I like my job

[fbhjr]

My job is pretty busy, and I am under a good bit of pressure to get stuff done quickly.
But, over all I still like it very much.
This week had a good example of why.

I was sitting at my desk when one of the other engineers said he had a question about which way something should be done. All six of us pulled up our chairs to the table in the center of our area. We talked about the problem, the pros and cons of each choice open to us and decided which would probably be the best way to go for the system.
The engineer who had started with the question had done a lot of work into which of the two ways would be best to use and wanted to make sure the one he liked best was going to work for the other systems in the unit.
The conversation took place outside of my boss’ office, who heard it all, but did not feel the need to interrupt or “control” where we were going with the design.
When done, we all rolled our chairs back to our desks and got back to what we were doing.
The whole thing took about 10 minutes, but determined the main drive train of the 18 meter long system.

I’m not sure I can get across how great that was.
Half a dozen engineers sharing ideas where no one had a particular axe to grind or motive for “their way” to win. Just deciding which option would work best for us all so we could all get back to work on our parts of the system.

The job is not always like that. But, I’ve worked at several places where it is NEVER like that. And, at this place it happens fairly often.
And, that’s really cool.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear it.

My place is not like that. Getting "heads together" to work on big projects et al, usually involves pissing contests and ego trips and "I'm better than you cause I spend time under the VP's desk" or "I'm so much better than you because I stand on my self-made pedestal and look down on you peons cause I'm Da Boss"
...too many bitter, dissatisfied people. I know I [can be] one of them...I try not to, I try to be numb and just get work done.

but, at the same time, when they come to me and say "can you print it?" I am dead-beat honest (about how long it'd take), but will usually figure out something and say yes. Most other times I get hit with a laundry list of things that need printing in the morning, usually followed by a "OMG! We're gonna DIE if this doesn't get done TODAY", and then I usually end up getting all of that done by the end of the day, sometimes with 30 minutes left of asking "what else needs to be done?" and they say "uhhhhhh"

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

Quality workplace interaction is something I think some people take for granted. Having worked in one TRULY toxic work environment that literally broke my brain and changed my entire career path has helped me appreciate that more than I thought possible. You are very lucky to have that!

[cissa.livejournal.com]

That is excellent. :)