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Just to give you an idea of where you will be in
a company structure, I present the "Org Chart".
For any given corporation, the official Organization
Chart, may or may not be available to you. Yet,
you will be able to piece together much of it.
This is hypothetical, based on the management training
that stated "Optimal control is when a manager has
five next lower level managers." Rarely is it exactly
five in the real world. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Then each manager may have a staff, typically at least
a secretary and a financial or budget controller.
mgr staff
president 1 2
/ \ \ \ \
vice 5 10
president
/ \ \ \ \
division 25 50
manager
/ \ \ \ \
department 125 250
manager
/ \ \ \ \
section 625 1,250
manager
/ \ \ \ \
group 3,125 6,250
manager
/ \ \ \ \
professional 15,625
worker bee
you total 27,343
This is called "line" management
because each has a line to their boss
on the organization chart.
But, it is not that simple in most corporations.
Typically there is a second structure called
project management. Each contract or job will have
a project manager. That project manager may have
five managers reporting, some from the line management
structure above. Most of the worker bees will be
from the line management structure above.
Oh! You now may have two bosses. Ha! if it was only
that simple. Any of your boss's boss may give you
tasks or assignments.
Sorry, story not over yet. The secretaries have a
hierarchy, your boss's secretary implicitly
takes direction from your boss's boss's secretary, etc.
Typically your boss's financial person takes direction
from your boss's boss's financial person.
And both those hierarchies can set rules that you
must follow.
I am assuming the corporation sells products.
Thus among the mix is a marketing organization,
that may have marketeers, and proposal managers.
You may be sent off to work on a proposal.
At least two parts of the proposal are the
technical proposal with a mix of real technical
statements and some subtle sales pitch,
and the cost proposal.
Here the plot thickens. At some management level
a "target cost" will be specified.
Then the "bottom up" cost is calculated based
on past history data. They never agree!
Then comes creative accounting and negotiation
to reach a final sell price.
The corporation described here may have a separate
area or even a separate building for proposal
preparation. A proposal team has a deadline,
usually specified by the customer, and may
work many hours of uncompensated time during
proposal preparation.
Oh! And if this is a DoD or other Government
contract, everyone working on the contract
must record the specific time on a specific
part of the contract. It may be required to
the closest 1/10 of an hour.
So, what about those tasks and assignments
you can be given by other people in the
hierarchy? Well, the corporation has an
accounting system with one or more accounts
for each contract, IR&D independent research
and development accounts, administrative
accounts including sick and vacation time.
Then there is the dreaded "non productive"
account that must be charged for hours
you do not have any other charge number.
Every account has a budget assigned.
The financial hierarchy comes down on
you or any level of manager that
exceeds a budget. Oh! more manipulation
to come in at budget on all budgets.
Be careful, some manipulation may be
illegal on Government and CPFF,
cost plus fixed fee contracts.
You, worker bee, are getting paid for the
work you are doing. You probably expect to
get pay raises and promotions. Typically,
each level of manager gets over 10% more
than the managers below.
Suppose, you are average, thus each year you
learn more and can produce more quantity or
quality. There will be an merit increase budget
passed down the hierarchy. Being average
you may get about 7% per year increase.
This will about double you salary every 10 years.
If you are a top performer and the corporation
is doing well, you may get about 10% per year
increase. This will about double you salary
every 7 years.
Your starting salary is important.
Starting at $10,000, $20,000, $40,000, $80,000
per year in 30 years.
Starting at $20,000, $40,000, $80,000, $160,000
per year in 30 years. You may be 55 years old
and expect to double again and retire at 65.
Sorry, some where along the way, the "Peter Principal"
will happen. "Everyone gets promoted to their
level of incompetence" and stays there or is
downgraded, possibly laid off. Called a rift.
Oh! Who gets laid off? Again, based on the overall
profit of the corporation and future business
estimates, a quota of how many must be laid off
comes down the management hierarchy. Sometimes
it is the least productive that go on the list
first, exceptions may be critical skill, potential,
age would be bad and possibly illegal.
Have a nice day.
This is just a small part of understanding
what may happen in a large corporation.
A small business will be completely different.
HR Department
And then, there is the "Human Recourse Department".
These are the people who actually hire and fire you.
For Human Resource Professionals:
Live Webinar on Smarter Email Management
Smarter Email Management will provide attendees with essential
skills that can improve both the message and the management
aspects of working with email.
Areas covered in the session:
The What, Why and How of Email Etiquette:
* How to create notebooks, sections and pages
* How to easily add information, emails, pictures, even audio to notebooks
* Ideas for how to customize with color, order and style
* How to share all or part of a notebook with others
The What, Why and How of Email Management:
* Learn how to get less email
* Know the 5 questions to ask for all incoming email so you can
make a decision on what to do with it
Delete based on sender
Delete based on subject
Delete based on format
When to stop reading and delete
Is it really worth not deleting
* Learn how to set-up a filing system that will allow you to
file and find it faster
* Learn the 3 habits that if practiced will help you become
an email management pro!
Keep mouse positioned on delete button
Keep finger on the delete Key
When in doubt, delete
* It is approaching one hour a day, spent per employee,
reading and responding to Email.
(Obviously the above, edited, came as Email. "spent"="wasted"?)
Now the Testing Report Document, TRD is assigned.
CS345 Project
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