Engineers Anonymous

I need to start a group for people out there who work in Engineering fields and have to work god awful hours. I have had to work 20-25 hours overtime every week for the last month or so, and I have been traveling for the last couple months. The project im working on should be done *hopefully* and I can start spending a little time at home. Its hard on my wife to have me not around (though I figure shed like it). We got married in June and about a third of that time I havnt been sleeping at home.

There any other people out there who get stuck traveling and working crazy hours? Im sure my story is not that uncommon. I find that a lot of homebrewers are actually engineers of some way shape or form.

I once had a job where the materials did arrive until a month after the project was due out .

We were subject to some compulsory overtime then ... and I wouldn't have minded doing the overtime normally ... but because it was forced overtime I was made to fit my life around work , when usually If there was overtime available and I had no plans I would stay anyway.

I've had jobs like that, trashed one relationship. The final straw was when I was coming back from three weeks in Memphis and got a page in the airport. Spent another 2 weeks in Green Bay. She was packing when I got home.

Well, in pushes for milestones 60+ hrs are typical. But when I hired in I told them "I am not traveling". Period. With a wife and 3 young children there was no way I am dealing with that. I also refuse to work weekends. See the trick that all bosses play is they get you to do something once and then it becomes the new standard. Eff that. What I do any time I get a spare moment at work is write more software to facilitate menial tasks. These not only accelerate my efficiency but that of everyone else that uses these programs.

david_42 said:

I've had jobs like that, trashed one relationship. The final straw was when I was coming back from three weeks in Memphis and got a page in the airport. Spent another 2 weeks in Green Bay. She was packing when I got home.

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Yikes. I'm hoping you were not married.

zoebisch01 said:

Well, in pushes for milestones 60+ hrs are typical. But when I hired in I told them "I am not traveling". Period. With a wife and 3 young children there was no way I am dealing with that. I also refuse to work weekends. See the trick that all bosses play is they get you to do something once and then it becomes the new standard. Eff that. What I do any time I get a spare moment at work is write more software to facilitate menial tasks. These not only accelerate my efficiency but that of everyone else that uses these programs.

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True. Boundaries need to be set. Making money is great and all, but if you never have any time to enjoy it, then it is not worth it.

The mandatory OT is BS and it happens a lot in engineering. I like the justification.

"Well we are paying you a lot of money to do what you do."

That might be the case, but I'm not your slave.

Anyone who thinks that your boss, company, etc... will remember the commitment you put in the past is a fool. Unfortunately you are only as good as what you did today. They will get rid of you at a time when it is convenient for them.

I know it sounds harsh, but it is the truth. I've seen it way too much.

Today I had to play presentation *****.. (in fact thats what im doing now)
I had to load up a truck with prototypes and presentation materials then drive 2 hours to our customers site, set them up and now the presentation is going. When its over I have to load the crap up .. drive it back.. then stay and work on my cad data until i get it completed.

The problem is, engineers tend to be "get the job done" type people, so we allow ourselves to be 'pushed' into putting in that overtime. Now, if you're being paid for the overtime, it's one thing. I've worked jobs (particularly in the auto industry) where 70+ hour work weeks were the norm for junior engineers, and they were 'exempt' employees, so no overtime pay. In my mind, that's unethical. Sure, I did it -- I wanted to move up.

I don't work in the auto industry anymore, and I'm down to less than 25% travel.

i'm a design engineer and they are always expecting us to work over. its a big deal to show up on the weekends now and then and put on a good face. i normally come into work 60-30 early everyday and stay late. then others would come in 8-5 and come in one weekend a month and i was told i need to come in on the weekends some. it really upset me, so i do it, but the weekend i work, i dont work any OT the week after.

njnear76 said:

Anyone who thinks that your boss, company, etc... will remember the commitment you put in the past is a fool. Unfortunately you are only as good as what you did today. They will get rid of you at a time when it is convenient for them.

I know it sounds harsh, but it is the truth. I've seen it way too much.

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I work for the Uni and it's a different mindset (thankfully). The flipside of the coin is that we get paid much less than industry. At this point though, the benefits still outweigh the negatives so I stay. Here, layoffs are extremely rare and getting fired is pretty much unheard of.

+1 on the "get it done" mentality. We are problem solvers, it is too easy to try and rope us in to extra work.

zoebisch01 said:

I work for the Uni and it's a different mindset (thankfully). The flipside of the coin is that we get paid much less than industry. At this point though, the benefits still outweigh the negatives so I stay. Here, layoffs are extremely rare and getting fired is pretty much unheard of.

+1 on the "get it done" mentality. We are problem solvers, it is too easy to try and rope us in to extra work.

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I think the problem is that industry is very cut-throat. You have to make sure that you don't appear threatening to your co-workers or your boss. I try to get along with everyone and do exactly what my boss wants.

