting your employer dictate what you do or don’t do outside of agreed work hours/compensation then I’m not sure I’m that fussed about being professional."

Me either! Let's not fool ourselves. Professional = business. A healthy business relationship is about win-win, not win-lose. Win-win in a professional relationship between employer and employee means: employer wants employee to work overtime, so employer has to give something in return, either overtime pay, or a higher base salary, or free time later one, or whatever else they agree on. If you try to force a professional into a win-lose scenario, he will very professionnally tell you goodbye.

 

[jmw]

It seems to me that professionalism is a one way street whereby the "professional" gets to do things he'd rather not, when he'd rather not, for less money than he deserves and in conditions he'd rather were improved.
e.g.
Nurses, abulance drivers, firemen, police, prison officers etc some of which are not allowed to strike by law (in the UK)and in exchange for this they get abused.
In some ways the term "professional" is used to blackmail the "professional" and treat him as a mug.

On the other hand what it really means is that there is no end of abuse that the professional will not suffer in order to do a job he likes doing and essentially, this is a Darwinian process at work because those that vote with their feet leave behind them those who won't and all the time they constitute a sufficient population to get the job done, their lot will not improve.

however, perhaps that would explain the tendency of some (more than in other jobs?) to be more cynical, less loving of management, more willing to post Dilbert Cartoons etc.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[unclesyd]

In the corporate environment of today being a true professional with an Engineering Degree is a non-entity as far as management is concerned.

An Engineer with a P.E. and an excellent track record has about as much protection as afforded by a $5.00 insurance policy with the HR folks of today.

 

[Gymmeh]

Star to KENAT

Star to epoisses - I laughed at that web page

As a young engineer...I will try not to get discouraged by this thread...

So the old saying "Do what you love, love what you do,"
this means I would not be able to be a professonal?

 

[EddyC]

I think that "Professional" means that you never lose your cool, no matter what crazy things your employer does to you. It doesn't mean that you will work at a particular job forever, but it means that when you leave, you don't take any parting shots, no matter how much they deserve it.

 

[KENAT]

Just had a nice incident of management not being professional at all.

I've been landed with the task of checking all mechanical drawings in my office. I didn't ask for it don't particularly want it but am doing the best I can pending finding something else, be it internal or external. The previous incumbent was laid off as part of cost cutting, although there was more to it than that. While not being a documentation expert, I’m about as well suited/experienced as anyone else here, in fact far more experienced/educated etc than all but one other person according to my manager.

There is currently a massive checking backlog as I’m only one person looking at about 30-50 peoples drawings. There is a relief valve in the procedure to excuse items from check if need be but people aren’t really using it, I believe due to inter department politics.

Also as background there are more layoffs planned, probably this week.

Apparently the director from one of the groups was spouting off in a meeting that I didn’t know what I was doing, I was delaying projects, I should be fired etc. Interestingly he’s the director of the department with the worst drawings, with staff that don’t care about ensuring Form/Fit/Function etc and whine & complain when problems with their drawings are pointed out (they actually had a product all but fail last year due in part to manufacturing issues). At least one other director, who in my opinion more of less knows what he’s on about, and who’s departments drawings are a lot improved, stood up for me.

Apparently now the director in question has retracted everything he said and says it’s the system he has a problem with not me and supposedly he’s told the VP he reports to (the same one that had the previous checker laid off) the same.

Trouble is you can rarely throw that much muck without some of it sticking permanently. You’d like to think a director would know better than to say something like that without understanding it, it’s not very professional after all;-).

Can’t help thinking that if I’d thrown that much muck, without actually knowing what I was on about, I’d be in a little trouble.

However, being a professional I will of course be the bigger man and grin and bear it, continuing to work my butt off to clear the back log and be grateful that they pay me to come here and take **** from all comers.

(Yes I am looking at other opportunities!)



KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[PSE]

Kenat,

"Managers want the status of professionals, but not all managers want the constraints that go along with professions."

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5735.html

A matter of do as I say, not as I do. Good luck with your searching and with continuing to take the road less traveled (retaining professionalism).

Regards,

 

[ScottyUK]

You’d like to think a director would know better than to say something like that without understanding it, it’s not very professional after all.

I certainly would like to think that, but did he really become a director by being being a technically competent, morally sound, ethical, honourable person? Or is he really a technically ignorant, amoral, ethically backrupt, dishonourable sonofabitch?

----------------------------------

Sometimes I wake up Grumpy.
Other times I just let her sleep!

 

[MikeHalloran]

I keep hoping it's not universally so, but the odds seem to favor the bitches' sons.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Gymmeh]

What makes a good manager is very relative.

To the people paying him he could be a gold star professional even though he is
“a technically ignorant, amoral, ethically bankrupt, dishonorable sonofabitch” to everyone else.

Capitalism is wonderful, its not who you are, but how much money you can make (or fool someone into believing you make) that is important, especially if it’s your boss/CEO/CFO…etc.

 

[KENAT]

ScottyUK, hence the smiley wink!

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[MaryCW]

Where I work, they took personal radios/headphones away because it's "unprofessional", but the owner of the company was heard saying "what does he want me to do, pull the extrusion out of my a**?"

Now that's professional...

This is the same guy that has a fit if we don't put a coaster under our mug when seated at the conference table. The one with the formica top. Can't hurt formica with a coffee mug, buddy, but I bet pulling that extrusion out is gonna hurt.

I work in the least professional office I've ever been in. I plan to write a sitcom based on it and retire early.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Actually, I think you can delaminate or otherwise mark cheap imitations of Formica with a little low-grade heat and/or trapped moisture. The big guy probably knows what the table really cost.

Your outfit is unprofessional, but for reasons other than language or furniture usage.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[KENAT]

Yep, management (especially director/VP level on up) seem exempt sometimes [most of the time?].

I was in a meeting with another more senior Engineer/project manager the Technical Director and the Managing Director/Part owner (all male).

An attractive female employee walked past the window. The other engineer and I carried on without paying any attention, the 2 senior guys basically watched her all the way across in stunned silence with their jaws on the table and a puddle of drool gradually growing!


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[Gymmeh]

KENAT, I had a simular situation when I was an inter. The managers where making some interesting/very unprofessional comments... I wonder why they are married?

 

[jmw]

Gymmeh,
wrong question, how did they get to be managers?

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[EddyC]

Watching an attractive woman walk by is probably the only "affection" that these guys get.

 

[Gymmeh]

d(-_-)b True