Your Hard Worked Design Taken Away From You?

Yup, I'm with you, it's not the 'done thing' ... but if your Boss does it, just make a mental note to cover your backside and maybe start checking the job ad's.

It's happened to me ... we were having EMC probs on a design...my boss asked a consultant who he'd used before to critique it. I wasn't amused...needless to say the consultant had loads of criticisms, but failed to find the real fault which surfaced later. (Negative spikes getting through the power supply and causing the processor to reset)
I did however learn what I could from the criticism...it's a foolish man who isn't willing to learn.

Del

I did however learn what I could from the criticism...it's a foolish man who isn't willing to learn.

very good advice

Hi Del the cat;

Thank you for sharing your experience. This I learn from as I am only new in the field for about 2 and half years, and sometimes things like this really put me off. working in technical engineering fields is sometimes a tough call.

As others have given advices and shared their experiecnes, I thank you once again...thank you.

Hi Ron

You should try building your own company or business. Paternalistic employers do not deserve your dedication and creativity. To take away from you a design and forward it to other people without your consent is an act of high treason, and you have no obligation to accept this attitude.

Jaime Soto Figueroa

Chile

To take away from you a design and forward it to other people without your consent is an act of high treason,

I would not go as far as high treason. But having a third party review it may not be all bad. No one likes a slap in the face. But if its a good idea but unconventional.

But be more open about it.

One more thing, you may be the author of the design, but the company still owns it.

Hi Phoenix911,

Thank you for your good advices.

I do understand the like of being open in such issues, but the design was at rough work status and not yet to the likely best for validation considerations. To which I was not happy with it being taken without my consent.

Yes, I agree and like what you sad;

One more thing, you may be the author of the design, but the company still owns it.

I guess that working for a state owned company of the former Soviet Union was like this, the boss, most probably a powerful communist militant, had the power to intimidate any employee and use the creativity of them to escalate new positions in the collectivistic hierarchy.

Ron, try to have your own company, even if it is a small one, remember the case of Steven Jobs, he started in a garage. It is better to have a small business than being part of a communist like company, where all what you invent belongs to the "soviet state". The failure of communism was precisely the lack of personal incentives.

Personal incentives are the most powerful motor of the world, and the only motor of the world.

Jaime Soto Figueroa

Chile

Good answer "North of 60"

The management sometimes needs some reassurance and the designers don't like their work being questioned without consent. The real issue is the management should be openly discussing the review with the designer. The designer, However hard it can be at times, should welcome the review and try to learn as much as possible from the process. The designer should have the opportunity to sit with the reviewer and discuss the results. Sometimes sit with before to discuss the design approach.

I have sat on both sides of that fence.

As have I, and I do so at the present. People can get a tad warm sometimes when you point out the code issues in their projects. Sometimes, no matter how good a communicator one is, the process of regulatory review of a design can be a rather onerous process for both designer and regulator.

I have had some interesting arguments. Literally back and fourth 4 and 5 times before a section of a project was code compliant.

Its truly amazing the number of "professionals" that have a relatively weak grasp on some of the codes and standards in use in our industry. I've had some interesting arguments, people often times do not want to change their designs to be compliant. Pretty much a waste of time all around.

Hi North of 60;

Thank you for sharing you experience. It gives me the understanding of the type of scenario I may go through with the validation and regulatory issues of such engineering designs.

Techies are passionate, or at least the good ones are, about the job they do and about the technologies they "own" or are responsible for.

I agree, they take thier work personal as a represenative of themselves, thier work is thier baby.

That may be an opinion but it deserves a good answer

Hi North of 60,

Thank you for your advices and thoughts.

The design is pretty critical as it is for a new Power Factor Correction (P.F.C) Unit. Our P.F.C unit went into flame, that while waiting for local contractors to provide a design and costings for a new unit, I did a design which I considered as an estimated rough work yet to be improved before any validation is done by third parties or consultancies. Why estimated rough work; I'm still waiting for a local contractor which I've engaged who did power analysis measurement on our system, that they will provide their report on. They also have yet to do measurement on the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) on our system voltage. I was thinking having these data I may then confirm on the required capacitor and detuning reactors with appropriate kVARs, tuning frequencies and tuning order. From then the design may be complete as compared to it's current state where some data are yet to be established. The target P.F is 0.98 from an average of 0.80. Even the tuning frequency and order of current detune reactors are not none, and it's insulation was damaged from the fire. Additionally, I was also thinking of posting some of my queries on CR4 after compiling the unknown data.

Since we requested local contractors to provide a design and costings, we have not had any favourable response from them. As I was hoping for them to, so that my complete work (will be a guide) to assist in assuring that they are doing a top job.

However, things did not turn out as I planned, and have adviced my bosses of.

Hi Ron

Read in this link

http://wireless.sys-con.com/node/604962 - sorry, link no longer available

the article titled

"Web 2.0 Journal Special:

Top-Down and Bottom-Up

Project Management"

This article explains clearly how are being managed new tech companies.

In the past the dominant structure was collectivistic.

In collectivistic societies and companies, the personal characteristic of the individual were ignored, and even mutilated, to force the individual to fit exactly within the hierarchy ladder, and the potential value of collectivistic teams was proportional the sum of the individual potentials.

But recently the society and the companies are becoming synergic rather than collectivistic.

In Synergic societies and companies the individual is valued and celebrated upon the specific novelty of his/her abilities, culture, initiative, goodness and knowledge, and the potential value of a team is rather proportional to the multiplication of individual potentials.

You are not obligated to fit in any collectivistic structure; you have the right to develop all your personality and values without any restrictions, and to develop your own business.

Regards

Jaime Soto Figueroa

Chile

Hi CR4 Members;

Thank you all for sharing you experiences and giving advices on the subject. You have greatly assisted me to veiw the subject in a more open direction, with respect to business and the engineering regulatory views.

Thank you so much good friends.