View Full Version : Engineer or Office Boy....?
Here is a workplace situation I've recently become cognizant of, based on two cases in particular, and also a general sense of how perversely things usually play out. Okay, here's my littlebittytheory: Let's say you have a pretty good-sized manufacturing company, okay? So,let's say it is on a grand enough scale that the company employs an "Engineering Staff", okay? These are typically college boys, who prefer office work--filling out forms, paper shuffles, and sitting through meetings to take up their time. They like staying nice and clean, and not getting dirty & sweaty on the job. Plus, they have a sense of entitlement because they have been taught that "after all, I have a college degree, and I am WORTH more". See? Okay, the typical manufacturing operation has office boys aka college-educated kids who really aren't all that handy. They're accustomed to buying new stuff, that doesn't need any work, so that they can spend their leisure time enjoying "the finer things in life". IOW, catering to their wife and kids. See? Their background consists of on-the-job office work. But, they are an "Electrical Engineer" or a "Mechanical Engineer". But, at home, their wife hires an electrician to change a light bulb, or take their nice, clean, new, safe, nice, clean, new car in to an official authorized service center to have factory-trained technicians(grease monkeys with no degree) put air in the tires. After all, besides wanting to avoid the hassle, and wanting it "done right", Mr Engineer and his wife have more important things to do---tickets to the Ballet, for instance. Golfing. Stupid stuff like that. Anyway, I noticed that several of these "engineers" in my typical case studies held multiple patents! They were not major advances in technology, but rather minor but useful improvements in manufacturing processes. More specifically, the patent really described a technique that was supposed to have resolved some minor glitch in the process that slowed down the line or caused inefficiency or quality control problems. So, Mr "Engineer" came up with a BRILLIANT idea, due to his superior intelligence and advanced education, and saved the day, right? Well, not really. What Mr Engineer did was have an assignment given to him in one of the many meetings that fills up his day. The assignment was to put on a nice clean white lab coat, a nice clean white helmet, and nice new safety glasses on, & go out in the shop(god forbid)where it is hot and noisy, and investigate a quality-control or production bottleneck that the bean-counters say is costing the company money. Are you with me? Mr Engineer does have the companies' back, so he does possess some authority over production personnel. Plus, he knows that being a nice, smooth talker and good "interpersonal skills" will be of value. Anyway, he goes out in the shop, and enlists the aid of various experienced production personnel and their supervisors; he informs them of the necessity of resolving the problem that the bean-counters have identified. To make a long story short, Mr Engineer rides herd on the production people to find a solution. He may give some of his college-boy input, even though he lacks practical experience. The main thing is to keep on Those People" to come up with a solution. He will go back to his office, and document what progress has been made, how much time has been expended, and so forth. He may even use outside resources--manuals, textbooks, the internet, networking with colleagues past and present, not only to occupy his time in the air-conditioning, but to gain helpful information that he can use to prod Those People out in the shop. He may get the people in the tool room, involved. He may call in a consultant. But, the main thing is to document it all, so he can report in on the meetings that fill up his day. See? Finally--long at last--Eureka! The dumb greaseballs in the shop that Mr Engineer has been nagging have stumbled upon a solution, after much collective trial-and-error. So, Mr "Engineer" documents it all, keeps track of everything, and has good news to report in the meetings that fill up his day. See? After awhile, it is seen that the production snafu has been resolved, by a unique, proprietary process that needs to protected by law, since it is "intellectual property". Say, the company makes frozen doughnuts, and the holes are not perfectly round, and the idiots out in the shop finally figured out by guess-and-by-golly(as opposed to Mr Engineer using his proficiency at calculus), that putting a finer finish on the donut hole puncher makes them more uniform. Okay--Mr Engineer goes back to his office, documents this modern miracle, attends the very next meeting, and is advised by the bean counters to file for a patent for this technological advance, on behalf of the company, with him getting the professional, resume-building credit. So, Mr Engineer then forwards his summary description of the NEW improved process to the Legal department at corporate Headquarters, and the Lady Attorney that handles that kind of thing files for a patent. See how easy it is, when you are smart, like an "Engineer"? It pays to be good at high-school calculus and physics, doesn't it? Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.
Wouldn't the patent be held by the company, which indirectly implies credit to all its employees?
Packs, you really ought to hire some college lad to add paragraph breaks.
Wouldn't the patent be held by the company, which indirectly implies credit to all its employees?
Packs, you really ought to hire some college lad to add paragraph breaks.Don't you know? I figured you'd know! Why ask Littlebittyme, of all people? Go watch Fantasy TV Dramas. Maybe you'll find an answer, there.
rosarugosa
5-19-15, 7:27pm
If all reading was as painful as trying to slog through the paragraph above, I might be tempted to take up TV!
