Work as Entertainment 2

[bridgebuster]

Where I work the corporate policy towards work is that it should be "challenging and stretching." In the office, the policy is that junior engineers should only do things that are interesting and that senior engineers shouldn't do anything beneath them.

This has been a real a real disaster: Engineers with two years experience are made Deputy Project Managers or given complete complete control of major project tasks. What I find is that they only want to do what they think is "fun stuff." They don't want to learn how to write specs, estimate costs, write reports,etc. Actually, a lot of them can't write. The senior people have become lazy; they've become adept at pontificating, although they have nothing useful to say.

The end result: The project manager often ends up doing bar lists, copying, filing, etc., and going gray trying to maintain the budget and schedule. Plans look like crap; no thought or imagination goes into the work. I could ramble for hours. BUT, everyone is having fun.

Granted, everyone wants to do challenging work BUT the people who come up with these BS policies probably never did an engineering project. Let's face it; a lot of what we do is boring. BUT there's value in performing the boring and mundane tasks well. It shows one has the fortitude to get the job done.

 

[jmw]

And the reason the company is still in business is....?

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[moltenmetal]

Don't worry, they won't be for long!

bridgebuster: a word of advice: find yourself a small private firm without a HR department. An HR department is a signal that a firm is too large to deal with its employees as human beings. Bad corporate policy results. Stay away from family-owned small firms, of course, as that can be far worse than an HR department run amok!

 

[Twoballcane]

"Where I work the corporate policy towards work is that it should be "challenging and stretching." In the office, the policy is that junior engineers should only do things that are interesting and that senior engineers shouldn't do anything beneath them."

You really have corp policies that spell out these directions? Or are these unwritten rules of the office? I have never seen policies worded for the benefit of the employee. It is usually the benefit of the company to make sure it is run smoothly, but not to define the employees “feeling” towards something.


Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[bridgebuster]

and there's a reason the company is for sale.

 

[TheTick]

Sounds like they are ruining engineers for themselves and the next employer, as well.

Per Dennis Leary, happiness comes in small doses: i.e. a cigarette, a cookie. You smoke the butt, you eat the cookie, then you get back to work.

 

[csd72]

A good engineer is one that is thorough i.e. does everything required to get the job done properly, and not just the interesting bits.

Get out of there ASAP!

csd

 

[MiketheEngineer]

QUIT!!

 

[KENAT]

I've seen junior staff arguably be abused a little with some of the mundane stuff but this is taking it a long way too far in the opposite direction.

I did quite a bit of dull monotonous tasks etc when a very junior employee. Most of them turned out to be valuable experience/character building etc.

As for the senior staff, if they don't want them doing anything below them then hire them assistants (who can't obviously be junior engineers ;-))

I'd definitely start looking.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...