Now then eng123, I didn't suggest that you don't already make your own specials or have your own 'work arounds' for difficult jobs, but do you tell anyone about these? or do anything else to resolve the problem? I do believe that what differentiates an Engineer from a Technician is that the former takes ownership of a problem and acts to change the underlying cause, while the Technician continues with things as they exist, accepting the state of the world as he finds it. Are you one of the former or the one of the latter?
I don't generally flaunt it, but since you challenge my experience here it is: -
After finishing my apprenticeship, 37 years as a skilled tradesman (now there's an expression that's gone out of fashion!!) of which 2 years Line and Base on MkIA & MkII Vulcan; 4 years Line on VC10; 3 years Line HS748, Whirlwind & Gazelle; 3 years B707 & B747 Overhaul; 3 years B737 Line; 4 years B737 & B757 Base as Avionics Foreman; 2 Years Base Maintenance Foreman on B737 & B757 Overhaul; 12 years development engineering (B757, B767, F50, F100, A319) with last 3 years as section head. [I wasted the missing 3 years loafing about in workshops.] My knees are brown and yes, I've got some time in at the sharp end. On real aeroplanes. In fact, I might even be one of those "Real Engineers" that one often hears about but seldom see...
I think I could still manage a turn-round defect in horizontal freezing rain at 3 a.m. At a push, I could still do a seventeen hour overnight stint, on some obscure emergency repair in the big shed, though with my grey hair, fading eyesight, elderly stoop and the onset of senile dementia, I'm probably not as good as I used to be when I was in my forties.
So, while I apologise for spending too much time in a back orifice, rest assured that I don't talk out of one...
Going back to the original topic, there are far too many examples of the validity of 'Incompetence Theory' around our workplaces. It will never be possible to eliminate all of them, but licensing all Engineering staff (Engineers, Technicians, Tradesmen or whatever else we may choose to call ourselves) and grading them through a process that uses independent review and assessment, is one way of reducing the parasites to a minimum.
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Through difficulties to the cinema