Reader Feedback:
Give
us a piece of your mind...
On "You
Train, I'll Hire" (Dec.
2001 - Jan. 2002)
While I believe it is
my responsibility to maintain my skills, it is a lot easier to do, more
fun, and more fruitful if my company participates in those endeavors. It
is interesting to note that of the four companies that I have worked
for, three helped me with training and one did not. The one that did not
help no longer supports the federal government.
If a company wants
loyalty and hard work over time, then supporting employees' career
development is necessary.
Bill Bigler
IEEE Member
Burke, Va.
******************
On Consulting
Practices (March
2001; May
- June 2001; Nov.
- Dec. 2001)
I enjoyed Mr. Sokal's
articles; they are full of good information. However, the consulting
coin has three sides and I have seen all of them. Honesty and
dishonesty, as well as competence and incompetence, are human
characteristics, and sometimes it's hard to guess what will happen in a
consulting situation. I have been burned by a consultant, and likewise
by a client when I was the consultant.
Please congratulate
Mr. Sokal for his articles.
Nick Komninos
******************
On the Image of
Engineers (Oct.
- Nov.
2001)
In the engineering
(so-called) profession, it has always been "time to take a
stand."
Engineers fancy themselves as being professional. None but self-employed
engineers come close to being professional. What's a professional?
A professional is a
person with specialized training, who sells his talent to users, thereby
earning a living, and who confronts on equal terms the client or clients
who pay his or her fees. Incidentally, the professional is presumed to
be free to pursue the public interest, if he or she so chooses. The
salaried engineer is not a professional, because he or she is
subservient to the client who pays the fee (salary) his or her
employer. True, there is a certain reward and perhaps dignity in
purveying an esoteric and analytical skill. But if one party (not the
engineer) makes all the authoritative decisions, then the dignity is
illusory. The salaried engineer is thus not free to pursue the public
interest, because the employer's interest comes first.
Until and unless
engineers can form a professional association that truly pursues his or
her interests by equalizing the power disparity between employer and
employee, salaried engineers will remain non-professionals. The IEEE
declines to be such an association, because it declines to come between
employer and employee. A union is such an association, but it is an
entity that most engineers shun. I suspect they believe it compromises
their integrity. Perhaps they ignore the fact that some physicians are
union members.
This letter is not
intended to criticize the IEEE, which makes perfectly clear what it will
and will not do. It is a rewarding organization that pursues many worthy
goals. It has even submitted "friends of the court" briefs to
defend persons whose professional obligations lead them to be at odds
with corporations. But it will not stand for the engineer by confronting
corporations directly.
Robert N. Bruce
IEEE Life Senior Member
Douglaston, N.Y.
******************
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