Octania

University testing visit a while back, met a family in the hotel pool after work.

Turns out, the lady is the wife of the VP of... one of our competitors. Being nano-managed at the time, I inquries, "doing any hiring there these days?"

I gave her my business card, and nothing came of it.

Until oh about Tuesday when I get a call at my desk at work, where everyone can hear what I say... from the HR person at the other company... they are looking to move the company fwd, and improve the product line, and is that something I would entertain?

Lately at my company they have not been appreciating my skills. They hired me for my skills, and I have saved this and that project and made the patented new motor application, and yet lately my input is rarely requested and then often dismissed by my less educated and far less mechanically skilled supervisor. I have not been invited on a trade show trip since the 2008 recession, even though I know more Spanish than the others, and that has proven handy at the show I did go to. Plus the foreign owner investors seem to be poor at running a company, making many poor moves lately. More and more restrictions are imposed on R&D to the point where I can hardly get anything done at all. I can no longer sneak in on say break time and use the cutoff saw to cut 2x4's for my needs w/o interfering with production. Instead I have to submit an order and wait days and days for it to happen.... 100 ft away. Bullshed. After shoveling my driveway I get to go to work... and shovel the back concrete area in order to move material and check on active tests. In the -10 degree weather. No $10/hr line worker/ temp worker can do this, but the "$100/hr" says my supervisor ["fully burdened rate you cost the company, you know"] degreed Engineer. Bullshed. We can spend literally 10x as much for Snap-on tools as the exact same product at Harbor Freight, but then we must skimp so bad that we can't have PAPER TOWELS for the lab because they COST TOO MUCH.

The competitor seems to be composing a new special position tailored to my skills and capabilities.... but there are drawbacks.

Moving my family and a small version of my fleet.
What to do with the excess fleet and PARTS STASH
The other company is in the COLD COLD Tundra part of the USA, no better than the ice cold on MI. Why can't I get a job in Arizona??

But, I want to
Make enough to buy some toys and make pretty the '68 convert.
use myh skills to enhance my field of study and make the world a better place.

Neither of these appear possible in my current climate at work, with the folks that run the place at this time.
I cannot comment to current mgt in ANY way for fear of incurring their wrath.... the don't have an ombudsman, and there is no anonymous suggestion box.

Oh, and it's time for the annual Performance Review, which at least we HAVE here, unlike previous places that didn't even bother...

oldcutlass

Tough choice.

Olds64

Most businesses allow employees to make recommendations without fear of reprisal. Have you considered going above your supervisor to address these issues?

If your current employer doesn't try to remedy the situation you can always look for work elsewhere.

kitfoxdave

As a fellow engineer with too much experience, I would vote with my feet. Sounds like your work performance is outshining your supervisor and he feels challenged. (possibly seeing you as a threat to his longevity) Going up the food chain, may work briefly. The animosity it will cause, will destroy your work environment (what is left of it). Moving is a real pain in the buttocks, and Siberia is a lousy place to end up in. The right move may put enough jingle in your pockets to retire in Shangri-la sooner. The current work environment is not doing your health any good either! It is VERY important.

lshlsh2

Depending on what the family says I would move. One other thing to consider is your kids(if you have any). If they are young no bid deal to move, if they about to graduate High School that could be a problem.
I would also sit down with the company that wants to hire you and get some details worked out and maybe something in writing.
When a large company wanted my cousin the paid to move him and his wife. They also picked up half of the frieght to move his 10 motercycles, parts and such.
Then the most important thing is to get approval from the other half.

Larry

oldcutlass

The grass is not always as green as it seems over the fence. The issues you are going through at your current position may only be a temporary problem. You may not be the only one to recognize the incompetence of your supervisor and that situation can rectify itself in the future. So you need to think about that before jumping feet first into the new company.


Remember no one is irreplaceable.

501Paratrooper

Go for it.

Nilsson

The grass isn't always greener on the other side ,but it might be less brown.


Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

allyolds68

I've moved jobs a lot and always did better until I was about 43. I found after that there was always some kid who knew less, worked less, and made less money that was available to take my place and totally screw things up and management seemed fine with it. At 50 now I'm a lot less likely to jump ship. Plus I work for a small family company that doesn't pay me particularly well but they're ok to work for. I get to make all my kids ***** games, dance recitals, parent teacher conferences, etc. It was a lot harder to do that when I was making 40% more but working 350 miles away.


You never seem to have everything you want and now I think that's OK

citcapp

Its a tough choice and when you are unhappy at work every day is 16 hours long not 8. Everyone says think of your family first. I could not disagree more. Your mental health has to come first in order to do the best for your family. If you go or stay is your choice alone. Just add up the positive and negative of each company and make an informed choice.

