The project was to set up a new 6″ wafer fabrication for computer disk drive heads into production. I had an engineer assigned to every piece of equipment in the new wafer factory. They were tasked for sourcing the equipment, qualifying the equipment, and optimizing that particular equipment’s process for the computer disk drive head specifications using design of experiments. The project was fast paced with a duration of six months.
One of the senior engineers in charge of the nickel iron plating module was starting to slack off and he was falling behind in his tasks. He was the owner of the nickel iron plating module. He wrote the specifications for it. He sourced the manufacturer. He went to North Carolina to accept the module. He was now performing design of experiments to optimize the pulsed power supply, current density, bath temperature, and agitation of the electrolyte solution for critical nickel iron parameters.
I went to his office and started to discuss the delays in his tasks and asked him if he needed any help to catch up. He said he had some family issues and he was certain that he would be able to complete the design of experiments in time and qualify the nickel iron plating module. A week passed. I sensed that things were
not progressing smoothly. This plating engineer was under a lot of stress. I called him to my office and started to have a heart- to- heart discussion about his missed commitments. He started to open up and explain to me his family issues. His wife left him and they were going through a divorce. During this turmoil, his 12- year- old son was staying with him. He had to run every day and take him to school and back from school. He was trying to sell his house. The poor guy was ready to flip due to extreme stress. I asked him if I could be of any help. I told him to think about it. I did not want to lose him at this juncture of the project and bring in a new engineer from the cold. I asked him if we could have lunch together that day. He said okay.
Until lunchtime I made a couple of telephone calls to human resources and I saw my supervisor to find out if the company could provide him a company- owned apartment for the next six months. I explained my senior engineer’s situation in confidence and how it was affecting my project. I received favorable responses from all sources. He did not have to pay any rent and the company apartments were very close to his son’s school.
We had a heart- to- heart discussion about his family situation during our lunch. I told him about the company’s apartment offer. He was very appreciative and accepted it. I asked him if there was anything else I could help him with in order to stabilize his family life. He told me that he was looking for a good divorce lawyer. I told him that I would investigate finding a good divorce lawyer for him through our legal department. I emphasized to him the importance of his work for the start-up of the 6″ wafer factory. I also empha- sized to him to come to me if he ran into any other difficult hurdles. I had to walk a fine line when I dealt with this troubled senior engineer. I wanted to help him all I could without becoming too friendly with him and without losing his respect for me. Getting sucked into non- work- related issues with a team member can be very tricky for a project manager. I had to go along with the com- pany rules and regulations. I would not promise him something that I could not deliver. Above all, my project’s health was my main concern.
I went to our legal department and discussed the divorce law- yer issue with the company’s head legal counselor. He called a divorce lawyer friend of his in town and arranged a meeting with my senior engineer. The two met and agreed on terms. The senior engineer was very grateful to me. On top of everything, he got a substantially reduced rate from the divorce lawyer.
In two days time, the senior engineer moved into the com- pany’s apartment. He signed his son up for an afterschool pro- gram so that he did not have to rush to school in the middle of the afternoon. His performance at work improved instantly. He put in some extra hours and finished his tasks only one week late.
As a project manager, I was very gratified that I could help a troubled member of my team. Other options such as replac- ing the team member in the critical segment of a project or assigning another junior engineer to help him could have been more risky.
Identifying risky areas in a project should be a continual task for a project manager. After a risky situation is identified, you should identify various paths to cure the risky situation. You should choose the path that you as the project manager can have the most control over. Risk management in a controlled fashion is very crucial to a project’s success.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS PROJECT EVENT
• As project managers, we have to be good psychologists too.
• Identifying and dealing with a team member’s stress level and risky condition are our number one responsi- bility as project managers.
• Helping a project team member to get on track in his or her personal life is very gratifying.