This afternoon my badge access to the labs went into effect. As that my office is physically inside one of those lab buildings, this now lets me come and go as I please. I also got my laptop and docking station this morning but until my network access is switched over to Arizona from Maryland (why did they think I was there?) the laptop, docking station and monitors are decoration.
I am feeling better about taking this job. I was really vexed over the long weekend about these "assignments" that come out of left field from the corporate office in Florida that I can't get to until I'm on my home computer that they want turned around right away. I also couldn't log in to get the family signed up for medical benefits, and I really didn't want to write a check for COBRA.
Well, that's all taken care of, and although I'm not seeing playing time on the field my turn to step up to the plate will come. I probably ought to enjoy this lull while I can, because things can and will get frantic later on.
Like I did two years ago, I'm staying down in Sorry Vista two to three nights per week. The commute really isn't that bad but I don't want to get burned out on driving. The vanpool drivers continue to exempt themselves from the vehicle code and common courtesy while on the freeway, but they seem to know where the state troopers and the county mounties hang out. I see the marked (and sometimes unmarked) patrol vehicles strategically placed along state highway 90 every day I make the drive, and on some (if not most) they're also watching drivers in Huachuca City, which has the local reputation of a speed trap.
Next Monday, if I'm not too tired, I hope to attend my first meeting of the Cochise Amateur Radio Association. I think Wendell will offer to drive me there. I know where it is but I don't know how well I would find it at night. I attend meetings of the Radio Society of Tucson whenever I can get to them as well as the Southern Arizona DX Association of which I'm also a member. So will I join CARA? I likely will for as long as I'm working down there. Membership in ham radio clubs is a great deal more affordable than other clubs.
In the meantime, I'm being bombarded with lots of calls from recruiters. I'm beginning to think that some of them suffer from ADD. I don't like talking on the telephone (truth is I hate telephones) and I especially don't want to take these out of state jobs that they want to tell me about. Most of them won't leave messages, but they'll call two or three times a day. A recruiter based in Georgia has already called me 8 times this week (I'm now keeping score) and one of Florida is in second place with 5 calls. I get emails from them too, mostly the impersonal "Hi, I hope you are doing well. Below is a job description...".
Not to mention that my office is inside of a building where cellphone reception isn't the greatest and I wasn't going to step outside to yak on the phone since up until this afternoon my badge wasn't working to let me back in.
Anyway, we'll see tomorrow if that guy in Georgia can get past ten, and the lady in Florida narrow the gap to first place. I could block the numbers, but I suffer from this morbid curiosity about how many times they will call before they give up.
And I haven't stated this yet in this post, but I believe that some of these calls are schemes to get personal information with the purpose of identity theft. I know of two agencies that have street cred, and neither one of these has been calling me lately. Of course, one of them knows that I just started a new job, and the other one in my opinion is not as good.
That's a wrap.
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Transition to a New Job
I am now in my second week of the transition. My start date was on the 20th. It almost didn't happen. My new employer hired a third party to conduct a background check on me. I gave that third party all the information that they wanted.
The next day, they wanted some W2 forms to verify previous employment in Nevada and down here in Sorry Vista. I had those FAXed in, and asked for a callback to make sure that they got them by leaving a voicemail to the point of contact. I didn't hear anything until the next day. "Well now we want W2 forms for this other employer". And I'm thinking, why didn't they ask for those the previous day? I called my point of contact again, and left a message. Just like the previous day, he refused to return my phone call.
I then had to escalate it. I called my employer, and was referred to their corporate HR. I made them aware of the situation. Then within one hour, my phone call got returned. He admitted that he got some of the W2s, but he wanted another one sent again, and then some others. OK. I got them sent.
The next day, they claimed I gave them the wrong birthdate. Yeah, like I would do that. They refused to fix the date. I had to do it all over again. I called corporate, and corporate pretty much asked me to humor them. So I did.
The second time, it went thru, giving credence to a saying I came up with two years ago: you need to do things twice in order to get them done once.
The pain of onboarding may or may not be over yet. I got an assignment from someone else over in corporate. Yes, I filled out the W4 forms, but now I need to call this toll free number and get a confirmation number from Ernst & Young, who are somehow involved in determining something called WOTC eligibility, which I know that I am not eligible for. But I had to go over that with them all over again, was issued a confirmation number, and that was emailed to that corporate lady who came in out of left field to want that little tidbit of information.
