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Millstoning in Electronics?
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Faringdon:
Crikey we were virtually strapped to each other lasoo style.....i am surprised they didnt want  him in the toilet with me.....it was literally..."we want to clone our EE"
Nominal Animal:

--- Quote from: Faringdon on February 22, 2023, 11:38:28 am ---At this one place, many years ago....they literally handcuffed a newly qualified engineer to me, and told me to go through a power supply design with him......and only advance the design at his pace of understanding and no faster, and also garantee to the customer that it could be done within 4 weeks from scratch to finished PCB and BOM  and schem.
--- End quote ---
Literally?  You were in prison?  Otherwise that would be quite illegal in most places in the Western world.
Are you sure you did not just misunderstand the "at his pace of understanding and no faster" part?

If the junior was present, managers often say things like that out of social pressure, without actually meaning it.

The correct approach, in my opinion, is to calmly explain to the manager that those requirements are in conflict, and cannot be achieved at the same time, and ask for which comes first: customer deadline, or the junior's understanding.

Now, to do this, this also requires social skills.  Manipulative managers often say "both, just deal with it", because they already know the project will fail, and just need a scapegoat to blame and fire.  For the same reason, they will refuse to give any such orders in writing, i.e. email or such.  So, one needs to be able to provide a simple but useful argument when presented with such.

It is crucial to report to ones manager immediately when you detect a conflict in your orders/directives, in email (so that you retain a verifiable copy of the mail), even if already discussed face-to-face (as a reminder of your understanding of their directives), warning them of the consequences if the conflict is not resolved.  In your particular case, that the junior is so slow the four week deadline cannot be met.

This requires clear and concise communications, one to three lines per order max.  This can be achieved via practice.  Find a friend, pick conflict situations, and do exercise emails to resolve the conflict.  The target is always to 1) make sure the manager knows the effects of their decisions, and 2) that you have both that and the manager's order in writing.

If the manager objects to such emails, tell them you require them to track priorities and orders, and start looking for a new job immediately.
Managers who object to their orders being recorded are the ones who will throw you off the cliff whenever they feel it might benefit themselves.

While many think of your (Faringdon's) posts as trolling due to their repeated themes, I think it has more to do with your personality traits, specifically high agreeableness (and to a minor extent, neuroticism) –– these are personality traits, not flaws or faults! –– (and confrontation avoidance) which is somewhat rarer in technically oriented people (and more common in socially oriented people), making you easily manipulated by socially adept managers who find you easily exploitable and manipulable.
High agreeableness basically means that your first instinct in the abovementioned situations with a manager is never to oppose or escalate the conflict, but to go with the flow instead.

I am not agreeable (quite opposite ::)), but I am easily socially manipulable, because I want to fix things and make them better; I am easily diverted by presenting problems that ostensibly others have failed to solve.  So, I can see how easily a socially inept/not-proficient highly agreeable, easily socially manipulated person might find themselves repeatedly in the situations you have described, without recognizing the pattern (it being inherently social and not technical one).  If this is the case, I would seriously consider assertiveness training, and possibly cognitive-behavioural therapy (with a therapist specialized in workplace dynamics) to examine how these situations have repeated, and what you can do to avoid them in the future.  After all, such therapy is nothing weirder than learning a new language –– this time, a situational social awareness and reactions to specific patterns –– and observational skills to detect situations and react to them positively with prepared and pre-rehearsed, clear patterns to resolve the situation.
tggzzz:

--- Quote from: Faringdon on February 22, 2023, 11:59:25 am ---Crikey we were virtually strapped to each other lasoo style.....i am surprised they didnt want  him in the toilet with me.....it was literally..."we want to clone our EE"

--- End quote ---

So, no, you weren't "literally handcuffed" to the new engineer, viz:


--- Quote from: tggzzz on February 22, 2023, 11:57:35 am ---
--- Quote from: Faringdon on February 22, 2023, 11:38:28 am ---At this one place, many years ago....they literally handcuffed a newly qualified engineer to me, and told me to go through a power supply design with him......

--- End quote ---

Was it his left wrist to your right wrist, or vice versa?

--- End quote ---
pcprogrammer:

--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 22, 2023, 12:15:00 pm ---Literally?  You were in prison?  Otherwise that would be quite legal in most places in the Western world.

--- End quote ---

I think you missed the "il"  :-DD

Fixed it for you.


--- Quote ---Literally?  You were in prison? Working for the police?  Otherwise that would be quite illegal in most places in the Western world.
--- End quote ---
pcprogrammer:

--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 22, 2023, 12:15:00 pm ---........

--- End quote ---

Keep in mind that some rather silly and odd questions have been asked by the entity named Faringdon, so I would certainly take everything the entity writes with a huge grain of salt.

Think back of thievable scopes, spraying wooden floors wet to overcome ESD, etc.
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