Have you tried lately talking to your manager about changing something work-related? A procedure that could be done more efficiently, stuff like that? I keep running into a wall despite the fact that a) the changes are not drastic and b) it's obvious that they would lead to improvements in productivity. I'm always cut off when I try to bring it up. I don't get it. This place used to welcome and appreciate initiative and new ideas, what happened?
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Management is primarily considered with Continuous Reductions. When a manager is able to force someone out then he/she guilts the remaining individual contributors to EEInnovate ways to do work outside of their role. If someone was sandbagging bandwidth then they may get rewarded for “stepping up”. The person that was at their limit but gets assigned work anyways has a good chance of earning a PIP if they don’t. This is considered a virtuous cycle at Honeywell.
I have often thought about this. It’s very simple. They don’t have time to change, literally. What you are suggesting will improve workflow, but they don’t have time to implement any new ideas. Short staffed, micro managed, and tunnel vision. We still PGI stuff manually. Literally typing in each shipper number and entering the tracking number and date manually. Hundreds. Automation? Haha. Just keep doing what you are doing, don’t make any mistakes, and see you tomorrow to do it all over again.
I find this thread hilarious because 4 to 5 years ago it was part of your semi-annual hourly performance review to see how many continuous improvement you had submitted. At our site in the center of the USofA we had a minimum of 24 continuous improvements that had to be turned in otherwise you were dinged on your raise in the spring. For the most part these were b—s— improvements that were never going to happen but you had to go through the motions to show management you were committed to HOS! Now somebody’s b–ching because management won’t listen? Associate you join the wrong company, you need to work for a tech firm in Silicon Valley.
Two thoughts.
1) if you ever happen to get a patent or trade secret, you get invited to a special lunch. But what you will see is those on the patent approval board happen to have about 10 patents each while you just had 1. In short, unless someone high enough can get credit or earn money from it, it isn't likely to go anywhere.
2) Honeywell has the absolute worst imbalance of Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N). With the vast majority of management being S. In short, they will do it the same way even if they know it leads to massive rework and expense. And if you suggest otherwise, you are considered a radical and not a team player.
That is the worst part about the S personality type. They believe that those that think differently are nuts, and attack them personally rather than discuss the issue for its merits.
Best to do the bare minimum while you find another job elsewhere. Why bang your head against the wall trying to prop up a lost cause?
If it is not their idea, they aren’t interested, even less if it requires funding of some sort. They’ve enjoyed running lean but burning out resources, these fixes are obvious in need but they aren’t interested in the long term solution. “Just get it done” what ignorant croutons for brains people we have as supposed leaders, equivalent to Don Quixote or Captain Ahab
If workers bring up an good idea, improvement, issue, that is out their control and needs a manager to be involved it is met with, you go do it, you need to go tell so and so to do it, you need to escalate (meaning get their manager involved). Then, there is no further discussion. No help, no breaking barriers, no thank you either, just potentially a new work assignment. Thus, everyone pretty much keeps their mouth shut. There are plenty of broken processes due to the layoffs and missing bodies that used to work them, but they just stay broken. If there is product to ship, managers tell someone to go make it happen in spite of broken processes - just do it, and tell me when done. Managers only react when a higher level manager says something needs to be done. A few managers I worked with years ago, and back then they would help; things have definitely changed. Welcome to the new Honeywell, we are leaner and meaner. Stock going up, all is good.
When it comes to good things at HON Aero, everything is a “this place used to”. Get out now before you are Riffed!
This is WoneyHell.
They don't pay you to think.
Money is being spent on acquisitions that add value.
No one cares about your idea to improve a process or silo that has been around for years.
This is a warning sign. Make sure your suggestions focus on ways to change your specific work and are not about somebody else’s work. It is common for people to fall behind in their tasks and suggest improvements in other groups as a way to deflect. Your boss may believe this is what is happening.. right or wrong.
The next common problem is someone who talks about improvements that do not require talk or permission. If these changes are specific to your work your boss may feel that no talk is needed and this can be interpreted as shutting it down.
Finally .. there is no budget today for anything. If your improvements require spending money the conversation is a non starter. You are not talking to the right person and will need to document your ideas in a different form so they can be shared with a VP or higher.. only level that has money right now.