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The Water Cooler, Scuttlebutt, Chit Chat Thread

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The Water Cooler, Scuttlebutt, Chit Chat Thread

Old 04-14-19, 05:42 PM
  #3701  
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Originally Posted by big john
One good thing about retiring is people buy me coffee and snacks on the club rides. Wonder how long I can milk that?
Maybe casually mention how much social security sucks occasionally.
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Old 04-14-19, 08:53 PM
  #3702  
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I fear retiring. Not in my plan.
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Old 04-14-19, 09:55 PM
  #3703  
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Originally Posted by Flatballer
Maybe casually mention how much social security sucks occasionally.
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Old 04-14-19, 09:59 PM
  #3704  
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Originally Posted by Doge
I fear retiring. Not in my plan.
Oh,I'm terrified. And I have no plan. But I had to get out of there.
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Old 04-14-19, 10:28 PM
  #3705  
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Originally Posted by revchuck
Dang, I've been retired for six years and it hasn't happened to me yet! Then again, we don't stop on group rides.
We always stop for coffee on our short Sunday rides and on our longer Saturday rides we stop for food and water as needed.

Reminds me of riding with local coach years ago when he was coaching a friend to get her ready for the Ore Ida Women's Challenge. A few hours in she wanted to stop to pee. "You should have taken care of that before you left the house!" he barked. Later, she ran out of water and asked to stop again. " You can get a drink when you get home!" was his response. Good times,
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Old 04-18-19, 02:39 PM
  #3706  
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
I've decided to quit my job. I've been incredibly unhappy for awhile, and my performance has suffered. I'm not getting along well with either of my managers, and that strained relationship isn't helping things. I'm putting in 10 hours a day and working weekends. I'm working through my vacations - which are incredibly rare because I have too much work to do. (I have more than two years worth of vacation accrued and I haven't even been here three full years.) I'm currently doing the work of 1.5 people, and just drowning.

I've been fighting to make it work for so long, but I've reached the point that I just can't do it anymore. I've been sending out resumes and have done three initial screening interviews of the last two weeks and have three more over the next week, so I think I'll be ok. Plus, I'll get paid out for my unused vacation, so that will carry me if I have small gap in employment.

I made the decision this morning, after spending half my day off yesterday working and the other half stressing about the work I was missing, then waking up this morning to find a late email from my director asking more questions.

My wife is very happy I am doing this.
Congrats, sounds like the right move!!
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Old 04-19-19, 06:19 AM
  #3707  
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Agreed, sounds like the right move. Best of luck to you!
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Old 04-19-19, 10:53 AM
  #3708  
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And like that, I'm not going to be unemployed. Got an offer today.

Might not be my dream job, but the pay is fantastic, the location is nearby, and the stress seems like it will be much lower than my current state.

And this one went fast. Got an email on Monday to schedule a phone screening on Tuesday, a follow up message on Wednesday to schedule a meeting with the hiring manager on Thursday, and then an offer today.

Thanks for all your well wishes.

Last edited by topflightpro; 04-19-19 at 11:27 AM.
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Old 04-19-19, 11:41 AM
  #3709  
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Great news @topflightpro!
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Old 04-19-19, 02:09 PM
  #3710  
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Congrats for sure. Sounds like my most recent move Not the most exciting work, and not exactly what most of my experience is in, but it paid well, was close to home, and I'm only working an actual, low stress, 40 hours a week. I get home at like 4 most days, it's awesome.
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Old 04-19-19, 04:40 PM
  #3711  
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
And like that, I'm not going to be unemployed. Got an offer today.

Might not be my dream job, but the pay is fantastic, the location is nearby, and the stress seems like it will be much lower than my current state.

And this one went fast. Got an email on Monday to schedule a phone screening on Tuesday, a follow up message on Wednesday to schedule a meeting with the hiring manager on Thursday, and then an offer today.

