16 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Monday7 October 2019

WORK & CAREERS

’

I doubt any workplace has been subject

to closer study than the cockpits of civil

aircraft. It is where workers’

relationship with complex machines

and with each other can be at its most

intense, and the consequences of

failure most catastrophic. Thanks to

flight recorders, those interactions can

be analysed in detail, as most high-

pressure decision-making cannot.

The recentrecommendations f theo

US National Transportation Safety

Board following thefatal crashes f twoo

Boeing 737 Max jets astonished me,

therefore. The NTSB identified, in the

words of its chairman, “a gap between

the assumptions used to certify the

Max and the real-world experiences” of

the ill-fated Lion Air and Ethiopian

Airlines crews. The implication was

that Boeing, and its regulator the

Federal Aviation Administration, in

designing and approving new software

for the plane had overestimated how

quickly and effectively pilots and crew

would respond to the multiple alerts

triggered by in-flight emergencies.

Probes into the two crashes are

continuing. Boeing has updated the

software linked to the accidents and is

refining its procedures and training.

But despite decades of deep analysis of

how flight crew behave under pressure,

an experienced aircraft-maker

apparently needed to be told to

reconsider its approach. I dread to

think how other less practised

organisations may be misreading how

people respond to the increased

workload and stress imposed by

technological advances.

Aviation was the birthplace of

modern ergonomics, which applies

understanding of interactions between

people and systems to the design of

those systems. The foundation stories

include that of the young US army air

force psychologistAlphonse Chapanis

who, at the height of the second world

war, realised that B-17 Flying Fortress

bombers were often crash landing

because tired pilots were confusing the

switch to control the wing flaps with

the neighbouring switch used to retract

the landing gear. What had been

judged “pilot error” was in fact a design

fault, relatively easily corrected.

I prefer the term “human factors”,

more prevalent in the US, because

skimping on ergonomics just sounds

like an excuse for having ordered a

batch of cheap office chairs. Neglect

human factors, on the other hand, and

it is pretty obvious you will be sowing

the seeds of disaster everywhere from

the boardroom downwards.

This risk is one reason the discipline

spread from aviation to other

organisations where a breakdown in

the smooth interdependence of people

and systems could be life-threatening:

nuclear plants, hospitals, carmakers,

drug manufacturers and ultimately

technology companies. As their

influence over how we live increases,

and ever more powerful robots and

algorithms are applied to bigger tasks,

so do the consequences of misreading

the human factor.

This is nota Trumpian call o reverset

technological advances.Collaborative

machines an take on drudgery andc

dangerous tasks that humans used to

carry out. But even in the controlled

space of a factory, such machines need

to be designed to react correctly to

their unpredictable flesh-and-blood

co-workers. When such technology is

introduced into the wild, the range of

potential mishaps widens and increases

the temptation among programmers

to counter variable human factors

with more technology.

Even when stationary at our desks,

the distraction of ringtones and

notifications can be overwhelming. It is

easy to imagine how, in an emergency,

multiple alerts similar to those that

may have confused or distracted the

crews of the doomed Lion Air and

Ethiopian flights could bamboozle

drivers of“semi-autonomous” vehicles,

with their “autopilot” software.

The aviation industry has been here

before. It had to go through a series of

avoidable accidents before it realised,

as late as the 1970s, that it should

mitigate the risk not just with better

engineering or more specialist training,

but with better communication

between crew members. Nowcrew

resource management, which replaced

deference to the captain with a flatter,

more open, co-operative approach, is

held up as a model for non-hierarchical

teamwork in many other domains.

Introducing its recommendations,

the NTSB pointed out that Boeing’s

highly trained test pilots were used to

trying out new products such as the

system at the centre of the 737 Max

investigations. The safety board

suggested manufacturers and

regulators should pay more attention

tohow the average pilot ould react. Iw

would like to read that as a plea to all

product developers, designers and

their bosses. Lower your sights

occasionally from the superhuman

feats that technology enables and

consider how to take better account of

the average humans who should be at

the core of everything you do.

[email protected]

Twitter:@andrewtghill

I dread to think

how organisations

are misreading the

way people

respond to the

increased stress of

technology

The human

factors that no

company

should ignore

Andrew Hill

Onmanagement

‘

W

hen Jess Stone tells peo-

ple she is training to

become an engineer,

they often reply that she

does not look like the

kind of person who would “fix a boiler”.

The 23-year-old who works at Filton

in Bristol for aerospace company Air-

bus, says:“There’s a bit of a misunder-

standing around the term engineer. O ily

overalls? These ideas are so outdated.”

From the steam engine to the turbojet

engine, British engineering has trans-

formed the world. But its workforce has

been slower to change. While 47 per

cent of the UK workforce is female, the

figure for those working in core engi-

neering occupations is just12 per cent.

In engineering businesses, it is only 9.

per cent, according to Engineering UK,

which promotes engineering.

“Times have changed. There has been

progress but it’s still a male bastion,”

says Margaret Craddock, 58, who has

spent 33 years in the sector.

