What makes an employee invaluable? 26

[structineer]

This is a question for those that either run their own business or manage employees. What are your opinions of what makes an employee invaluable? I'm looking for a little more than the typical cliches.

Thank you for your input!

 

[MikeHalloran]

That reminds me of a sparky I knew who had 8 kids and seemed to ride out layoffs as if by magic.

In retrospect, what frustrated me about him was not that he did things wrong, but that he chose to do the wrong things.

E.g., to run a DC linear actuator, he chose to design a power supply from scratch, rather than buying one, or just buying a car battery and a float charger. That last would have been the best option because the actuator required >250 amps to start under load (which it had to do in our application), vs. its nominal current requirement of about 20 amps, which is what our magic power supply was designed for. The power supply worked great on the test bench.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MacGyverS2000]

I'd feel pretty annoyed if I was being laid off and not someone else simply because they had children to feed. Just sayin'...

Back in my drafting days, the small company I worked for hired a client's son to do drafting for us. I was Senior Draftsman (for whatever that's worth), but found out they were paying him something like $1.50/hr more. When questioned about that, the response was "He doesn't want to have a roommate in his apartment, so he needs more money to pay the rent." No kidding... really? I don't want to live with roommates, either, but that didn't affect my pay. I quit several weeks later after having worked for them nearly four years. Found out sometime later that the kid left them high and dry a few months after I left.

Except in times of need, such as time off for sickness/death in the family, your personal life and details should have zero effect on how you are treated at work, including pay.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

I had an appraisal (review) a few years ago after a really bad year in my life. The boss asked: "So has all that domestic shit healed up?" Which is pretty much how home life affects work in most jobs.

It's not a holiday camp, or a family picnic.

- Steve

 

[MiketheEngineer]

You guys/gals are right. I do need to get rid of him and as a matter of fact spoke to HR yesterday about the best way of going about that.

But I am human - and love kids .... in the right sort of way!!!

Got 4 g-kids that are the love of my life!! Daughter - not so much.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

You don't love your daughter as much, or she doesn't love her kids as much? ;-)

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Twoballcane]

Wow guys, you've just sent a family into turmoil over a discussion on Eng Tips based on hearsay, which the person can not defend them selves to the people on this thread who condemned them. Mike The Engineer, please reconsider your actions. It has seems that your have been persuaded by total strangers on such a delicate matter.

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."
“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity”

 

[MiketheEngineer]

No - I take from these forums like I take all advice - some good - some not so good. It is always my call - but I ALWAYS use input from many resources before making a decision.

This has been in the works for over two years. I have had two people who kind of intimated that he drove them crazy and they had to move on - either internally or externally.

Once I get a few other things straightened out - he's gone.

It just has taken me that long to get "others" trained and licensed!!

I LOVE my daughter - she is just a dark haired "blond" if you get my drift!!! "An air head"

PLEASE slta and Cassiopeia and any other women on this forum - nothing against women!!! I promise. Her husband is probably worse!! Actually, he is!!!

 

[MacGyverS2000]

TBC, last I checked, Mike was the one making the decision, not us.

If I had the power to force people to make those kind of decisions over the net, I would have been rich long ago.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Twoballcane]

Yes, I agree. But you’ll never know what you commented may have made some kind of persuasive impact to the poster. I was just asking MTE to reconsider, because the fall out is a family with kids without hopefully one less income that can make a world of a difference. But, I am sure MTE did his due diligence to make the right decision for the company. This is probably why I can not be a manager to make tough decisions like this.

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."
“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity”

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Thanks to all for any input!!

That's why I love this forum -- there are always two sides to every story and usually three sides - with the truth somewhere in the middle.

 

[ports394]

my point was.. when you're yold that you're too good at what you do now, to be promoted into another position, etc...because then who will do you work? and if they hire someone new to do your work and you train them... theyll probably be cheaper and just get you fired.

It's business. There's an intangible side of making a business efficient by keeping employees happy... and there's also the money side. Dollars are really easy to count.

MTC. Good luck with your decision.

 

[jmw]

Invaluable usually means undervalued and under paid.
And yes, being too good makes you a good prospect for being kept in the same job for as long as possible.

On the other hand, the over-riding HR guiding principle is that no one is indispensable.
Anyone who appears to be invaluable will tend to be regarded as a bit of a risk.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[controlsdude]

invaluable is a code word for arrogant sob who is a know it all. I guess that was a double negative for invaluable.

 

[ornerynorsk]

I don't know about that Controlsdude. Every company seems to have that one person that seems to be the axle on which the company turns, whether it is in the office or the shop, and I have yet to see one of them anything but humble. They often don't realize that THEY are the invaluable one, they just assimilate the role by default because once everyone else begins to get a clue about their range of abilities and their (usually) highly responsible nature, they just become the go-to guy or girl.

The arrogant and egotistical people I've encountered in all of the places that I've worked could usually be replaced by a steaming pile of cow dung and the company would be no worse for it. Unfortunately, they are usually the ones who stick around just long enough to frustrate the invaluable guy/girl to the point of quitting, and then go their merry way after smartly upsetting the works.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[SNORGY]

There is no upside to being an arrogant SOB, no matter how brilliant.

Brilliance = talent (it's a gift); Helpful = attitude (takes effort)

With sports, as with any team in anything, effort beats talent most of the time. Just look at how the Bruins disposed of the Canucks in last year's Stanley Cup, for example. The same is true in the workplace.

The only time it doesn't work that way is when the people with the most talent also put in the most effort. That's when they become invaluable.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[PatCouture]

I have to give you a star for this Snorgy

I've seen too many talented people not putting the effort because they never had to to get ahead or just to be on par with those with work hard! That's a shame to waste all that potential.

Patrick

 

[jmw]

Brilliance = talent (it's a gift); Helpful = attitude (takes effort)

I'd suggest:
Pseudo Brilliance = effort and involvement - by comparison with many, not hard to achieve the illusion of brilliance if you have some smarts (in the kingdom of the blind....)
Helpful = attitude. Not easy to fake. Some people are naturally inclined to be helpful.
Well, they are that way inclined even if what they have to offer isn't worth the effort in the end. Think of all those people only too pleased to give directions when they clearly have no idea where they are or where you want to be. (My wife has a gift of selecting these people to ask for directions. They always want to help and will waste hours with their useless directions.)

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[patprimmer]

controlsdude

invaluable is a code word for arrogant sob who is a know it all. I guess that was a double negative for invaluable.

Maybe so if they make that attribution to themselves, however if others make it, how does that make the recipient of the praise arrogant or snobbish.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

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[IRstuff]

Well, we snobs are clever that way; we maneuver others into heaping such praise as that onto ourselves. It's a delicate operation.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[jmw]

What makes an employee invaluable?
The absence of brown-nosers, the valuable employee's natural predator.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com