You can find 2008's post here.
And darn - it was such a good post. I don't know if this one will stack up, probably because 2009 wasn't as good of a year as 2008 was. The things that stand out about 2009 tend to be negative and the days I remember most from this year are somewhat depressing.
Rundown of 2009:
-Got home to Washington and immediately missed living in South Carolina. Missing the South was probably on my mind until I found out it in April that we would be returning (and this is where I write from now).
-Shorted the market after the initial crash in October 2008 until around Dow 7600 in Q1. That's when I started buying. All the way down to Dow 6500. I seriously told people we were going there - I just didn't know we would actually make it. The problem? I started selling on the way up and got rid of 80% of what I owned by Dow 8800. Always always early. Never letting enough of it run.
-Basketball. Memories of my college days came flashing back to me. Suddenly I had access to an indoor, full court hard wood basketball gym. For about 9 months it was my own personal sanctuary and I lived there for at least 5 hours a week. Which is a lot more basketball than I had been playing since I had left college. In turn, my game has improved. Started my own basketball team in the spring. I've always been part of basketball teams in the past - but never formed them.
-Laid off from my first "real job". After 4 and a half years. Received the announcement a day before my birthday. Received a nice severance, went on unemployment for the first time, worked as a contractor for the first time and then was quickly let go. Since I turned 16, I've never been unemployed for longer than 3 months. I might break that record here pretty soon.
-Drove back across the country to South Carolina. Saw most of Chicago. Loved it. Took a much needed cruise in the Caribbean and actually found some time to relax.
So let's see what I did and did not accomplish based off of my resolution's for 2009:
-Start my MBA: My excuse was that I wasn't going to be home for the start of Fall quarter so I didn't apply.
-Be more like Batman: Definitely am more rich than I ever have been in the past. No martial arts training. No motorcycle lessons either. 1/3 points on that one.
-2 nights of vomiting due to drunkeness: Success! I only threw up once this year and that was due to seasickness. Although the feeling is very similar.
-Sports related resolutions: Mid range jumper: Worked on. Golf: Worked on. Raquetball: Not played (fail). Silvertips or Storm game: Had the chance, didn't go. Fail. 2/4 points.
-Be less cheap: Really? I thought I could put this on this year's resolution. To be completely honest I was more stingy in 2009 than I was in 2008. It's definitely getting worse. Failure.
-Pray more: There were some weeks that I would pray 3-4 times during the week. That's a lot for me, considering I hardly did any of it in 2008. I believe it really has helped my life.
-Experience more outside my comfort zone: Nope.
-Go to Vegas: Played in the WSOP with my dad! Awesome time, unfortunately we came home with less than we brought. But finally being back after such a long hiatus was perfect.
After going through all of these, I think I had too many resolutions for myself. So many that I forgot about some of them which is why I failed. Yes, I don't go back and read my posts, my new year's resolutions are usually just mental notes I hold on to throughout the year and sometimes they just don't stick.
So 2010...and new decade, here I come. I resolve to do (or try):
-Write less/higher quality posts. Somewhere along the line I thought that having 4 posts a month was a good idea. It's not. There were at least 4 months (this month included) where I'd look up and realize I had at least 2 more posts to write for that month with only a few days left. Then I felt forced to write and the stuff I put up I typically wasn't happy with. I was forcing it and I think it showed. Expect probably 20ish posts for 2010.
-Get a job, pay off our home equity line of credit.
-Put on some bulk. Sadly, I've had a skinny complex since I hit puberty. I'm wiry, I'm a stick, I get pushed around by guys with weight. As I sit right now I'm currently 190 lbs, and believe it or not, that's "filled out" in comparison to how I used to look 10 years ago. I'd like to gain 10 lbs of muscle and plan to do so by upping my protein intake and lifting more than I have been over the past few years. Included within this goal is the ability to do 10 pull ups in a row. I can currently do 4.
-Start preventative care/remove all notions of invincibility. I've read that around the age of 28 (which is what I will be turning in 2010) our bodies turn the corner and start getting worse. I've seen plenty of people in the baby boomer generation that live every day with pain. That's now how I want to be in 20-30 years. Sure, it's bound to happen (assuming no major medical breakthroughs) but I can do my best now by starting to take better care of myself now.
