What are your biggest frustrations about work? 28

[EngineerDave]

For me sometimes I find that I dislike the rigid 40 hour week work schedule. I almost always work more hours (closer to 50), but the grind just gets to me at time.

I wish there was incentives for completing your work efficiently. As it is the work never stops. I leave many days wore out, unless I was smart enough to sneak in a quick lunch time workout.

It just seems like your day is shot pretty quickly, unless you are one of the lucky few that can get by on very little sleep.

Alas, don't expect any changes here in the US.

I often dream of the shorter work weeks and longer vacations that our European counterparts have.

 

[GregLocock]

I agree that the 40 hour 8-5 is a crazy way to work. Often I'll have spent most of a day getting all the pesky little details sorted out, and be ready to start the serious work at 3 pm. If I'm really into it I'll work through until 8 or 9.

However, I am very lucky, we flex time off in lieu of hours worked, so that makes up for it. I am completely aggressive about this, if I work 1 hour extra I take 1 hour off, no quarter is given.

The biggest frustration to me is when people don't meet their timing commitments, so we are waiting for a few files to turn up. I have the option of shaking the management tree, which is (a) rarely productive and (b) sours future working relationshsips, or nagging them directly, which does at least get some communication going, or grinning and bearing it, and cover up for them.

In a more existential sense I suppose I am frustrated by my likely future career prospects, since in almost every way I lke my current lifestyle and job, but in order to progress will mean I either have to move, accept a long commute, or go into management. Bad, worse, and ridiculous.



Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[Iskit4iam]

People that don't embrace change frustrate me. I just don't understand them or how they think. People that lie and backstab frustrate me. They are very often the same people using lies and political manipulation to defeat change.

 

[pablo02]

Iskit4iam: I don't disagree with you, change will always be with us -- I do have problems with those who blindly embrace change because they lack a big enough viewpoint to direct that change into something productive instead of whatever comes...

my biggest frustrations are upper management lacking appreciation what is accomplished by those beneath them.. and listening to them even when they disagree...

 

[MASSEY]

My biggest frustration comes from information withholding. At many times it seems to me that information is withheld so that those who hold on to it also hold on to their importance and their positions. This only harms the overall health of the company in my opinion.

Does anyone else ever feel like a mushroom? That is to say: 'kept in the dark and fed a bunch of #@!*'.

 

[COKA]

Politics...

Coka

 

[Binary]

Being given responsibility without authority.

Being told we have no money for improvements but always seeing money to fix all the screw-ups.

Band-aid fixes to get the shipment out the door without ever trying to address the root cause of the problems.

No bonuses, no retirement plan, lousy benefits - The really frustrating part is not so much that but the many tens of thousands of dollars that I've seen wasted in my 10-month tenure, all due to poor planning or poor systems. Even worse is that no effort has been to fixing the systemic problems that result in the waste.

Lip service to safety.

Fear of OSHA fines being the driver of safety rather than the well-being of the people.

CAD drawings where the designer has manually overridden the dimensions and they don't match the actual entity size/length.

CAD drawings where lines don't intersect at a corner and the overidden dimension doesn't match the location of either line end point.

 

[strokersix]

My number one frustration is the combination of inflexible project schedules and inadequate resources to get the job done. The effect is substandard work, long hours, and canceled vacations. Slowing down the project schedules even a little bit would allow fewer mistakes. It would also result in a better product for the customer. I personally provide the best work I possibly can but have a personal life at the same time. It's frustrating.

Above is, of course, just my perspective and I don't know all the facts. I'm told it's a valid business decision to aggressively push the development and production schedules but have a tough time believing it.

 

[sethgus]

politics, management, lies

However I will have my MBA in a few months and can join the ranks of idiots

 

[Jhewes]

Egocentrical engineers who do not do the nuts and bolts of functional testing and those that refuse to build for manufacturability. They are my Satan.

 

[MechEng13]

JHewes....I had to give you a star on that one. My biggest used to be Engineers that refuse DFMA. But that was my old employed life...now in a job shop for 2 months...we'll see what becomes my biggest Frustration here.



Alan M. Etzkorn
Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.

http://www.nixontool.com

 

[CARF]

Made a small calculation, I have around 38 holidays next year. Can get even more if I change my bonus in holidays (and not in money which is taxed). We have flexible working time and one day a week I can work at home. Guess I'm a lucky guy. Salaries are lower here, but I don't care that much, you need time to spend it, don't you?

How many holidays do you have in the US?

MVD,
Holland

What frustrates me is that some engineers always say that they are so good and, if repeated long enough, others start believing it ... (Until you get feedback through other channels).

 

[sethgus]

I have 11 holidays, but I'm on a 9/80 work week too (work 9 hrs a day for 4 days a week, 8 hrs every other friday,get the other friday off). So I usually get those Fridays off, which makes for long 4 day weekends.

 

[NOx]

People regardless of their position who won't admit they are wrong / made an error!

People who point at the guy / girl with balls who do hold up their hand!

Worst of all knee jerk reaction managers who don't think before allocating blame.

 

[schafer]

chafer (materials)
I have 11 holidays a year. Started the job 6yrs.ago with 3 wks. vacation (a year), that's not to shabby.
I agree with MVD about employees always lying about how good their work is and the management beleives them. The management doesn't see how much of this work I have rejected. If a person is a good employee the company can see it, you don't have to go to the boss and tell them you are good.

 

[sethgus]

schafer - I totally agree, luckily (unfortunately) the idiots here aren't brave enough to do it in public, they'll go around everyones backs

 

[Jhewes]

My 2nd biggest frustration is managers who are willing to take the credit for others work but will not shoulder any of the responsibility for getting the job done. This is close to managers that demand email responses while un willing to read emails sent.

3rd this damn economy or maybe this is a good thing. Regardless of how bad it gets at least I have a job.

 

[ornerynorsk]

Closed minded people who won't spend a dime on tooling, and wonder why the costs stay so high.

Lack of willingness to change when change is needed, and insistency on change where none is needed, objectively of course!

People who refuse your idea at all costs, just because THEY didn't think of it! And actively use politics in making sure quotations for said items support their ideas. IE: over-speccing, under-speccing, "ball-park feel good" quotes, etc.

Shall I go on?

 

[ERV]

Here are some things that really gripe me:

Some one that tells you "just give me an idea of what it will take, I won't hold you to it", the next week when all the numbers are done, they say "you said...".

An employee that knows so much that he/she refuses to ask questions, then blames someone else for their mistakes.

People that only tell half truths, or give misleading information.

People that hear everything, however, do not listen to what they are being told.

 

[sayee1]

Managers who are very good at pronouns or their usage....As I always say one of my ex bosses is an vivid example:
When some work was assigned "We will do it" He actually meant "YOU DO IT"
When some work was done and credit was to be claimed "I did it" What actually happened was "WE DID IT"
When some work was not done correctly he claimed "You DID it" What actually happened was " WE did not do it"

Wish all forum users a very happy and un-frustated new year with many paid holidays.... ;-)

Thanks and regards
Sayee Prasad R
Ph: 0097143968906
Mob: 00971507682668
email: sayee_prasad@yahoo.com
If it moves, train it...if it doesn't move, calibrate it...if it isn't written down, it never happened!