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Am I going to be fired?



 
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LittleRusty
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 12647
Location: Gardena, Ca

PostPosted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 8:00 pm    Post subject: Am I going to be fired? Reply with quote

While responding to another thread in the horns forum I remembered this story y’all might enjoy.

I worked for the primary supplier of a hardware device back in the late 1990’s. I was part of the team that wrote the driver software that enabled the device to run on windows and later Unix. At the time I shared an office with a lady engineer who was part of the same team.

One of our OEM customers had a notebook they were bringing up into production and there were issues with our hardware communications with the bios and operating system.

The OEM building the computer is one that at the time had a name that consisted of three letters. They contracted the work out to a major ODM in the Far East.

Due to the issues there were nightly conference calls between the OEM, the ODM and our company to discuss progress and next steps. My office mate was assigned to fix the issue and was required on those calls.

One morning she came into the office and was very upset. It turns out that after yet another round of the ODM putting the blame on us, even though we had proof it was not our issue, my office mate lost her patience. During a pause in the meeting, with the phone on mute, my office mate unleashed a profanity laden tirade about why didn’t the ODM just fix the issue as it was clear to everyone on the call that it was their issue.

Well, the phone wasn’t on mute.

She was convinced she would be fired later that day.

Later that morning our customer liaison came into the office to discuss the call and the aftermath.

It turns out that the ODM was so embarrassed that they fixed the issue during their workday, our night, and the issue was now ready to be closed.

The sad thing is that even though the communications interface was one of the simplest and oldest in a PC, we continued to have similar issues with the ODM’s work over the fifteen years I worked for that company.
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BGinNJ
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Joined: 02 Mar 2010
Posts: 379

PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I work in engineering, too. It is sometimes amazing how much energy is put into fingerpointing and excuses, (or just passive avoidance), when a task or problem could just be dealt with.
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blbaumgarn
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Joined: 26 Jul 2017
Posts: 705

PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:29 pm    Post subject: Am I going to be fired? Reply with quote

Way back around 1970 after I quit college I worked in a factory and met this new plant manager we had who was late 30s very bright and all. He invited me to dinner with his family one evening and ( I was a lead person, so) we talked about some of the issues in the plant, though there weren't a bunch. He said there are only logistical problems and people problems. When you mention the finger pointing thing it made me think of how he would have handled it. He would have listened to all the sides, and there could be several, and then he would have paused and said, "Now, what is the real problem." People get into petty jealousies and accusations all too easily.
_________________
"There are two sides to a trumpeter's personality,
there is one that lives to lay waste to woodwinds and strings, leaving them lie blue and lifeless along a swath of destruction that is a
trumpeter's fury-then there is the dark side!" Irving Bush
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