Why is my boss not giving me another project? Are we out of work?

[NewEngineer652]

Hello,
I am a fresh engineer and started working at my current company about a year ago. When I started, I was given a project (which was 85% done already). Since I was new, I spent alot of time understanding what was going on and at the same time I kept working on it. This project is almost finished. A few things are left but I have to wait for the parts to arrive and then it will be done.

The main problem at my job is when I order parts from vendor it takes about eight weeks for parts to arrive. Anyway, I told my boss about a month ago that I need another project. He said there is a list of projects and he will be giving me one soon. Honestly, I dont have much to do at work. He knows this and still not giving me more projects. He gives me small stuff to do like check the drawings, ,make up stuff and ask me to draw it on inventor, which I do. I seriously want to do something productive for the company. Please tell me what I should do? Why is he not giving me projects?

 

[KENAT]

Well there may be all sorts of reasons, maybe he's a control freak, maybe the jobs are too complex for your level of experience, maybe it will take him as long to explain the job as to do it himself, maybe there's not much to do and he's keeping it for himself, maybe he's slammed fighting fires and can't find time to get a task in a state to hand over...

How well do you think you've done on the job(s) you have had?

Remind him you're ready to go whenever he has something for you to day.

Be proactive - anything you can think to do in your spare time? This aspect has come up many times before so do some searching.

Good luck.

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[GregLocock]

Have you bought a decent book on Inventor and done ALL the exercises properly? Check with His Nibs that he is happy for you to do so, but if you can do a few hours a week of that you will get a much more robust skillset with Inventor, which would be neat. If you search this website you'll find various threads on what to do with spare time at work.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[ctopher]

I would use the time to learn something new and be really good at it.

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MikeHalloran]

Is your boss perhaps waiting for you to prepare and submit a Design Report about your project?

Now, decades later, I could guess what might/should go into such a report, but I have never seen one, before or since the bastard fired my ass out of there for not submitting a report for which he had never asked.

I don't mean to suggest that you owe your boss a report, but you might quietly ask of your peers about undocumented expectations associated with completion of a project.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[GregLocock]

Ha that's a good one, after the launch of a vehicle we were supposed to complete a System Binder, which sort of encapsulated what we'd learned during the design of that vehicle. never got done with integrity because we were already working on the next one. It would contain things like the FMEAs, DVPR, and any major issues in development, I'd guess.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[KENAT]

Ah, yeah I vaguely recall tails of having to do a 'lessons learned' when projects finished around here - never happened that I know of.

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[looslib]

Lessons Learned documents never get finished. They get one pass, issues documented, then fixes are prioritized and worked on. Some get check ed off and some get dropped or slip through the cracks. Every once in a while there will be a second or third pass at what was learned and what got improved/fixed. By then other priorities have changed and other projects have become a bigger issue.

As to the OP, keep asking for another project. Perfecting Inventor can be a personal project that your boss approves, but limit your skill development hours to 2 or 3 per day so other work can be done. Ask the vendors if your order can be delivered sooner, if possible. Work on documenting what you did on the project as a summary report.



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[TED7]

Just as a side note. I went through a phase of about 6 months working on internal projects that got to 90% complete, then I was moved onto a new project for some time, then the cycle repeated. Eventually I was made redundant, I now work in a door factory loading a CNC machine because it caught me off guard. Turns out the UK export restriction on defence and civil power equipment to Russia hit the company much harder than they expected.

Stay alert and keep an eye out for new jobs just in case.