-Have faith. I worry way too much about too many things that are out of my control. I need to work on letting things go their course and have faith that things will either work out in my favor or just weren't meant to be (or happen to teach me a lesson). Faith in myself, my relationships, my world.
A lot has happened in the past decade. Everything can change in 10 years. In fact, I would be surprised if I was still sitting on a couch writing like this 10 years from now. Hopefully I'll be around to see.
Happy new year everyone.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
A Vacation 30 Years In the Making
Not really 30 years...but that's what we were celebrating.
Happy 30th wedding anniversary mom and dad.
It was actually about a year in the making. My parents mentioned to me last December (or possibly sometime before or after that) that they wanted to take us all on a cruise for their 30th wedding anniversary.
Looking back on that - I thought it would be great. I thought it'd be great to take a much needed break at the end of the year - and I had it all planned out. By this past March I already had the vacation scheduled.
And then things changed.
Luckily, the date of my parent's anniversary doesn't change. And their plans to go on this cruise with their family didn't change either.
I wouldn't call it the greatest vacation I've ever taken - but it was definitely an experience.
We drove to Fort Lauderdale to board the Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. It was an 8 day cruise with 4 of those days being at sea. We ported in St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and Labadee.
Highlights from the cruise:
-Since it was stormy in Florida when we left the waves were a bit rocky for the first 3 days at sea. It took almost the entire family a day and a half to get our sea legs. Some of us even longer. The wife was in bed for basically 2 whole days - it's like the spinning drunkenness that never ends. Nor can you get off.
Our first morning on the cruise my sister's boyfriend and I thought it would be a good idea to go lift some weights. Seeing as how I was already a bit sea sick - massive exertion of energy didn't help matters. I was running to the nearest...toilet - sink, anything I could find. Luckily I was able to hold it until I got back to my estate room.
My sister wasn't so lucky. After my feeble attempt at a workout, we decided to go grab some breakfast at what would be the running joke of the entire cruise: The all day (From 6 am to 11 pm) buffet, "Windjammer". It was basically a step up from the OCB. And for those that don't know - I am a huge fan of buffets, but only once every 2-3 months. Not 2-3 times a day...sometimes 4.
You know when you eat at a buffet and everything starts to taste the same? That happened to me by lunch time on the 2nd day of the cruise.
That breakfast though was one of the hardest things I've ever done. While I was eating I was looking at my sister across the table who looked as pale as a zombie. She wasn't eating and I knew why - anything she tried to put down would immediately come back up. And I guess even without putting anything down things did start to come back up.
We grabbed some cups for her to yak in to. I don't think many people can say they were eating a buffet breakfast while watching one of their loved ones barf in to a cup across from them. I did.
And the worst part of it was that after filling roughly 3 cups full of her nastiness, she spilled one of them on the table. It looked like there was a yoke floating around in it's slimy terribleness. Then who was right on our tail to clean up the mess? A poor Windjammer employee - probably wondering why he ever left his 3rd world country for this.
-There were other free options for food which were all decent. There was a place called Sorrento's which had pizza and they had a cafe which served small sandwiches. Every night we'd go to the formal dining area for our 3 course meals (sometimes 5 or 6 courses). I was amazed that I could order multiple appetizers, entrees and desserts. It only took a few days to stretch my stomach out (I gained 8 lbs in 9 days).
-We didn't do much on the ship for the first 2 days. It felt a bit like a floating prison but with better food and better beds (I've never been in prison before). That is, until we found the activities list. Every day there were sports tournaments (volleyball, dodgeball, ping pong, basketball, golf) a belly flop contest, trivia was held every 5 hours, there was a ship wide scavenger hunt. And unfortunately for us we didn't really start getting involved in those activities until around day 4. If I had to do it all over again I'd start with the activities immediately.
-The first port that we stopped in was St. Maarten. Everyone was so happy that the boat had stopped that all we wanted to do was lay on the beach. St. Maarten is interesting because the island is split with a French side and a Dutch side. We were taxied to the Orient beach on the French side which included a nudist colony. Unfortunately just like other nudist resorts, 95% of the people that were in the buff probably should not have been. One woman I saw laying down on the beach, I couldn't tell where her breasts stopped and the next of 4 fat rolls began. I saw a Peter Griffin too - a guy with such a fat belly that it hung down over his manhood. He obviously didn't need swimming trunks either.