She recalls ne eager salesman visit-o

ing her site office 30 years ago and ask-

ing her, when she was the co-owner of a

machinery business: “Is there anybody

important here?”Recently, she has

heard men ask women in the sector “Are

you a real engineer?”

In her current role as BatchLine Divi-

sion lead with Dyer Engineering, afabri-

cation and machining business in

County Durham, she comes across a lot

of women in engineering purchasing

departments.

“But when you get to welding and

machining, it’s a harsh environment. It’s

noisy, it’s dangerous,” she says. There

are stillsome all-male engineering

companies, she says. Toilet facilities

for women on the shop floor are

relatively rare.

Project engineer Sam Knox, who

spent seven years in the North Sea oil

industry, has had to raise issues uchs

as the disposal of sanitary products.

“People got quite embarrassed and

flustered; it’s the attitude of people

who are only used to addressing people

as gents or lads.”

With a etiring workforce and tech-r

nology creating new opportunities,

engineering in Britain is suffering from

severe skills shortages and new blood is

urgently needed. According to Engi-

neering UK’s 2018 report, the sector has

an annual demand for 124,000 engi-

neers and technicians with core engi-

neering skills, but faces a shortfall of up

to 59,000 a year.

Engineering offers exciting prospects

and fascinating work.“I really enjoy the

technical challenges,” says Emilie Weav-

ing, a 27-year-old mechanical develop-

ment engineer working for construction

equipment manufacturer JCB inDerby.

Salaries are also good. According to

Engineering UK, graduates with an

engineering and technology degree had

an average starting salary of £25,607 —

above the all-subject average of £21,719.

Despite recruits like Ms Weaving and

Ms Stone,the lack of diversity in UK

engineering — which is also reflected in

the low intake of people from black,

Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds

— is a oncern for the sectorc. Diversity of

all types matters n order to boost crea-i

tivity and relevance.

“If you have a group of people work-

ing on a project and they don’t all

think the same way you’re going to have

better ideas,” says Lorna Bennet, a 30-

year-old mechanical engineer with

Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, a

Scotland-based technology innovation

and research centre for offshore renew-

able energy.

When it comes to international com-

parisons, the UK scores poorly. Accord-

ing to Hayaatun Sillem, chief executive

of the Royal Academy of Engineering,

it “has the lowest proportion of female

professional engineers of any European

country”.

Keen to address skills shortages and

increase diversity, engineering bodies

have responded with campaignsto

encourage more women to choose Stem

subjects — science, technology, engi-

neering and maths — at school, college

and university. Girls make up only 22

per cent f entrants nationally foro

A-level physics, an important gateway

subject.

Hilary Leevers, chief executive of

Engineering UK, says female underrep-

resentation is largely due o girls drop-t

ping out of educational pathways at

every decision point, despite perform-

ingas well as boys in Stem subjects.

“Girls are less likely than boys to know

what engineers do, to have a positive

view of the industry and to think they

could become an engineer if they

wanted to,” she adds. “We need to

change that.” Messaging also needs

careful handling, lest it makes engineer-

ing sound lonely for women, argues

Emma Curry,a35-year-old senior engi-

neer with Penspen, an oil and gascon-

sultancy in ewcastle.N

There are some signs of progress. The

number of women registering with the

Engineering Council, the professional

regulatory body, has risen from 9.3 per

cent, in 2014, to 11.4 per cent in 2018.

Further education colleges are trying

to encourage girls. Newcastle College,

for example, has 16 women mong 300a

students at its energy academy, plus two

female apprentices. At its rail academy,

it has five female apprentices and 12

female students out of 170. Among them

is 19-year-old Tia Jones who has tarteds

a rail engineering foundation degree.

“Sometimes you feel you have to work

harder to prove yourself,” she says.

Apart from old-fashioned attitudes

among parents and the wider popula-

tion, poor careers guidance is an issue.

So too is the UK’s tendency to rate aca-

demic education over vocational routes.

The question remains whether the gov-

ernment’s plans to introduce the first

“T-levels” in 2020, designed to reform

and boost technical qualifications, will

raise engineering’s status.

Ms Stone was happy to opt for an

undergraduate engineering apprentice-

ship, hich gives her a debt-free aero-w

space engineering degree,technical and

practical work skills, a salary and a

career with a major employer. And she

is enthusiasticabout the outreach she

does to encourage young women into

engineering. The only woman among 15

men inher team, she hasnot encoun-

tered negative attitudes at work.

Ms Bennet says she has only ever

experienced respect from male col-

leagues. The only issuehas been the pro-

tective clothing. The Women’s Engi-

neering Society award winner adds:

“The first overalls I got, the shoulders

came up over the top of my ears.”

However, some women report bias.

An experienced female engineer in

manufacturing told the FT she iswor-

ried about her chances of promotion

because thechallenging projects are

regularly assigned to male colleagues.

Ms Curry left one job because the bully-

ing of women by one man went

unchecked by management.

