It never occurred to me that it would be possible to change specialization of a specialist, only because you paid his or her salary. After all, one spends the prescribed time getting a basic degree. Then one spends some more time getting advanced education in a subject of one’s interest. The idea is that one will be do advanced work in that field that a person with a basic degree cannot, and achieve something that will benefit mankind in some way.
The civic body seems to think otherwise. I learned about it quite accidentally. I have to interact with engineers of the civic body for procurement of new equipment and repair of existing equipment. I am aware that there are civil engineers, electrical engineers and electronic engineers. There are lots of other types of engineers out there, but the civic body probably does not need them in the hospital. One day one electronic engineer ceased to be seen. I asked what happened to him, and heard that he was posted in the water department. Then his boss got promoted as a ward officer, and another engineer came in his place.
“Where was he before?” I asked them when I realized he did not know electronics much.
“He was in the sewage processing department” came the answer.
“How come you people do not work in the area of your specialization?” I asked incredulously.
“We have a common seniority list. Whenever there is a vacancy anywhere, the next person in the list gets promoted, irrespective of his specialty” I was told.
“But that is like sending a gynecologist to work in the orthopedics because there is a vacancy there and he in the next person in the seniority list” I said.
“Perhaps it is different in the medical line” he said. “But that is how it is for engineers in the civic institutes.”
I related this to a friend.
“It is simple. The engineers have to move papers, not actually do any work. The work is done by contractors. So it does not matter if one does not know what it is all about. The knowledge acquired while obtaining the basic degree is adequate, and one can learn on the fly from juniors who know all about it if they are from that specialty.”