-The next port we stopped at was St. Thomas. Downtown was just a mess of jewelry stores. I don't think I've ever seen that many stores that sold diamonds in one place before. The only other business I saw downtown was a hooters (obviously) and that was it. After paying an arm and a leg the day before for a taxi ride to and from the beach ($120) I haggled with a taxi in St. Thomas and got twice as long of a ride for 1/3rd the cost. I don't know why I didn't apply my haggling skills the day before.
The taxi drove us from downtown to Megan's Bay lookout (My description doesn't do it justice) and then to Coki beach. No nudity this time, but one of the best beaches I've ever been to.
-The next 2 ports we stopped in were Puerto Rico and Labadee. We walked all of old San Juan Puerto Rico and got ourselves some headaches for lunch at Senor Frogs. Labadee was basically a port made specifically for the cruise lines. It was a beach that Royal Caribbean had purchased from the Haitians and you could tell. Everything was man made and it all felt very fake. In my opinion it was an unfortunate way to end the port stops, but then again we had some of the best cruise provided food (BBQ on the beach) the entire week there.
Overall we all had a good time on the cruise. I'm not sure if I would do it again any time soon, and if I did I'd probably find a cruise with a lot less days at sea (we spent almost half the cruise at sea). Most importantly I got in a lot of quality time with my family which is definitely what I needed. Last year I didn't miss my family as much as I do this year. I blame it on the weather down here (almost as cold as it is in Seattle) and also already being familiar with a lot of things in Charleston.
While we were on the cruise my mom kept mentioning how they had gone to all of these islands 20 years ago. I kept thinking how crazy it would be for us to return in another 20 years. We just might.
Happy 30th wedding anniversary mom and dad.
It was actually about a year in the making. My parents mentioned to me last December (or possibly sometime before or after that) that they wanted to take us all on a cruise for their 30th wedding anniversary.
Looking back on that - I thought it would be great. I thought it'd be great to take a much needed break at the end of the year - and I had it all planned out. By this past March I already had the vacation scheduled.
And then things changed.
Luckily, the date of my parent's anniversary doesn't change. And their plans to go on this cruise with their family didn't change either.
I wouldn't call it the greatest vacation I've ever taken - but it was definitely an experience.
We drove to Fort Lauderdale to board the Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. It was an 8 day cruise with 4 of those days being at sea. We ported in St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and Labadee.
Highlights from the cruise:
-Since it was stormy in Florida when we left the waves were a bit rocky for the first 3 days at sea. It took almost the entire family a day and a half to get our sea legs. Some of us even longer. The wife was in bed for basically 2 whole days - it's like the spinning drunkenness that never ends. Nor can you get off.
Our first morning on the cruise my sister's boyfriend and I thought it would be a good idea to go lift some weights. Seeing as how I was already a bit sea sick - massive exertion of energy didn't help matters. I was running to the nearest...toilet - sink, anything I could find. Luckily I was able to hold it until I got back to my estate room.
My sister wasn't so lucky. After my feeble attempt at a workout, we decided to go grab some breakfast at what would be the running joke of the entire cruise: The all day (From 6 am to 11 pm) buffet, "Windjammer". It was basically a step up from the OCB. And for those that don't know - I am a huge fan of buffets, but only once every 2-3 months. Not 2-3 times a day...sometimes 4.
You know when you eat at a buffet and everything starts to taste the same? That happened to me by lunch time on the 2nd day of the cruise.
That breakfast though was one of the hardest things I've ever done. While I was eating I was looking at my sister across the table who looked as pale as a zombie. She wasn't eating and I knew why - anything she tried to put down would immediately come back up. And I guess even without putting anything down things did start to come back up.
We grabbed some cups for her to yak in to. I don't think many people can say they were eating a buffet breakfast while watching one of their loved ones barf in to a cup across from them. I did.
And the worst part of it was that after filling roughly 3 cups full of her nastiness, she spilled one of them on the table. It looked like there was a yoke floating around in it's slimy terribleness. Then who was right on our tail to clean up the mess? A poor Windjammer employee - probably wondering why he ever left his 3rd world country for this.
-There were other free options for food which were all decent. There was a place called Sorrento's which had pizza and they had a cafe which served small sandwiches. Every night we'd go to the formal dining area for our 3 course meals (sometimes 5 or 6 courses). I was amazed that I could order multiple appetizers, entrees and desserts. It only took a few days to stretch my stomach out (I gained 8 lbs in 9 days).