Dawn Bonfield, the Royal Academy of

Engineering’s visiting professor of inclu-

sive engineering at Aston University,

talks of “micro-inequalities” — small

but cumulative in impact. These

include all-male terminology, women

being spoken over in meetings or their

ideas ignored. Women, she says, may

be called “bossy”, while “men will be

called assertive”.

Such attitudes may have an impact on

retention.A 2017 report from the Insti-

tution of Mechanical Engineers said that

within a few years of gaining an engi-

neering degree, just under half of UK

female engineering graduates were

leaving the profession. Two-thirds of

male engineers remained.

This is a huge waste of women’s poten-

tial — after all, they obtain more first

class degrees than men. “All the females

I’ve met and worked with are very

strong characters,” says Mrs Craddock.

And Ms Stone agrees. “You wouldn’t

argue with a female engineer.”

Women flourish in engineering — but

numbers remain stubbornly low

Female engineers report

overwhelmingly positive

experiences, but

workplaces are still very

male. ByChris Tighe

Margaret

Craddock, who

works for Dyer

Engineering,

says that despite

progress over

the years she

still encounters

sexist attitudes

Mark Pinder/FT

‘Girls are less likely

than boys to know what

engineers do and to think

they could become one’

Working Lives

This week’s problem

I am doing a degree

apprenticeship in fund

administration, but seeing my

friendsbeginning university I

am struggling to get to grips

with working life. My job is

unfulfilling and I fear I will not

have transferable skills if I

wish to switch to a different

role in finance. Should I stick

it out for the remaining three

years or transfer to full-time

education?Male, 19

Jonathan’s answer

At 19, a year can feel along

time. It is more than five per

cent of your life so far. You

may benefit from some

patience t this stage. Whilea

there is considerable effort

encouraging students along

the path from school and

college to the workplace,

there is scant support for the

adjustments needed. You

have discovered that the

workplace is different from

school: it is not as exciting as

when first sold to you,

perhaps some of the work is

more routine than you

expected, and there are new

(and unwritten) rules to learn.

As well as learning more

about working life, you are

well placed to gain new skills.

You are developing a view of

where you want to be in three

to five years’ time, perhaps

with a different role in

finance,so work out what

skills you are going to need

and plot how to get those.

You could offer to volunteer

for specific activities, ask

about training courses, seek

out mentors, or explore

getting a secondment to

another department. If,

despite all this enthusiasm,

your employer is not giving

you some of these

opportunities,seek advice

and, as a last resort, maybe

start looking to transfer.

Before you consider

moving to a different track,

recall why you made the

decision o do this degreet

apprenticeship. At the time,

you made the best decision

on the information available:

aside from hearing stories

from friends, assess if

anything fundamentally has

changed, or whether you

have essential new

information.

In his bookThe Sickness

Unto Death, Danish

philosopher Soren

Kierkegaard asserted that

envy can be a more

productive emotion than

admiration. Your benign envy

of your friends can feel

frustrating, but also motivate

you to improve yourself. ielsN

van de Ven and his

colleagues at Tilburg School

of Economics and

Management in the

Netherlands, confirmed this

in four studies here theyw

found that those students

who felt they could emulate a

colleague’s achievements had

a strong benign envy (rather

than just admiration) and

were motivated to work

harder and succeed.

The next step is to take the

opportunity to define those

aspects of your friends’

university experiences that

you envy. Decide which of

these are important to you

that you are missing. Then

see how to fill the gaps from

within your current

employment.

Have patience to stay the

course: at the end of three

years, you will have a

qualification, and real-world

work experience giving you

good opportunities for career

progression, as well as money

from earnings and no student

debt.

FT Readers respond

If your company is one that

has the possibility to

progress, I would stay and

complete some professional

qualifications. You will be

surprised how strong your

hard and soft skills will be

compared to your post-grad

friends.TTR

If you want fulfilment go

find a good career

counsellor and find out what

your core competencies are

but be prepared to shift

your expectations of life and

the definition of success.

Oldsmoker

Next problem

I have worked in a boutique

consultancy since I graduated

two years ago. The job is

engaging, makes good use of

my degree and the company

is supportive and relaxed.

However, the pay at all levels

is well below the industry

average. I feel I am being

lulled into a soporific state by

the niceness of it all. Should I

consider working somewhere

more demanding? Or am I

looking a gift horse in the

mouth?Male, 20s

Jonathan Black is director

of the Careers Service at

the University of Oxford.

Every fortnight he answers

your questions on personal

and career development

and working life. Do you

have a question for

Jonathan?

Email him at

[email protected]

Add your answers to

readers’ problems at

ft.com/jonathan-black

Dear Jonathan

YOUR QUESTION FOR OUR EXPERT — AND READERS’ ADVICE

Do I finish my

apprenticeship

or move to

a full-time

degree?

OCTOBER 7 2019 Section:Features Time: 6/10/2019- 17:19 User:nicola.davison Page Name:CAREERS1, Part,Page,Edition:EUR, 16, 1