Monthly Archives: February 2019

25 Feb

Management Surprises

I talked about this a bit in the Engineering Management introductory post, but it deserves its own category as something worth explaining.

Entering management as a technical person – engineering, sciences, technician, maintenance, whomever – can be a shock to the system. I realize the myth that engineers can’t write and have no social skills isn’t always true, sure, but the concept exists for a reason: because often the focus in our education is so much on the fundamental equations and understanding rather than what I’ll call “soft skills” in a way that’s not at all meant to be demeaning. Soft Skills include things like communications arts, empathy, the ability to listen — even in non-technical degrees, these are things that don’t (and maybe can’t) end up being taught.

And even if the employee/manager in question has developed these skills, there’s an incredibly good chance that they’re going to run into someone in their career who hasn’t. Reaching beyond our own social anxieties is one thing; learning to reach even farther, around another person’s, is a different thing entirely.

On top of the soft skills, and the things I’ve mentioned before – learning to be an accountant, a finance manager, a counselor, a systems administrator, etc – there are also the secrets of management that need some discussion.

As you move up, you’ll find yourself seeing more and more of what goes on in the “background” of a company. And it’s the kind of stuff no one talks about. Your manager “suggests” to you that an employee of yours isn’t meeting expectations and needs to be “managed” — what do you do? A fellow manager comes to you with complaints about one of your employees, citing behavior you’ve never seen. A fellow manager goes to your boss citing your behavior, spun at just the right angle to make you look bad. Your boss tells you parts of the company plan that you need to interpret for your department’s long-term plan, but can’t tell anyone else about.

There’s a lot of overlap in this category: managing technical people, toxic environments, sick systems, hiring and firing. I want to pull the veil back a little, show the kind of secrets that can hide in upper management and become your problems to deal with.

24 Feb

International Business

The world’s business models are moving towards a “global workplace” — using all the technology available to connect across countries and continents in an attempt to unify company image and pool resources. And it seems to make sense: keep your centers of business on the same page, make sure the company isn’t repeating work that has already been done, give a sense of unification to your employees, and – importantly – increase the diversity of your workplace simply by connecting through email, webcam, conference call.

There are a lot of ways to do this right. At the same time, unfortunately, there are a lot of ways to do this wrong.

One of the biggest flaws with the concept of a global workplace is that we are, in fact, still diverse: the strength becomes a weakness. Regulations are different in America vs Japan vs Europe vs Africa. Demands are different from region to region. And some global strategies can acknowledge that and work with it — but I’ve seen a lot of failure in my own career: the failure to understand these differences, and what happens when one center of business takes priority and calls the shots for the other two without acknowledging differences in company culture, marketing strategy, and logistics.

There’s going to be a lot of talk about this when I start digging into the structure of YoSaffBridge Donuts and how easy it is to distinctly mess up those relationships. It isn’t just this hypothetical company either; I have a selection of other examples to share, times companies have tried to expand beyond their usual borders, but failed, because they kept an old set of rules and figured it would apply everywhere. There’s a lot to unpack here, but it should help employees and managers to make smarter choices in how they deal with international business.

21 Feb

Engineering Management

There are plenty of resources around to help employees transition into, work better with, and develop skills for management. The thing is, though, that there are aspects of managing technical folk (I include everything from floor technicians and maintenance up through engineering and sciences to PhDs) that are extremely different and not widely known, which can result in a big surprise for anyone who wants to enter management and has only a general understanding of what that means. In addition, actual management training in technical industries is, frequently, either nonexistent or incredibly shitty. Surprise! You’re going to be dropped in the deep end, with no idea which direction means shore.

There will be a million different hats you’ll need to wear. First, there are specific sets of skills and approaches recommended (and NOT recommended) based on your own background and the general level of employee you’re working with. Are you a scientist? An engineer? A GED-level technican? Are you working with salary, union, degreed, non-degreed? Are your employees Bachelors, Masters, PhDs? Understanding the complex contexts that these relationships can take is critical to success, and there will be a lot in this category focusing on these key attitudes.

In addition, get ready to be steamrolled: technical management is way more than just technical work. It’s a series of crash courses in skill sets you’ve never thought were going to be your job. Accounting. Funds Requests. Counseling. Human Resources. Database Administrator. PowerPoint expert. Communications Liason. Compressed Air expert. Mechanical Integrity controller. Babysitter. Mediator. Word of God.

It’s a hard experience. And for the right person with the right fit, it can be incredibly rewarding work: the kind where you get to see your own fingerprints shaping the core culture of your workplace. But — it isn’t for everyone. And it’s best to go in prepared.

17 Feb

China Doll in the Bullpen: Women in Male-Dominated Environments

I know the second this category comes up, every single time, at least one person is going to tell me that we’ve defeated sexism in the workplace, and that women are just too sensitive these days. These persons can kindly fuck off, though: while we’ve eliminated many of the overt types of sexual harassment that used to take place, that isn’t a victory; there’s still an entire truckload of considerations any woman has to take on her way into a male-dominated career like most engineering fields, sciences, and industries.