-We didn't do much on the ship for the first 2 days. It felt a bit like a floating prison but with better food and better beds (I've never been in prison before). That is, until we found the activities list. Every day there were sports tournaments (volleyball, dodgeball, ping pong, basketball, golf) a belly flop contest, trivia was held every 5 hours, there was a ship wide scavenger hunt. And unfortunately for us we didn't really start getting involved in those activities until around day 4. If I had to do it all over again I'd start with the activities immediately.
-The first port that we stopped in was St. Maarten. Everyone was so happy that the boat had stopped that all we wanted to do was lay on the beach. St. Maarten is interesting because the island is split with a French side and a Dutch side. We were taxied to the Orient beach on the French side which included a nudist colony. Unfortunately just like other nudist resorts, 95% of the people that were in the buff probably should not have been. One woman I saw laying down on the beach, I couldn't tell where her breasts stopped and the next of 4 fat rolls began. I saw a Peter Griffin too - a guy with such a fat belly that it hung down over his manhood. He obviously didn't need swimming trunks either.
-The next port we stopped at was St. Thomas. Downtown was just a mess of jewelry stores. I don't think I've ever seen that many stores that sold diamonds in one place before. The only other business I saw downtown was a hooters (obviously) and that was it. After paying an arm and a leg the day before for a taxi ride to and from the beach ($120) I haggled with a taxi in St. Thomas and got twice as long of a ride for 1/3rd the cost. I don't know why I didn't apply my haggling skills the day before.
The taxi drove us from downtown to Megan's Bay lookout (My description doesn't do it justice) and then to Coki beach. No nudity this time, but one of the best beaches I've ever been to.
-The next 2 ports we stopped in were Puerto Rico and Labadee. We walked all of old San Juan Puerto Rico and got ourselves some headaches for lunch at Senor Frogs. Labadee was basically a port made specifically for the cruise lines. It was a beach that Royal Caribbean had purchased from the Haitians and you could tell. Everything was man made and it all felt very fake. In my opinion it was an unfortunate way to end the port stops, but then again we had some of the best cruise provided food (BBQ on the beach) the entire week there.
Overall we all had a good time on the cruise. I'm not sure if I would do it again any time soon, and if I did I'd probably find a cruise with a lot less days at sea (we spent almost half the cruise at sea). Most importantly I got in a lot of quality time with my family which is definitely what I needed. Last year I didn't miss my family as much as I do this year. I blame it on the weather down here (almost as cold as it is in Seattle) and also already being familiar with a lot of things in Charleston.
While we were on the cruise my mom kept mentioning how they had gone to all of these islands 20 years ago. I kept thinking how crazy it would be for us to return in another 20 years. We just might.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Didn't Want To
...have to write this post.
But maybe it'll help me get it off my mind.
22 days ago (I'm amazed it's been that long, but I was on vacation for 18 of them) I was "let go" (I refuse to use the term "fired" as it was never mentioned to me when they "let me go") from Boeing Charleston.
Started on the 18th of September. Ended on the 4th of December.
It's really bothered me for a few reasons. One being that I made more money in those 2 and a half months than I ever have in any previous job (sans my pops in both poker and the stock market). Not only did I get paid really well, but I honestly did enjoy the work I was doing. Every day I was learning something and new problems were always being brought to my attention. I (thought) I had the power to go out and solve problems - turns out maybe I didn't.
Also, because a lot of people I know (who I consider friends) currently work for Boeing. Even the wife works for the same program I was working for and talks to a lot of the same people on a daily basis that I was training. Today she was frustrated with an issue that I was trying to fix. I feel vindicated because not only has the problem that I could have resolved within a couple weeks (by now) not been fixed, it's doubled in size.
Finally, the way I was "let go" was unethical. Because I was working as a contractor for them, they could get rid of me for any reason. And in my opinion they saw an opportunity and took it.
