I heard through the grapevine that the production engineering (PE) group will have to justify it’s salary today. I’m torn on this. Part of me believes that part of my manager’s job is to do the accounting to justify my salary. On the other hand, I believe that all employees, “PSFs” to borrow a Tom Peters term, should be doing what they can to raise awareness of their work. One good way is to publicize the return on investment (ROI) for their salary.

My problem with making every employee justify his/her salary is the potential for abuse of it. All these small reporting systems… What’s the value in mainaining the database that collects defect data for calculating defects per million opportunities (DPMO)? If I’m judged on my ROI, why would I work on that when I can work on something that increases my ROI?

Perhaps those projects can take a share of the defect reduction projects cost savings. Then again, will the maintenance costs be a leech on my projects ROI?

I’m concerned maintenance is going to suffer. People are stressed. I wonder what checks and balances will be put in to balance this new idea.

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