Fasteddie82
Aerospace
- Jun 6, 2007
- 12
I work in engineering at Large Defense Contractor Inc. I’m a mid-level engineer, just your basic dude-with-a-degree-and-some-experience, down in the trenches doing the day-to-day engineering work. The work itself is enjoyable. Cutting edge technology, many different applications, and relatively fast-paced (as fast-paced as defense work goes, at least). Engineering is run as a typical “matrix” organization, where you are owned by a “homeroom” manager, who then assigns you as needed to different “project” managers to work different projects.
I’ve read criticisms of the matrix system before, but I feel like it’s a pretty good way to go about things, if everyone is doing their job correctly. Project Managers should be advocating getting their projects completed, Homeroom Managers should be advocating that established design and test processes are followed, and ideally they both meet in the middle to make sure the work gets done, profit is made, and the customer is happy.
Instead, the roles seem to shake out like this:
Project Manager: Doesn’t have a deep technical background. Chief concerns are 1.) Are we burning the hours as fast as we said we would? and b.) Are we keeping to the schedule?
Homeroom Manager: Also lacks a strong technical background. Chief concerns are 1.) Keep the Project Manager happy; and give him/her whatever they want, regardless if it follows good engineering practice. 2.) Minimize the amount of work that the Homeroom Manager has to do.
This arrangement becomes frustrating. However, my biggest ire is saved for a third type of “manager,” who I’ve realized is frighteningly prevalent at Large Defense Contractor Inc. I’ll call him/her “Self-Designated Manager,” or SDM for short.
SDM is a worker-bee engineer who aspires to be a manager, primarily because they have found they don’t enjoy the day-to-day work of being an engineer. An SDM has typically decided that the best way to achieve their goals of management is to insert themselves into a management role in whatever project they are currently working. This often happens when someone is designated an Integrated Process Team (IPT) lead. At which point they wash their hands of doing any sort of technical work, and instead try to “manage” the work of other engineers.
So, now there are Project Managers, Homeroom Managers, and SDMs. All with limited technical background and all trying to “manage” a project to completion.
For those of us down in the trenches at the “worker-bee” engineer level, trying to get the job done, this becomes frustrating. Three different managers are giving direction, often conflicting, and usually wrong. When technical questions come up, there are no answers to be had from management. And when progress is to be measured, the only question that’s asked is “have we spent as many hours as we said we would?”
This atmosphere leads to an interesting culture. There ends up being much animosity between the worker-bee engineers, and management. The divide between the two grows. This becomes very evident in the information flow between management and the worker-bees. Management doesn’t share information with the worker-bees, because management views information as power. Worker-bees don’t share information with management, because sending information up the chain is sure to result in a barrage of “management assistance,” which again is often conflicting and wrong.
At the end of the day, the work still all gets done. Projects get completed, and the end product is delivered to the customer. However, it’s inefficient, and the whole environment is frustrating as hell to the worker-bee engineers of the world.
I’ve read criticisms of the matrix system before, but I feel like it’s a pretty good way to go about things, if everyone is doing their job correctly. Project Managers should be advocating getting their projects completed, Homeroom Managers should be advocating that established design and test processes are followed, and ideally they both meet in the middle to make sure the work gets done, profit is made, and the customer is happy.
Instead, the roles seem to shake out like this:
Project Manager: Doesn’t have a deep technical background. Chief concerns are 1.) Are we burning the hours as fast as we said we would? and b.) Are we keeping to the schedule?
Homeroom Manager: Also lacks a strong technical background. Chief concerns are 1.) Keep the Project Manager happy; and give him/her whatever they want, regardless if it follows good engineering practice. 2.) Minimize the amount of work that the Homeroom Manager has to do.
This arrangement becomes frustrating. However, my biggest ire is saved for a third type of “manager,” who I’ve realized is frighteningly prevalent at Large Defense Contractor Inc. I’ll call him/her “Self-Designated Manager,” or SDM for short.
SDM is a worker-bee engineer who aspires to be a manager, primarily because they have found they don’t enjoy the day-to-day work of being an engineer. An SDM has typically decided that the best way to achieve their goals of management is to insert themselves into a management role in whatever project they are currently working. This often happens when someone is designated an Integrated Process Team (IPT) lead. At which point they wash their hands of doing any sort of technical work, and instead try to “manage” the work of other engineers.
So, now there are Project Managers, Homeroom Managers, and SDMs. All with limited technical background and all trying to “manage” a project to completion.
For those of us down in the trenches at the “worker-bee” engineer level, trying to get the job done, this becomes frustrating. Three different managers are giving direction, often conflicting, and usually wrong. When technical questions come up, there are no answers to be had from management. And when progress is to be measured, the only question that’s asked is “have we spent as many hours as we said we would?”
This atmosphere leads to an interesting culture. There ends up being much animosity between the worker-bee engineers, and management. The divide between the two grows. This becomes very evident in the information flow between management and the worker-bees. Management doesn’t share information with the worker-bees, because management views information as power. Worker-bees don’t share information with management, because sending information up the chain is sure to result in a barrage of “management assistance,” which again is often conflicting and wrong.
At the end of the day, the work still all gets done. Projects get completed, and the end product is delivered to the customer. However, it’s inefficient, and the whole environment is frustrating as hell to the worker-bee engineers of the world.
![[lol]](/data/assets/smilies/lol.gif "[lol] [lol]")
