Working in a "family" business... 12

[CDO863]

Here is my situation:
I am a civil engineer with 9 years of experience. I work on private land development projects. The company I work for has been established for over 70 years...grandfather started company, handed down to sons, now to granddaughter. The gd is in her early 40's and "took over" about 2 years ago. She has zero management, engineering or surveying skills, experience, or even insight; basically inherited the company and is doing I don't know what to run things.
It is very important in this profession to make regular site visits, as we all know. So, on almost every occasion that an engineer has gone to a site (she looks at the billable time/timesheets to know this) she later accuses each of us of not really going, and this irritates the crap out of me and my co-workers. She will start with a comment like "So, how were things at the XYZ site on Tuesday?". Thinking she is genuinely interested in knowing, I begin to say....but am then interrupted with a comment like "Someone I know drove by and did not see you." This has happened to me and others, actually causing some great people to leave. I have been in the office on a Saturday, working, and then have comments made that "someone" she knows did not see my car...
Anyone out there dealing with any of these issues? Or working for a "non-technical" boss? She can't be fired, since she pretty much owns the company. It seems a shame that a firm that is so well-established is now being run by someone that is rather clueless. If it wasn't for the fact that I really enjoy the work and the clients, I would think of leaving. The only other firms in the nearby area are consulting firms. I specifically left consulting since I was burnt out on DOT-type projects, and find private jobs more diverse and fulfilling. I am a people person.

I welcome any feedback on this. Thanks for reading my post.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Document all site visits on paper and with photos.

Look for another job, 'coz it's her company.

Otherwise, how's she look? Maybe you ought to take her to dinner or something.It might be the way to a lucrative position for yourself...

 

[CDO863]

My site visits are very well documented. Plus I take photos, with my own camera I might add....

Your other suggestion won't work. I happen to be a female. A heterosexual one, at that, so cozying up to the boss is out of the question, lol.

My gut feeling about people like this (i.e. mistrustful) is that the accuser is often the guilty one, and perhaps I have a reason to not be trusting my boss.....

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Aha! Plan C: is the boss' bad management costing you money? If not, then putting up with her is simply the "cost" of doing buisness.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Get a digital camera that can take videos, and a big memory card for it. When you go to a site, take a bunch of stills, and at least one long video with a 360 degree pan sequence, recording the state of the site and the presence of the people who happened to be present. Also take a video and a still of yourself, site as background, holding the day's newspaper. Burn the whole mess on a CD. File it with your trip report, or hand it to her when she asks about the site visit.

There are two reasons for doing so:
1. It puts you in a defensible position with the boss.
2. It may save you supplemental site visits to answer questions about details that you didn't specifically investigate at the time.

Given the tiny incremental cost of recording (not printing) a digital image, photographing the hell out of a site should be company SOP at every visit.

Yeah, in theory the company should provide the camera, too. But shared cameras are never available when you need them.







Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[SlideRuleEra]

MikeHalloran - A wonderful idea! One minor additional comment - make sure that the internal time/date in the camera are correct so that time/date of the digital image files produced agrees with your written report timeline.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[TheTick]

When you find it necessary to take the kinds of precautions MikeHalloran is suggesting, the time to leave has long since left you.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I don't think of it primarily as a precaution.

That said, it's clear that the new owner doesn't know what she's doing, and doesn't know whom to trust. Which may be an opportunity, if you can establish yourself as a consistent truth- teller.

Or, not. The logical response to "... someone I know was there and didn't see you" is,

YOU'RE THE GOSH DARN BUSINESS OWNER!

WHY THE HECK WEREN'T >>>YOU<<< THERE TO SEE FOR YOURSELF!!!

Okay, put that way, it that might not be a good career move. But if the opportunity presents, you might casually mention that she can pay junior accountants to check timesheets. No one but the business owner can be out and about, keeping the customers happy, and that's where she should be ... on the road, all the time.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MrMojito]

bear26,

Start looking for a new job ASAP. When a company is run by someone like your current employer, it won't be around for long.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

"Someone I know drove by and did not see you."
Advise her of your next visit & suggest that the "someone", instead of driving by, should next time stop at the site & call in to see you. Better still invite her to accompany you.

"that "someone" she knows did not see my car..."
"perhaps I have a reason to not be trusting my boss....."
Absolutely do not trust her! She could very well be the "someone".

Is the company in a good financial position? Could you and your colleagues buy her out?


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[Ashereng]

MikeHalloran,

To advise to video the site visit is a good one, independent of this thread. Digital video cameras are cheap, and memory cheaper. My videos have saved a lot of hours later phoning to clarify something. Just keep in mind the area classification, and get permission from the site manager to shot videos.

bear26,

I would advise to start looking for another job.

Your boss trusts this "somene I know" more than anyone else. Otherwise, she would be asking you and not accusing you.

