Finding ways to educate ordinary business folk of the many ways to refer our structural engineering businesses to their contacts can feel rather dry and boring . But from time to time - I like to titillate my audience with something a little racy. Enjoy, and please let us hear about your 60 second pitches.
"Good morning my name is [insert name here], I’m a structural engineer and we are [insert company name here].
For the last few weeks I have been labouring under a slightly different career pass time, and it’s turned into a bit of an obsession of mine.
I HAVE BEEN OPERATING ON 'BREAST REDUCTIONS' :-)
You see, structural engineers are also employed to help facilitate the removal of home owners redundant CHIMNEY BREASTS.
Over the last 2 weeks I have worked on [??] separate breast reductions or removals. Approximately [??] of them since the beginning of this year.
More often than not my clients incorporate a chimney breast reduction or two within their plans to extend and update their homes.
Some can be very straight forward, but if the breast is particularly large or nestled on a party wall - quite often a structural engineer is called in to design the support.So if you hear of anyone complaining about an unsightly or a space hogging breast in their lounge or dining room, then ask them to give us a call.
My name is [insert name] and we are
[company name], breast reduction specialists."
![Starting up an Engine[er]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_48ubt0myJl9Kc2av_Yix8HwEpZTit9DLMrmiRI2LjDYLbqNtxNz6VTsBNTgpDxOGErtF-SRLInkC-wRWFeM-LRL0N0VvpgtHxCBKGnpQ1CZBb5-wXP76Y-of8pZkYpAOR7iTm1OOE6c/s435/newblog.jpg)
This is tragic & I heard about this on the news
ReplyDeleteThe Press need to be educated so that this misrepresentation does not happen again!!!!!
Doug Reid
It is crazy isn't it Doug.
DeleteI seem to have interpreted this slightly differently from you Glen. In your elevator pitch you said "Please remind all your friends, family and acquaintances to review the qualifications of any structural or civil engineers that they choose to to employ." From this I believe you are implying "A person called himself a civil engineer, was employed as a civil engineer, made a decision which a civil engineer should be making, got it wrong and tragically caused a death."
ReplyDeleteWhat I think in reality happened was a person was employed as a labourer, was doing a labourer's job, and made a tragic mistake. He may call himself a civil engineer, the press may call him a civil engineer, but he is a labourer and was employed as one. Therefore it doesn't highlight that people need to "review the qualifications of any structural or civil engineers that they choose to employ".
Having read a bit of the article, I get the impression that this was a non-standard foundation. Most lamppost foundations that I know of are simply the post stuck into a concrete footing. This particular foundation also seemed to rely on a steel section (possibly a small I section?) running horizontally. That doesn't sound normal to me, although I should point out that I'm a bridge engineer and it's not my field of expertise.
The labourer's failure to realise it was part of the lamppost foundation therefore doesn't seem to be due to lack of engineering knowledge, but more due to a decision to get the job done rather than spend a potentially long time identifying exactly what the steel was doing there.
What I took from this article was that, as covered extensively in the LinkedIn discussion, anyone and everyone can call themselves a civil engineer. I don't have a problem with people being able to do so, but I do have a problem with people doing a completely different job from me deciding to do so.
I hope that makes sense. My condolences to all involved, including the labourer who made the tragic mistake.
Andy Taylor
Hi Andy, thank you for commenting!
DeletePlease bear in mind that the 60 seconds was aimed at the public at large and they would not tend to think as deeply about the pitch as you have done. But you are quite right, it does not stack up fully to the way intended.
The aim is to shock and educate the public that there are civil engineers out there who are qualified, that do think and are insured. They should be looking for insured and qualified engineers.
I did say that the labourer was not a qualified engineer. It speak volumes that he did not lose his job. As he was not expected to think in his job.
I think that the nature of the foundation is another complication which should not be dwelled upon either. If a structural engineer was standing there when the the first cut was about to be made.. he or she would have made sure - or atleast flagged up the strange occurrence. Don't you think?
Thanks again Andy :-)
Your comment of the public "should be looking for insured and qualified engineers" mystifies me in relation to this incident. Do you really think the public should be looking for a qualified engineer to dig their hole in the pavement for them? I'd hope not. Surely then the question in this case is whether the employer (McNicholas if I remember correctly) gave sufficient engineering supervision to this job.
DeleteAlthough, that said, I'm not sure a (real) civil engineer would have done anything different if they were there. Certainly it wouldn't have occured to me that it was part of a lighting column foundation (based on my meagre knowledge of those foundations, and the implication in the article was that it wasn't actually that close to the lamppost).
So I guess it comes down to how often something bizarre (e.g. an old tram line) is come across when digging up pavements. With my relative inexperience in the field, if I had been there I would very possibly have accepted the labourer's explanation of an old tram line and allowed him to cut away.
I wonder if the labourer didn't get fired as it was judged (by the company) that his decision was partially justifiable, as no-one would have expected the steel section to be part of the foundation.
Andy Taylor
Thanks for your input Andy. I think that we are moving away from the point of the post in the first place.
DeleteWhich was to high light an accident of a very tragic and serious nature then remind the public that we are not hole diggers or anything less than a qualified professional.
I would use this example to give the public a shock and to challenge their knowledge of the civil engineering job title...
It was funny, Glen. I'm not going to over think it. It does get your attention and does so in an amusing way.
ReplyDeleteSorry this comment is so late. I just found your blog.
Keith