I'm thinking Mr. Engineer must be a pretty good technical writer, what with his documentation skills and all. It seems he's fulfilling a need for the company, even if he isn't sufficiently sweaty.
I agree that even if Mr. Engineer gets his name on the patent, and maybe a little bonus, the patent typically belongs to the company. So because of that, it benefits everyone who works there.
and I do believe that workers on the shop floor are very capable of coming up with great ideas. I've also heard the opposite scenario: engineers standing around observing a production line and discussing ways to make it better, and the workers listening and then running to report their "idea" so they could get an in-company award. Can be snakes in every job.
Okay, a little update on these super-brainy engineers(office boys) that we can't do without. Actually, I've got several anecdotes, but I'll share this one, for now: One of the above-mentioned Engineers, a graduate of an Electrical Engineering School(that presently charges $30k/year tuition, btw), with close to 35 years on-the-job experience, recently suffered the misfortune of locking himself inside his late-model Cadillac, and was not able to unlock it from within. The problem wasn't a failure in the car; he just couldn't figure it out. Solution: use the cell phone to call the Cadillac Dealership, and ask for help. See?
Ye Gods! I would love me a donut right now!
Ye Gods! I would love me a donut right now!
You are in luck, Friday, June 5th, is national donut day. Many places will be giving away free donuts.
Someone somewhere holds the patent for the TAB key, right?
Hmm..only a gazillion miles separate me from The Donut then.
Okay--here's another classic 'zample about office boy engineers: Years ago, I worked one whole summer at a local private university that was known for its' very high tuition, its' very large endowment fund. and its' so-called "School Of Architecture". I was a temporary hire on the maintenance staff, okay? The pay was sub-standard, even for this town; the permanent hires' morale was low, because they were being cheated, given the schools VERY sound financial condition. They tended to stay, because the working conditions were a plus---Air Conditioning, & lots of pretty coeds from wealthy families. Anyway, one of my assignments was to restore order to the building that housed the Architecture classrooms. Most of the kids were gone for the summer. The building was filled with junk, mainly in the form of scrap wood and scale models of buildings made of wood and plastic. Much of the scrap wood was hardwood or specialty lumber that had cost big $$, so I filled my station wagon with it, instead of dumpstering it. I've used pieces many times over the years, and still have some left.There was also a nice light fixture that was trashed, that I took home, fixed and use. Anyway, got to looking at the stuff these kids built, and the general condition of the building, which was a large, fairly-new two-story concrete shell. The stuff those kids built was really stupid, and a mess, and I called the building: Animal House". I asked my co-workers if the School Of Architecture students designed the building, and after they stopped laughing, the answer was "hell, no--are you kidding?", because they knew how incompetent those kids were. The major benefactor, an alumni, was a real-estate developer, and he had his own people design it. Wasn't gonna let a bunch of college nerds screw it up. It appeared that the majority of the students' time was spent in the 'puter labs, playing video games. Several years prior, I was a part-time maintenance guy at the Humane Society, and one day I went in, and one of my assighnments was to evaluate a bunch of "doghouses" made out of "recycled materials" as a class project at the School of Architecture. At the conclusion, the "doghouses" were donated to the shelter, so they could sell or give them to shelter patrons. Well, of the two dozen "dogg houses", not ONE was fit to use. They had nails and deck srews protruding into the interior space, and a host of other design defects. Quite a few of them were made of old semi-truck tires, and weighed 200-300 lbs, and were not weatherproof, at all. It was a boondoggle, so screwed up were they. I ended up having to spend hours disassembling them all, taking the tires to a disposal site, and hauling the rest of the material to the landfill, all at the society's expense. When I worked at the school of architecture that summer, there was a bulletin board with job postings wanting recent grads, and paying more than $30k a year! This was 20 years ago; now it's more like $60k--for kids that can't do anything practical; they only know how to play 'puter games. Two things: this supports my theory that most institutions of higher ed are diploma mills; and: it's no wonder the USA is an expensive place to live and our industry is becoming less competitive all the time! I will be back later, with another interesting tale about "engineers". Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.
Ye Gods! I would love me a donut right now!Kids, for a limited time only, I am offering a lifetime supply of donut holes for just $49.95 plus shipping. So, give me your credit card number so I can complete your order, right away. Better yet--send cash.
Gardenarian
6-5-15, 2:28am
Packs, you really ought to hire some college lad to add paragraph breaks.
Seconded.
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