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David Wilson
Wilson’s world
David Wilson is editor of Engineeringtalk and Electronicstalk and associate editor of The Engineer
The mysterious case of the disappearing Jack
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Jack Robinson was one of the most valued members of staff at the Small to Medium Sized engineering company.
Not only was he a very industrious chap, but all his work was meticulous and he often finished well ahead of deadlines set by management.
Sadly, however, almost as a direct consequence of his professional approach to his work, the rest of his colleagues on the engineering team had come to take him for granted.
So when he decided to take a well-deserved two-week vacation, his engineering team-mates paid little attention when he explained to them that he had left a list of telephone numbers, where he could be reached in case any unforeseen emergency arose during his absence, in the top drawer of his desk.
Naturally enough, during the course of his holiday, several such emergencies did occur. Notably, two of the company’s major customers experienced some critical software issues with the machines that they had been shipped by the SME. To make matters worse, Robinson was the only engineer at the company with the knowledge to resolve them.
The manager of the engineering company tried desperately hard to contact Robinson at home but to no avail. And when he asked other members of the staff if they knew the whereabouts of the prized engineer, none of them remembered the conversation that Robinson had had with them prior to his departure regarding the list of telephone numbers.
Upon returning from his holiday, the conscientious Robinson was immediately called into the office of the engineering manager, who demanded to know why Robinson had been uncontactable.
Robinson sat silently as the manager angrily explained the numerous software problems that had arisen at the company’s customers and how Robinson’s lack of availability may have cost the company several lucrative contracts.
After the manager’s rant was over, Robinson returned to his desk, whereupon he removed the contact details and returned to his manager’s office. Placing the list of on the manager’s desk, he explained that he had indeed informed the other members of the team of the whereabouts of the document prior to his departure in case any adverse events arose during his absence.
After receiving a lengthy apology from the red-faced manager, Robinson went back to his desk to work. There, he watched in silent amusement as his colleagues were themselves called — one by one — into the same manager’s office to answer for their incompetence.
David Wilson
The Wilson’s world blog also forms part of the Engineeringtalk, Electronicstalk and Manufacturingtalk newsletters. To subscribe, go here for Engineeringtalk, here for Electronicstalk and here for Manufacturingtalk
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Readers' comments (14)
Geof I | 3 Mar 2011 11:40 am
I wonder how many companies have personnel with this level of responsibility. I know ours does. It has often been a thought of mine that while some engineers are vital to a business, how short sighted it is. Holidays can be planned and accomodated for, illnesses, accidents, could leave companies severly in the mire when key personnel would be uncontactable.
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Rick | 3 Mar 2011 11:51 am
Ah, but if it were only a fictional story...
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paul lambert | 3 Mar 2011 11:53 am
It was the fault of his manager not his colleagues.
The situation has been allowed to develop over time, and the possibility of problems arising from Robinson's absence should have been noted and acted upon by his manager, who should have put in place systems to deal with this eventuality.
Imagine if Robinson had never returned, maybe he got run over by a bus. Then where would the company be ?
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Chris Graham | 3 Mar 2011 11:57 am
Very Cute. Exactly the sorts of scenarios I have imagined for myself when i have felt like I have some cruisers. But in reality it was not proactive enough to have just told them when he seems to have full well known what was going to happen. This is exactly what email is for, CC the manager and check in at least once.
I suspect Robinson has almost participated in setting himself up as indispensible. This is easy to do unconciously and we all have to watch our own motives when we work with users.
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Anonymous | 3 Mar 2011 2:38 pm
There's a bigger issue of poor quality control on the software. Where was the Petri Net check or the final validation checks on their product?
Plus, Jack's not that innocent. He could have left the details on his desk instead of hiding them in a drawer, or as most normal people do, add them to the Outlook Out-of-office message. But any manager worth his salt would have a list of contact numbers for his employees' mobiles anyway.
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Chris Johnson | 3 Mar 2011 5:07 pm
So Engineers aren't permitted to take holidays camping in remote parts ie out of reach of the mobile? I'm in the wrong career then!
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Anonymous | 3 Mar 2011 5:16 pm
I have never understood why people don't just leave their phone at home, especially if it is a work supplied phone. Altenatively, turn the thing off. Being uncontactable is not a crime when you are on leave.
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Anonymous | 3 Mar 2011 8:15 pm
I have absolutely no sympathy for the manager - he's there to manage the team. Firstly, he allows the situation to develop where there is key person with no back up, secondly, even then he obviously doesn't run a team environment where the potential problem would have been identified and addressed by the team prior to Jack's holiday. Unfortunately the manager's reaction was all too common - finding someone else to blame for his own shortcomings
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Ian Boyes | 3 Mar 2011 9:11 pm
Why has the company put itself in the position that one employee is the only person with this knowledge. Surely the company has a duty of care to set up software support and document everything in a central location. Never mind the holiday, where will the company be if he gets hit by the hypothetical bus!
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Anonymous | 4 Mar 2011 2:54 pm
This more or less what happened to me last year.
You first tell everybody that you're going on a short holiday. The answer is: no problem as long as your work is done. (reminder: if you're finished with your work there's always something new popping up, ex equo, you're never finished)
I told them they could call, or even send e-mail.
1,5 week later: my boss was upset because I left work unfinished. Production couldn't continue because they missed vital information.
After checking: they missed 1 dimension on a drawing. We have 10 engineers...... nobody was capable of opening that file and check the dimension? Yes they could, but nobody bothered to ask somebody?
Why: it was more convenient to let it stall and blame me afterwards for lousy work and non availability. I must admit that I considered telling my boss I would find another job if this was the level of professionalism.
Wonder what will happen this year? When I go on parental leave for 10 weeks. (We live in Norway)
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