Your boss controls your destiny and it's possible that one of your co-workers might move up. You don't want to get the ax, because of something petty you did years a go. Those guys who are always getting into arguments about how their way is the right way are on shaky ground.

njnear76 said:

I think the problem is that industry is very cut-throat. You have to make sure that you don't appear threatening to your co-workers or your boss. I try to get along with everyone and do exactly what my boss wants.

Your boss controls your destiny and it's possible that one of your co-workers might move up. You don't want to get the ax, because of something petty you did years a go. Those guys who are always getting into arguments about how their way is the right way are on shaky ground.

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Yeah I figured as much. I have always worked as an Engineer for the University. It's a totally different hierarchy.

I don't have an engineering degree but worked a "Service Engineer" (Field tech) traveling for 3 years. I still have the same title but do all my service work over the phone before dispatching the travelers and keeping the schedule for them. The traveling was fun and money was great right out of college. Had I been single I'd still be doing it, But I'd most likely still be single. But I am not. I am married and have a 3 month old. The last year of traveling was extremely depressing and I hated it and got pissed off everytime a trip came up, which was every week. Now I am bored to death talking to idiots on the phone 8-5 every day, but come 5 o'clock I go home. I can stay late and work overtime if I have something to do whenever I want, but it is never mandatory. I do stay on call for phone support 24/7 365 except vacation days, but get more than compensated for the actual 2-5 phone calls I get a month. I also get the same on call pay if I get no calls. So it's worth it to get up in the middle of the night every once in a while.

I have been a mechanical engineer in the water treatment business for over 25 years. Went through layoffs and company closings and dealt with all of the political stuff. After the last layoff I said "screw this ****!". Now I am an independent consultant and get paid for all of my hours: overtime and travel. I have been fortunate to be working for a company that is in the oil & gas industry for the last 5 years, and is looking at continual growth.

It is true...Luck is when opportunity meets the prepared mind.

njnear76 said:

True. Boundaries need to be set. Making money is great and all, but if you never have any time to enjoy it, then it is not worth it.

The mandatory OT is BS and it happens a lot in engineering. I like the justification.

"Well we are paying you a lot of money to do what you do."

That might be the case, but I'm not your slave.

Anyone who thinks that your boss, company, etc... will remember the commitment you put in the past is a fool. Unfortunately you are only as good as what you did today. They will get rid of you at a time when it is convenient for them.

I know it sounds harsh, but it is the truth. I've seen it way too much.

Click to expand...

This is so true. I was doing equipment installs out of town for several months, when the boss said we have to start working weekends.

The team was doing two identical installs one on site and the other about 5 hours away.

Apparently the guys with on site assignment where working weekends because the could/had to and thought its not fair nobody else is doing so.

I'm like WTF you mean we are away from our families all week working 12 hours a day an now you want us working on the weekend too. I was pissed. The Boss said yes. I said I'm still coming home Friday though. Basically, this meant I was going to come in only to eat donuts and drink coffee.

I thinking those GD winers need to think weekends (4 hours on sat) is better than 60hrs of work on the road. I think of them as big bunch of panty-wastes.

After the boss thought about it he recanted. I sure he got $hit from bunch of people.


9 years later, 5 more bosses... me much more mellow... I was laid off 12/1/08 a week before my son was born. Yes company don't give a $hit about employees. I was laid off under the table with a gag-order. Pella Corp wants to say we never lay anybody in the 83 years of doing business. Fricking Liars!!!!

I used to work in the aerospace industry. We would spends months sometimes doing nothing because we were waiting on components. But when they came it was known we would work our asses off to get back on schedule. I was pretty much single at the time and when you are working with a bunch of guys all making the sacrifice you get into a mindset of being part of the team or being a load on the others. My job now is similar, slow until something breaks then I could be here all night without notice only difference is I have a fiancée and I have gotten lazier since the old days, at least at work anyway.

Mirilis said:

I need to start a group for people out there who work in Engineering fields and have to work god awful hours. I have had to work 20-25 hours overtime every week for the last month or so, and I have been traveling for the last couple months. The project im working on should be done *hopefully* and I can start spending a little time at home. Its hard on my wife to have me not around (though I figure shed like it). We got married in June and about a third of that time I havnt been sleeping at home.

There any other people out there who get stuck traveling and working crazy hours? Im sure my story is not that uncommon. I find that a lot of homebrewers are actually engineers of some way shape or form.

Click to expand...

I travel 9+ months a year, usually a new place every couple of weeks. It sucks. I miss my wife, my house, and my homebrew. Once you get out of the rat-race mindset that "if I just work my ass off another two years I'll finally get that meager promotion" and start telling your bosses in no uncertain terms that weekends and nights are out of the question... your life gets a lot smoother.