bad working characteristics of engineers to do their jobs

In this article, I'm going to talk about "bad working characteristics of engineers to do their jobs". If you are a production engineer and you are busy working on the clock, you get the impression that it's a waste of time for other people's time-wasting ways of working.

【contents】

Working characteristics of engineers who can't work well
Bad Case Study 1: Long phone calls
Bad Case Study 2: Traveling for a meeting
Bad Case Study 3: Meetings that only bring people together
Bad Case Study 4: Not working on your own

Working characteristics of engineers who can't work well

People who are not able to do their jobs try to force others to do their jobs.
For example, they only hold meetings and throw information or problems at others, or they send out pointless emails to a large number of people. They may be doing this with good intentions for information sharing purposes, but depending on the quality and frequency of the information, it's an unwelcome activity. Because it takes time away from attending worthless meetings and reading worthless emails.

For those who are unable to work, the goal is to have a meeting. The original purpose of the job is to complete the job. The purpose of the meeting is not to have a meeting, and the meeting itself has no value. People who can't do their jobs hold meetings to force others to do their work. They use their position and meetings to throw their work to others.

Bad Case Study 1: Long phone calls

The first example is a long phone call where information is not clear.
It's a long meeting that we do over the phone, even though we only have information at the verbal level.
*Long phone calls for the purpose of interviews are not covered here.

I'd like you to imagine the role of a meeting, and the role of a meeting is either to communicate information, share information, or make a decision. When information is transferred or shared over a long phone call, the information on the other end of the line is limited. For example, if you've been talking on the phone for more than 30 minutes, the summary of what the person listening can remember and understand is less than 5 minutes. Then you should talk in five minutes or less from the beginning.

You should summarize the main points and speak briefly, or if the information is difficult to understand over the phone, email with photos or other documents. You shouldn't have to explain it over the long phone.

Bad Case Study 2: Traveling for a meeting

The second example is business travel for meetings.
A long time ago, there were many things that could not be done without traveling. For example, if you wanted to have a meeting while looking at a screen, you had to bring your computer. Recently, conferencing systems such as webex, Skype and Zoom are available at near free costs. However, even today, there are many people who travel to do work that can be done over the phone. For them, they travel for the purpose of business travel, not for work.

Depending on the nature of the visit, there may be advantages of visit. For example, a site visit by a department head or negotiations with a business partner. The act of going there itself has its own value. It gives the field staff and business partners the impression that someone in department manager's position has gone out of their way to visit you. They would think that this job is expected and focused on.

On a operational level, for example, it is worthwhile to travel to locations with similar equipment to discuss equipment specifications. By looking at similar equipment, we can use it as a reference for examining specifications and clarify operational issues. There is value in the act of the seller visiting the buyer's location. This is because it is a kind of sales activity.

However, there are many working-level, general employees who have business trip meetings that don't seem to provide any benefit. It's a business trip where they're not quite sure what they can expect to accomplish with that business trip. They travel for travel purposes, not for work.

Bad Case Study 3: Meetings that only bring people together

The third example is a meeting that just brings people together.
Here's a specific example. As a production engineer, you have to estimate the production capacity of a production line. This is the number of units produced per month on that production line.

Since we may increase production to meet customer demand, we may also consider investing in equipment and modifications to increase production. Every once in a while, we receive a meeting invitation from the sales department to see if we can accommodate production.

My boss at the time had been summoned to the meeting. My boss instructed me to attend, but I declined because I had other priorities. Instead, I gave my boss the information he needed. The meeting seemed to last about an hour, but after the meeting, my boss asked me to answer a question that came in an email from the sales department.
...What were you doing in the meeting? That was my impression. Despite the fact that I gave him the necessary information in advance, and despite the fact that he is responsible for Production Engineering Department, he didn't seem to be able to decide anything. It's a complete waste of time.

The boss spent an hour in a useless meeting for a job that I could have done in a five-minute email. He wanted me at the meeting so that he wouldn't have to deal with it himself. It's clear from this result alone that the meeting was worth nothing.

Bad Case Study 4: Not working on your own

The fourth example is that you don't do the work yourself.
The job of an engineer is to validate technology based on facts. FTA, 5-Why, Pareto and others mentioned in other articles are the methods. People who don't work think about being easy. They try to get a solution without doing a detailed investigation of the problem. However, this method will not lead to the answer. This is not only about the work of engineers, but also about life.

These "don't work on their own" people explain case 1 and case 3 above well. They mistakenly think it's their job to call and explain the situation or hold a meeting. The real job is to organize information, provide useful information to others, and solve problems, but they don't want to understand those essential facts.
Bosses who force their subordinates to do everything, for example, are typical of this. If they think they can use their position to force anything on others, they're very much mistaken.

bad working characteristics of engineers to do their jobs

Working characteristics of engineers who can't work well

Bad Case Study 1: Long phone calls

Bad Case Study 2: Traveling for a meeting

Bad Case Study 3: Meetings that only bring people together

Bad Case Study 4: Not working on your own

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