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.