Hey guys, I am middle management in engineering at a biotech company. Our industry is highly regulated. Almost every cross functional group my team works with at this site has a culture of cutting corners and ignoring issues to take the easiest path (IMO). To me this usually results in unnecessary risk to the business. I get blamed for “blowing things out of proportion” and being too detailed. As an engineer I usually dont care about these accusations because I know the full scope of an issue. I have also been guiding my team to do the correct thing and have the same detail oriented habits.
I fear that it is starting to wear them down…. that we as a group are the only ones pushing for the right thing. I worry that they will get tired of holding the candle against the wind. I also worry that they will become convinced by the other groups that I amplify issues and I am not worth consulting. Is it possible that I am just wrong about how to work? Should I care less about the “right” thing? My instinct says no but everyone at this site seems to suggest otherwise.
At other sites ive worked, the culture has been more inline with the way i think.
17 comments
The way they are doing things puts the business at risk.
Your way prevents that risk.
Have a talk with your boss. If s/he isn’t onboard with the way you do things go work for a responsible, law abiding business that isn’t waiting for something bad to happen.
If the leadership of the company is behind you, have a presentation explaining why the new rules are necessary. Frame it as their jobs, the company, and the public welfare being put at risk.
A change of culture needs to come from the top down. Are you in a position to campaign this kind of change of thinking to senior management?
In my experience when it comes to implementing a change of how things are done, talking with your peers directly tends to fall on deaf ears. If what you’re pushing is part of written company policy then you’re jut doing your job.
If its not policy or a part of agreed and communicated procedures (backed by management) then I would suggest that is the place to start. Again, in my opinion of how I’ve encountered these kind of situations.
Tell those who want to cut corners to provide you with a risk assessment for cutting the corners, complete with the risk to finance, safety, and customer impact.
If they’re not willing to do risk assessments, then they’re not allowed to decide if the cut should be made. Once a risk assessment is provided, a team of managers and area experts can decide if it’s worth it to make that cut. Otherwise, it’s not worth it.
And if it’s illegal to make the cut, then it should absolutely not be done. Regulations are there to protect the consumer, after all. Cutting corners, depending on the product, can put people’s lives at risk. And that’s never worth it.
Hard to judge from here.
I am an accountant / tax adviser.
Some people spent a lot of time, until everything is correct to the last cent.
Others dont take this time and will just argue, that its not worth it to be a 100% correct.
But i am working for a construction company. Our construction people on the other end work very carefully and absolutely correct, because you cant afford errors here. If you start wrong, you can end up loosing a lot.
If that is the case, beeing absolutely correct is A MUST and the workers need to handle it. Maybe you need more, maybe it costs some money, but when cutting corners risks your whole business, you shouldnt do that.
> At other sites ive worked, the culture has been more inline with the way i think.
time to change sites then
So your gut conflicts with what the people around you are saying?
Sounds to me like you need to learn the value of your gut read.
If you get politically outmaneuvered on the basis of your lack of corruption, ie if your insistence on doing the right thing gets you fired, you’re better off elsewhere.
The company’s culture is not going to change for the better. Possibly your culture will change for the worse, to fit in. More likely you’ll get tired of going against it and find a better fit again elsewhere. Why wait?
Of course, the other possibility is that you’re a nervous Nellie and the corner-cutters are right. I give that one about a 1/10,000 odds, considering typical corporate culture today. But good places exist, as you know from your own experience. Go get back to that and end this nightmare
>Should I care less about the “right” thing?
As someone who has worked in various companies for 20 years my answer is unfortunately yes. You need to consider your and your team’s goals. Do you want to try and fix every deficiency you (even correctly) see? Is that feasible? How do you think other teams are going to react and will senior management even appreciate what you’re doing?
If your goal is progression you may need to think differently about what is the right thing to be doing.
Politics plays a huge part in companies and you need to be selective about which battles you choose to fight. Being cooperative and having allies is very important. If you’re seen as constantly pointing out the shortcomings in other teams then the managers in those teams may turn against you. Issues with your team may be blown out of proportion, there may be gossip that your approach is unnecessarily tedious, that you just don’t “get” the culture in your company, that you don’t work well with others, and so on.
I’d focus on what you can control, your KPIs, and even more importantly what your boss and your boss’s boss value. If you do an amazing job and no one appreciates it or understands it then it’s unlikely you’ll get credit for it.
If the culture at your company is frustrating and you feel it’s a constant battle then you may want to look for opportunities in companies that have a closer approach to what you’re used to. Otherwise it may be difficult to make any sort of headway when senior management has such a different way of thinking.
Please don’t fall victim to peer pressure! If other teams are cutting corners, let them continue OR tell someone higher up about the risks involved in doing so but don’t give up on your own ethics. If shit comes falling down, make sure none lands on you.
Your team may groan now but trust me, they will celebrate you later on in their careers when they may work for a different company and know how to do things correctly. Imagine a chef who taught their sous chef how to cut corners and now that sous chef is a head chef and they don’t know how to do shit.
I had a hard ass mentor in my career and hated most of the time working with her but now I have an appreciation of what she prepared me for.
[Teach them properly Major](https://youtu.be/90x6kAcVP54)
Death by 1,000 cuts happen in business decisions too I’ve seen it at several tech startups i’ve worked at. We can do fast option A or slower Option B, If Option A always wins then usually the risks option B was considered for in order to workaround will show their ugly faces at some point.
