September 2021 by Jason Frank
I came to this company with over 20 years of experience in tooling and injection molding. My length of employment was for 2.5 years. I was hired as a tool design engineer which transitioned into what they call a product development engineer. After 2 years in that position, I was promoted to serve as engineering manager. I decided to leave the company because my expectations and the company expectations were going in two different directions. I felt it was better for the company to find a manager whose goals and family situation aligned better with the company’s direction.Overall, this was a satisfactory place to work. I never felt that the tasks I performed were not appreciated. My concerns were always heard.Requests for equipment to improve tasks were fulfilled in my time there. Some of that was due to the fact that I became manager but nonetheless requests were approved. With covid they worked around my childcare schedule when I was a product development engineer and were understanding of an individual's needs during this time. Effort was made to improve moral with incentives. I may have disagreed on the choice of incentives but at least they were aware that moral was an issue and made attempts to improve it. Grounds for dismissal are only of the extreme situations, this is a double-edged sword. If your attendance is punctual and your conduct in civil, your employment is safe. This unfortunately produces issues in the quality of tasks performed by some employees as they avoid the extreme situations.If you come to work for this company come with realistic expectations. Crisis management is the main task you will be performing regardless of position. Crisis resolution, while not prohibited, is not a priority. This issue is the underlying problem with leadership, ownership, accountability, moral, and company direction. Understanding the company’s current direction is the key to maintaining a positive frame of mind. Eliminating or even reducing cyclic crises is the next step in this company becoming a great employer. Process/department documentation is extensive and was developed under the previous owner to promote crisis resolution. Unfortunately, they are out of date and do not align with the current practices being performed. This produces employee confusion as to the proper process/department execution of a task. It also prohibited leadership, if inclined, of performing productive corrective actions due to floating standards.Employment in the engineering department will require you to complete the department tasks and also be responsible for other department tasks. Until other departments are led to be accountable for their own processes, the engineering department will be required to fill in the gaps. This produces a workload that cannot be covered by the allotted hours in an exempt salary. A choice will need to be made daily as to what will be sacrificed. I found that my engineering tasks, my engineering department, and my personal/family life were unacceptable options for that sacrifice.The intent of this review is not to be negatively inaccurate. I do not leave with hard feelings. I am thankful for the life lessons learned here and some great collaboration with the customers and employees. As I mentioned this is a satisfactory place to work. The potential is available for it to make the next right step. I wrote this after much internal debate. I could not ignore the person, and potentially their family, in mind that could fill an open engineering position. Education is the key to correct expectations with the goal of reducing aggravations.
