Chapter 3

Week 1 - Thursday

I was working on my second cup of coffee when Mel came in. He had a stack of file folders with him, and a yellow legal pad. He declined coffee, so we got right to it.

"First off," I said, "how many people are you short in your department?"

"Well, we are authorized 25 engineers and five support people. We currently have 23 engineers, and four support people."

"Is your authorization realistic?"

"I'm not sure I can answer that. At least not a straightforward answer. I don't really like the way we are set up to do things. The way we're set up right now, the numbers are realistic," Mel said.

"What would you like to see get done differently?" I asked.

"Well... First off, when we make a bid on a project, the guys in Estimating get with the CADD guys. They come up with a layout for the system, based on what the customer wants. Estimating goes over the layout, and estimates what type and how many of everything is going to be needed for the system. Then, if we get the job, Mechanical Engineering gets involved."

"Okay, that's pretty standard."

"Estimating usually does a pretty good job, by the way. Once we have a job, we assign a mechanical engineer to the project. It's theirs, until the project is signed off by the customer as being completed satisfactorily."

"How would you like to see it done differently?" I asked.

"Bear with me for a minute. Currently, the engineer assigned, pitches in and designs the system. He decides how much conveyor and of what type is needed. He figures out what the mountings should be, and specifies the parts. He figures out the number of motors needed, and what horsepower ratings they have to be, and a thousand other things to design the system. He gives all of this information to purchasing. Then he waits until it is time to start the mechanical installation."

"Okay."

"During the time he is waiting for mechanical installation to start, an engineer may be assigned to several other projects, each of them in different stages of development," Mel said.

"This is pretty well the way it is done throughout the industry. It makes for some dead time for an engineer, and for some time when he's on a site babysitting but not doing much. It can be a real bear to schedule, as well."

"Okay, we have some engineers who are very good at the design phase of a project. They are consistently faster and more accurate then the other engineers. We have other engineers who are excellent at supervising the mechanical installation but are a little weak in the design phase. We have still others who work well with the electrical engineers during commissioning."

"I think I can see where you're coming from, Mel. Are you suggesting we break each project up into three phases with a different engineer assigned to each phase?"

"Something like that. For large projects anyway, that approach wouldn't work well for small projects."

"Another problem with that approach would be that the engineers who supervised installations and the ones who were there during commissioning would be traveling most of the time."

"A lot of our engineers wouldn't mind that. Our electrical installers travel 50 weeks out of the year and they are fine with it. I had one young engineer ask me if I could keep him on the road 100% of the time. He said if I could he'd give up his apartment and just stay with his brother when he was in town."

"If we did it that way, would you need more, or fewer engineers?"

"I don't think we'd need nearly as many. I have one engineer who I think could do 50% of the design work by himself. He'd love it. He hates to travel. If I had a wife who looked like his, I'd hate to travel, too."

I had to laugh at that.

"Mel, your concept is definitely worth looking into," I said. "Why don't you start looking into how you'd divide up your personnel, if you could do something like this. Based on the projects we have going currently, figure out how many people you'd need to cover them. Then write up a plan as to how we would implement the changes. After you have it laid out, let's sit down and go through it in depth."

"Okay. It might take me a couple of weeks to get it together."

"That's fine. Now, let's go over the people in your department."

We spent nearly two hours going over the personnel in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Mel was candid, and I took copious notes.

After we had discussed all of the people, I looked back through my notes. "Okay, to sum it up, you have three engineers who are marginal," I said; "One engineer who has been promoted at least two rungs up the ladder from where he should be. One is an egotistical bastard who should be fired immediately. One engineer who should be promoted to 'God', and seventeen competent engineers who are doing a good job."

Mel smiled and said, "That sounds about right."

"Fire the egotistical bastard at your earliest convenience. Get with personnel, and have them start looking for a replacement."

"The hiring freeze is over?"

"That's right. Have them start looking for people to fill the other authorized slots as well."

"Will do, boss."

"There's one other thing I'd like for you to do. The evaluation sheets you fill out every year are being used the same here, as they were at the last place I worked. Everyone gets a 9 or a 10 in every category. You can continue to do that for their personnel file, but I'd like a different one filled out for me. I'd like for you to carefully read what it says for each of the rating categories, and give me a realistic evaluation of every person in your department. I'd expect the values to run all the way from 1 to 10. Then when you do your yearly review for personnel, I'd like for you to update the realistic one for me as well."

"I can do that. I've always thought those forms were a waste of time the way they're used."

.oO~Oo.

I needed a break, so I went down to the cafeteria. I picked up a sandwich and a cup of coffee and went to the table that seemed to be becoming mine. I really liked the ideas Mel had about rearranging his department and I was thinking about that when Missy came up with a cup of coffee in her hand and asked if she could join me.

I motioned to the seat across from me and she sat down. "I just wanted to thank you again for helping me get into R&D," she said.