Meanwhile, I'm not getting any real work done. I haven't been issued a laptop yet. That has to come from their customer, through whose network I must interact. My task lead (who is a great guy) told me it might take three weeks. Then, I can request that my badge be accessed to the labs that I will need to get into (not to mention the building where my office is). He pointed out that the customer is low on computers, and that there's no guarantee that I will get one that will actually work. He told me it would be his job to worry about that and not mine. While I am waiting, I am reviewing test procedures and documentation for some rather specialized methods of radio communication. One standard I am very familiar with and the others are new. Being a ham radio operator, I'm being paid a good salary to read this. That said, they'll be getting their money's worth out of me once we are up and rolling with funded task orders.
As I (think I) explained previously, this is essentially my old job again. The employer back then lost the contract to the employer I have now, and it has taken both the new employer and the customer 18 months or so to transition this. Neither side expected that length of time.
I'll have to be honest about something. I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing going back to this job. The Good Lord opened that door, and as painful as it has been for me to get settled, I ought to stay in this one. The task lead is a great guy. The engineering manager who hired me likely is also but I have yet to meet him in person (I'll try to get that taken care of this week). The deputy program manager is as down to earth as anyone can come. And the company has an excellent reputation.
On the other fronts in life, I have been very busy in ham radio (still). I put up a new antenna for the 40 meter band and results have been great. I've already worked Spain, France, Curacao, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Japan, Korea and Australia. Lots of hams are complaining about conditions lately (and I remember when they were better), but when there's a solar minimum then great things happen on 40 and 80 meters.
You just have to go where the fish are biting.
The next day, they wanted some W2 forms to verify previous employment in Nevada and down here in Sorry Vista. I had those FAXed in, and asked for a callback to make sure that they got them by leaving a voicemail to the point of contact. I didn't hear anything until the next day. "Well now we want W2 forms for this other employer". And I'm thinking, why didn't they ask for those the previous day? I called my point of contact again, and left a message. Just like the previous day, he refused to return my phone call.
I then had to escalate it. I called my employer, and was referred to their corporate HR. I made them aware of the situation. Then within one hour, my phone call got returned. He admitted that he got some of the W2s, but he wanted another one sent again, and then some others. OK. I got them sent.
The next day, they claimed I gave them the wrong birthdate. Yeah, like I would do that. They refused to fix the date. I had to do it all over again. I called corporate, and corporate pretty much asked me to humor them. So I did.
The second time, it went thru, giving credence to a saying I came up with two years ago: you need to do things twice in order to get them done once.
The pain of onboarding may or may not be over yet. I got an assignment from someone else over in corporate. Yes, I filled out the W4 forms, but now I need to call this toll free number and get a confirmation number from Ernst & Young, who are somehow involved in determining something called WOTC eligibility, which I know that I am not eligible for. But I had to go over that with them all over again, was issued a confirmation number, and that was emailed to that corporate lady who came in out of left field to want that little tidbit of information.
Meanwhile, I'm not getting any real work done. I haven't been issued a laptop yet. That has to come from their customer, through whose network I must interact. My task lead (who is a great guy) told me it might take three weeks. Then, I can request that my badge be accessed to the labs that I will need to get into (not to mention the building where my office is). He pointed out that the customer is low on computers, and that there's no guarantee that I will get one that will actually work. He told me it would be his job to worry about that and not mine. While I am waiting, I am reviewing test procedures and documentation for some rather specialized methods of radio communication. One standard I am very familiar with and the others are new. Being a ham radio operator, I'm being paid a good salary to read this. That said, they'll be getting their money's worth out of me once we are up and rolling with funded task orders.
As I (think I) explained previously, this is essentially my old job again. The employer back then lost the contract to the employer I have now, and it has taken both the new employer and the customer 18 months or so to transition this. Neither side expected that length of time.
I'll have to be honest about something. I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing going back to this job. The Good Lord opened that door, and as painful as it has been for me to get settled, I ought to stay in this one. The task lead is a great guy. The engineering manager who hired me likely is also but I have yet to meet him in person (I'll try to get that taken care of this week). The deputy program manager is as down to earth as anyone can come. And the company has an excellent reputation.
On the other fronts in life, I have been very busy in ham radio (still). I put up a new antenna for the 40 meter band and results have been great. I've already worked Spain, France, Curacao, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Japan, Korea and Australia. Lots of hams are complaining about conditions lately (and I remember when they were better), but when there's a solar minimum then great things happen on 40 and 80 meters.
You just have to go where the fish are biting.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
A Surcharge to Help the Environment?
This link caught my eye when I looked at Drudge yesterday. It's a story out of the Sacramento Bee. Environmentalists in the People's Republic of California are trying to get restaurants there to tack on a one per cent surcharge at some Sacramento restaurants. It's not mandatory by means of sales tax hike (yet) and restaurant participation is "voluntary". The proponents are doing this since it makes them feel good; they have a cause; they can proudly trumpet to their Twitter followers and Facebook friends about what great global citizens they for caring about the environment while not having anyone in Organized Media following them to see if they will eat in these restaurants to pay the fee.
