The engineer’s
work environment is not what it used to be.
Many who began their careers in the mid-20th
century did not work from a cubicle and none
had a computer workstation. If they had a
desk, it was often shared. In the case of
U.S. engineers, they had little or no
contact with the vendors, customers or other
engineers outside the United States.
A typical R&D
engineer would have had his (yes, I regret
to say, his) own workbench, maybe six
to eight feet long, with a backboard having
a shelf or two to support parts catalogs and
test equipment needed for his current
project. On the bench would be spools of
color-coded wire and rosin-core solder,
various power supplies including a Variac, a
signal generator, and an H-P or Tektronix
oscilloscope. And, of course, a soldering
iron would be at the ready, simmering in its
cradle.
The engineer’s
bench was often side-by-side with that of a
colleague, and back-to-back with that of
another. He could easily trade ideas with
them. More relaxed discussions would take
place in the cafeteria at lunchtime. E-mail
and the Internet did not exist. He would
walk to the engineering parts stockroom or
to another department. His department
manager would be in a glassed-in corner
office, the manager’s secretary or
assistant, if he was lucky enough to have
one, at a desk outside. Telephones were
scarce. The boss had one, and so did his
assistant, through which the other engineers
in the department could be contacted from
remote locations.
Since the
output of most engineering departments was
destined for incorporation into a product
manufactured by its parent organization, it
was often seen as desirable to locate the
engineering department close to the
company’s manufacturing facility. When Kelly
Johnson, Lockheed’s chief engineer, started
an important new project, he wanted his
engineers to be only steps away from the
shop workers. Johnson insisted they be
conversant with the structures and parts in
the factory as well as the capabilities and
shortcomings of the production equipment.
Changing
Times
Given that many
high-tech companies originated in basements
or garages, Hewlett-Packard being a notable
example of the latter, the spare, functional
character of the engineering workplace of
the ‘50s and ‘60s was no surprise. Also, the
engineers of this period, like the pioneers
they emulated, often built their own
prototypes from scratch.
The importance
of the computer in engineering design,
coupled with the advent of more complex
systems the computer made possible, markedly
changed the engineering work environment. By
the mid-‘70s, with the arrival of the Alto,
technologists were looking ahead to the
prospect of a personal computer as part of
their own workstation. The era of punchcards
and waiting for results from the mainframe
computer was at an end.
Novel and
futuristic workplaces were planned. Xerox
PARC experimented with an office on wheels
that could be rolled along with similar
units into new office configurations as
projects required. It featured a keyboard,
two CRT monitors, and an adjustable Volvo
seat. It was envisioned not only for
engineers but for “knowledge workers” in
general.
Fast Forward
Latter-day
engineers seem less concerned about where
they work (their offices and office
configurations) than how they work
(in teams, via the Internet, etc.). As the
new millennium approached, the low-walled
cubicle along with its computer workstation
had become entrenched as the standard
engineering workplace. Only rarely might an
engineer boast, especially with respect to a
competitive company, “Our offices are bigger
than theirs!”
In spite of
notable exceptions like Google, whose 8,000
employees relish the free food doled out at
the company's 19 "cafes" and its gym, pool,
volleyball court and free massages, polls of
engineers within the last decade reveal
concerns about the workplace that are
“soft,” as opposed to physical. The
contemporary engineer may well feel that an
engineer’s office is any place where he or
she is at any given time — at home, at work
or on travel. And that the ability to
communicate is more important than the
immediate physical amenities.
The Internet is
seen as a significant advantage. It
facilitates working in teams, speeds
communications with vendors and customers,
and permits coordination across time zones
and even globally. In today’s
computer-driven design environment, design
cycles are shorter, made possible by the use
of engineering teams, better communication
and the availability of standard design
elements (like intellectual property cores
in chip design). The Internet also makes
location less important, encouraging
engineers’ hopes for greater telecommuting
opportunities. When asked at the turn of the
millennium what his job might look like in
2010, one design engineer responded “I will
spend only two days [in my office] and
telecommute three.”
Today’s design
advantages notwithstanding, as we near 2010,
certain worries are being expressed by
engineers. At issue among U.S. engineers are
the effects of globalization of high-tech
corporations, engineering job security, and
offshoring of engineering jobs. In a 2007
opinion survey by EE Times, more than
half the respondents reported worries about
foreign competition, with 35.4 percent
citing offshore outsourcing as their major
concern. They wondered if they, or their
jobs, might relocate to China or India.
Engineers ponder, too, the time spent on
e-mail, the need to screen information
gathered from the Internet, and how to meet
tight deadlines set by management.
On balance,
today’s engineers seem less concerned about
the places in which they work and more about
the intellectual tools at their disposal,
the efficiency with which they can be used,
and the long-term stability of their job
assignments.
Resources
For more about
experiments in office environments:
Pake, G. E. ,
“Research at Xerox PARC: A Founder’s
Assessment, IEEE Spectrum, October
1985.
Perry, T. S.,
and P. Wallich, “Inside the PARC: The
Information Architects,” IEEE Spectrum,
October 1985.
For more about
engineers’ work-related concerns:
EE Times
Annual Salary and Opinion Surveys
www.eetimes.com/salarysurvey
IEEE-USA
Unemployment Survey 2006
www.ieeeusa.org/communications/ebooks
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