The most depressing thing I read today was at Bloomberg Businessweek.
If you want to know why I am not part of the “I love what I do and I’m going to plan to work forever” crowd, this article pretty much sums it up. As someone who has an engineering background and has actually done work inside some of their facilities years ago (but never worked for Boeing), I also felt Boeing had the reputation of hiring the best aerospace engineers and thus made awesome airplanes. As a kid, that was a dream job. C’mon, you get to make airplanes!!!
Yet somehow a company renowned for its meticulous engineering installed software that drove the aircraft into the ground while the pilots searched desperately for answers.
Why? . At Boeing, the bean counters won and the engineers lost. It wasn’t overnight, but it like many things it seems gradually and then all at once. Even though the FAA basically let Boeing police itself, the FAA has still had to forcefully ground two of Boeing’s planes in the last 6 years. The last time a plane was grounded before that was 1979. The worst part is that they still don’t seem to understand their mistakes.
The relentless message: Shareholders would henceforth come first at Boeing. The important thing was not to get “overly focused on the box,” Hopkins said in a 2000 interview with Bloomberg. “The box”—the plane itself—“is obviously important, but customers are assuming the box is of great quality.” This was heresy to engineers, to whom the box was everything.
I can’t imagine how disheartening this would be to a Boeing engineer or factory worker. Their obsession is why the airline industry has become so commonplace and successful. We trust that we will land safely. They built up a great reputation. Now it appears that Boeing executives started trading that assumption of quality (reputation) in exchange for short-term profits (while firing many of the engineers). The product that they helped create had defects that killed people. Worker morale must be at an all-time low.
This is why building up a certain level of financial independence is important. Sure, your job right now is great. The pay is great. You’re building something cool. You like your boss. There is no end in sight, so why not buy the huge house, luxury car, and new boat? If you have the dream job and your specialized skills are highly valued, enjoy it but remember that if done properly you only need to get rich once! A dream job can turn into a nightmare. Read this article and watch out for those bean counters. I’m so thankful that I never have to answer to one again.
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