When you think about it, it's somewhat ingenius. Guilt the restaurants into setting up and collecting the surcharge, the restaurants in turn will guilt the customers into paying this surcharge, and those who pay get to spend the drive home esteeming themselves over the fact that they've "done something" to help the environment. It's a win-win solution, right?
Well let's think about this some. One per cent of the tab goes towards the fight against what's now called "climate change" (they don't like using the term "global warming" anymore). One per cent's not so bad, right? No, I don't suppose that it is, in and of itself, but then what?
Someone else will then come along and want their one per cent for their cause. Consider the fight against breast cancer. That's a very serious fight which I personally would like to see us win some day. What if we have another one per cent for that? How do I argue against that? I would personally prefer writing out a check to a trusted charity as opposed to paying a surcharge, but those advocating a surcharge aren't going to like my way of doing it. They might say "well not everyone is going to write that check! We MUST raise awareness of this at the point of sale! If you guilt them, they WILL pay!"
What about one per cent to fight homelessness? That's a serious problem in California. Relief organizations are in need of volunteers and support. Wouldn't it be a good idea to hit those up who can afford to go out and eat for one per cent to help those who are homeless? Now here is where you can really guilt the customers. We can ask them, "is it fair for you and your wife to have this nice meal here while some homeless guy goes to sleep hungry tonight?"
You see where I'm going with this, right? There are lots of good causes out there. I'm sure there are enough to where you can have twenty of these one per cent surcharges on eating out. Would everyone pay an extra twenty per cent? Just how much money can you guilt someone out of anyway?
Yes, I'm skeptical about some of the charities and causes that are out there. I'm even more skeptical about "man made global warming", but that's beside the point I am attempting to make. I have my own local pet charity here in Tucson and I have another local cause that's important to me. I could publicly beat my drum here about either of them but my own personal feeling is that giving is best done by a sincere motivation to give rather than doing so out of being guilted into giving.
But let's now get to that point I want to make.
Isn't there a better way to fundraise?
I'm convinced that there is more than one better way. Corporate and political groupthink says there isn't, and that bothers me.
When you think about it, it's somewhat ingenius. Guilt the restaurants into setting up and collecting the surcharge, the restaurants in turn will guilt the customers into paying this surcharge, and those who pay get to spend the drive home esteeming themselves over the fact that they've "done something" to help the environment. It's a win-win solution, right?
Well let's think about this some. One per cent of the tab goes towards the fight against what's now called "climate change" (they don't like using the term "global warming" anymore). One per cent's not so bad, right? No, I don't suppose that it is, in and of itself, but then what?
Someone else will then come along and want their one per cent for their cause. Consider the fight against breast cancer. That's a very serious fight which I personally would like to see us win some day. What if we have another one per cent for that? How do I argue against that? I would personally prefer writing out a check to a trusted charity as opposed to paying a surcharge, but those advocating a surcharge aren't going to like my way of doing it. They might say "well not everyone is going to write that check! We MUST raise awareness of this at the point of sale! If you guilt them, they WILL pay!"
What about one per cent to fight homelessness? That's a serious problem in California. Relief organizations are in need of volunteers and support. Wouldn't it be a good idea to hit those up who can afford to go out and eat for one per cent to help those who are homeless? Now here is where you can really guilt the customers. We can ask them, "is it fair for you and your wife to have this nice meal here while some homeless guy goes to sleep hungry tonight?"
You see where I'm going with this, right? There are lots of good causes out there. I'm sure there are enough to where you can have twenty of these one per cent surcharges on eating out. Would everyone pay an extra twenty per cent? Just how much money can you guilt someone out of anyway?
Yes, I'm skeptical about some of the charities and causes that are out there. I'm even more skeptical about "man made global warming", but that's beside the point I am attempting to make. I have my own local pet charity here in Tucson and I have another local cause that's important to me. I could publicly beat my drum here about either of them but my own personal feeling is that giving is best done by a sincere motivation to give rather than doing so out of being guilted into giving.
But let's now get to that point I want to make.
Isn't there a better way to fundraise?
I'm convinced that there is more than one better way. Corporate and political groupthink says there isn't, and that bothers me.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
I Can Now Go Public With This
Effective this morning, I have separated from my employer that I've had for the past year and a half. It was brought about by a confluence of events that I can now make public. I was offered employment two weeks ago down in Sorry Vista by the company that took over the contract I was working on in the last half of 2017.
