Fuc*owski: the first Spanish Internet classic

[TrickyDicky]

Unless you read blogs, you may not have heard of the book, Fuc*owski (sorry about the series of stars which appeared when I previewed this post; maybe the system admin will find it in his heart to replace the missing letters in this case where no offence is intended): memorias de un ingeniero. However, 20minutos recently published an interview with the author (http://blogs.20minutos.es/ezcritor/post/2006/06/14/****************owski-memorias-un-ingeniero-), Alfredo de Hoces, so this new form of literature (on the Internet) has finally emerged into the old (on paper). The interview is translated on my page: Fuc*owski: recollections of an engineer (http://zenitservices.com/Translations/2006/****************owski.html). (The system has also messed up the URL, so try this instead: http://zenitservices.com/Images/TranslationsIndex.html and look for the arcticle.) I was also an IT engineer and what he writes rings true to me; much like the Dilbert cartoons (http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/). Of course, most of you will statistically be on the side of Management so you won't understand what the fuss is about. At the risk of starting a off-topic flame war (to which I promise not to participate), managers believe that management is a generic discipline: take a good manager from a car factory, put him or her into a food factory, and everything will be fine. Engineers know that a discipline requires years of effort to learn and to understand and a novice is unlikely to make such good decisions as someone knowledgeable in the field. Managers have the upper hand at the moment and have made the world of work into a stressful unpleasant experience for most of us.

[richardksa]

As an engineer recently promoted to management I was tempted to attempt to extinguish your flames. Then I sat back and thought about all the strangely incomprehensible methods I am learning (management has the cheek to call them "tools" as if metaphorically rolling up thier sleeves and doing a proper job of work!) and realised that what you said is true. They really do think management skills can be translated from one industry to another. What brought me round to this was the memory of the oil exploration firm I once worked for being taken over by an insurance company. Talk about chalk and cheese! ..... Total disaster. The oil firm went from a strong competitor in the field to eventually being sold off in bits and good men being thrown on the scrap heap.

Management can analyse results and point out that this and that need to be done, but without the experience in the industry, cannot actually tell the people on the floor how to do it. Luckily for those under me (well, I hope they think it's lucky!) I am still not far removed from the coalface and can suggest solutions to the day to day problems.

But those a couple of rungs above me have me pulling out my hair in despair. They claim they see "the bigger picture", but I feel that God is in the details they happily skim over. (-/rant-)

[TrickyDicky]

One of the most successful managers on the Computer era was Bill Gates of Microsoft and he was an engineer too. Mind you, you need a lot of other skills be head up most successful computer company in the world (so far).

[Jimmy]

Hey - do you know where I can download the eBook ?? - the Yoescribo site does not seem to work.

[Jimmy]

Ahh - no need to worry about it - the site works again !!!!!!!!!!!!:)

[greytop]

Great link to the translations site TrickyDicky - thanks.:thumbs-up:
As an ex engineer who eneded up in management (now thankfully retired) I feel the hairs on my neck twitching!
I think the main problem is that engineers like and can solve "hard" problems where things function & relate to each other in a known way. Managers have to learn about "soft" problems where people and external events keep getting in the way. I learnt a lot from some Open University courses on systems (in the broad sense, not just IT) and they gave me skills I was seriously lacking as an engineer. My company also gave us some good training in "people skills"
Looking back on it all I would probably also have benefitted from some in depth study of financial matters. All engineers want to build Rolls Royces and usually only have a budget for a Ford.
I agree too that takeovers by accountant led businesses can be disastrous - look at the decline in Vodafones fortunes largely caused by huge and expensive acquisitions. And they were staying within their own technical expertise. It will be interesting to see what effect a Spanish construction company has on British Airports Authority! They will undoubtedly get some lucrative building contracts and increase their core business value but how will the airports fare?

[gary]

Management can analyse results and point out that this and that need to be done, but without the experience in the industry, cannot actually tell the people on the floor how to do it.

Surely the job of the manager is to take the info from the analyst, get the engineer to author a solution then translate all of this wo the workforce in such a way as to optimise value for money.

In my own situation we have teaching staff and system engineers, historically the two groups dont speak the same language and have different optimum outputs for the same system

Teachers want their IT to educate and occupy their charges, set the work and mark it; engineers dont want anyone to use the system cos its perfectly set up and people will spoil it.

I have made a steady living by sitting with a foot in both camps, its amazing how often techies will say not possible when they mean not easy!