Good luck

Tedd Thompson

X2...Life is to short to spend the majority of your awake time being miserable or unappreciated...Been there done that......Tedd

Octania

Thanks, guys.
Proceeding with caution.

Really I feel stifled here and would like to be able to spread my wings and fly

I was brought here urgently to address concerns with a flimsy and poorly build damper that was a black eye. I made crucial design changes to greatly enhance the flimsy frame, made sure they were assembled on a real steel jug table [was OSB/wood], then procured Atlas Copco screw tools that drive and seat w/o stripping- as opposed to battery drills, which were stripping ALL screws, which did not show up right away, but in transit, during the road trip, the units would literally disintegrate.... etc. etc. Then I went to all 100+ sites, with helpers, and replaced all 1000+ 1st-generation POS's.... ending up with a sound and proper product we can be proud of.

I have been keeping a list of improvements for the new motor, for when we change tooling.... most of them were incorporated in this week's revision. Supervisor misunderstood where I was asking for a chamfer to greatly ease assembly, said it can't be done... said he "added 1/2mm" [wow a hole 0.020"??] already.... I look at the surface he is referring to, and a) wrong surface, more importantly, b) the bearing that abuts his surface does not reside right against the shaft at the end of the bearing inner race, it has a curved fillet corner of course... so really, we could put a 2-3mm chamfer on our casting *there* and STILL touch just as much bearing as ever. He fails to see that. I make a point to see details like that. Part A matches Part B in every significant way.

I specifically mentioned two or three times, including by email, that I wanted to be on hand at the trade show introduction of the new revolutionary motor. No reply, not even an f-u. Mind you, I am on the patent for that item.

joe_padavano

Well, here's what I did in 1987 when I moved from SoCal back east to the D.C. area:





Note in the second photo the moving van on the other side of the street, which is half full of parts - blocks, F and D heads, rare intakes, sheet metal, bucket seats, etc. There's also a garage full of tools in there.

The company that moved me, Orbital Sciences Corp, revised their new employee move policy after this. It now says in writing that they will only move two cars, and both must run! (Hey, at that time, only the 68 W-30 was inop - but how about them W-36 stripes!) Ths move policy goes on to say that they will no longer move auto PARTS, specifically engine blocks, fenders, etc.

The movers were pretty careful to protect things like my perfect 66 convertible doors, and the move went pretty well except when my new house didn't close on time. The movers were forced to put everything into storage for a couple of weeks. When the second truck pulled up at the new house, the D.C. area crew had been less than careful with repacking. My pristine 66 doors had been damaged. Oh, and some furniture had been scratched too, where they had simply piled the car parts on top of it. We got some money out of it, but not as much as we should have.

By the way, that's the back of the 70 W-30 poking out of the driveway on the left in the second photo.

Boldsmobile

Need the other side of the story.

Most of all, don't run from something run to so something.

Kennybill

I would do what's best for your family. Talk it over and weigh both options. Ken

Olds64

Definitely keep us posted.

Thanks for sharing those pics Joe!

Indy_68_S

One thing I didn't see mentioned was if you have any sort of NDA/NCA in place....
That could complicate things....

shatrab

Any relief/resolution/updates? I know exactly where you are coming from after reading what you had to say about your work environment. Very similar time for me a couple of years ago as a Supervisor at a top Pharmaceutical (Merck). New younger boss didn't particularly like anything anybody had to say that was in the department prior to his installation (and definitely had a problem with anybody he didn't hire (which was everybody that was there prior to a bunch of new trainees he had hired to replace us).

Long story short... I was thankfully in over my head (busy making money machining hard materials) in a hobby that kept me busier and happier than my real job at said Pharmaceutical. I quit with no warning and he ended up with a black eye on his record as my only request (to his boss) after quitting was to not have to deal with my crap for a brain boss for any necessary paperwork, exit interviews, etc.

Hope you find or have found a good path forward. Allyolds said something that hit home for me... He indicated that at about 43 years old, things started getting more complicated.. I had quit the above mentioned job at 43 under extreme duress (it was affecting my family life big time). I am 45 going on 46 and still (thankfully doing what I quit Merck for) working for myself as a ceramic machinist in my own garage shop, (and doing better in working less hours with more pay, and most importantly gained my self-respect and self-satisfaction back). I wish the best for your predicament. It always stinks being under-appreciated when you know its ladder climbing politics from ruthless fast-tracker wanna-bees (that should have never have been hired to be your boss to begin with)!

shatrab

Crap... Back in 87, I was busy graduating high school trying to figure what to do in life. By the way Joe, your fleet had an awful lot of wings (I see 3 with trunk spoilers in the pics). You must have had a pilot's license for all that flying! Definitely like your 68. Is that Saffron (like mine), or just a yellow looking white due to an old photo?