I feel like Dilbert

[coriolis]

I'm sure you're familiar with the comic stip "Dilbert"

I'm an engineer at a medium size consulting firm. About 18 months ago we did a feasibility study for about 5 miles of water lines for one of our clients. My boss, the project manager, gave most of the feasibility study work to an inexperienced junior engineer. He came up with a cost estimate of $1.2 million for this work. The PM did not give me an opportunity to review it. The feasibility study included financial projections, including the amount of money needed in loans, along with the projected user rates. Everything worked out on paper.

About a month-and-a-half ago, we completed design and the PM gave the task to me to do the final engineers opinion of probable construction cost. I came up with $2.2 million. My boss was aghast, and made the remark "Now you've made a lot of extra work for me" to which I replied "Well, I do my best" (A little sly double meaning there, if he "got" it.)

He decided that we would "release" an estimate to the municipality and to prospective bidders with a range of $1.2 to $1.8 million, hoping that the lower number would make the bidders work hard to get to a lower bid price.

Bids were opened on Tuesday, the low bidder, sure enough was at $1.8 million, and the other three bidders were at $2.2, $2.3, and $2.4 million. (My estimate was within about $20,000 of the second low bidder) My boss was happy with the low bid thinking that he pulled a success out of a disaster. He gloated to me that he was happy he decided to low ball the estimate, the financial projections would still work, etc, etc.

Thursday, the low bidder called and claimed that he made a mistake on his bid, and intended to withdraw his bid. He claimed that his mistake was $200,000 to $300,000 which would put his price right up to the other bidders, but of course, he'd still be the low bidder.

Not only is this creating a situation for our client, but it will create a situation for us, because now we will spend many hours dealing with this with no increase in fee.

What bugs me the most is that this PM gets all over my case when the titles of the drawings don't all match perfectly in arrangement, font, date, etc., (no small task when you have 4 Cadd operators in 4 departments doing the work) but when he pulls a major doozy like this, he can spin a yarn about the whole thing, charge bookoo hours, and come out looking like the hero solving a problem that he caused in the first place!

If this wasn't a bad thing for our client, and if I wasn't about to put in my request for vacation for the summer, I'd be vocal about this.

Of course I can rant about it here.

I keep telling my self that "It's like the Army - the pay's the same whether you march or shoot."

[breeze]

But, let's see if the quote matches the project,
absolutely, in the end, Ed. Considering "realistically" vs.
"idealistically", let's see who really comes out "smelling
like a rose"....


"A-CHooooo!"

[Stephanie]

Sounds like a classic Dilbert comic to me!

Just wait until there's problems with the quality of the workmanship, materials, etc. Hopefully there won't be any serious repercussions (ala the Tropicana garage collapse of October 2003).

[coriolis]

Hey Annette, you want to come work with us? We need a company health care professional. Too many injured shoulders from people patting themselves on the back, knee scrapes from kissing up, and all the other corporate gymnastics.

And Stephanie, that's one potential outcome: a contractor forced to bite the bullet and then cutting corners.

[Stephanie]

Hey Annette, you want to come work with us? We need a company health care professional. Too many injured shoulders from people patting themselves on the back, knee scrapes from kissing up, and all the other corporate gymnastics.

And Stephanie, that's one potential outcome: a contractor forced to bite the bullet and then cutting corners.

I'm sure it happens ALL THE TIME, and then it comes back to bite them in the butt. I hope it doesn't happen.

[azskyman]

You have the added burden of this being a municipal project besides, right? No where do you find the definition for CYA more clearly demonstrated than in those kinds of environments.

I commend your integrity and loyalty...and whether anyone else acknowledges the "errors of their ways," you can stand tall in the process you followed and the results you derived.

Keep us posted on how this plays out from here.