Marilyn Hallis, a file clerk at San Francisco engineering firm WernerSpitlin, saved the company last Friday by whispering in the ear of a mechanical engineer.
“Mechanical engineers are unruly, undisciplined, and subject to random acts of irrational behavior,” says Porter Mitzfeld, president of the Engineering Club of America. “Once you’ve lost control of them it’s almost impossible to get it back.
At noon on September 15, all 240 of the company’s mechanical engineers, led by 23-year employee James Stokes, stopped working at 12:10 PM. They said they’d resume only when the company agreed to install an updated version of the Pantlick 23 computerized engineering upload system.
They marched through the building, chanting their demand: “There’ll be no more work from me, ‘til I get Pantlick 23!”
Meanwhile, the company faced a 3 PM deadline for the Parkinson Project – a billion dollar housing development providing 88 percent of the company’s revenue through 2021. The company needed to meet the deadline to keep the account and stay in business.
At 1:55, as Ms. Hallis was eating her tuna sandwich in the cafeteria, the chanting group made its way through – followed by 17 VPs pleading for them to come to their senses. Ms Hallis got up and approached Mr. Stokes .
“I still don’t know what made me do it,” she says. “I’d never whispered to a mechanical engineer before.” Hallis won’t divulge what she whispered – but Stokes immediately stopped the line, the engineers returned to their workstations, and the deadline was met.
For saving the company, Ms. Hallis was awarded a mouse pad autographed by CEO Marian Alexander.
