Engineers v Managers
Ilene Dover
Alright, I admit it. I hate an empty media and I had a crap Monday, with the sole shining light of this little joke. No doubt it applies to anyone who works in a technical role...
A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist. "Everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."
The woman below responded, "You must be in management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
Comments
bahaha management = passing the buck through delegation to the closest person! funny stuff 🙂
After the emails I have been receiving from an engineer since Friday I can confirm that this day and age there is unfortunately a very small percentage of engineers who actually know what they are doing the rest well.. they are obviously good at something apart from their work
Couldn't agree more, sadly. Too many engineers get put "in charge" of stuff they know SFA about. And we are universally not trained fully before being given real responsibilities. The good ones learn how to ask questions and slide their way towards being useful. It reminds me a lot of the relationship between junior army officers and crusty old sergeants...
There are funny ones but, a friend/electrical engineer was asked to design a 440V distribution board. Being straight out of uni he wanted to make a good impression and spent the next 2 days designing from scratch a circuit breaker. When an electrician walked past him and asked when the design would be finished so they can start building/installing he showed them with pride where he was up to only for the electrician to tell him that the local wholesalers stocked those parts on the shelf and he only needs to give them a part number.
He did feel like a bit of a fool as in uni he was taught great knowledge on workings of components and how to overcome issues but neglected the real world aspect that most items have already been made to suit
There's that part to it as well... All the training you do get us by academics. Who, well, teach you how to be an academic. It's great to know things from first principles, but the day to day work of an engineer could be taught like a trade.
Love this. Accurate description of both for sure. The irony of the amount of engineers who are now in management though makes you think...
lME, engineers make terrible managers...
oldie but a goodie...