Chemical Engineering January 2013 - 57

Fractionation Column
I lost
B
ased especially on FRI's productivity
statistics for 2010 and 2011,
I was nominated for the ChemInnovations
Plant Manager of the
Year Award. On November 13, I attended
the Awards Banquet, but I lost
the award to a very worthy candidate
- Mr. Chris Witte of BASF Freeport.
Here is the acceptance speech that I
never had a chance to give:
I started supervising people at age
five. The neighborhood needed a sports
organizer. For the next 12 years, games
were played every day after school and
all weekend long. In college, I was the
leader of every project group that I
was assigned to, even though I preferred
to follow. At my first job assignment
in 1974, I had two technicians to
supervise. For the 38 years thereafter,
I led R&D groups of technicians and
engineers - as many as 42 at a time.
Supervising people becomes more difficult
every year. Laws and court rulings
protecting employees become more constraining
every year. In 2010, American
universities graduated 6,000 chemical
engineers and 40,000 attorneys. Every
dismissed employee has seven hungry
attorneys lined up to represent her
or him. Even if an employer does everything
right with a non-productive
subordinate, that company should still
anticipate a lawsuit. The key to the
avoidance of such lawsuits is to hire the
right people in the first place.
Marv Levy, head coach of the Buffalo
Bills football team, said, " It's not
my job to motivate people; my job is to
hire motivated people. " My son, Steve,
the human resource specialist has a
sign on his desk that reads, " Hire for
Attitude - Then Train. " I concur. (See
Hire Happy People, CE, June 2011, p.
27). I also suggest the longest possible
training and probation periods. Do not
hesitate to release questionable trainees
during such periods.
Leopards can not change their spots.
This proverb has far-reaching consequences.
Poor technicians, engineers,
writers and speakers will never become
great ones. Do not over-spend any training
budgets. No employee is indispensable
(including you). Many companies
have survived and thrived following the
defections and retirements
of their best people. When
should somebody be released?
Consider this question,
" If we were to release
a certain person, would we
change the door locks? "
Regarding supervising,
people can not be managed
by Emails. Attend to
your Emails twice per day.
Otherwise, get out of your
office and get face-to-face. Give praise
often. For good employees, all performance
evaluations should be 80%
positive and 20% improvement possibilities.
Every day and all day, avoid
the word " I " , replacing it with " We. " Be
humble, in words and indeed.
My Six Sigma training emphasized
something that no employee should
ever forget. All employees have cusMike
Resetarits is the technical director at Fractionation
Research, Inc. (FRI; Stillwater, Okla.; www.fri.
org), a distillation research consortium. Each month,
Mike shares his first-hand experience with CE readers
tomers - internal and external. We
thrive or we fail based on their projects,
input, purchases and payments.
The best way to please them is to work
together like one big happy family.
I believe I am going to nominate
myself again next year. The November
13 Banquet was great!
■
Mike Resetarits
resetarits@fri.org
Environmental Manager
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Chemical Engineering January 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering January 2013
