Deck : Case5

Question 1

Engineered Billing
I worked at a private engineering consulting firm that was a one-stop-shop for all engineering disciplines and focused mainly on large corporate or federal projects. Within the engineering community, it was and still is a well-known and respected firm. Upon joining the firm, I was given little instruction regarding how the company was structured and was put to work immediately. My prior position was with a small firm that put a lot of emphasis on producing a quality design and rarely noted the number of hours used for a design. They were only concerned with producing a quality project. My new firm was a stark contrast. I was put in a cubical, given a computer, and I received very little training on how the company operated.
My first weeks of work consisted mostly of me having to figure out how the company structured its files, how to enter billing, and what the company expected in their designs. I had weekly meetings with my boss who went over my time sheets with me and little else. He rarely reviewed my designs, only how many hours I was logging on projects and whether or not they were billable. It seemed that as long as I was making the company money, I was doing a good job. After I spent a month on the job, the lead engineer asked me why I was still billing hours to a project on which I was working. He told me that we had already billed the allotted design hours to this particular project. He then told me that I needed to bill to another project even though I was not working on that project. This came as a shock and I did not really know what to do.
Right or wrong, I stayed late and finished the design on my own time. Luckily, I was offered a job with another firm shortly after this incident, so I was able to remove myself from this situation. I hate to generalize, but to this day, I am more critical of proposals from firms that have a similar structure as this one, which I left years ago.
Did I do the right thing even though I lost money in the process?

Answer 1

The author had done enough to protect his job at the time. He lost money because he didn't bill the company for the old project as the supervisor had told him to bill for another project.
The ethical approach would be to inform higher management that his supervisor want him to bill the company inappropriately. This may have endangered his job as the supervisor may fire him. His approach is considerably non-ethical as he did what was needed to keep the job. It would be unethical if the author had billed the company inappropriately which he didn't do.

Question 2

Engineered Billing
I worked at a private engineering consulting firm that was a one-stop-shop for all engineering disciplines and focused mainly on large corporate or federal projects. Within the engineering community, it was and still is a well-known and respected firm. Upon joining the firm, I was given little instruction regarding how the company was structured and was put to work immediately. My prior position was with a small firm that put a lot of emphasis on producing a quality design and rarely noted the number of hours used for a design. They were only concerned with producing a quality project. My new firm was a stark contrast. I was put in a cubical, given a computer, and I received very little training on how the company operated.
My first weeks of work consisted mostly of me having to figure out how the company structured its files, how to enter billing, and what the company expected in their designs. I had weekly meetings with my boss who went over my time sheets with me and little else. He rarely reviewed my designs, only how many hours I was logging on projects and whether or not they were billable. It seemed that as long as I was making the company money, I was doing a good job. After I spent a month on the job, the lead engineer asked me why I was still billing hours to a project on which I was working. He told me that we had already billed the allotted design hours to this particular project. He then told me that I needed to bill to another project even though I was not working on that project. This came as a shock and I did not really know what to do.
Right or wrong, I stayed late and finished the design on my own time. Luckily, I was offered a job with another firm shortly after this incident, so I was able to remove myself from this situation. I hate to generalize, but to this day, I am more critical of proposals from firms that have a similar structure as this one, which I left years ago.
Is it fair of me to judge similar firms more harshly when they submit proposals?

Answer 2

The author may judge other firms unfairly if he's making a generalization that all large firms have low scrutiny for engineering projects. Considering a firm's management philosophy is fair if it impact's a project's quality.

Question 3

Engineered Billing
I worked at a private engineering consulting firm that was a one-stop-shop for all engineering disciplines and focused mainly on large corporate or federal projects. Within the engineering community, it was and still is a well-known and respected firm. Upon joining the firm, I was given little instruction regarding how the company was structured and was put to work immediately. My prior position was with a small firm that put a lot of emphasis on producing a quality design and rarely noted the number of hours used for a design. They were only concerned with producing a quality project. My new firm was a stark contrast. I was put in a cubical, given a computer, and I received very little training on how the company operated.
My first weeks of work consisted mostly of me having to figure out how the company structured its files, how to enter billing, and what the company expected in their designs. I had weekly meetings with my boss who went over my time sheets with me and little else. He rarely reviewed my designs, only how many hours I was logging on projects and whether or not they were billable. It seemed that as long as I was making the company money, I was doing a good job. After I spent a month on the job, the lead engineer asked me why I was still billing hours to a project on which I was working. He told me that we had already billed the allotted design hours to this particular project. He then told me that I needed to bill to another project even though I was not working on that project. This came as a shock and I did not really know what to do.
Right or wrong, I stayed late and finished the design on my own time. Luckily, I was offered a job with another firm shortly after this incident, so I was able to remove myself from this situation. I hate to generalize, but to this day, I am more critical of proposals from firms that have a similar structure as this one, which I left years ago.
What are the ethical issues in this case?

Answer 3

The author mentioned a few ethical issues by the firm:
• Lack of focus on product quality, and more on completion
• Little interest in training employees to adhere to company culture
• Supervisor encouraging him to bill his hours for another project
Of these ethical issues, the first two can be considered non-ethical as these neither consider the rights or wrong. The first two issues portray the company as one focusing on work efficiency over product quality.
The last issue is unethical. The company should be have accurate records of which project it was being billed for. The author may have faced a potential ethical violation if he had done as the manager suggested.