I wrote this email to my friends the day I was let go to explain as to why it occurred:
1) I was written an email on Tuesday from my manager which said they were cutting my overtime to 10 hours a week. I told them I couldn’t do my job in that amount of time. For the past 5 weeks I had been averaging at least 60 hours a week (sometimes working over 70). And I knew a lot of people there that were there to pick up a paycheck. So many people just sitting around chatting on gmail and checking their facebook/fantasy football teams. Everyone saying, "That isn't my job. That wasn't me. Every job was my job - I was willing to do it all. I worked through my lunches. I'd stop working in the office because people told me to go home, just to log in from home. I saw so many opportunities where work needed to be done that I felt like I could stay in this work environment for years and I still wouldn't be happy with how good the operation was.
2) My job was to provide metrics in regards to part shortages to the airplanes. Other than that, no one ever told me what my job was (EXTREMELY poor management). In the system that I built my metrics off of we had the ability to provide reason codes as to why a specific part was short. Our parts buyers were assigning parts to our engineers, meaning that the reason that the part was short was due to a problem in engineering – the only problem was that our engineers didn’t have access to the system. So once the part had been "fixed", no one (but me at this point) could take the assignment of the part away from the engineers. I brought this problem to management and they told me to create a list of parts that our engineers could work and that I would do the work in the system for them (This work alone was 50 hours a week in itself - providing status for 150 parts a day and working with at least 6 different engineers is time consuming). For 2 weeks I sent this list to our engineers and got no response. Finally I went back to an engineering manager (not my manager) who told me to go talk to the engineers that could do the work for me. I did that at the beginning of this week. The engineers were very receptive (seemingly) and were willing to work my list of parts (which took higher priority than anything else they were working on). On Wednesday I started to get responses from my engineers on parts which I then updated in the system in regards to their status. Yesterday I met with my manager again after working 14 hours on Wednesday from the list and said, “I can’t do this on my own. Either get someone to help me or let me work the overtime.” They told me no go.
2a) In a standard work environment, a manager tells an employee what needs to be done. This was done in my situation. In a standard work environment an employee might possibly question management's decision and ask for explanation as to why the decision was made. Management in this situation will provide a logical response (we would think) and the the employee would abide by the change. If the employee did not then that would be grounds for firing. In my situation I brought up the question as to why I could not continue working this overtime and was in turn "let go".
3) Today I was pulled aside and told that it was completely unacceptable to work those hours and that I had overstepped my bounds in regards to my job. It was my job to run the metrics and nothing else. It wasn’t my job to “manage” the engineers even though management had originally directed me down that path.
4) The day before I was let go I was involved in a non-advocate review. This is where another department from Boeing comes in and judges the performance of your department and then provides suggestions for improvement. One of the most shocking things for me was that when I looked around the room at the people that were being interviewed in this review - they were all-stars from the other departments I had worked with. And there I was too - only 2 months in. I was told to "tell the truth" and I did. To put it kindly, I ripped the program a new one. Communication within the entire organization was the worst I've ever seen. Everyone played the blame game, pointing fingers at each other instead of working together. Not only between departments, but even within departments. The systems were complete garbage. When I mentioned to the review board that I had roughly 70% confidence in the data that I was working with their mouths dropped. I knew that people were manipulating the data to make themselves look good and I let them know (looking back on this now this is another reason I was let go - someone has to tell the truth at some point though). In my opinion to even have a chance at doing something as specialized as building airplanes you have to have 98% certainty or better in your data. And finally, there was no training. It was a fly by the seat of your pants environment where we were changing and creating work flows on a weekly basis. And people were so damn scared to screw up and get fired (obviously) that they never asked questions and therefore never did things right. During the 2 months I was there, I was the 6th person to either be fired or relocated - just within my own department of probably 40 people. If that isn't a recipe for disaster I don't know what is.
So, I am sure by Friday word from the non-advocate review team had gotten around to my management team which is another reason they probably let me go. Again, completely unethical in my eyes - you don't shoot the messenger for providing you bad news.
5) On Wednesday I wrote to everyone that I would be leaving for vacation next Friday. Seeing as how I don’t get paid while I was on vacation I had asked my manager if any hours of OT I had been working could be rolled to straight time for the weeks I was going to be gone. Looking back on this now I’m thinking that the vacation may have been part of it.
*big breath*
So that's where I stand (sit) right now. Once again jobless. And a complete 180 from the last time I lost my job - where I was given 4 months notice and then paid a nice severance to see me on my way. This "letting go" was completely unexpected and the only thing I received was my last paycheck while I cruised off to the Caribbean.
