The Engineer & the Manager
Woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below.
She descended a bit more and shouted:'Excuse me, can you help me?
I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don't know where I am.'
The man below replied, 'You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground.. You're 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 man, 'how did you know?'
'Well,' answered the balloonist, 'everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip by your talk.'
The man below responded, 'You must be in Management.'
'I am,' replied the balloonist, 'but how did you know?'
'Well,' said the man, 'you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've 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.'
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Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!
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That is exactly why this engineer is self employed. But trust me, being the engineer/owner/manager does create some internal battles to resolve; but it helps to see things from both sides of the fence. Recently working with another engineer of a huge corporation, who stated that it seems engineers who are promoted into management appear to be required to give up some brain cells and common sense in the process; obviously his view from his side of the fence.
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I didn't have any problems in management, simply learned what the customer wanted, and if practical, designed and gave it to him and got some very nice large orders. If impractical, after looking into it, said it wasn't practical, and the reasons why. Have to find something else that was. Major problem was cheap imports from Japan, our government was paying them 10 cents on every buck that imported to us. And that same damned government with the IRS, ERA, OHSA, DNR, DOT, and EPA was giving us pure hell. They had no concept about having to make a profit to stay alive, then only thing all those stupid bastards knew, if they needed more money, all they had to do was to raise taxes.
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