Let me break format here to explain why there’s been no new post for a while. Things have been in flux for me, professionally, for the past week or so and I have done little in my free time but try to think through the issues.
The thing is, I had a job offer to set up a Quality system for doing military Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for a company only 15 miles from home (as opposed to the 70 mile round trip I currently make). It’s a good opportunity, but I had some issues.
First, their insurance is going up in June and the cost for me, Lynn, and the kids will go up to about $750/month or so. (Our share, the company pays 50%), which will cost me an extra $1500/ year. The small salary increase I would get would be almost all eaten up by that increase alone.
And second, last year I left here for a job in Elgin to do the same thing, set up a military system, but they were so clueless that after I had spent 3 months creating a Quality system from scratch to satisfy the military requirements, they were shocked when I told them what it was going to cost to test the qualification board at a local, government-approved, lab. They were convinced that because they built boards for another branch of the company that owned the lab, they could “cut a deal” with the lab. I told them it was unlikely that a government-sanctioned lab would cut any sort of “deal” based on that, so they said, “OK we’re not doing military then.”
Two weeks later my boss called me into the conference room to tell me, “____ (the owner’s son or brother, I was never sure) says you spend too much time at your desk.”
I said, “ You mean when I was creating a system from scratch, writing procedures, doing capability studies, doing corrective actions? Where else would I do the computer work involved?”
He said, “I don’t care, get out into Final Inspection and learn how to run the flying probe tester and the AOI (automated optical inspection).” Two machines I had never run in my 35-year career.
I had already re-learned how to do all the chemical analyses in the lab (something I had not done since I had set up plating lines 30 years ago at Accutronics) as a back up to the lab tech, so I said OK.
Two weeks later I was called in again and told I was being fired for not learning how to run the machines and made to sign a letter that seemed to blame me for everything that had ever gone wrong in the history of that building up to, but not including, the death of Walter Payton (it used to house his lift truck company). I was so stunned, I just signed it and left. (I could have brought up how I had been lied to about insurance costs: he said it was about $700 a month where it was actually $1200, but what would be the point?)
The reason I had taken this job was to help out at home. Lynn had just started chemo for breast cancer and was looking forward to weeks of radiation when that was through and I was needed several times to pick up my son at kindergarten and covered at home when Lynn had an appointment and couldn’t find anyone to watch the kids for a couple hours.
I carried a bunch of stuff from my cubicle to my car (I also left a bunch of stuff, I was literally in a daze) and called my old job to see if they could use me at all. It had been 3 and a half months since I had left and they had hired someone to replace me.
We were f----d! I couldn’t make our mortgage payment on unemployment! We had paid off both cars several years before (they are 14 and 8 years old) so we only had mortgage, food, utilities, and kid’s stuff.
The circuit board industry has been decimated in the last 10 years or so, as I’ve related in earlier postings, so there weren’t many shops left I hadn’t worked at. I decided to call my old boss and friend from my Accutronics days at the shop he now worked at and he had me in for an interview the next week. After catching up a little with him, we hadn’t spoken in 12 years or so; he introduced me to his son, who he is grooming to take his place in around five years, and Bob H. an old colleague from my Chicago Etch/Dynacircuits days.
The interview went well, I thought, they were looking more for a Quality Engineer as opposed to a Manager, it seemed, so I knew they could not offer anywhere near what I was currently making. I went home that afternoon, preparing to calculate how my reduced income would impact our budget.
When I checked my email, I saw one from the HR manager at my previous place of employment, asking whether I would work to help them get the new military qualification. I emailed back, “Yes” and waited to hear from the place I’d just interviewed at.
Two days later I got a call from Bob H. with an offer that was as low as I had expected for the Engineer position. That same afternoon I got an email from the other lace offering what I had made before I left. The person they had hired to replace me had backed out the day he was to start. I took the job again, even though it was still a 2-3 hour daily commute.
Though I was only out of work for a month, it was incredibly stressful, so you can see I was a little leery about grabbing this latest offer. It paid a little more, and had the potential for a nice bonus when I complete the qualification.
After talking it over with Lynn, and thinking about it for a couple days, I sent an email turning down the job. Lynn said that it was a “P---y move” (or maybe a sissy move) to turn it down that way and pushed me to call him and explain my reservations.
I sent a text asking if he was available for a phone call during my lunch, thinking it would be easy for him to just say “No” and be done with me, but he texted back “Yes” and I called. After explaining why I was leery, and receiving assurance that I felt settled some of my qualms,
I asked whether the offer was still open, he said (understandably) he wasn’t sure now that he wanted me!
We agreed to wait a few days, Friday ‘til Monday, then get back together and see how we felt about going forward. I went home that night and talked it over with Lynn and decided I would take the job, if offered.
When Monday rolled around I remembered we hadn’t said who would call whom. I waited all day for a text or call on my cell, but none came. Finally, when I left work at the end of the day I called him and got his voicemail. I left a message to call at home after 6PM, but it never came.
Man…Karma’s a bitch!
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