RE: Just a thought

From: <Bruce>
Date: Mon Jul 16 2001 - 16:15:00 EDT

I recently got into the consulting side of things, partly because of the practices of modern manufacturing companies. Those same companies have all got to the point where they have or are eliminating engineers over about the age of 50 (the most experienced and most highly paid), and they are replacing them with new grads who have no one to turn to for decades of depth and experience. Some companies have a lot of middle-aged engineers (they're all in their 40s), and no youth. In the former situation, who are the "kids" going to turn to? Additionally, many of us who spoke up about codes, standards, maintenance, and general good practice were often not seen as "team players" in keeping costs down, and those who are left can see that if they say anything they are out too. This is why the questions come up. The way business wants to get its engineering done is giving us a new
"heuristic" for how we approach our careers and how we approach our jobs.
Please understand that I have no hard feelings, I just see the "writing on the wall." I've been very successful. I just regret that business pays infinitely more attention to what a Wall Street analyst says and does than what their business is losing in in-house knowledge, expertise, and
"intellectual property". And, expect it to get worse (or for us in
consulting, better).

                       ... Bruce D. Bullough ...
                       Sebesta Blomberg & Associates
                       2381 Rosegate
                       P.O. Box 131750
                       Roseville, MN  55113
                       651/634-7344 - office
                       651/634-7400 - FAX

-----Original Message-----
From: J Chadwick [mailto:j.w.chadwick@btinternet.com] Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 12:13 PM
To: <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=i4IvX8s0I-wYqaotzvGJVkRBENLPs-akYDv72eqZ5RUsLDvcDNLs-HuBH3YHdgFpkHKWVRaD6vwQ1IBIi5hfjHVY1Tu6w5w">PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com</a> Subject: [PipingDesign] Just a thought

Whilst appreciating that one of the benefits of a group like this is to share knowledge and support others, if at all possible, I am becoming a little concerned at some of the requests for information and assistance.

Whilst no single piping engineer or designer can be an expert in everything, some of the information requested would seem to indicate that the organizations some of our members work for have absolutely no technical back up in terms of international, national or company standards. It also seems to indicate that there are no other more experienced engineers or designers within those organizations to whom these type of questions could asked in the first instance. If this is not so, presumably people are resorting to this before seeking the answer within their own organizations.

I'm not trying to restart the argument regarding manual drafting / cad. That has nothing to do with this. I am merely making the observation that many of the recent requests for help to this group ought to be answerable within the requesters own organizations.

Regards,

Jim Chadwick

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Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/</a> Received on Mon Jul 16 16:15:00 2001