The stereotypical engineer is quiet and unassuming, but you wouldn't know it from our survey. Your comments addressed just about any aspect of American life, from education to ecology to elections to the economy to energy. And that's just the E's.
There were even a few comments about technology.
Certainly, employment and the economy were the big topics during the summer when this survey was taken. Your views on the employment situation were diametrically opposed to the responses of the 2000 survey. Last year, when salaries were soaring and CEOs were roaring about not being able to find technically skilled workers, 65 percent of you said there was a shortage of engineers, with only 35 percent saying the shortage was a figment of some collective imagination.
This year, 66 percent said there's no shortage, while 34 percent think there aren't enough engineers to go around.
"It is easy to hire engineers right now," said a California engineer in the beleaguered communications field. You sure didn't hear that a year ago.
While you expressed heightened concern about the supply of engineers, there doesn't seem to be any form of backlash against foreign workers' coming into the United States. H-1B employment levels came in second to lowest among a variety of surveyed concerns, with only 30 percent expressing qualms about the visa program.
That said, respondents were pretty evenly split on their perceptions of the impact of foreign hires on domestic pay scales. Fifty-three percent agreed that hiring foreign workers lowers U.S. salaries, while 47 percent disagreed with that statement.
The main reason for the concern about employment is, of course, an economy whose problems are in large part driven by problems in high tech. Even before the horrific events of Sept. 11, engineers were expressing growing concern about layoffs and falling stock prices.
"The economy drives everything else. Crime is related to jobs; enough money for schools comes from people having jobs," said a design and development manager making over $100,000.
While there's plenty of concern about the economy and growing awareness of the need to balance workloads and leisure time, most of you said the slide hadn't yet altered the balance between work and home life. It remains to be seen whether that view changes as the likelihood of a true recession grows.
"We are still working but are being paid for [only] four days a week. But we're putting in more hours in those four days to keep up with the workload," said a Midwestern engineer whose shortened work week still ranges from 40 to 44 hours.
Only 14 percent of respondents had seen changes in the balance between their work and personal lives by the time our survey was finished in August. But for some, that's merely because there wasn't much room for change.
"What's a personal life?" mused one designer.
Some engineers make significant sacrifices to maintain a balance. "My company offers me a lot of flexibility. I come in very early, about 4 a.m., so that I leave in time to get my kids off the bus at 3 p.m.," said a young father.
For at least one designer, a brief time without a job turned out to have a silver lining. "I really enjoyed a nice time at home while I was laid off for a while," said a West Coast designer who is in his 50s.
Although 86 percent said the slumping economy hadn't impacted their work/life balance, the balance issue moved up to the No. 1 concern, surpassing salaries, which ranked first last year. Nearly three-quarters, 73 percent, ranked balance among their top two issues. A year ago, it ranked second, at 66 percent.
"The work life seems to always take precedence, since I am expected to do whatever is required to get the job done. The schedule and upper-management expectations are such that you cannot say, 'We will pick it up on Monday after the weekend.' I am expected to drop plans and respond to needs of the job," a military/aerospace designer complained.
While many engineers think they're being overworked, most appear to view their decision to enter the field as a wise one. There's been little change in the number of engineers who would recommend engineering as a career for their children; 40 percent responded that if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for their kids. That's fairly high, but it's well below the 70-plus percent who expressed satisfaction with their careers and current employers.
Addressing politics
Engineers are a conservative lot who were solidly behind President Bush in last year's election. But that doesn't mean you were giving him a free pass when you wrote us during the summer.
Asked to address the top national issue, a thirtyish system designer said it was "the abuse by big business on the U.S. people, both directly and indirectly, as a result of the new presidential administration and its views."
And although the economy's slide started about the same time that President Bush took office, one engineer put the blame for it squarely on the new president's shoulders.
"It's fully what I expected from Bush. Ten months before the election, he bad-mouthed the economy; now that's he's in he doesn't have a thing to say about it," said an engineer who lamented that his wife had been compelled to go back to work full-time.
