Letter 14 Keep Your Engineering Career: How to Make Your Boss Happy
Dear Natasha and Nick,
Hello to you from my computer keyboard. It’s become a second home to me as you kindly allow me the privilege of writing this series of letters to you about engineering. In this missive, I’d like to concentrate on one of the most important relationships you’ll ever have in your career as an engineer, that is, your relationship with your boss! They may be awesome. They may be horrid. Or, maybe, they’re just average. Whatever the case is, an engineer’s success and satisfaction will hinge, in large part, on making the boss happy. And this requires them not only to work hard, but also to work strategically.
The tips I want to give here may just seem like common sense, yet the challenge is to put these tips into action! Because these tips are certainly transferable to any area of endeavor—education, entertainment, family, politics, religion, sports—I want to make them relevant by giving some practical real-life examples to show how the tips can be applied by engineers in the workplace. Also, I’m sure that my suggestions below can be reorganized and expressed in different ways, but I hope they inspire you to continue learning about securing your job by making your boss happy.
Now, I’m definitely not saying that you need to make your boss happy even if they ask you to lie, cheat, steal, compromise on health and safety standards, etc., or if you somehow feel peer pressure by other employees to do so. But, I am encouraging you to try your best to make the boss happy within the boundaries of your own personal values, professional engineering standards, employer policies, and the laws of the land (see Figure 14.1).
Figure 14.1 Making the boss happy isn’t always easy.
Having said that, the tips I want to share can be summarized by an acronym that I’ve created called BE FAST. The first part of that is BE, which has to do with your boss and the company where you work, whether it’s a university, an industry, or the government. The second part of that is FAST, which has to do with your own thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions. Let’s examine each of these below.
B Stands for “Boss”
This means you study your boss carefully to find out who they are and what they’re like. Then, you’ll know how to anticipate their actions, needs, and wants and then respond to them effectively. Obviously, this will take some time to do properly, so that you can eventually implement your strategy of “managing up” or “managing your boss.” So, start by asking yourself these kinds of questions. What inspires your boss—is it money, power, productivity, recognition, reputation, winning, or something else? What worries your boss—is it budgets, criticism, deadlines, failure, stress, technological problems, or another issue? What is your boss’s management style—do they micromanage you just waiting for you to make a tiny mistake, keep you at arm’s length without knowing exactly what you’re doing, or something in between? When is your boss the most, and the least, available and approachable if you need to talk to them about an important matter? What triggers your boss to be in a really good or bad mood, or do they always seem to be in the same kind of mood no matter what happens? etc.
For example, I know an engineer who had a meeting with the boss soon after being hired to discuss exactly what the boss’s expectations were for the new job. This was their way of studying the boss. After asking the boss some key questions, the boss clearly indicated that they didn’t care how many hours the engineer worked each week, whether or not they worked on weekends, whether or not they worked from home from time to time, or even when the engineer showed up to work each day. The main issue for the boss was that the various tasks and projects got done accurately and on time; in other words, this boss was motivated by productivity and not by the clock. So, this engineer felt free to arrange their own schedule to suit their own personal needs regarding travel time to work, peak physical energy, meal times, social life, and so on, as long as they were productive. Fortunately, this engineer was a very self-motivated and organized person, so this arrangement worked well and the boss was always satisfied.
E Stands for “Explore”
This means you explore your company (e.g., university, industry, or government) carefully just like you’d study your boss. It’s good to know how the whole system works. This will help you predict and effectively deal with any changes in goals, rules, structures, and workflows because this can affect your department, team, boss, and you. So, make sure to read the memos circulating around the office, workshop, or laboratory, the company newsletters sent to employees by email, the company policy statements and brochures given to employees when they started work, and so on.
But, also keep your ears tuned to any useful information that comes out during casual conversations around the lunch table, at a department social event, or walking from one part of the building to another, etc. It’s also always a good idea to become familiar with the physical layout of your workplace by taking a look at floorplans and maps, walking around the facility or campus, and, if appropriate, introducing yourself to the heads of other departments to find out about what they do and perhaps even get a quick tour of their area. And last, but not least, it doesn’t hurt to know something about the surrounding community where your facility or campus is located, just in case there are people, businesses, organizations, stores, and other resources that could benefit you at work.
