Professional Ethics

I'm probably not the most professional man around, but i do have my standards.

When financial crisis gets the grip of companies, everything seems to turn upside down. The financial powers of the company get to control human resources and the shadow of the feeding crows preys upon everyone non compliant with their schemes to keep the cash flowing, even if the very core of the system is being harmed in the process.

Overclocking the system is never an option, not even in short term. By degrading the core of the system, in this case the company, to produce results in impossible times, you are loading a weapon that it's just counting the seconds to backfire.

Some days ago i was charged with making some modifications to certain pieces of equipment projected by a long time fired engineer. When i was digging information on the original project i started noticing enormous procedural gaps that lend to the piece being aproved without complying with the company's quality standards. Now i'm being rushed in the same manner to grant approval on this equipment, when not even the errors on the original one were corrected in the first place...

I had to make a stand. As an engineer you are not to be a mindless drone. It is expected from you to think, to be critic and analytic. Don't take any word from granted, be it your boss or whichever higher power you wish to bow to. If you comply you will be the main cause of your downfall.

It is your approval and opinion that counts, so never ever put your sign on nothing you can not accept. Be ready to fight for it, be ready to defend it to the latest consequences and face the possibilities. If you sign there, responsability will befall on you and believe me, when things are done blindly and rushed for profit's sake, they tend to fall apart much faster than thought and planned enterprises.

Your mindless approval could lead in the worst cases to other serious economic problems or even accidents, in the same way the company is now paying to repair a badly planned equipment, it may be later paying to repair yours, or even worst, calling you to answer for victims or heavy economic losses caused by your lack of thought.

So have the nerve. Make a stand. And if they are going to enforce it to someone, never be the sacrificial lamb. Is better to pay with your job than with your full professional career.