The dilemma for me is that I saved almost every dollar that I earned during those 2+ months. And the amount of money that I earned was equal to almost a full year's salary in my previous position. So, it's kind of tough for me right now to be diving in to a job search because: 1) We'll probably be heading back to Seattle now once the wife's contract is up 2) I don't need money (seriously) from a job for the next 6-9 months (or up to 2 years if really need be).
I learned a few things though during my time contracting: 1) Getting paid as a contractor is the best - as long as you have a spouse who is covering you benefits wise. 2) The nail that sticks out gets hammered - big time. The next time I'm in a corporate environment like this I'm shutting my mouth, ducking management and being as much of a "Yes" man as possible. 3) I was always interested in lean manufacturing ever since college. In fact, operations was the only class I got a 4.0 in. Now that I've had a taste for it I want to work in a similar environment for at least a few years until I get bored of it. Trying to find something like this might be challenging though.
I keep dreaming in the mornings that I've got an excel sheet that needs to be worked, or that someone will call me back in realizing what a mistake they've made. Unfortunately those are just dreams. Moving on has been tough, but it will get done.
But maybe it'll help me get it off my mind.
22 days ago (I'm amazed it's been that long, but I was on vacation for 18 of them) I was "let go" (I refuse to use the term "fired" as it was never mentioned to me when they "let me go") from Boeing Charleston.
Started on the 18th of September. Ended on the 4th of December.
It's really bothered me for a few reasons. One being that I made more money in those 2 and a half months than I ever have in any previous job (sans my pops in both poker and the stock market). Not only did I get paid really well, but I honestly did enjoy the work I was doing. Every day I was learning something and new problems were always being brought to my attention. I (thought) I had the power to go out and solve problems - turns out maybe I didn't.
Also, because a lot of people I know (who I consider friends) currently work for Boeing. Even the wife works for the same program I was working for and talks to a lot of the same people on a daily basis that I was training. Today she was frustrated with an issue that I was trying to fix. I feel vindicated because not only has the problem that I could have resolved within a couple weeks (by now) not been fixed, it's doubled in size.
Finally, the way I was "let go" was unethical. Because I was working as a contractor for them, they could get rid of me for any reason. And in my opinion they saw an opportunity and took it.
I wrote this email to my friends the day I was let go to explain as to why it occurred:
1) I was written an email on Tuesday from my manager which said they were cutting my overtime to 10 hours a week. I told them I couldn’t do my job in that amount of time. For the past 5 weeks I had been averaging at least 60 hours a week (sometimes working over 70). And I knew a lot of people there that were there to pick up a paycheck. So many people just sitting around chatting on gmail and checking their facebook/fantasy football teams. Everyone saying, "That isn't my job. That wasn't me. Every job was my job - I was willing to do it all. I worked through my lunches. I'd stop working in the office because people told me to go home, just to log in from home. I saw so many opportunities where work needed to be done that I felt like I could stay in this work environment for years and I still wouldn't be happy with how good the operation was.
2) My job was to provide metrics in regards to part shortages to the airplanes. Other than that, no one ever told me what my job was (EXTREMELY poor management). In the system that I built my metrics off of we had the ability to provide reason codes as to why a specific part was short. Our parts buyers were assigning parts to our engineers, meaning that the reason that the part was short was due to a problem in engineering – the only problem was that our engineers didn’t have access to the system. So once the part had been "fixed", no one (but me at this point) could take the assignment of the part away from the engineers. I brought this problem to management and they told me to create a list of parts that our engineers could work and that I would do the work in the system for them (This work alone was 50 hours a week in itself - providing status for 150 parts a day and working with at least 6 different engineers is time consuming). For 2 weeks I sent this list to our engineers and got no response. Finally I went back to an engineering manager (not my manager) who told me to go talk to the engineers that could do the work for me. I did that at the beginning of this week. The engineers were very receptive (seemingly) and were willing to work my list of parts (which took higher priority than anything else they were working on). On Wednesday I started to get responses from my engineers on parts which I then updated in the system in regards to their status. Yesterday I met with my manager again after working 14 hours on Wednesday from the list and said, “I can’t do this on my own. Either get someone to help me or let me work the overtime.” They told me no go.