So, for instance, early in my career as a junior engineer I became the day-to-day manager for a hospital-based biomedical engineering research lab. I soon realized I couldn’t complete all my tasks and projects by relying only on the resources in the lab. I knew I had to explore and look outwards. I reached out to other departments in my hospital to do some specialized medical imaging of specimens for me that my lab was not equipped to do. I explored the wider community to discover an out-of-the way, but fully equipped, hardware store within a 5-minute walk from my lab. I connected with several engineering professors and technical officers at a university that was about a 15-minute walk from my lab, which resulted in many collaborations on projects that were published as research articles in peer-reviewed journals. And I linked up with several other biomedical engineers and orthopedic surgeons at other hospitals in the city to work together on several collaborative projects. All this was possible because I decided to explore.
F Stands for “Faithful”
This means that you keep your promises to your boss. If you say you’re going to do this and that, by such and such a time, then do your absolute best to actually get it done. If you’re able to achieve this on a consistent basis over a long period of time, then your reputation for faithfulness, trustworthiness, reliability, or whatever other word you want to use, will skyrocket in your boss’s eyes. It will make your boss happy.
And it will better position you for potential promotions to roles of greater responsibility like team leadership, rewards like salary hikes, and even more personal satisfaction in your career. And, when you need to ask a special favor of your boss, they will likely be more open to it because of your proven track record of reliability. This doesn’t mean that you can never afford to make a mistake in underestimating the time, energy, or resources needed to complete a task or project. If this happens once or twice, you can still recover from those mini failures by quickly getting back on track with your reputation of reliability. But, if you are consistently inconsistent in keeping your promises, then you can forget about all the benefits I just mentioned. In fact, if you get a reputation for always overpromising and underdelivering then your boss will, obviously, be unhappy and your very job may be at risk.
This has been true in my own career as a mechanical/biomedical engineer. One of my vital tasks has been to lead research teams to complete computational and experimental projects. Then, my duty has been to ensure that our team’s efforts result in articles that are published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Because of my own mistakes in organizing my time, personnel, and resources, there have been a few projects I didn’t complete, but this rarely occurred. However, the vast majority of the time I acquired a reputation for being faithful to fulfill my promises and produce concrete outcomes. And so, some of my colleagues gave me nicknames like “The Finisher” and “The Manuscript Monster.”
A Stands for “Available”
This means you’ll always make time in your schedule to participate fully in whatever task or project that your boss assigns to you. Under normal circumstances, obviously, your regular working hours at your workplace are dedicated to doing what your boss asks, and so this should not be a problem.
But, there can always be emergency situations that will challenge your availability. Maybe you’re also working on another task or project that your boss’s boss gave to you. Maybe a major deadline for a task or project is very close to the start of your scheduled vacation. Maybe your boss is asking for people to work late or on weekends until a critical task or project is done, but you have personal and family commitments during those times. How does a person deal with this? Quite frankly, it’s not easy. You may need to talk to your boss about getting a deadline extension. Maybe ask another employee for their help. You might even consider changing your personal or family plans. The point is, do whatever needs to be done, so your boss knows that you are really available. And, finally, always be on time for appointments and meetings with your boss; in fact, if possible, show up early.
Now, I once had a research engineer who worked directly under my supervision who is a good illustration of scheduling their time to be available. There were always some projects that needed to be done by a certain upcoming deadline, so this engineer decided voluntarily to come into the office and lab after regular working hours and on several weekends to make sure the projects got done. Of course, I encouraged this person to take a few days off from work after the projects were done, so that they could get some proper rest. This engineer also gladly participated in any team meetings that happened either before or after regular working hours in order to accommodate the challenging and conflicting schedules of the other team members. In these cases too, I encouraged this person to take some extra time off, so they wouldn’t suffer exhaustion. In contrast, I know an engineer who was employed full-time, but simultaneously tried to do a part-time doctorate in engineering. Unfortunately, the time pressures on this person eventually proved to be too much to bear. So, they decided to withdraw from the doctoral program because they realized they could not be truly available to complete the degree requirements.
S Stands for “Skilled”
This means you put in the time and effort to become skilled at your job. You can do this in a number of ways. Have all the necessary information or knowledge to complete the task or project. Come prepared for all appointments and meetings with all the needed photos and graphs and data. Know how to use all the necessary computer software, fabrication machinery, testing instrumentation, and so on. And be familiar with the rules and policies of the team, department, and company.
