In college we were told over and over again that good communication skills were imperative to success as engineers. This was realy driven home when I started work for a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Unfortunately, there was an impending strike when I started in the dynamometer lab. The union members were all on edge and looking for ways to "get back" at managment, including those of us in the trenches with them. One particular engineer that I worked with was known for his inability to communicate well. After a long day of turbocharger sizing on his dyn engine, he left a note for the second shift technician. It read: "Remove the turbo from the engine and install the turbo on the bench". Given the sour attitude that prevailed amongst the techs at the time, you can imagine what the engineer found when he entered the dyn room next morning. Sure enough, the tech had removed the turbo from the engine and bolted it securly to the bench, right next to the brand new turbo to be tested that day. When he complained, the engineer was told he'd have to wait in line for service since the tech had done exactly what was written on the request.