Things not to say to an engineer

[DanMarotta]

If you work in an office, you are no doubt subject to office cliches. The movie Office Space immediately comes to mind.

As an engineer, are there things that are said that especially irks you?

"Can you make this tiny tweak?"

"What would it look like if we added this?"

"Can we take this offline?"

"Someone has a case of the Monday's."

These are just a few of my guesses. I'm not a design engineer, so I would love to hear your perspective.

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[larry.smith]

Why not? All you have to do is...

[DanMarotta]

Larry Smith wrote:

Why not? All you have to do is...

Good one Larry!

[MikeArmstrong]

Need something knocking up quickly!!!!

Mike

[DanMarotta]

Mike Armstrong wrote:

Need something knocking up quickly!!!!

Mike, I'm not familiar with this phrase. Can you help me put it into context? ...or did you mean "mocked up quickly?"

[MikeArmstrong]

None engineers always come to me and say 'we need this knocking up quickly' and aren't very impressed when you give them the design a couple of days later.

Mike

[MikeArmstrong]

Can you JUST cast your eye over this drawing......

Mike

[larry.smith]

You have to design it this way. We already sold it to a customer.

[MikeArmstrong]

Had that before

Mike

[PeterJFrancis]

"Can you JUST ......... " (usually spoken by a senior manager or Director with no engineering experience)

The use of the keyword JUST means all timescales halve , costs become insignificant and manpower unlimited

[MikeArmstrong]

"Can you JUST ......... " (usually spoken by a senior manager or Director with no engineering experience)

This deserves the star.

CAN YOU JUST.... Should be banned from construction sites and design offices.

Mike

[DavidButz]

"This shouldn't take more than a couple of hours." [substitute days, weeks, months, depending on the situation.]

[DavidButz]

"With your [new] CADCAM, it should be automatic, right?"

[BrentDrysdale]

Yes David,

That is why there is a Nike Swoosh key on your keyboard = "Just do it!"

Regards, Brent

[chris5]

Hi

We need those drawings asap (as soon as possible; witch means usually NOW)

Good item of these discussions Dan.

Seasons greetings

Chris

[MikeArmstrong]

'Have you got a minute' - (Usually means your going ti be asked to do something.

'Hey Mike, are you busy' - (Even if you say yes a load of work is coming your way)

Mike

[Ankana]

Hey, it's not sporting if it's not a moving target...

[Oldman]

My classic is "DID I FORGET TO MENTION ?????"........

Usually that means the design has to be completely re-done due to a multitude of requirements that were not communicated.

[BrentDrysdale]

Hi Dan,

You know that Scott Adams says that he never has difficulty coming up with a topic for Dilbert as people e-mail him real world Dilbert situations every day. So along those lines how about this one from a project leader some years back.

"I know this is not technically possible but..."

We put it in our Quote Book.

Regards, Brent

[BettinaGiemsa]

All, this is a great thread and it inspired my latest blog post. I guess Fire Drill is among the things you don't like to hear too much...

http://communities.ptc.com/blogs/hello_cad/2011/01/03/fire-drill

Looking forward to your comments!

Bettina

[chris5]

Hi

I have another one.

"Can you set up a meeting with those guys?"

Whith usually means you have to drawn everything all over again because those "guys" know something no-one ever mentioned before.

Regards

Chris

[DanMarotta]

It's great these keep rolling in.

Going off the responses, engineers must have traits like

• the ability to be flexible
• a great deal of patience
• work quickly and efficiently

-Dan

[JoshH]

You're very kind Dan!

I think some of us just love a challenge

[NikosKaminakis]

Boss: We have to do some light modifications. Customers specs.

Engineer: But this is completely different to that we had already done and test. We are at the end.

Boss: "DONT FIGHT THE DATA"

[DanMarotta]

Nikos, I guess the customers always right?

[GrahameWard]

Me: I've looked at it from every possible angle.

Them: How about if you move this over here?
Me: Grrrrrrr...............

____________________________________________

"Can't you make it a bit smaller?"

____________________________________________

"I think we should discard the mods you stayed back until 10 pm to do, and revert to the version we had at 5 pm, which was the time I went home for the day."

[ptc-4131818]

Are you busy?

[BrianMartin]

Yeah "Are you busy" goes right along with... "Do you have a minute?" This usually means you'll be held up for at least an hour.

Personally I hear "are you busy" and "do you have a minute" every single day. It usually spells trouble.

[DalbeerSinghSoh]

"move a littel bit" or "give slight thikness to it" ..... (everyday day)

at the end of the day, keep it as it was earlier....

[DavorGranic]

The one that tops it off for me is:

"I know we didnt mention it but we thought it was understood"