[richardksa]

Surely the job of the manager is to take the info from the analyst, get the engineer to author a solution then translate all of this to the workforce in such a way as to optimise value for money.

In a perfect world! What seems to happen is the the techies look to the practical and management to the profitable. In Utopia the practices should bring in the profits. But to take a very recent example: We have a huge expenditure on tyres and my bosses told us to make do and mend. ie, postpone any new purchases. This coincided with us moving from an area of soft sand to one strewn with horrendously sharp rocks. We went from an average of .25 punctures a day to 11, peaking one day to 17. So I had mechanics ordering tyres, which I passed on, knowing they were necessary, while those who knew better in our head office cancelled all the orders.

In frustration I sent in a batch of digital pics of torn tyres with an order for large wooden blocks to stand our trucks on. The next day I got the tyres! It boiled down to: no tyres - no moving vehices - no work - no revenue. My lowly (they'll kill me for that) mechanics knew that, I knew that. Why couldn't management? There seems to be a reality blindness in management that stems from accountants behind their high desks scribbling away with their quill pens while those that actually earn the money just get on with it.

I'm in the middle. Anyone want my job?

[gary]

I remember that before Easter about 8 or 9 years ago we had our new computers delivered - government issue NGfL - but we couldnt order pencils til the new financial year - liond led by donkeys.....

[richardksa]

Ah! You're supposing leadership. A fatal error.:rolleyes:

[gary]

Ah! You're supposing leadership. A fatal error.:rolleyes:

touché!

[Brian]

I'm in the middle. Anyone want my job?

It's the same everywhere.

[gary]

It's the same everywhere.

I beleive its called the Peter principle - they are keen to get on, get promoted to the point where they cant cope and stay there for the rest of their career screwing it up for the rest of us - how many of them do you know?

[greytop]

I beleive its called the Peter principle - they are keen to get on, get promoted to the point where they cant cope and stay there for the rest of their career screwing it up for the rest of us - how many of them do you know?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle
Everyone is promoted to his/her level of competency and then one level more.
(IMHO The modern twist is that they then "reorganise" and make redundant anyone who is threatening their expense accounts.)
I remember reading the original paperback in the 70s and have seen many examples since - probably including myself although that was for others to judge.
Bunch of cynics are we not.

[gary]

Bunch of cynics are we not.


cynic = what an idealist calls a pragmatist!

[richardksa]

Bunch of cynics are we not.

Intelligent people often are. And I prefer cynicsm to banging my head against a wall. It hurts less.

[gary]

Intelligent people often are. And I prefer cynicsm to banging my head against a wall. It hurts less.

....our Spanish might not be the best but we do seem to speak the same language in many respects. Im glad Im not the only old cynic in the world...

The best bit is always when the new, brigt spark arrives ,keen as mustart out of university or training, armed with a fixall solution... usually the same one that has been recycled about three times over the last 20 years... you explain the pitfalls and exactly where it will fall down... you are told you should have fait.. the system starts well as always and falls to bits because it was crap anyway and the bright spark has insufficient people skills to take folk the extra mile... the bright spark falls to bits and goes on long term sick and leaves everyone to pick up their share of his crap so making him defunct then puts in a clainm for constructive dismissal , the new bright spark arrives.....and so on...

I used to get quite upset about it as a younger man - now I treat it as a travelling sideshow passing by... if theyre going to shit on you you mght as well find it funny!!

[richardksa]

But why does the new bright spark never believe the old experienced hands? Because the theory sounds promising. However, to an extent I am fortunate that my industry, the oil business, is very "hands on" and until recently, a meritocracy. Employees were judged on what they did, not on what they claimed to know. But in order to see what they did everyone was given the chance to prove themselves. That's when the bright sparks fell by the wayside and those prepared to get down and dirty rose to the top. Of course if you were a bright spark and prepared to work, you rose very quickly......... Then the accountants came in at the top.

But now we have a new problem. It's called "Saudisation". The Saudi Government has decreed that companies must employ more nationals, who will be favoured over foreign workers. But it is not considered good policy for the remaining foreign workers to be higher up the totem pole than Saudis. So now we have to hire workers who know nothing, yet are arrogant (it's a Saudi trait) enough to think they know it all, and put them on the same level as men with years of experience. How's that for sowing the seeds of general discontent? So now we have ignorance at all levels.

I am generalising a bit. We do actually have some very good locals, but they are a minority. The rest are passengers who let lesser paid men do their work. The company joke is, "How many people work in head office? About ten per cent".