Thanks for all your well wishes.
What is it that you do (if you don't mind me asking)? Funny thing about pressure at the job, at least my job, some pressure is ok and keeps me interested, but when it turns into a never relenting stress-fest, it's harmful. It takes over your life, and it's not worth the trade-off.
Had my employer recognized that and stepped in on my behalf, I would have considered staying on for a while.
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Old 04-19-19, 05:08 PM
  #3712  
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I do marketing and communications. I generally like my work. Some areas/industries of it are less interesting than others. My most recent director has been challenging to work with, to speak kindly about things. (I'm the fourth person to leave in 2.5 years. There have been 7 of us total, and the three remaining were hired after me.)
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Old 04-19-19, 07:00 PM
  #3713  
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Originally Posted by big john
What is it that you do (if you don't mind me asking)? Funny thing about pressure at the job, at least my job, some pressure is ok and keeps me interested, but when it turns into a never relenting stress-fest, it's harmful. It takes over your life, and it's not worth the trade-off.
Had my employer recognized that and stepped in on my behalf, I would have considered staying on for a while.
I like being busy and doing interesting and challenging things, but enough of those things that if I do things properly I can get the important stuff done in 8 hours and stay mostly ahead of it.

I hate just falling further and further behind and not having the time to give things the proper attention.

But being busy and challenged makes the day go faster and keeps things interesting.
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Old 04-19-19, 10:21 PM
  #3714  
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Not cycling.. but crazy none the less. I watched all of Free solo (and the movie about the Dawn wall) without anything more than sweaty palms. This damn near made me throw up.

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Old 04-20-19, 07:06 AM
  #3715  
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
I do marketing and communications. I generally like my work. Some areas/industries of it are less interesting than others. My most recent director has been challenging to work with, to speak kindly about things. (I'm the fourth person to leave in 2.5 years. There have been 7 of us total, and the three remaining were hired after me.)
From a managers perspective, I run a plant for a small automotive Tier 1, you can go too far the other way. My tendency is to take the extra on myself in order to make sure everyone gets time off. So you cover. I have a great staff, a very successful operation and don't feel at all taken advantage of. But I'm going on year 6 w/o a vacation (the plan now is to work straight through to retirement, another 5). If you are at the top trying to get it right is all on you, nobody looking out for your interest and your job is to look out for everyone elses. It aint easy. I've tried to find a balance & it just never happens
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Old 04-20-19, 08:58 AM
  #3716  
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Originally Posted by Ttoc6
Not cycling.. but crazy none the less. I watched all of Free solo (and the movie about the Dawn wall) without anything more than sweaty palms. This damn near made me throw up.
Amazing trek. It was interesting that he trusted the rocks at the beginning of the video not to break. Clearly, this guy is extremely good at this type of effort but OMG some of the terrain looked unstable. I guess that is part of the allure of the undertaking. No one else will try this. He must be part moutain goat. Cool video.
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Old 04-21-19, 12:36 PM
  #3717  
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Originally Posted by Voodoo76
From a managers perspective, I run a plant for a small automotive Tier 1, you can go too far the other way. My tendency is to take the extra on myself in order to make sure everyone gets time off. So you cover. I have a great staff, a very successful operation and don't feel at all taken advantage of. But I'm going on year 6 w/o a vacation (the plan now is to work straight through to retirement, another 5). If you are at the top trying to get it right is all on you, nobody looking out for your interest and your job is to look out for everyone elses. It aint easy. I've tried to find a balance & it just never happens
If you are the manager, and the operation is profitable, why can't you hire more staff? Six years without a break is not healthy.
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Old 04-22-19, 11:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Enthalpic
If you are the manager, and the operation is profitable, why can't you hire more staff? Six years without a break is not healthy.
I take a shot at a short answer. Low margin business (as is most manufacturing) and getting lower. Staff's are much leaner than they used to be. 25 years ago this companies corporate phone list was a full page 2 columns, now 15 people at much higher sales (2008 accelerated this and most of the survivors in our industry never went back to pre-crash overhead structures). So it takes a lot of sales/complexity increase to add people (did add an Engineer in November) while maintaining a lean overhead structure. Is this sustainable over the long haul? We will find out in time, a lot of suppliers operating under the same constraints.