Of course, any company that hires a new engineer knows that there is going to be some learning curve the new employee goes through before they’ll perform at peak efficiency. And, to help speed up that development, all companies will train their new engineers either through an informal mentoring method or a formal training course. This is on-the-job training, and it’s quite normal. However, once you go through that initial training process, you’ll still have to learn new things along the way when the company takes on new policies, projects, techniques, or technologies. In these cases, it’s really critical to become skilled in these new areas to keep your boss happy.
As a case in point, I’ve supervised a steady stream of research engineers and engineering students in my biomedical engineering labs who became highly skilled in a large variety of techniques and technologies. Either I arranged for a technical officer from the supplier to do a formal training session with my team, I personally trained my team, or I asked someone on my team already skilled to train the new person. These engineers and students always put in the necessary effort to become skilled in fabrication machinery (like drill presses, milling machines, lathes), testing equipment (like mechanical loading frames, optical 3D motion tracking systems, thermographic stress analysis cameras), and/or computer software (like CAD modeling software, finite element analysis software). And the result of this group of highly skilled engineers and students was that my team’s research projects were routinely completed very quickly, efficiently, and accurately, and then published as articles in peer-reviewed academic journals.
T Stands for “Teachable”
This means that you are open to learning new things without complaining, resisting, or sabotaging. This could include adapting to changes in company policies or rules, learning how to use new software or equipment, taking on a different role on the team, adjusting your workflow to a newly announced project deadline, and so forth. Remember that you may not be the only one that has to accommodate the new situation. And your boss probably already has enough pressure on them to adapt to that same new thing, so they probably don’t want to deal with someone who is undermining the process by constantly grumbling or, worse, deliberately undermining their authority. Needless to say, if you are that person, this will not make your boss happy with you. So, be teachable. Say yes, smile politely, and get back to work.
But, if you do have some genuine concern that the new thing, whatever it is, could endanger employee health and safety, create financial losses, introduce workflow inefficiencies, etc., then talk to your boss. However, make sure to suggest an alternative option for accomplishing the same task or project. These other options should not only address your original concerns, but also allow the task or project to be completed in a timely and effective manner. Remember to present your alternative option in a humble and diplomatic way, so that your boss doesn’t feel stupid, incompetent, or criticized, or that you are a rival to their authority. The best-case scenario is that your alternative option may even make your boss look good in front of others because they were willing to implement your ideas. If you can accomplish that, then your boss may actually be grateful and see you as a valuable ally in the workplace.
I saw this quality perfectly exemplified in a former medical doctor who enrolled at university to do a master’s of science degree. But, what complicated matters was they wanted to do their research thesis on a biomedical engineering topic. And this person didn’t have any background in biomedical engineering. So, they enrolled in a new individual study course on the topic, which required them to read almost 30 chapters or articles, write a 30-page report, give an in-person live presentation, and pass a final exam. They completed the course enthusiastically and successfully. Moreover, this student voluntarily spent many hours in informal discussions with a willing local expert who was not their official thesis supervisor, just to learn even more about biomedical engineering. This student wanted to do a superb job on their research thesis. And, indeed, that is what they did. The student completed their research thesis, graduated with their master’s degree, and published an article on their findings in a respected peer-reviewed biomedical engineering journal. All this was possible because the student had a teachable attitude. In contrast, I know an engineer who, sadly, had an employee who resigned because they were not truly teachable as they did not want to learn how to use fabrication technology to create their own specimens for mechanical testing and data analysis. Rather, the employee only wanted to do the testing and analysis portions of the job.
So, What’s the “Take Home” Message of This Letter?
The goal of this letter is to encourage you to develop a good working relationship with your boss. This is one of the most important relationships you’ll have in your engineering career. It may be the difference between getting a promotion (or not), getting a salary increase (or not), and even keeping your job (or not). You want your boss to be happy with you. So, I’ve tried to offer some practical suggestions and real-world examples of how the ideas can be applied in the engineering workplace. And, if I may, I’d like to encourage you to further ponder these common-sense ideas, take practical steps to put them into action, and keep your eye out for other good resources on the topic.
With best wishes,
R.Z.