2a) In a standard work environment, a manager tells an employee what needs to be done. This was done in my situation. In a standard work environment an employee might possibly question management's decision and ask for explanation as to why the decision was made. Management in this situation will provide a logical response (we would think) and the the employee would abide by the change. If the employee did not then that would be grounds for firing. In my situation I brought up the question as to why I could not continue working this overtime and was in turn "let go".
3) Today I was pulled aside and told that it was completely unacceptable to work those hours and that I had overstepped my bounds in regards to my job. It was my job to run the metrics and nothing else. It wasn’t my job to “manage” the engineers even though management had originally directed me down that path.
4) The day before I was let go I was involved in a non-advocate review. This is where another department from Boeing comes in and judges the performance of your department and then provides suggestions for improvement. One of the most shocking things for me was that when I looked around the room at the people that were being interviewed in this review - they were all-stars from the other departments I had worked with. And there I was too - only 2 months in. I was told to "tell the truth" and I did. To put it kindly, I ripped the program a new one. Communication within the entire organization was the worst I've ever seen. Everyone played the blame game, pointing fingers at each other instead of working together. Not only between departments, but even within departments. The systems were complete garbage. When I mentioned to the review board that I had roughly 70% confidence in the data that I was working with their mouths dropped. I knew that people were manipulating the data to make themselves look good and I let them know (looking back on this now this is another reason I was let go - someone has to tell the truth at some point though). In my opinion to even have a chance at doing something as specialized as building airplanes you have to have 98% certainty or better in your data. And finally, there was no training. It was a fly by the seat of your pants environment where we were changing and creating work flows on a weekly basis. And people were so damn scared to screw up and get fired (obviously) that they never asked questions and therefore never did things right. During the 2 months I was there, I was the 6th person to either be fired or relocated - just within my own department of probably 40 people. If that isn't a recipe for disaster I don't know what is.
So, I am sure by Friday word from the non-advocate review team had gotten around to my management team which is another reason they probably let me go. Again, completely unethical in my eyes - you don't shoot the messenger for providing you bad news.
5) On Wednesday I wrote to everyone that I would be leaving for vacation next Friday. Seeing as how I don’t get paid while I was on vacation I had asked my manager if any hours of OT I had been working could be rolled to straight time for the weeks I was going to be gone. Looking back on this now I’m thinking that the vacation may have been part of it.
*big breath*
So that's where I stand (sit) right now. Once again jobless. And a complete 180 from the last time I lost my job - where I was given 4 months notice and then paid a nice severance to see me on my way. This "letting go" was completely unexpected and the only thing I received was my last paycheck while I cruised off to the Caribbean.
The dilemma for me is that I saved almost every dollar that I earned during those 2+ months. And the amount of money that I earned was equal to almost a full year's salary in my previous position. So, it's kind of tough for me right now to be diving in to a job search because: 1) We'll probably be heading back to Seattle now once the wife's contract is up 2) I don't need money (seriously) from a job for the next 6-9 months (or up to 2 years if really need be).
I learned a few things though during my time contracting: 1) Getting paid as a contractor is the best - as long as you have a spouse who is covering you benefits wise. 2) The nail that sticks out gets hammered - big time. The next time I'm in a corporate environment like this I'm shutting my mouth, ducking management and being as much of a "Yes" man as possible. 3) I was always interested in lean manufacturing ever since college. In fact, operations was the only class I got a 4.0 in. Now that I've had a taste for it I want to work in a similar environment for at least a few years until I get bored of it. Trying to find something like this might be challenging though.
I keep dreaming in the mornings that I've got an excel sheet that needs to be worked, or that someone will call me back in realizing what a mistake they've made. Unfortunately those are just dreams. Moving on has been tough, but it will get done.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Rando Post Dec 09
Wow.
4 more posts to go this year and then it's over.
I've got a lot swirling around in my brain right now.
Things I can talk about. Things I go OFF on. But, the people that need to know, already know and once the dust has settled a bit I can really let loose (expect a post later on this month once I'm back from vacation).
First off, this:
The Story of Stuff
Please watch the videos. This is exactly the kind of thing I've been writing about in this blog for years. Let's STOP (or at least cut back) our consuming. Because when you take the consumer out of the picture the entire chain falls on it face. But what then? What are we left with then?
I would love to see.
Anyway, please watch the 2 videos that are available on that website. Real change starts with each one of us - not Mr. President just talking about it.
