From: Ben Dunlap >> ISTR the Royal Air Force has a "Specialist Aircrew" track where the really good >> pilots, who wanted to fly planes rather than desks, could be promoted to >> "management" ranks but avoid the management duties. > > They had a position like this at the first big company I worked for -- > "Member of the Technical Staff". These folks were very good at what > they did, but again, not interested in, or perhaps not suited for, > management. The US military structure calls these technical specialists Warrant Officers. But there are very few positions that qualify. There is one retired WO down the hall from me. He flew "sky hook" style helicopters for the US Army. There have been numerous discussions over the years about how to reward people who know how to manage information and knowledge better than they can manage people. There have been Staff Scientists at some companies which were actually senior engineers. Bob Pease at National Semiconductor is one example. But this only seems to work at large companies. I think the biggest problem is that HR types don't want to acknowledge these types of people exist. It doesn't fit their nice little arrangement of pigeon holes. Bob McConnell -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