Complaining about the actions of elected officials has long been a favorite American pastime. Although that's been tempered as of late, the government in toto drew the ire of a programmer with a household income of $200,000.
The programmer cited in particular "the growing burden of taxes and government regulation. These activities cost a great deal of money and produce little or nothing of tangible value in return. One wonders how far off socialism is."
Engineer's role
One designer argued that President Bush really shouldn't be in power in the first place. Indeed, some of America's engineers think that they could help avoid another electoral imbroglio like the one that occurred in last fall's close election. But just what they do will be determined by politics and the economy, most agreed.
"The engineer's role in updating election technology will be directly proportional to the level of remuneration offered by the government," said a system designer in the test and measurement field.
"Updating the technology is a political issue, but explaining that no system is 100 percent accurate is the responsibility of every engineer and scientist," said a programmer at a small East Coast company.
There's still a lot of concern about whether America's students will be able to follow up on the advice of the 40 percent who recommend engineering as a career. American high schools earned somewhat better grades from engineers this year than last year, but confidence in colleges slid.
Math and science programs in high schools earned an A or B from 30.9 percent of you, compared with 23 percent a year ago. At the other end of the spectrum, 29.9 percent gave high schools a D or an F. That's not going to excite too many educators, but at least it's better than the 38.6 percent level of last year.
Elementary school grades were unchanged from last year; just under a third of respondents awarded grade schools an A or B, and about 29 percent thought such schools had earned a D or an F.
In contrast, college math and science coursework took a real hit in confidence. This year, 42.3 percent gave colleges an A or B, down from 63.9 percent a year ago. The percentage giving colleges a D or F soared to 32.9, nearly tripling the 11.9 percent who disdained colleges last year.
"Good public education is the top national issue. Electronics and industrial arts programs have been cut from high schools," said a project engineer in his late 40s.
The shortfalls of education showed up in the comments of another engineer, who cited "a lack of engineers with a broad science, math and physics background."
Ecology and energy
Ecology and the closely related ability to generate energy were hot topics with our survey respondents. While rolling blackouts now seem to be a distant memory, they were at the forefront of public awareness a few months back. As is typical for engineers, one of you took a very broad view of the problem and its perceived source.
"Many people are not willing to take responsibility for their own actions. An example of this is the current electrical power situation in California. People in a community fight to keep power plants out of their town. Then when there isn't enough supply to meet the demand, they choose to blame the power companies and state government for the mess," said a California designer who works in the military/aerospace field.
Another engineer had a much simpler view on the last part of that insight when asked to select the issue of foremost concern to him this summer. "Energy production and affordability," he replied. "Why? Because I live in California."
Protecting the environment came up quite often when we asked respondents to pick the most important issue facing the United States. Most wanted to find some blend of capitalism and environmentalism.
A project engineer in Maryland called for "sustainable growth without further environmental damage, because the quality of life in areas where jobs exist is being severely degraded."
"If the U.S. consumes 20 percent of the global resources, we have an obligation to lead in world conservation. Our lack of leadership results in loss of respect and reduces our effectiveness," a manager opined.
Another designer blended economy and ecology, saying, "The poor economy causes instability and affects major issues such as the environment. We don't spend enough protecting it."
Along with these far-ranging issues, you expressed concern on a number of topics within the engineering world. The public's perception of engineers, age discrimination on the job and professional ethics remained fairly low on your list of industry concerns.
Ethics was again the leader among those three, with half of you citing it as a concern. That made it fifth on a list of 11 issues.
Next up was age discrimination, which sometimes grows in importance when jobs are short. Only 42 percent of you ranked it high on the list, well below the 70 percent who cited work/life balance and salaries.
As always, age discrimination was of far greater importance for older engineers. It was a real concern for 65 percent of those over 50 but was of high concern to only 25 percent and 45 percent of those under 35, and those between 35 and 49, respectively.
The image of engineers ranked slightly lower, with 41 percent citing it as a concern. That was unchanged from a year ago.
