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Do engineers work harder?

jeff bezos

 

Last week, The New York Times stirred some controversy with an article called "Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace." Authors Jodi Kantor and David Streifeld interviewed hundreds of current and former Amazon.com employees and portrayed a callous, punishing organization that tramples its workforce underfoot in pursuit of profits. The article received hundreds of comments and online responses. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, even responded by sending his workforce a company-wide email in which he denied the NY Times claims and stated that he would not tolerate "callous" management practices.

 

The Amazon article isn't just talking about hard work, of course-- it's alleging that Amazon is guilty of all kinds of cruel treatment towards its employees, and it doesn't focus on engineers. But this got us to thinking: do engineers work harder than other people? Does the ability to solve complex technical problems mean that electronic engineers will always be called upon to work harder than those who lack such skills? Or is a person's capacity to work hard independent of his or her vocation?

 

What do you think? Cast your vote-- and be sure to click the "Submit" button so it counts!. You can also expand on your answer by adding a comment below.

  • I guess I'm not an engineer proper, formally that is. But I am an embedded software developer and R&D technician/jack-of-all-trades. So maybe that qualifies as a self-taught engineer of sorts.

     

    If it was simply work I would leave it at work. But the fact is that I work with electronics and software development as much in my own time as I do at work. Learning, problem solving and design/development are passions. And I have been fortunate enough to back into the thick of it. image

  • Engineering is not a 8:00-17:00 work, it's a calling image

  • Like most people I've voted for the null option (work ?).

     

    It's always dangerous to make such comparisons - I think engineers tend to put in long hours and think about work stuff in their own time quite a bit. But then so do others like teachers, lawyers, doctors etc. And then  - how hard is the work? Is doing something difficult but interesting as 'hard' as putting in a full day of fairly mindless slog.

     

    MK

  • I think Engineering folks in general have a tendency to work harder in the pursuit of the next solution, but I have to admit and my wife would cetainly back this up....

     

    I am never more passionate than when working on my Electronics in the Basement and on the E14 and other forums, just dereaming up stuff to teach about or tinker with and share, I have spent too much of my life working in an area that im good at but no where near as passionate about (And yes it was all about Windows and Websphere ... big corporate or provincial government systems and solutions architecture.)

     

    Electronics Engineering was my first profession and it will be my last image, along with the blogging of course and thats my way of giving back... what was it I said a few days ago

     

    WORK HARD, HAVE FUN, BE PASSIONATE and SHARE, the rest will come.

     

    I agree with DAB, in my electronics engineering (The first time arround), I too found it amazing sometimes people where paying me to do the things I did

     

    Now I am "Older and Wiser" but working harder, more passionate and no one is paying me image, but still having a blast, is it work or play, you be the judge.

  • Most engineers I know love their work.

    Many stay extra hours just for the pursuit of a good problem or an idea.

     

    There were many times in my career where I could not believe that they paid me for the amount of fun I was having.

     

    DAB

  • I get to work with a lot of electronic engineers, and am lucky to count many of them in my circle of friends. It seems that the engineers I know are never idle-- they are forever building, tinkering, debugging, and fixing things. Even when they're at home, or on vacation, I have seen them obsess over fixing a broken window latch, or take time to pitch a perfect tent. Does this mean they are working harder than the non-engineers around them?

     

    Maybe. But to 's point, it's not like they suddenly feel they are on the clock. This attention to detail is just how they are wired. From the enjoyment they take from approaching situations with precision, one could just as convincingly make a case that they are having an immense amount of fun. To the lay person, such concentration looks an awful lot like work, because many people only feel such intensity when they are on the clock. They are like a virtuoso who is able to improvise complex harmonies on the piano when jamming with their friends after hours. Is this work? Sort-of. But it's also undeniably play. When the two converge, you call it passion.

     

    Just an observation from a guy who majored in philosophy. image

  • in reply to johnbeetem

    I completely agree with you John, I have had many roles during my working life from electronics engineer to managing director. As a software engineer I would often work 16+ hours a day, even though I was only paid for 7.5,  because I enjoyed what I was doing. The only job I didn't enjoy was technical support manager, probably because it involved too much Microsoft Windows.

    Now I am retired , life's good image

  • The saying goes: "Find a career you enjoy and you'll never have to work a day in your life".  I work very hard as an engineer but some things are so much fun that it's misleading to call it work.  Other things are drudgery and you definitely need to pay me to do it.  This includes anything involving Microsoft Windows image