Long time no see!

It’s been a while since the last post in September. In the last two weeks, I have gained some experience managing what I could with the Engineering Manager being away. I was delegated with handling – to the best of my abilities – the Engineering related projects within our areas. This included random R&D related production that could be thrown my way at any time.

Honestly, there was a part of me that was not confident about handling these sudden projects on my own. Usually, I was assigned them directly by the Engineering Manager with explicit instructions and guidance when I was on 2nd shift.

What has happened?

At the beginning, no one really knew that I was tasked with handling the work that the Engineering Manager did when he was out until Wednesday of last week. Suddenly I found myself engrossed in a large email chain sent out to many different Scientists and other Managers. The Senior Test Engineer in the area needed some time sensitive work done which would be too late when my Manager returned. Therefore, he proposed that I take over the work and do my best with his guidance.

Although it felt like a huge undertaking, the skills my manager taught me while I was on 2nd shift proved to be quite useful. It was in my best interest years ago to assist him whenever possible which led me to acquire enough knowledge to progress through this roadblock for this particular project. I took it a day at a time, slowed down my thought process, and eventually pulled through. With constant feedback and adjustments, we were able to get the desired results and production was approved for full speed.

A skill I was recently taught that helped in this situation was how to respond to emails in the chain that was directed towawrds me. My manager told me once to be wise when responding to the ‘higher ups’ as it may cause a chain reaction of questions. This came into play as I only responded with concise, non-openended, and confident answers. The results from this was quite favorable which meant I chose the right way to handle the discussions.

Multi-tasking

You might of thought that was the only thing that happened while the manager was out. I had two more situations that got brought on which was quite stress inducing.

• A single station that handled another on-going R&D project PC died. The Engineer that commanded the area recently left, which left me in charge of reviving the station as it was a high priority.
• My part time role in developing software for the Department required a demo on Friday (yesterday).

All these deadlines lead to many different people breathing down my neck, either awaiting results or looking for progress.

Outcome

Long story short, in the last two weeks I accomplished the following.

• Handled 3 different R&D projects in my area in 2 weeks.
• Revived a station with help of the technical team in the other area within 2 days of it going down.
• Handled 1 major bug and many smaller bugs in the software project I was assigned.
• Prepared and demonstrated the major update to the entire Software Development Team at my location with some help from the Automation Team Manager and Automation Engineer.

Side Note: In the last two weeks, my daughter’s teething got worse. Which meant I only had at most 4-5 hours of sleep each night on top of all this!

Relief

I’m glad the following Monday the Engineering Manager will be back. I can take a breather and have a new found appreciation for the work that he does.

Best,
Johnny