The proverbial guy who steals the show at the end of the project 8

[Plasmech]

Anybody deal with this one...

You're the head guy on a project. Maybe the only guy. You're busting your butt getting drawings done, stuff spec'd out, parts ordered, in on time, fabricated, basically everything that the machine is well...it "is" becauuse you exist and for no other reason. You get the thing up and running. Beta site customer shows up to take a look at it, he loves it. Oh wait...what's this, is it a bird...a plane, a ufo? No, it's the proverbial guy who shows up after all the real work is done to steal the show. He's not necessarily a sales/marketing guy. he might just be someone that's been there a long time. Firneds with the owner. Whatever. He might not even be an engineer. But now it's beta site time, the fun stuff (more fun that drawings all day long anyway). Now show stealer is well, seemingly running the show. He's sending out status emails, reporting to the owner. You get mad, really mad. So mad you don't want to be there anymore. But...what do you do?

Anyone experience this type of thing?

(In the interest of not being sexist, one may replace the word "guy" with "gal" in this post if he/she choses)


-Plasmech

Mechanical Engineer, Plastics Industry

 

[DRWeig]

Plasmech,

You caused a rewind to 1984 in my overtaxed inner-playback mechanism.

I had courted a client for two years, finally got the contract, and developed a wastewater treatment process modification that could potentially save the city almost $5 million per year in electric cost. Following up on that, I got the contract to make it happen. I designed and purchased the hardware, wrote the software, installed it all, and made it work. I dubbed the system AEROPT at the time. Within six months, the savings level was proven beyond doubt. I got a hearty handclasp from the boss for my efforts, since I had done absolutely all of it with no help.

Fast forward another six months. I'm on vacation in San Francisco, and during a lull while waiting on my wife to get dressed one evening, I turn on the TV in the hotel room. On the news at that very moment is a co-worker of mine, accepting an award from the Secretary of Energy for "Municipal Energy Innovator of the Year" at a gala function in Washington. The award was given for AEROPT. In his fifteen-second sound bite, my co-worker managed to claim the entire work as his own.

How did I cope? Back then, after drinking much scotch, I quit and started my own company, took all the business from my old one, and hired away all their good people.

Nowadays, it's still a bit of an albatross for me. Like the Ancient Mariner, I am doomed to repeat this story to any who will listen when the topic comes up.

Thank you all for your kind attention.

There was a ship...

Goober Dave

 

[BJC]

Plasmech-I have seen T-shirts with this on it probably since you born.

The 6 stages of any project:

1 Enthusiasm

2 Disillusionment

3 Panic

4 Search for the guilty

5 Punishment of the innocent

6 Reward of the non-participants

One thing that can happen on a project is that you get so involved, and working so hard that no one bothers to put the pieces together for management or the client. Management may have been asked whats going on with the project, your to tired or to busy to adequately report on whats going on so managmetn appoints someone else to track the project. It's an easy position from which to assume credit. The moral is never get to busy to toot your own horn and let people know exactly what and how YOU are doing.

 

[jmw]

I had a colleague who was an expert brown-noser.
I put together a system for a client with a low cost PID off the shelf. It was the right product.
We were bought out by Fisher.
My colleague grabbed the order, got on to the client and convinced them that what they really needed was the Fisher TL series controller (TL100?) 1" wide, 6" high and about a yard deep, this was totally not the right product plus it cost a bunch more cash. It also didn't have bias.
My colleague was great at collecting kudos from the new Fisher owners but when the client called up all hot and bothered he went and hid.
B****d.
Oh well.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Pressed]

On the next project, make a list of who's on your team and list their roles (approved of course), make reports on the general team progress. Then, when this fellow shows up, you can easily ask or confront what he is doing and his role.

Or, make him part of the team with a clearly defined role, pecking order. See what happens.

It happens, just wait till it's your boss that does it, then who do you go to?

==========================================
Business Page

http://mech.e.tripod.com

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http://www.tailofthedragon.com

 

[jistre]

It happens, just wait till it's your boss that does it, then who do you go to?

See DRWeig's email for guidance. My point was that if it's the boss doing it to you, it will never get better, and maybe opening your own company and putting him out of business is the fun way to handle it.

