It's been a while, so I guess it's time to bitch about work again.

Yes, this is a rant.

And yes, it's an engineering type post. 

Everyone in our department is to be treated equally.  Company and union policy and all that bovine feces.  Except that we aren't.  Certain people are repeatedly ignored by the (mis)managers.  I should really know better than to attempt to do my job well.

A few weeks ago it was announced that due to budget cuts, the funding for smoke would have to be eliminated, and henceforth, the operations would rely entirely on mirrors.  What's a manager to do?  They don't understand any of the systems.  So they turn to the engineers and ask, "hey, what should we do about this to make it work, while not using any smoke, and cutting our expenses by X %?"

None of the engineers knew.  So I decided to research this.  Now, I'm JUST an engineer, not a "sr engineer", so this was technically not my responsibility.  But I did it anyway.  I've added it up, and I've spent just over 21,000 hours taking care of my facility, not including overtime.  Regardless of what the (mis)managers think, I feel that I am the employee most familiar with the facility.  I'm THE engineer that works there day to day.  There is no other staff unless I request help.

So I called in some very smart people to help me.  One of the guys is the engineer that actually MAKES the component in question.  The component that costs $45,000 to replace when the magic smoke gets let out.  He's the one that knows the specs, tests them in the factory before they shipped to the field, troubleshoots the oddball problems.  He's THE GUY.

The other guy is a contractor for the manufacturer, and also contracts for a lot of other companies in the field.  He knows his stuff.  They basically gave me a plan that matched what I had already determined after researching the product and reading the spec sheets.  Gee, I bet they print those spec sheets just for fun.  Apparently Nobody reads them.

So I emailed my plan to management and the rest of the engineering team.  And I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No one said a word.  Not a single reply.  Nothing.  My plan was completely ignored by everyone in the company.

How can a 36 year old engineer that's ONLY been working there for 11 years have a clue?  He can't understand the problem.  And who are these people he asked?  We don't know them, so they must not know anything either.

Finally today a new plan came out from (mis)management.  Spend a shit load of money to build this and this.  And then do this.  But they are wrong.  Dead wrong.  They got their plan from the manufacturer of the system.

So, let me get this straight, the main problem involved NOT letting the magic smoke out of a $45,000 component of the main system.  So we ask the system maker, not the maker of the component?  The system maker had not dealt with this issue before (and still hasn't until we test it for them), but we will listen to them instead of the component maker?  Does this make any damned sense?

That's like buying a car from a company that purchases the engine from another manufacturer.  Then having the car company tell you it can burn any fuel you put in it.  Even though the engine was designed for gasoline and says so right in the spec sheets.  Nevermind what the engineer that designed the engine says.

I don't know where I'm going with this, or why I'm bothering you with any of it.  It just pisses me off that once again, I'm being ignored, and will be doing a dead-end job to "fix" the problem when the problem is easily fixable by just doing what the maker says to do.

I'd say that I hope it blows up in their face and costs them a lot of money, but they are already going to have to fire several people due to the budget cuts.  If we wreck all our equipment that just means even more people lose their jobs because they won't stop and at least consider my plan. 

I'm debating whether I need to email my bosses boss a copy of the plan since he didn't see it the first time. 

The joys of working for an organization that has no real leadership, and refuses to listen to employees in a lower pay grade, especially when they might be right.