"That's okay, Missy. I'm sure you'll be more of an asset to the company as an engineer, than you were as a secretary. Does Jim have you doing anything meaningful as yet?"

"Not really, he has me going over tech manuals, and looking at schematics of our proprietary designs right now. I can see where we can improve some of our designs though and I'm going to ask him about that. I also see we're still not using fiber optics, and I think we should be moving in that direction."

I had been trying to get the engineers at my former employer's to look into fiber optics myself, but I decide to string her along and see what her thoughts were. "Why do you think we need to go to fiber optics?"

"Well... Take a look at our Sort Controller for example. It has literally hundreds of inputs from photo eyes and proximity sensors. Each photo and/or prox has to be wired with special 'twisted pair' wiring to help prevent interference from other wiring. Even then, we still have problems with interference at times and have to run their wiring in special troughs. Fiber optics would eliminate that."

"Okay, I can see that, but aren't fiber optics a lot more expensive than twisted pair wiring?"

"Yes and no. There have been a lot of improvements in fiber optics over the last few years. Most photos and proxes are now available with fiber optic outputs, so you don't need converters. The new equipment that is available for fiber optics has brought the time for making terminations down to the point it rivals terminating with wires. So, the cost is far less than it has been in the past."

"Well, just to let you know, I tend to agree with you. I did a lot of research on fiber optics the last place I worked."

"I'm going to pitch it to Jim and see what he has to say."

"Good for you, Missy."

"Well, I guess I'd better be going. I just wanted to let you know how excited I am about my new job."

"Can you wait just a minute, Missy. I have a question for you if you have the time."

"Sure."

"Do you know Barbara Coovert?"

"Yeah, I know Barbara. Why do you ask?"

She's been assigned as my new temporary secretary. Frankly, I'm a little concerned about her in a way."

"In what way?"

"Well... I think she may have been coming on to me."

Missy giggled. "Oh, she probably was. What did she do?"

"When she came into my office yesterday, she sat her butt down on the side of my desk and asked if I was married or if I had a girlfriend. It wasn't so much the question, but her body language when she asked it, that put me off."

"She put her butt on the side of your desk and it didn't break your desk?" Missy giggled again. "I shouldn't tell you this, but the secretaries all call her Big Bertha behind her back."

I couldn't help myself. I had to laugh.

"Rumor has it that she has hit on nearly every man, married or single, in the company. If she bothers you, ask for a replacement."

"I may have to. I just hate to do that."

"At least you have that as an option. You are in a lot better position than I was when Pete started hitting on me. You have power and authority. I didn't."

"I'm sorry that happened to you, Missy. No one should have to put up with that kind of treatment."

"Pete was a randy old goat. Yes, it bothered me, but I got over it. I know of at least three other women in the company he hit on as well. There are rumors of other things he did too."

"What kind of things?"

"Well, it is rumored that Syl Westover is only in the position he's in today because he's Pete's buddy. There's another rumor that he had some kind of connection with Al Jackson in purchasing."

"Hmm, that's very interesting. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but Syl is skating on thin ice right now. The project he's on, is behind because of him. Right now we stand to lose $140,000, because it is behind schedule."

"I don't gossip, Ed. I listen, but I don't contribute."

"Thanks, Missy. I don't usually run off at the mouth like I have been, today. I'd better get out of here before I start telling you my life's history."

We got up and Missy thanked me again before she took off to R&D.

.oO~Oo.

I started putting the notes I had made this morning onto the computer when I got back to my office. I was about half way through when Barbara came in and asked me if I needed anything.

"No, Barbara, I'm fine," I said.

"You certainly are fine," she said and went back out to her desk.

"Oh, shit," I thought.

I started going through Pete's files on his Project Managers. I spent the entire afternoon going through them. Barbara came in three more times during the afternoon, looking for things to do. I had her do some copying and a few other things, but I really didn't have much for her to do.

Week 1 - Friday

Mike called me early this morning and told me he would need to have proposals for next year's budget in three weeks. I called each of my managers and told them I'd like proposals for next year's budget within two weeks. Since I didn't have anything better to go on, I told them to figure on 10 percent over what last year's budget had been for their department.

I started digging out Pete's budget files and going over them for this year. They really weren't very well put together, so I spent some time laying out a spreadsheet in Excel and then filling Pete's numbers from this year into it.

I managed to keep Barbara busy finding information I needed so that she wasn't a problem.

Week 1 - Saturday

Saturday was a very nice day. I got to spend some time with Jillian. In fact, I spent most of the day with her. We talked a lot about when we were kids, and she talked some about her husband.

Right after lunch, she asked me, "So how was your first week at work?"

"It wasn't bad. I managed to get a hiring freeze removed. I had a meeting with all of my managers. I managed to get a secretary rehired as an engineer. I chewed out a Senior Project Engineer, and a Project Manager. I got hit on by my secretary. I think those are about all of the major things that happened."