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Well it's all over but the cryin!!!! Anyone have an empty basement?

OldTech03

Sr. Member
Dec 15, 2017
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Well 8 days ago our new regional came in about 20 minutes early and informed us that they were making company-wide changes "Downsizing" handed us our checks and severance pay patted us on the back and said your great managers you didn't do anything wrong but we are changing our business model and you ain't part of the change they even gave us great letters of recommendation. They gave my wife and me 5 days to get out and offered us extra money to get out in 5 days well we did get out but it wasn't pretty. Hell, they even gave us 6 months of free storage in case we could not take all our stuff with us right away. They really wanted us the hell out-a there! We found out later they had done the same at 5 other sites and plan the same for the remaining sites. Soooooooooo we are out of work, Out of a place to live ANYONE GOT AN EMPTY BASEMENT? I promise you will not hear me in the middle of the night screaming breaker one-nine for a radio check "I do all my checking on the bench I can fly by instrumentation". We are in perpetual motion right now that is why we have not been online. So I'm open to an old abandoned gas station along a major truck route with a working restroom LOL as I brought all my equipment and parts yea it took up half the trailer but I was not about to leave it behind as I may need it to stay out of the poor house. Anyway, I'm done crying and ready for a celebratory pitty party so let-her-rip. It's pretty sad here I am nearly 50 years of component level troubleshooting experience and nowhere to set up shop. Well, it's just the way it goes sometimes.

I actually realized that I have enough equipment to set up to complete benches the image below was the bench I just tore down for the move. Plus there were about 25 parts cabinets what a mess it was to pack it all in a way that it could be moved Sighghghghgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Well enough crying it's time to do something I have not done in many years get drunk.


benchaaaab.JPG
 
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Damn man. You made me sad on top of the sad I already was. I don’t know what to say, I’m kinda in a similar jam as you. You didn’t lose your resident did you?
 
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Damn man. You made me sad on top of the sad I already was. I don’t know what to say, I’m kinda in a similar jam as you. You didn’t lose your resident, did you?

Yea we did we are now in a basement temporary at my wife's sisters house. But this won't last long just a fact..
 
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Aw man that's tough. Sometimes we start the next chapter without much warning, just gotta keep on keeping on.
About 4 years ago, I heard from my sister in law that she talked to a guy who had applied at the factory that I work at. He was going to be one of our new maintenance managers and was telling her some of the things that the company was planning. One of the things that was planned was to move my department out of state to consolidate with another plant. Even though that would still leave one department at our location, it didn't make us feel any better. After I told my coworkers what I had heard we spent the next few days updating our resumes and planning what to do. The next week our company announced that our department was leaving in order to make room for a new department and our jobs were saved. A factory in Canada was bought from another company and moved to our location making it the biggest project I have seen in my 20 years there. I still remember that week of being in limbo and I hope that our new department continues to make sense to the bottom line. We could pull into the parking lot in the morning to find chains on the gates. You never know. I frequently review my resume and joined Linked In to help grow my list of contacts in the industry.
We do the best we can with what we got, that's all we can do.
Chris
 
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It's a wacky world.

When I was young, the conventional wisdom was that self employment is risky. Much safer to work for an established company, especially a national-scale corporation.

And now I'm the only person I know to have the same job for 43 years. In all fairness, I have been the boss for only the last 38 years.

Used to have a sign up that said "Under new management since 1980".

Everybody I know that had a "company" job saw that job merged/sold/closed out from under them over and over.

Go figure.

73
 
Electronics has always been an unstable field of employment and the only way to get an increase in salary was to change jobs. A lot of small companies start up on a shoe string budget and putt along just barely keeping their doors open. If they take off the upper management repay themselves for loan they may or may not have given the company. One company I worked for the owner took 60,000 dollars out of the company to pay themselves a big bonus. The company closed it's doors owning a lot of people money,including me.
Even companies like Motorola can be sketchy. We made car radios thousands of them a day and good quality too. There were rumors of layoffs and the next day we were out on the street. Out of work for six weeks just at the time unemployment checks started coming in we got called back. There was no back pay.
 
Something similar happened to my wife & I this time of year in the early 80's , we both worked @ Brown & Sharpe . We went on strike and basically still are although company is about done ! We just bought our first new car it ended up getting repossessed (my in-laws got it back for us) almost lost our home , every bill in the rears . I got a job making Pizza's she a waitress . It took a long time to get back on our feet , but it will work out for you as it did me . Years later we have our own small farm , nice home & our knowing we got through it together . Keeping you in my thoughts & prayers . 73 & God Bless , Leo PS it still sucks no matter when it happens !
 
We certainly want to believe that but it gets a lot harder when you are as close to 70 as we are. Starting over back in the '80s was a breeze starting over 40 years later not so much. But we haven't given up we can still walk and talk and bitch and moan so there is still a chance to make something happen. If you knew the real whole story behind our last job it would spark a whole new conversation but it isn't worth the energy.
 
It's a wacky world.

When I was young, the conventional wisdom was that self employment is risky. Much safer to work for an established company, especially a national-scale corporation.

And now I'm the only person I know to have the same job for 43 years. In all fairness, I have been the boss for only the last 38 years.

Used to have a sign up that said "Under new management since 1980".

Everybody I know that had a "company" job saw that job merged/sold/closed out from under them over and over.

Go figure.

73
Yes I made the mistake of thinking that the grass was greener on the corporate side of the fence and although I never gave up repairing I was never again committed to it as I was in the hay days the grass was extremely green then but other factors stepped in and I didn't care to battle at them at the time. Looking back it was all a bit premature to do the things I did and not well thought through but it's the old Hindsite 20/20 thing which has plagued me more than once.
 
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I worked for a company that made aircraft NI-CAD batteries and high tech electronics for 400 Hz power.
I asked my direct supervisor if I was safe enough to buy a house. He said sure no problem. So I put my butt on the hook for a house with a purchase price of $160,000.00
and a 1/2 acre of land.
Two weeks later the SOB fired me. What really hacked me off was I saved these butt-heads from getting padlocked out by the FAA. I'm not trying to embellish what I did for them, I have always had the ability to deal with Watch dog agencies. I told my FAA supervisor what happened and said okay, if you are no longer in charge they will get shut down. They lasted 60 days. I had FAA authority for approving items as "AIRWORTHY FOR EXPORT" .So do I hate my former supervisor, no I hate what he did to me. I know he got his butt kicked by his supervisor. They did contact me and wanted me to come back five or six months later. By then It was too late I landed a half way decent job supervising another companies purchasing department.
 

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