 

[GonzaloEE]

Fight for your credits!. Here some ideas I've taken from others:

- Send report e-mails with CC/BCC to the big fishes when it's possible. If your boss complains, say it was a typing mistake.
- Hide key details for your showtime. It will be your artillery when you had to face the jealous PG.
- A friend of mine was asked to send the C++ code from a innovative s/w, to a teacher at college -of course for taking the credit. He sent him a copy with all even lines missing.
- Long ago, I used to mark PCB designs with a sort of personal 'logo', conveniently hidden, right before sending the files to the board manufacturer.
- Great idea that of marking your PDFs or adding watermarks to documents and diagrams. Credits to Gymmeh (Mechanical) 16 Apr 08 11:16 ;-)

 

[daveh55et]

Yes this is very common as has been noted.

IMO it's partially the result of the real project manager not keeping everyone including other managers and people on their own team with information. This has already been touched on but I'll give my take.

The real project manager should publish milestones and make acknowledgments of people that contributed along the way.

When the project is finally complete there should be a reviews of all the milestones along the way, name names, which then clearly shows that 1) it's a team effort, 2) easy to identify those that contributed (handy for review purposes as well) 3) Makes it much more difficult for people to come along at the end and claim credit.

 

[Helicopterjunky]

What a great statement from Oilfield! "Be the kind of Boss you wish You'd had."

Would not the Engineering profession be so much better if we all lived by that. You young guys who are going to get your shot someday remember that.

 

[Helicopterjunky]

Sorry credit to Oilfieldguy, not Oilfield. Got so caught up with the wisdom of that statement.

 

[ykee]

Helicopterjunky, I think you just showed us how easy it is for someone to give credit to the wrong person.

 

[Helicopterjunky]

Ok Ykee, I knew someone would have to highlight me for complimenting a great statement. Don't miss the bigger point worrying about my diction.

 

[kevindurette]

I think the thing that complicates the issue further is that many engineers put their heart and soul into technical details to achieve as close to perfection as humanly possible, but they don't spend enough time networking with people. Many business people are successful while their only useful skill is to put people together and play the game. It's unfair but true. Think of all the junk products that sell like hell. It's all the non-technical details like marketing and hype that herd the masses into forfeiting their money. It's stupid.

I have my BSME, but I eventually want to earn a business degree too and learn how the game is played. Machiavelli was wrong. I might be naive in my young age, but I believe it is possible to be both respected and revered with no adverse consequences of one upon the other. I've known very good managers and very bad managers in the crappy jobs that got me through school, and I hope I have some clue as to how to do a good job more so than someone without any experience on the bottom. I've been a salesman, a helpdesk gopher, a cashier, a photo clerk, a research assistant, a car detailer, a delivery driver, and a dish washer. I've scrubbed plenty of toilets, scraped plenty of mysterious gunk, and put up with plenty of bitchy customers. Nothing in my current engineering job has really surprised me because I've gotten so familiar with the working world. It doesn't matter if you're on the bottom or the the middle; you're going to get screwed over every now and then.

I used to complain to my father about working at Walgreens, and he gave me this nugget of wisdom: "As long as you're working for the man, every job is retail." Every job is going to suck somehow. Luckily I've found one that sucks less than any other I've had!

 

[kevindurette]

I try as much as I can, without brown-nosing, to stay in touch with people upstairs. I'm sometimes arrogant and blunt in an effort to ward off suspicions that I'm only looking for a promotion. I care for the success of my company for the only reason that I'm in it and that I'm partially responsible for its future. It's a small company with <200 people at the main branch. I'm constantly pointing out errors in company publications and offering suggestions for improvement. However, I work first to be sure that my core responsibilities are handled as my top priority.

I don't think I'll ever run into problems with recognition because I'm in touch at all times with so many people. I'm trying as hard as I can to befriend as many people in the warehouse as possible so I can be in touch with what's going on below my department too. I've had jobs similar to theirs for too long to forget about what they have to put up with.

The promotion potential seems slim where I am, but the pay raise potential seems reasonable. There are only two engineers above me along with three technicians in the department. (They only "outrank" me because of their insane time there.) My current pay sucks for the degree, but as I said, it's not a bad job. The size of the company allows me much more control of what's going on than in a larger company, and I like that.