I was checking my google analytics today because another blog I read had mentioned search terms which lead readers to his blog. I couldn't find where those terms were - but what I did find was something itneresting: The amount of visitors to my blog has increased a great deal. 10 fold.
And I really don't know why. I don't use tags. I don't make my blog easy to find. I've rid this blog (I think) of everything that would give people the ability to figure out who I was (unless they really wanted to search for my true identity). But anyway, to the 132 of you since November 9th who have visited my site - and the 60 of you who actually read something - what do you think? I rarely get comments, but I think comments are some of the best parts about blogging. This is what it's all about right? The most open form of communication?
It's weird to think about how cold it is right now in Washington. In Charleston I have our air conditioning on to keep it at 70 degrees or below. Yes, I am sitting here in my bball shorts right now.
I also tend to trip out on it currently being 8 pm on the west coast too. Everything is so much later on the east coast.
I was involved in a conversation today where someone had said the next big thing in regards to transportation was going to be personal aircraft.
I have to disagree. Personally I think the future will be all about automation. We are so much closer right now to having cars drive for us then we are getting everyone to learn how to fly.
Since they have cars that can parallel park for you - and cars that automatically brake for you when you're in trouble - the next step is just getting the car to drive on it's own.
And I know it's coming. They've been working on it for a few years now.
So imagine if we could get a majority of people to use the automated driving system. Or be forced to use it during peak driving hours. We could have computers making all the "correct" decisions for us while driving and traffic would be minimized. After only 11 years of driving, rarely do I feel the desire to really drive anywhere - just to drive. I would say 90% of the time I'm hitting the road I'd prefer to just type in a destination in to my GPS and let my car drive me there while I enjoy my music/TV/etc.
Have you ever listened to someone snore and then get tired yourself?
That's what I'm going through right now. I guess not really a rando post for me - not enough topics, but it'll have to do. Caribbean here I come!
4 more posts to go this year and then it's over.
I've got a lot swirling around in my brain right now.
Things I can talk about. Things I go OFF on. But, the people that need to know, already know and once the dust has settled a bit I can really let loose (expect a post later on this month once I'm back from vacation).
First off, this:
The Story of Stuff
Please watch the videos. This is exactly the kind of thing I've been writing about in this blog for years. Let's STOP (or at least cut back) our consuming. Because when you take the consumer out of the picture the entire chain falls on it face. But what then? What are we left with then?
I would love to see.
Anyway, please watch the 2 videos that are available on that website. Real change starts with each one of us - not Mr. President just talking about it.
I was checking my google analytics today because another blog I read had mentioned search terms which lead readers to his blog. I couldn't find where those terms were - but what I did find was something itneresting: The amount of visitors to my blog has increased a great deal. 10 fold.
And I really don't know why. I don't use tags. I don't make my blog easy to find. I've rid this blog (I think) of everything that would give people the ability to figure out who I was (unless they really wanted to search for my true identity). But anyway, to the 132 of you since November 9th who have visited my site - and the 60 of you who actually read something - what do you think? I rarely get comments, but I think comments are some of the best parts about blogging. This is what it's all about right? The most open form of communication?
It's weird to think about how cold it is right now in Washington. In Charleston I have our air conditioning on to keep it at 70 degrees or below. Yes, I am sitting here in my bball shorts right now.
I also tend to trip out on it currently being 8 pm on the west coast too. Everything is so much later on the east coast.
I was involved in a conversation today where someone had said the next big thing in regards to transportation was going to be personal aircraft.
I have to disagree. Personally I think the future will be all about automation. We are so much closer right now to having cars drive for us then we are getting everyone to learn how to fly.
Since they have cars that can parallel park for you - and cars that automatically brake for you when you're in trouble - the next step is just getting the car to drive on it's own.
And I know it's coming. They've been working on it for a few years now.
So imagine if we could get a majority of people to use the automated driving system. Or be forced to use it during peak driving hours. We could have computers making all the "correct" decisions for us while driving and traffic would be minimized. After only 11 years of driving, rarely do I feel the desire to really drive anywhere - just to drive. I would say 90% of the time I'm hitting the road I'd prefer to just type in a destination in to my GPS and let my car drive me there while I enjoy my music/TV/etc.
Have you ever listened to someone snore and then get tired yourself?
That's what I'm going through right now. I guess not really a rando post for me - not enough topics, but it'll have to do. Caribbean here I come!
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