I’ll start with the advances, lest anyone complain that I’m ignoring all the ways things have improved. It’s no longer either legal or acceptable to expect women in the workplace to “sleep” their way to the top. Likewise, blatant kinds of sexual harassment – from inappropriate comments up to and including blackmailing – are now frowned on. From what I understand, these are great things to be recognized, and yet — what a low bar.

No, I didn’t have to worry for my career because a coworker or boss wanted to sleep with me and was gonna force or coerce me into doing so or giving up my career. Wow. Is that the best we can do?

I’ve been privy to thousands of workplace “microaggressions” — the term we use now to describe the subtle sexism that has taken over workplaces now that the “obvious” sexism has been dealt with. I’ve had project leaders refuse to work with me; had my work doubted and questioned where men with less experience were treated as acceptable contributors; I’ve had to fight my way to respect with an all-male all-union team; I’ve had to fight my way to respect with executive committees where male managers in equal positions didn’t have to: and that’s just me; countless other female employees have had an equally colorful set of experiences.

This section will focus on these more nebulous actions of misogynist harassment (“sexual harassment” becomes a less applicable term when actual threats &B harassing comments re: sex get removed from the equation), how men can do better, and what women need to consider and gird themselves up in battle armor for when entering typically male-dominated career fields.

17 Feb

Business Culture: Walk the Talk

One of the biggest problems I see with today’s industry is the way that corporations rely on “communication” to convince employees that they’re on the right path.

Note: I’m certainly not digging on communication; I believe businesses should be as transparent as they possibly can, because I believe employees have the right to much more information than they’re given, especially in technical fields where executive budgeting decisions can have a huge effect on project direction. I feel like communication of a corporations goals is a bare minimum where both employees and shareholders are concerned. I think it’s a pretty low fucking standard to sincerely communicate the company’s goals in a way that makes sense. Good corporate communication is a requirement in today’s environment.

My point is this: I think that businesses have, for a variety of reasons, stopped at that low bar; in today’s world, that isn’t enough.

Too many executive boards spend too much time discussing how they are going to deliver their message: what words to use, what perfect slides to include in a brief presentation, what they want people to take away from this message. They’ve forgotten that there’s a key step after making the bold announcement: namely, the actions that will be taken to make this announcement reality.

Too many times I’ve seen management forget that ground-level employees hear words, but value actual actions ten-fold. A corporation can announce anything – and they do – but if executives are unable to explain exactly how and what is going to happen, that announcement quickly loses credence and becomes yet another slogan that was “all talk and no walk.”

It’s incredibly important for employees to hold management accountable for promises made; for middle managers to figure out ways to translate the executive vision into actual reality; and for executive management to understand and provide resources to prove to employees that they aren’t all talk. People judge on actions, not words. Anyone can put together a pretty sentence; what’s valuable is actual, real, notable change.

13 Feb

Business Culture: Sick Systems & Toxic Environments

Much of the language I use to talk about sick systems comes from this excellent piece, which gives you the analogy both for a toxic workplace and an unhealthy relationship; warnings for discussion of toxic abuse.

I’m sure all of us have brushed up against some sort of toxic environment in the workplace before. The guy who makes those comments that just make you feel a little bit awkward. The supervisor who likes to talk shit about his employees. The manager who always wants to gossip with you. The feeling that someone’s out to get you; the secretary making all the power plays she can; the person always complaining about how they do all the work — we could cast an entire movie staff with the individuals we’ve met who can ruin a workplace.

What do I mean by toxic? Well, it’s actually different from a sick system, but they can be related. A toxic workplace is hard to define, but at its core, consider the word toxic: there’s poison in the water. There’s something in the environment that’s keeping employees from trusting each other, from building real cameraderie, from being comfortable and happy at the workplace; there’s something blocking the path from the ideal. It isn’t always a concrete thing: it’s the morale, the environment, the general ambience in the workplace and the attitude of the employees.

But even if a toxic environment isn’t directly defineable, it will most certainly have an effect on employee morale, output, and dedication. It makes people difficult to work with, and can often end in a workplace adopting a set of “workarounds” to avoid having to deal with someone toxic. This seems ridiculous! It’s one of the things we’ll discuss in this category.

A sick system, on the other hand, is there to keep good employees “trapped” in this kind of environment. It depends on actual “good” employees – the ones who are invested, who really care about the workplace and the people, who are already going in hard and doing extra and working more – who end up so overworked and overloaded that they can’t even take a second to see the big picture. The trick about a sick system is that yes, you’re trapping yourself.  

Sick systems don’t always develop intentionally, either. You can find yourself stuck in that cycle of stress, always thinking you’re close to a break, that as soon as you get this one thing done everything will be better; a promise that continues to extend its deadline while you’re continually trying to meet yours. It’s a terrible feedback loop, and it’s really easy for technical folk to end up slipping into that mindset and losing the way.

This section will address both of these from employee and management points of view, talk about how to recognize and fix these sorts of environments, and how it can change the business culture for the worse.