Message from the Director: Getting Stuck

Getting stuck

One of my first jobs using engineering skills was as a pipeline construction inspector during the construction of Auburn’s wastewater treatment plants in the mid-1980s. New pipelines were needed to connect the city’s existing sewer system to the new treatment plants. The job mostly involved ensuring the crews used the correct pipes, followed proper construction methods, and installed the pipes at the correct elevation and slopes.

The pipelines typically paralleled creeks in wooded areas outside of town. Working outdoors had its challenges, ranging from subfreezing winter days to pouring rain, smothering humidity, and triple-digit heat. Just getting to the pipelines was sometimes an adventure in itself. My work vehicle was a four-wheel drive Blazer, which was essential for navigating down the long, rough paths through the woods to the pipelines. I use the word “paths” because they were not properly built roads; they were just cleared paths to get equipment, pipe trucks, and dump trucks for bedding stone to the pipeline.

After the rain, those trails became muddy obstacle courses for the Blazer and me. It was a thrilling off-road quest – until it wasn’t. Getting bogged down in a slippery red soup was the opposite of fun. Fortunately, I knew that if I hiked down to the crew, I could get the loader to come attach a chain to my Blazer and pull me out.

These days, I don’t need a four-wheel drive to do my job. But, occasionally, I still get stuck. Metaphorically stuck, that is. I get stuck on tasks in a project, and the wheels start spinning. Progress stalls. Sometimes, it's too many little things that seem to get in the way of working on the bigger things that the organization needs to do, like ruts and bumps that keep the tires from moving forward.

Most of the time, getting unstuck begins with asking for help. I’m lucky to have a great team working with me to help me figure out where to attach the chain and start pulling.

Everyone needs a little help now and then, and most people find joy in helping others. So, whether you are knee-deep in metaphorical mud or trying to navigate through a problem that feels more like a washed-out trail than a paved road, ask for help. And if you have the good chain and power to pull, be the kind colleague to help tow a coworker back to solid ground.

Randy C. West, Ph.D., P.E. | Director and Research Professor