I work as a consultant, in the consulting field. Not all of us are bad, burning people out. I have had many contracts where the work was fulfilling, overall, my contracts are quite diverse. Sure, some jobs will burn you out, but most are pretty normal.

Sounds like if you stay where you are, you will be burned out soon enough anyways.

 

[TheTick]

I certainly don't mean to say taking pictures and video is a bad idea. The camera sees all and records without prejudice. I find my digital camera invaluable for things like this.

The problem I see is that if you are in a position where you are forced to constantly protect yourself from "Captain Queeg's" paranoid accusations, it's time to move on.

 

[CDO863]

Thanks to everyone for all of the input and feedback.

There have been a few good engineers that have left because of her behavior. Part of me says to ignore it; the other part says to go somewhere else. In reality though, it is tough to ignore.

The last accusation was that she did not believe that I was at a site (I went to discuss discrepancies over the stake out plan with the contractor) because I was not dressed for it! I happened to be wearing a skirt that day, and failed to bring jeans (I keep my workboots at the office.) If I knew I would have been going to the site, I certainly would have thrown jeans on. (To me it was not worth making the contractor wait, hell, wearing a skirt to a construction site and feeling like an idiot was my punishment for failing to keep an extra set of clothes at the office or in my car!)Anyway, due to this, she absolutely did not think I went there, and said to me "You were dressed to go to a party, not a site, so I doubt that you were there!". But this time the "someone" ususally mentioned did not drive by...

A colleague and I (another CE)have discussed the possibility of leaving to start our own business with a survey group nearby, in which case 90% of the clients would probably follow. That would leave the company without a PE. Although not impossible, this is much easier said than done, obviously.

The financial position of the company is very healthy at this time. Seventy years of clients, which include retail shops, gas stations, private land developers, just to name a few, means that the repeat business is tremendous. She stepped into the picture less than 2 years ago, which is not really enough time to screw things up too bad.
We do have a few survey crews, which is all that would be left if the two of us left.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Since the gd didn't sell out right away, I have to assume she wants to keep the business going, and remain a part of it. However, she lacks the technical skill to lead the business in any direct way, and the soft skills to lead it indirectly. Surely she knows that, at some level. She needs help; a chief engineer or a business manager or some combination would do.

Maybe she's shopping for someone strong enough to stand up to her.

Public confrontation with the boss is not generally a good idea, though some bosses won't respect you unless you've faced them down.

A brief example of facing down the boss: The Director of Engineering (a PhD EE) stumbled into our design shop one day, thought he knew all about the mechanical drawing on one of the tables, and, er, dumped on the designer. Later the same day, I buttonholed him in the hallway outside his office and said something like, "If you've got a beef with what Larry is doing, the beef is with me, because he's doing _exactly_ what I told him to do.". He backed down right away, and didn't bother my designers after that. My boss was not present for the meeting, nor was his boss. Our conversation was a 'chance' encounter, which I had arranged with the Director's secretary.

A private conversation might convince her of your professionalism. She may not realize, for example, that you swore an oath to protect the public above all other considerations, and that you take your word very seriously, and that she can, too.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MedicineEng]

In my country we have a saying that is usually applicable:

The first generation starts;
The second genration develops and
The third generation destroys

In another company where I worked for it happened something similar: the third generation also didn't managed to keep the company with personal problems between them. At least those ones were clever enough to sell it while it was still fat.

Regarding the site visits, next time I suggest that you pick up the phone, call the persons that you met on site and pass the phone to your boss. Make this a couple of times and she will most probably get the message.

Just one more thing: the relationship between employer and employee is based on TRUST: I TRUST that my boss will pay me what was agreed previously, and he TRUSTS that I will perform the work that I was hired for.
If your boss is treating you like a criminal, this relationship was broken and this is not place to stay.

Good luck

 

[Ashereng]

A colleague and I (another CE)have discussed the possibility of leaving to start our own business with a survey group nearby

GO!!!

This is a great chance to do something for yourself, work for yourself, be your own boss, and work with people you respect.

Good Luck!

What's a CE?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

CE = Civil Engineer


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
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[Ashereng]

Thanks.

 

[UcfSE]

I agree with TheTick. What are you, twelve? If you can make it work, that will be a credit to your good character, but no one could blame you for finding some where else. No engineer works that hard to be treated like a kid who is guilty until proven innocent. Maybe it's time to say that.

 

[737eng]

She has zero management, engineering or surveying skills, experience, or even insight; basically inherited the company and is doing I don't know what to run things.

It's her family business and she never took the initiative to gain the basic knowledge to be involved in the business? Didn't she know that she was going to be the heir? If she did know, and she never took any interest then, she won't make it too much longer now. I would recommend going out on your own as you discussed. Sounds like a great opportunity and this might be the push that you need. Good luck!