I was just told by my manager I was low on my Engineering Efficiency Index (EEI). He hinted that those that were laidoff had low EEI and Honeywell used those numbers to decided who stays and who goest when it comes to layoffs and RIFs. I told him my program was slow dues to production issues and he offered random charge numbers for me to charge during my slowdowns. This company is a Wells Fargo in the making. Can't wait to give my 2 weeks notice and place a complaint with government IG. There is so much fraud going on that we all know it. It's all about making the number and keeping EEI and Yield high so the company keeps making its profits on our backs not my labor but by free overtime. At this point I rather get a packager to compensate me for all the free overtime I gave them. For every hours of free overtime, they charged the government the premium rate. I am just frustrated. I feel like I am suffocating in this company.
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I have nothing to do and charge most of my time to overhead. Honeywell will not RIF me. Oh well, closing in on retirement.
To the 40 hour/week 1 block guy - lucky he wasn't in our group - I managed several solid contributors who liked to put in their 8.00 and go home. That was their habit, they had no designs on moving up, they weren't going to change. I was told to put them in the elbow, write PIPs, essentially manage them out. Well I thought it was ludicrous to lose experienced talent because they were judged more on the 4 hours they aren't there than the 40 they are, and said so. That was the beginning of the end for me at HW. Best thing that ever happened.
-2xqk You are very fortunate to ever be in a 1 block. Myself and others I worked with, actually most people I knew at Hon, were told by manager they could not assign you to a 1 block. Highest was a 2 or a 4. I received 2's and 5's just strictly depending on what group I was in and who the boss was, what year it was. The work I did had something to do with the block, but the boss "was told" he had to limit where we could be placed. Sign of the times. Hon doing whatever it takes to cut cost and people is the biggest expense. Seems like trying to get set for that one last big deal.
OK well I'm saying Yield/EEI has a lot to do with everything, at least it was in our directorate, from totem rankings, to handing out scraps of raises (like 2.5% vs 2%), to allocation of new computer resources. I sat in the meetings, I saw it first hand. And I guarantee you, Mr. 1 Block, that if two people were on the fence for one RIF spot, that spreadsheet would be coming out.
I don't think EEI had anything to do with it.. I never worked over 40 hrs and was 1 block all the time but then again I had good managers and I got my work done. I know a lot of people who worked over 40 hours and were considered experts yet still got RIF'd. Also, was told that block ratings had nothing to do with it. Space got hit because their business is suffering. Sounds like your manager is just a d--k and using scare tactics.. glad I left!
I know some folks are taking 4 hrs of unlimited vacation every week to ensure their EEI is high. They would rather have a good EEI than worrying about being on the list of those that are taking too much unlimited vacation.
So when I was a manager there, your vacation was factored out of the Yield calculation - not sure how they do that now that vacation = infinity lol. But for EEI, you really had to work 12-13% to meet your 10% uh "goal", since who would work extra during a week when they were taking time off, unless they are insane? For example, if I worked four tens M-Th, I would take F off and not charge anything, with the understanding that your EEI for the week was 1.0. This became frowned upon, and the unspoken expectation was that you take vacation for Friday. Absurd. So glad I'm off that sinking turd.
An almost certain death blow is when you are asked to support a long term project at another site or dept. You can A) Accept it, work your a$$ off and meet all your deliverables, but since you were 'out of sight, out of mind' to your primary management chain, you essentially did less than the rest, OR B) turn down the assignment (since you probably have a full plate anyway), and then you aren't a 'team player' - either option converges on a one way path to elbow-ville.
So how does time off factor in (vacation, sick, jury duty, etc)? Say you have 1 day of jury duty, and the rest is straight 8hrs/day. Does that mean you have to work 8 extra hours just to get an EEI of one?
There is a way of having lower EEI than others even if you work more hours.....say you are helping as a borrowed resource a group that needs urgent help (with special skills...) and you report to some dummy in MN, which makes your hourly rate sky high. The group you are helping is not willing to allow borrowed resources charge such a high rate for overtime ($280-300+/hr); on the other hand, you have to work as much as needed because your group does not have enough work (but they have useless managers....). I have seen this many-many times. Of course these are minor details, who would care to correct them.....
I am so happy to be out of that hell hole. EEI f them.
EEI is simply their cute way of not saying "overtime percentage" after their attorneys told them straight out not to do that. EEI = hours worked / 40, typically computed as a rolling average for the year. Unbelievable that they continue to do it and get away with it.
Yield/EEI was used regularly to rate and rank salaried engineers by my upper management, I saw it firsthand.
Remind us again how they compute EEI...
Take a trip to the Labor Office as well - salaried employees are not supposed to be judged on the number of hours they work - they are supposed to be judged on their work. That's why companies are allowed to not have to pay salaried employees overtime. It's actually illegal to ask salaried employees to record their hours for anything other than purposes of billing. That's why you won't find this "policy" of yield/EEI being the most important metric - or being any metric at all - written down anywhere.
F--- overtime. Treating us like sh-- and expecting hard work? The only thing I'm working hard at is looking for a different job at a different company.
I am glad I was saved from the last RIF. I warched 2 military veterans be walked out because they refused to play the EEI game. In order to survive you have to play the game. Managers might not have integrity, but they know what Honeywell wants.
Honeywell wants "inivatots" not innovators. ;-) nice one. I think that is a joke only those who know you will get.
I find it sad that we, as engineers, are viewed as cash cows instead of inivatots. I was part of the last RIF and I refused to works the free overtime unless it was legitimate work. I was pushed by my manager to work extra from home at nigh, check my email, charge the program. I refused.