 

[jmw]

Kevindurette wrote:

....many engineers put their heart and soul into technical details to achieve as close to perfection as humanly possible...

and....

Think of all the junk products that sell like hell. It's all the non-technical details like marketing and hype that herd the masses into forfeiting their money. It's stupid.

Kevin, you are quite right in the first that this is a tendency of engineers. That is why engineers are part of a team with sales and marketing. Listen to your dad, it is all about making products to sell.

The most important thing to understand is what makes a good product. Once you have that figured out then you will understand the engineers true role and his inter-dependence on sales and marketing.... a three-legged stool to milk the market.

It is simple, a good product is one that sells well.
Now, if engineers have their way the product can end up over-engineered. I have seen many examples of this and it does no one any good. In the UK, a company that made water meters (and had done since the 1850's) set out in 1963 to design a new meter and the resultant meter had many features that today's meters have but what did their clients think? The Metropolitan Water Board (London's water company and later Thames Water) said: "It is a Rolls Royce of meters!"
They then bought instead the much simpler and less expensive Kent meter. Today water meters now include many of the features they included but not then.
However well engineered it was, however innovative it was the wrong product at the wrong time.

It was the end of this companies involvement with water meter manufacture.

One of the biggest disasters was when a company I worked for established engineering dominance and instead of Sales and Marketing had a department called Engineering and Marketing.

Listen to sales and marketing. Unless you and they are fully aligned there will be conflict and failure.






JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[kevindurette]

I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I'll never be fully satisfied with a job until I'm working for myself. Luckily there are plenty of online and library resources to learn how everything works in that respect. I won't even consider it until I'm confident in my understanding of business, including financing, accounting, sales, marketing, pricing, etc. A high percentage of stat-ups fail, and a lack of preparation is a key reason why. Funding is another one, but hopefully my current job can take care of part of that.

 

[jmw]

I think the figures are that of companies in the USA where the starter took outside investment, the original owner ends up owning less than 5% of the final company. (and usually is leveraged out with a two year non-compete).

(Be interested if anyone has any better data than this.)

This is a classic case of the proverbial guy who steals the show... investors that steal the company.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[IRstuff]

There's often not much really to steal. I was involved with a company that was self-funded initially, but etc., etc., the owner needed more money and gave up control to the VCs, and indeed got booted out. However, the company folded within a few years anyway, and fortunately, I never accepted the employment offer, which included stock options that would have never materialized.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[hendersdc]

In the Marines I have had many different bosses with many different styles. Some stole the credit, some gave credit where credit was due, and some didn't know their ass from their elbow. I would like to share something I have learned and passed on to the Marines working under me. Everyone has their own leadership style and when you are developing yours look at all the previous leaders you have had and take what you can from them and incorporate these points into your own style. I have yet to work under someone that didn't do something right, even if that something is being so knowledgable about the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) that he can and did kick anyone out of the Marines he didn't like. This gets back to oldfieldguy's post. Be the kind of boss you wish you had, but learn from all the bad ones along the way.

 

[IRstuff]

One related subject is the concept of "doing the right thing."

Unfortunately, the right thing can often be bad for most of the people you work with.

Case in point. I had a GM whose first action was to cancel ALL IR&D projects, followed by forcing last time buys on our bread&butter products, so old that we subbed EVERYTHING, including printing our logo on the part, and still made money. We thought he was insane and muttered about management logic inverters, since he essentially crippled the division for any future business. But, from his perspective, he understood that he had no more tha 6 months to turn around a failing division. At the end of the 6 months, he would either be fired or promoted. In either case, he wouldn't be around to see the long term effects of his actions. He chose to be promoted, thereby ensuring the eventual doom of the division.

So, where do you want to be in 6 months? Looking for a job, or looking at your new office? This is often a tough choice, particularly for idealistic engineers.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[salmon2]

CC or BCC management periodically seems a good idea if management is reading their email.

But I just heard, not directly, about two of our higher managers who had a email signature like "if you want me read your email, you have to send directly to me, not CC".

I am working at the lowest level of our company, so my boss is lowest manager in the hierachry. He is not even reading the email I copied him on. What I usually do is to copy him and then offer a oral update if possible. Our group only has 20 people or so and my boss is not doing any real work.