Question for Engineers in the Private Sector; What to do a with bad engineer?

Jerry Avins wrote:
> Rune Allnor wrote:
>
>    ...
>
> > The Director of the air traffic control authority was on the news
> > yesterday saying something I did not make much sense of, but that
> > apparently was based on the philosophy that "a manager can lead,
> > without knowing anything about his/her business."
> >
> > I have never understood those kinds of claims.
>
> Have you read "The General" by C. S. Forester (of "Hornblower" fame)?

No, I have not. I did read most of the Hornblower books, though.
There was one story where the captain had turned mad and
obviously was not fit to run neither ship nor crew. Not quite the same
thing, but those guys were able to save ship and crew by making their
own decisions "in the name of the captain" after he fell victim to
what may or may not have been  an accident (the author, cleverly
never quite revealed what really had happened to the captain).

Rune

"Rune Allnor" <allnor@tele.ntnu.no> writes:
> Everett M. Greene wrote:
> > "Rune Allnor" <allnor@tele.ntnu.no> writes:
> > [snip]
> > It's easy to understand people getting aroused by someone with
> > no relevant experience being in charge of a life-critical
> > operation such as air traffic control.  Of course, a bottom-line
> > manager can greatly reduce ATC costs by grounding all the
> > airplanes.
> 
> That's what is happening. The ATC operations were separated out
> from government organizations to a commercial company to ""reduce
> ATC operations costs." So the cut back on the number of air traffic
> controllers, close airports, do all kinds of things to cut at the
> expenses
> side of the balance sheet. Maybe all that is necessary, I don't know,
> but the way it is implemented leaves little confidence with the public.
> 
> People don't get their holidays, due to cancelled flights. No one
> reimburse the losses, and the ATC company can not be held
> accountable, either by passengers or airliners. Add to the mixture
> that the former director of the ATC company required the staff to
> use any pending holiday now in December, at the main traffic peak,
> and it is easy to understand why she had to leave last week.

Maybe the postal services should take note of this cost-saving
step.  Instead of adding people for the Christmas rush, cut
the number instead.  You might not get your Christmas cards
until July, but the services wouldn't need a rate increase!

> Not that it will help much, the ATC system will only work when the
> ATC company is held economically liable for any damages to
> airliners or passengers. Unless one pays for the damage of *not*
> having a working national air traffic, the obvious way to save
> money is to shut the whole thing down.