OT: how to deal with "backseat drivers" at work

AustralIan said:

You mentioned also a problem with time estimates. What was the real problem? Because someone being wrong isn't itself a problem.

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The thing is, when I say a task will take X amount of time and the customer or boss thinks it should take less time than that. Normally I just say, "I'll do my best but I doubt I can get it done that fast" etc. It is just aggravating when people who don't know much about PLC's etc, and can't do the assignment themselves, basically imply that I'm too slow.

A__G,

Use the Scotty schedule.

A 3 hour job is "Captain, that will take 3 days"

A 2 day job is 2 weeks

When I am deep into a three d thought, I get this Rain man look in my eyes and stair at the ceiling or a wall as I work the problem. When someone tried to talk to me I would slowly return to the screen, grab the mouse and finish programming my thought.

When they continued talking, I would snap my head like I was coming out of a trance and ask " did you say something?"

I often overheard them as they walked away.... "What the F*** is wrong with him?". Most of the time they didn't come back.

I was part of a job team, if they came back, Brian (good man), would run block and kept them at bay.

A_G said:

It is just aggravating when people ... imply that I'm too slow.

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A_G, you mustn't let someone's naïveté aggravate you so. If you were me, you would recall a time when you too were not that experienced working with PLCs. My time estimates were awful. One time I drew a Gantt chart and everything, because I was not long out of uni and I knew if you did a Gantt chart you could track your progress towards completion and flag up any scheduling problems. I listed every single component of the machine and how long each component should take to program. There was documentation time, testing time, the works. It was great, the project was right on schedule. But then as the project neared testing stage... Um, where was the time needed to interface each of the subsystems to each other? Whoops!

So next time someone 'implies you are slow', think of it more that the person is not fortunate to be as experienced as you are in PLCs. If you are up for a challenge, think of it as a mentoring opportunity, where you can work through with them their false logic and so help them make better estimates in the future. Sure, not an easy task, but then neither is PLC programming!

A_G said:

The thing is, when I say a task will take X amount of time and the customer or boss thinks it should take less time than that. Normally I just say, "I'll do my best but I doubt I can get it done that fast" etc. It is just aggravating when people who don't know much about PLC's etc, and can't do the assignment themselves, basically imply that I'm too slow.

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That reminds me of when I worked in a factory as a maintenance tech and the area managers would frequently need to ask how long a machine would be down. I always estimated in my head and doubled it. If they came back later and asked again, I would double it again. I got some grumblings and mumblings a few times before they figured out I was lying to them. I was usually able to get a machine fixed in half the time I first told them, but always gave my self some cushion.

Always try to under-promise and over-deliver.

Thanks for the advice! Very busy at work lately and im sure everyone's advice will come in handy haha. Looking forward to having more free time to post and contribute on Plctalk soon.