Well said Cortland, my old friend. I also wish to compliment John Allen on his ethical stance. In my 40+ years of EMC, I have few experiences with the military side of things, so cannot comment, but I am encouraged by your willingness to speak out. Our field of endeavor is based on metrology and integrity. May we all do our best.
Brent DeWitt -----Original Message----- From: Cortland Richmond [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2016 1:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] Practical ethics? -- text version On 12/27/2016 10:39 AM, John Allen wrote: > in the wider context, this sort of thing can place a great strain on > the ethics of the guy in the middle who understands what actually > needs to be done and speaks his mind , Here we come to the crux of the matter. It is an organization's corporate culture that determines how ethical it will be, and it's all too common that organizations don't give a hoot about ethics. When convenience, economy, speed and the next promotion become more important than quality, shortcuts become more common than preparing for the work, and small lapses of ethical practice may be excused with "we can make up for it later" -- leading to worse ones. At one time, statistical quality control tests were required in EMC -- my first job was doing this for TEMPEST, VDE 0871 and FCC Part 15 -- and this not only finds things gone wrong, it can led to interesting telephone calls such as a Chinese factory manager screaming at me around midnight his time, "How come you shut down my factory?!?" That one wasn't TEMPEST -- but I've a couple of stories about that too. There's a what, 50 years? timeline before I can tell 'em, and it won't be up for quite a while. In general, no one wants to pay up front to avoid problems later -- but I've seen the frenzy that can result from that approach. So, on a larger stage, has the world, after just one person wanting to save $100 a day ended up costing maybe $100 MILLION over the long term. Whoops. https://www.rt.com/usa/332225-flint-water-crisis-failures-interview/ Cortland Richmond - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]> --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
