Why are technical people looked down on? (yes this has to do with Dieselhead stuff)

[Carrameow]

Why are technical people looked down on? The other day I was talking to a manager at a work, who I like and respect a lot, and he said, "For you, being a Technical person, I don't think you should have to sweat this issue"
...What you mean, because I am a technical person, part of my brain does not work?

Because I have actually chosen to do work as my life's profession rather than pretend to do work or actually throw up obstacles to doing it and sit around in meetings and charge overhead?
Don't people realize that during the late 1800's and the Industrial revolution, Engineers were a driving force behind this world? Technical people like George Westinghouse, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison and .....
Look I am an easygoing happy-go-lucky guy. I hope I am not pompous. I enjoy tinkering with my diesel engines and wiring harnesses and antennas and circuit boards. But I am not that one dimensional! I go to parties, make people laugh and read the WHOLE newspaper and I can play softball as good as anyone and still lay down a fast Mile in 7 minutes....
Why are we tech heads treated so badly?

[boneheaddoctor]

Thats becasue technical people are the Anti-fatcat....they actually do know whats going on unlike many managers that pretend to.

[TX76513]

I would explain it to you guys but you probably wouldn't understand

[moondawg]

Originally Posted by Carrameow

... and still lay down a fast Mile in 7 minutes....
Why are we tech heads treated so badly?

That's only a little more than 8 mph. You need another 1/4 turn on your ALDA, at least.

moondawg

[blackestate]

I think it is because the manager type, feel threatened. The one type of person they can not baffle with bull is the technician. He knows how it works, and if they start dancing, the tech will see right through it.
In their glory meeting where he is now taking credit for your work, no one asks a hard question so he can look like a master.
But alas, with the true technician, his cover is blown!

[Gurkha]

Having grown up in India in a family of academics, working on cars and bikes were always frowned on, not thankfully by my parents,but by relatives who made predictions that my brothers and I were doomed the life of mechanics, well till today even after my academic work, I and my brothers still work on our vehicles and get weird look in the neighborhood. It is pretty bad here as working on your car or bike is truly considered Bohemian.

[kip Foss]

That attitude comes from the fact that most techo types have very advanced anti-bullscheisse software in their brains. This enables us to cut through the crap and political spin to the heart of the matter. The business major types fear this because they realize that most of what they are talking about is just that- crap and political spin. These guys operate in a 'king's clothes' type world and are ever fearful of someone seeing through their disguise.

[Jim Anderson]

I think its because engineers are used to talking to people who are different and by practice can keep an open mind, any married engineer has plenty of practice. A lot of people can't and by default act like jerks when they are not inside their boxes.

[BluEyes]

Everyone else is jealous. We can lose them within the first sentence of a description of a can opener, and they wish they could be like us and do hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of work on our cars in an afternoon and have it start up perfectly afterwards (well, most of the time ).

My mind is still stuck in college on this issue and I've been out of college 30 years. The reason I say this is that the business majors were always partying, playing ball and all kinds of stuff while I was either studying or working.

Most of my productive career, however, has been working for software companies where even alot of the upper management were engineers or technical people of some description. For this reason, I am a geek among geeks and don't have to deal with too many people who don't understand what it is like to know how things work.

Have a great day,

[MonsieurBon]

I do computer support for designers. They act like being technically-minded and being creative are distant ends of a spectrum. They don't know that I've been doing photography for years, making music, building things, etc. How weird to think that the two are mutually exclusive.

[sophie2]

In my experience the benefits of being a technical person far outweigh those of the non-technical manager or sales types. I have been fortunate over the last 20 years to never of been laid-off and I attribute this to being on the "production" side of the engineering business (i.e. what the client pays for). Even though I am a manager, I still conduct a lot of technical work as an engineering geologist. I actually feel sorry for those who cannot produce what the client is paying for. As long as we keep up on the technology, we will always provide what society needs to stay afloat, something that the non-techies cannot do.

I hate to say this, but much of this is self-inflicted by technical people. Having spent the the last 25 years working for and consulting for various engineering firms, nuclear power stations, and government agencies, it appears to me that at least half the responsibility of this situation lies with the technical people. In too many cases, the technical folks tend to hoard information, or to present it in a way that is not useful to management/ financial types. If the technical people cannot effectively speak "management" they are domed to remain in their own little box. Most successful technical managers are simply capable of translating information between the management folks and the technical staff. If both groups insist on remaining in their "comfort zones" no meaningful communication will take place. If you are (or want to be) a technical manager in a large organization, you need to be able to speak the language of the people who control your resources (money). You cannot expect a manager with a financial background to speak "geek" so you have to learn their language. Would you go to a doctor who was unable to explain a medical condition in plain english?

Just my opinion.

[iNeon]

i am an artist by trade--

i cannot tell you the mixed bag that it is.

some people are envious, they want to be able to create images, environments and objects that spark interest, emotion and wonder.

the others are usually blue-collar work-a-day types that think art is just images decorating walls or the thing you have to walk around to get into that big fancy office building in the city.

i dont think "outsiders" even realize that art has pushed society to where it is today. we artists(engineers are included here, im just using a familliar term) shape society, we adorn it; we criticise it, and by association, we criticise ourselves.

i do not remember where i was going with this short essay hehe but yeah.

too many people have told me they wish they could sit around and draw pictures all day. they just have no idea that genuine creation is exhausting both mentally and physically. they are too busy punching time cards and transferring phone calls to realize that their minds have turned to mush and the only creation theyre capable of is procreation.

and the circle starts over again, thats the story of history.

[bobbyv]

I believe it all depends on the corporate culture of the company. I used to work in a technical position for a large IT company that had a large, stable customer base, using their proprietary technology. This fostered a marketing-oriented culture, where it was a more a matter of marketing than having the appropriate technology, since there was practically no competition in the area.

I was brought in to provide technical expertise and knowhow when "Open Systems" came into vogue, and had to deal with these marketing and management types, who rose through the ranks over the years with practically no competition in the field.

Needless to say, we technical types were outnumbered, and were almost second-class citizens. But we knew that we had the skills that the company needed to compete in this new field.

Over time, the corporate culture changed a bit to reflect the growing importance of these techies to the survival of the company, and we increasingly got more clout and recognition over time. But there are still individuals who look with disdain on us technical types, but I've come to the conclusion that it's their problem, not mine - we look upon with even more disdain, and we put this in technical terms.

vive le difference!