If the business is only expected to last 2 years or so then sure go the quick and dirty route 100% of the time , like a firework it’s expected to burn bright and explode in a brilliant display … but if there is any hope for business longevity then your methods , the more meticulous, and most likely slower options make the most sense .
The thing about about haphazardly streamlining for short term gain is that often times short term gain has a time limit or ideal conditions and the moment a disruption happens those short term gains have to be completely recalculated .
Slower more meticulous , more thorough processes are much better for addressing continencies because in that case the pipeline is established and MAYBE you briefly apply a band-aid to continue temporary stand-in processes but your process foundation and pipeline is established.
If you or your team / department have real reservations about your more meticulous processes OP then I’d ask the people who have the most issue with them detail what an effective and speedy alternative looks like and detail how it improves things long term . Maybe there is something you don’t see… maybe those you work with don’t see all the necessary considerations that need to be addressed .
Either way I’m a fan of relentlessly questioning processes not just for speed or cost optimization but how long term and stable the processes are. If you spend a little more money and time in favor of stability I think it’s a worthwhile investment.
An unstable environment or set of processes will undermine the best teams with the most money.
I had jobs both as IT Security specialist and software tester and was always the only one following and pushing on rules and guidelines, often finding erroneous practices in other teams and a lot of times being the no-sayer.
But to keep a company compliant, there has to be someone who does that job, especially if you have very specialised industry guidelines to follow. It’s something that can wear you down, when the rest of the company only sees you as a nuisance and not the benefit you are bringing/working towards. But they always cry for their certifications…
I’d personally say that this job is something you have to be made for or – also in my case – have to work in another department from time to time to not get burned-out by mobbing.
So, you are right, they are not.
Do you mean cutting corners like using an off-the-shelf solution instead of rolling your own software, or like not fully following some set of regulations? Is it a “your personal preference” thing or “it actually needs to be done like this to be correct/within regs” thing?
I’m leaning towards the latter based on what you’ve said, but I’ve also seen folks who are sticklers about the former make people’s work harder than it needs to be unnecessarily.
My experience as a chemist working with engineers might be helpful….I take safety and regulation very seriously, but a lot of engineers nitpick the hell out of our work. My boss has a phd in ChemE and I feel like I’m playing mario kart and she’s just throwing out obstacles most of the time. I spend a decent amount of time and energy talking her down from her concerns. This is corroborated by a date that I went on with a girl who had a MS in structural engineering, who was now a PM. She mentioned that people think engineers like to solve problems, but she said she’s better at identifying problems. Yep, I agree, and it’s kind of a pain in the ass. Sometimes helpful, but rarely essential the success of a project.
So if you can identify at all with what you’ve just read my recommendation is this: go to them with more fleshed out ideas, instead of just poking holes in their plan. Take some amount of ownership over what you’re telling them (the old adage of don’t bring problems, bring solutions sort of thing). Kind of depends on your role, but I have higher up supervisors who take more ownership in my work than my engineer boss.
As a couple of others noted, it is not clear whether or not these issues are in violation of compliance regulations or live in that gray area of interpretation. If it is the former, then I think there is no doubt you are in the right and the company is setting itself up for disaster when you have an inspection from your targeted health authorities. If it is the latter, then it could be a simple difference in opinion on the level of risk that is acceptable.
Have you all had an inspection? Does your Quality team do any internal audits? That could be a good way to identify any issues and help enforce more stringent policies.
Based on what you have shared, it is hard to know whether what you think is “right” is accurate or you have a more black and white view of things while others have adopted more of a risk-based approach. Having been in the industry for 20+ years, I have definitely experienced people the gamut from extremely risk averse to acceptance of risk but always within compliance. If you feel the company is out of compliance, I would definitely raise this with your leadership and continue with your approach.
Time to leave for a company with a better culture.
Honestly this is so vague it’s hard to give a subjective opinion.
Are you prioritizing the company or your employees that report to you? As a manager that is balancing act you have to manage. If it is extreme to either answer that’s probably part of the problem.
If your group is the gold standard when the rest of the company is lacking are you pushing up your chain of command to for them to balance out the other departments? Or do you just run it like boot camp and whatever everyone else is doing is their problem?
Most people just want to feel like they are being treated fairly. Talk to your employees and see how they feel about it. Do you foster an environment where the people who work for you can speak openly about the work conditions to you or do you fear they just see you as the problem?
My wife and I both work in heavily regulated industries as well. Let me ask you a simplifying question: Could you defend yourself in court?
Because the only looking for you is you. If you can cut that corner and still have a viable defense at trial (should something terrible happen), then you’re ok. But if you think an opposing attorney would tear you apart, then don’t do it. I guarantee that if something goes wrong, the company will absolutely look to pin it on you. If you are ordered to do something you don’t think is right – get it in writing. If you think the company is too much of a cowboy, call the guiding regulatory body (maybe FDA from the sounds of it – and they do *not* fuck around).
Let the other people bitch and complain. They’re like children who don’t know any better. It’s also not their ass on the line. You end up in front of a judge, they’re all going to say that you didn’t object so they thought it was ok. You’re the engineer (or engineering manager) – you’re responsible. At least, that’s the story they’ll tell.
Hold the line. Do the right thing. If they complain, ask if they’d like to fly in a 787. A bunch of engineers were ignored there too. Or maybe drive over some bridges that haven’t been maintain according to the engineering design. Or maybe ask if they’ve heard of Challenger. Engineering is hard “for Nature cannot be fooled”. Richard Feynman said that in his report on Challenger blowing up.