Engineers / Managers - What would you do?
 

One of the engineers in my office is creating drawings and releasing them with my name as the creator. This guy is a moron, so most of these drawings have errors. So far there haven't been any serious problems, but I figure it's only a matter of time before some serious rework is incurred due to these incorrect drawings, and I get fingered because my name is in the title block.

Obviously I would like this to stop, as it is both unethical and bad for my reputation.

My question is, how would you handle the situation if you were me, and how would you handle such a situation if you were my manager?

The engineer needs to take credit for his work. If you are a PE and the other engineer is not I could see serious problems for you.

I would mention it to mymanager to make sure he is there to back me and is not blind sided by this behavior.

Yes, this needs to be addressed ASAP for the reasons stated above. Where I work, our title block is populated by the PLM system and has to have digital signatures due to the regs we work under. I know this is an aside but maybe your company needs to move in this direction.

As far as the employee goes, where I work, that is grounds for firing.

James

Immediately take this to management and raise Hell.

Ask the guy why he's doing that and if the reason isn't acceptable, tell him to stop. If he doesn't, bring it to your manager.
If I were your manager, I'd ask him the same question.

Oh HELL NO! This has all kinds of negative repecussions! Not to mention the fact that should your company do nothing that whatever would get laid on you as bad data/performance is most likely actionable in the courts.

I'd be Indian Pissed on this...

Here is what you do.

Go to his desk and say..." stop putting my name on your drawings"

If he contiues go to your manager and say..." Moron keeps putting my name on his drawings"

As you leave the managers reminds you to put a cover sheet on your TPS reports.

Maybe he's just reusing the base file which has you info in the title block. Just go talk to him and ask him not to do it. No need to escalate the matter. I would casually mention it to your supervisor so that you are covered while not create a big problem for the other guy or you firm.

What Souk said, but do this using email. You want a record.

I'm an engineering manager. If the reason for doing this was anything other than an innocent mistake (like Souk's scenario), I would put that employee on notice that continuing to do this may lead to him/her joining the ranks of the unemployed.

Ask him to step outside.....

I would send off an e-mail to him and CC his manager and yours, instructing him to stop this fraudulent practice and include a read-reciept for all parties.
I say use an e-mail so that you have it in WRITING!

Save it, print it off, forward a copy to your home computer.
Above all else, cover your butt and don't let others have an opportunity to throw you under a bus.

If this were happening in my group, I'd want to know about it asap.
Using an existing drawing as a template and creating a new one with no attention paid to title block is no excuse.

Get the guy in contact with your manager and have the situation documented. Unfortunately, once an inept designer or engineer becomes "accepted" within an organization- it is extremely difficult to get rid of them.

Good luck.

How do any of these drawings get through an Engineering Document Review cycle without comment?

There must be a reason. If you are not his manager, did you train him? Are you his technical leader? Or were you the one who create document/formfor your group? Maybe he is using one of your templates? Ask him and mention this to your manager.

Sleep with his wife

And then?

I'll have to hear how it goes first :)

But seriously, is there more to this story? I know lots of firms that use "underlings" to do the actual work and require the signature of a certified higher up to actually submit it. Is this the case? Are they asking you to review his work prior to release?

I suggest you do a combination of the above suggestions:

1) Ask him to step outside
2) Sleep with his wife
3) Tell him to stop
4) Last but not least, follow Sammy's suggestion precisely then,
5) Sleep with his sister.

Pics of the sister please?

Doesn't someone sign the drawings? I expect it is lazy re-use of another drawnig as a template. But I would definitely speak with him and get the drawings that he's done corrected to remove your name. I would definitely let your supervisior know what is going on.

Kill his dog.

Steal his pickup truck....Wait, this is sounding like a country song....

Produce the most fubared drawings known to man, put his name in the title block, drop it on his desk.

I'm assuming the drawings are electronic, AutoCad or similar. The first signatures on these document are "wet" signatures, how can he sign your name?

It's common practice at engineering sweat shops for drawings to be produced in space and then they all get assigned a border file which would include the title block. Drafters then modify to get the right drawing name and number including any other information.