If I were 40 I would move into another industry. In my 60's it's easier to stay in this field till I finish. Not the type to just mail it in so I'll go flat out to make it work. On the plus side it's satisfying work.
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Old 04-22-19, 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted by Voodoo76
I take a shot at a short answer. Low margin business (as is most manufacturing) and getting lower. Staff's are much leaner than they used to be. 25 years ago this companies corporate phone list was a full page 2 columns, now 15 people at much higher sales (2008 accelerated this and most of the survivors in our industry never went back to pre-crash overhead structures). So it takes a lot of sales/complexity increase to add people (did add an Engineer in November) while maintaining a lean overhead structure. Is this sustainable over the long haul? We will find out in time, a lot of suppliers operating under the same constraints.

If I were 40 I would move into another industry. In my 60's it's easier to stay in this field till I finish. Not the type to just mail it in so I'll go flat out to make it work. On the plus side it's satisfying work.
I'm not sure if this is the case across all industries, but something similar has been occurring over the past 10-15 years in the electric utility space.

One issue is that the MBA people got involved, and decided they could turn a utility stock into a growth stock. To show growth in something like a utility you only have one real option, which is to cut overhead.

Utility used to be an awesome place for an engineer to work. Rewarding, reasonable hours, good culture, great pay and benefits, and guaranteed for life if you wanted it and didn't screw up too badly. Now everything except the pay is gone. Most of the work is getting outsourced to contractors and consultants, and the only people left are overworked and disillusioned. I've seen this same thing at multiple utilities, to greater or lesser degrees.

I'm at an outside engineering firm that does a lot of work for the utilities, and we're all much happier than they are. It's a shame that the jobs of the past seem to be disappearing throughout multiple industries, and the people left are exhausted and overworked, and not being replaced at close to the rate they're leaving/retiring.
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Old 04-22-19, 04:43 PM
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I wouldn’t lay this at the feet of MBA’s, the numbers are what they are. When margins are slim you do what you need to do. My point was to go a little easy on the dude running the place, he may be carrying a bigger load than you realize. Doesn’t get any easier, just faster.
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Old 04-22-19, 07:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Voodoo76
I wouldn’t lay this at the feet of MBA’s, the numbers are what they are. When margins are slim you do what you need to do. My point was to go a little easy on the dude running the place, he may be carrying a bigger load than you realize. Doesn’t get any easier, just faster.
I'm talking about investor owned utilities. They have a monopoly. The margin is guaranteed in their rate case as a percentage of capital spend. For the first 100 years they were considered safe dividend paying stocks, run by engineer CEOs who understood the business and the long time frames involved in the business, and mostly told Wall Street to enjoy their dividends and shut up.

Then business people CEOs got in and saw they could make a killing using all of the assets and stock to turn it into a growth company.

In this case it really is kind of simple.

Deregulation has been a factor too, for sure, but it doesn't explain most of the issues.
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Old 04-23-19, 06:09 AM
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Flatballer, makes sense now. That would be a very unfamiliar business to me (an engineer Plant Mgr, with an engineer CEO) and a more difficult transformation than ours. What we are currently going through is at least an extension of what we have always done, try to find $.005 savings on a few million units.
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Old 04-23-19, 03:38 PM
  #3723  
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Originally Posted by Flatballer
I'm talking about investor owned utilities. They have a monopoly. The margin is guaranteed in their rate case as a percentage of capital spend. For the first 100 years they were considered safe dividend paying stocks, run by engineer CEOs who understood the business and the long time frames involved in the business, and mostly told Wall Street to enjoy their dividends and shut up.

Then business people CEOs got in and saw they could make a killing using all of the assets and stock to turn it into a growth company.

In this case it really is kind of simple.

Deregulation has been a factor too, for sure, but it doesn't explain most of the issues.
Enron 2.0 LOL
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Old 04-23-19, 06:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Enthalpic
Enron 2.0 LOL
Without the "creative" accounting and fraud, there are certainly parallels.
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Old 04-23-19, 06:17 PM
  #3725  
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Most private industry is so lean its practically killing people, my wife's job is essentially ran by people that make Cersei Lannister seem like Lee Iacocca.
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