The lack of details in the PO makes it seem like there is malice involved, but before he goes out and sleeps with his wife's dog's sister in his pickup truck he should be professional and calm in his approach.

Managers have a difficult enough time with personnel. Let them decide how to handle it if it needs to be done on a supervisor level.

Simplest solution, find the original of the title block and/r border being used and remove your name.

However, as a former engineering manager...those drawings should be being "checked by" someone and they should be addressing the "drawn by" AND be responsible for any other errors.

This is basically what's happening. What bothers me is that he is changing titles, projects, etc in the title block, and yet he is neglecting to remove my name.

No. Our document control system is embarrassing.

My manager will just try to smooth this over. I want to have a reasonable demand when I present the issue to him.

What CAD software are you using? It's pretty easy to implement templates with title blocks that are driven by metadata.

Cheers, James

Really, I would approach the guy first and let him know you don't want him to do it anymore and that you will fire off an e-mail to your super that there was a problem and your resolved it and you just want him to be aware of it. Obviously that is your CYA item.

We don't know the dynamics of relationship to this guy nor how your company is run, but you may gain more in the long run to approach this with a cool head.

Autocad. I use templates that were created before I started working here in '06.

I have no idea how to do that stuff. Any idea where to look for a tutorial on that sort of thing?

Honestly I hate the guy's guts and would love little more than to see him get canned. But I will probably talk to him about it before going to management.

Kill'em softly....

Or, maybe he has learned the hard way that 'other persons at a later date' have modified (f'd up) his signed work without his knowledge, so he doesn't want his name on them.

Been known to happen

Profit!

Talk to him to address the immediate issue.

Talk to management to figure out what business process needs to be put in place so this doesn't happen again. If its happening with your name, its likely happening with others.

He -is- an idiot. The sooner you accept that the better off you'll be. If you can't fire him, find someone who can.

Park in his parking space.

Schedule a meeting with the "Bobs".

Are you stamping them?

Probably not.

If not, you have something in your court to show that you are not certifying that the drawings are being prepared as instruments of professional service under your responsible control. So any attempt to implicate you LEGALLY for any E&O on them is questionable at best and could probably be contested pretty easily. HOWEVER, I understand that this has to be irritating and probably you're more concerned with damage to reputation and having to field all the "WTF is this" phone calls.

If the guy is on my staff, I would tell him point blank if he's putting my initials or name in the title block (under "checked by" or "prepared by" or whatever, not "drafted by" or "drafter") then the drawings need to be submitted directly to me in advance of any deadline to be reviewed/QC-ed prior to any issuance to a third party (client, AHJ, whatever). First time he does this, red mark the shat out of it and kick it back to him. I guarantee his work will improve as it will "call him out" on his sloppiness. The obvious downside is it creates more work for you.

If the guy is NOT on my staff, I'd have a conversation with his manager immediately about this - bring several specific examples of sheets with errors/omissions along (highlight the mistakes) and demand that either he or someone on his staff QC this stuff better and certainly NOT use my name/initials on the sheets. If they insist that you have your name on the sheets for whatever reason (maybe you're the only licensed guy in the office?) then as a matter of professionalism you absolutely NEED to review those drawings before they go out - their production schedules need to build in necessary time to accommodate that - none of this "well, we couldn't wait for you to look at them so we just sent them out". I'd raise hell about it if that's the case.

If you're actually stamping the drawings, you're in a potential world of hurt. I seriously hope that's not the case. Anything stamped by you MUST be produced under your responsible control (that term has a very precise definition, usually in your state's laws governing professional services). Basically if you stamp it, you own it - doesn't matter whose initials are on it.

Best of luck. Don't let this one lie but don't blow it out of proportion either. Defend your reputation and don't let anyone else besmirch it - unintentionally or otherwise. And if possible try to turn it into a positive experience for the drafting guy (yes, red-marking the heck out of a set will cause friction, but he'll learn from it and it'll make him better).

His wife's pic is below. Now, what's next?

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/images/thumbn...8bfef39d5b833c