I had kept tabs of what was going on down there, mainly out of curiosity, but more recently out of my desire to not retire just yet. After one month of furlough, I began to realize that I had better get a plan B going, and with not even three weeks of searching I landed something.
Upon advice of Sheila, I held fire of resigning what was until this morning, my present position. I made some discreet contacts with connections that I had with their Oro Valley customer, and learned that the new management is going to make the attempt to squeeze blood out of the turnip, and they are suffering from the delusion that they'll be the first to succeed.........even though corporate managers have been trying that for decades.
Their other major customer up in Phoenix that I supported kept trying to convince me to take a 30% pay cut to join them. They went through a third party recruiter to keep their fingerprints off of this scheme (as of yesterday they are still trying to get me to take it). As interesting as commercial aviation can be, I was realizing that the good money was going to be elsewhere, thus one month ago I initiated a serious search.
One of the possibilities was my old job down in Sorry Vista. I kept tabs on the new company coming in. They have an EXCELLENT reputation, and I felt it was in my interests to apply for an opening that emerged. It wasn't quite my old job......instead of leading efforts to test and certify HF radios, the requisition was more steered towards UHF SATCOMM....where I had previous experience as a satellite engineer.
I applied for the position on a Monday, the 16th of April. On a Wednesday afternoon I got the phone call from a hiring manager. It was a great conversation. It was positive. I trolled for information, as in has the engineering manager been identified? Have the other team members been selected? I heard the names I wanted to hear and did not hear the names of who I did not want to hear.
I then asked, "are you bringing me down for an interview?" "We just had that. I'm going to put together a package." The next day I got the offer, and I accepted. And then now what? I've got to write a resignation letter that I hoped I would never have to write.
Sheila talked me out of doing that right away. The plan was to resign this coming Friday. But then I got a phone call yesterday.
I was told that due to business conditions, they couldn't continue my furlough very much longer, and I was going to be laid off. Then I brought up that I had gotten an offer two weeks ago, and that I was going to have to resign anyway. What do we do now?
I learned that if I resigned, one of the owners would veto any attempt to return to them in the future. However if I accept the layoff, they pick up my medical/dental/vision for the month of May, and I'm eligible for rehire. I felt it was in my best interest to accept the layoff.
Whether or not I go back is unknown. I'm leaving a company that is really great to work for to join another company that is also great to work for. Yes, the commute to Sorry Vista is long enough to where I'm going to stay down there and live out of a motel room three nights a week. But the new employer is going to pay me more (they even exceeded my salary request) and I will be allowed to flex hours and go home early on Fridays or get every other Friday off.
Yes, they really wanted me. Part of it is that I know where some of the bodies are buried, and that I can start on day one and be up to speed one day before I report to work.
As for my now ex-employer: I hated to see it end, but the commercial aerospace industry is an in extreme state of dysfunction as I write this. It will be one year minimum before things change for my ex-employer. And the other issue is, is that even if their Phoenix customer restores funding for environmental testing of that new unit and creates a job opening for me............how do I trust them?
About half as far as I can throw my house.
I had kept tabs of what was going on down there, mainly out of curiosity, but more recently out of my desire to not retire just yet. After one month of furlough, I began to realize that I had better get a plan B going, and with not even three weeks of searching I landed something.
Upon advice of Sheila, I held fire of resigning what was until this morning, my present position. I made some discreet contacts with connections that I had with their Oro Valley customer, and learned that the new management is going to make the attempt to squeeze blood out of the turnip, and they are suffering from the delusion that they'll be the first to succeed.........even though corporate managers have been trying that for decades.
Their other major customer up in Phoenix that I supported kept trying to convince me to take a 30% pay cut to join them. They went through a third party recruiter to keep their fingerprints off of this scheme (as of yesterday they are still trying to get me to take it). As interesting as commercial aviation can be, I was realizing that the good money was going to be elsewhere, thus one month ago I initiated a serious search.
One of the possibilities was my old job down in Sorry Vista. I kept tabs on the new company coming in. They have an EXCELLENT reputation, and I felt it was in my interests to apply for an opening that emerged. It wasn't quite my old job......instead of leading efforts to test and certify HF radios, the requisition was more steered towards UHF SATCOMM....where I had previous experience as a satellite engineer.
I applied for the position on a Monday, the 16th of April. On a Wednesday afternoon I got the phone call from a hiring manager. It was a great conversation. It was positive. I trolled for information, as in has the engineering manager been identified? Have the other team members been selected? I heard the names I wanted to hear and did not hear the names of who I did not want to hear.
I then asked, "are you bringing me down for an interview?" "We just had that. I'm going to put together a package." The next day I got the offer, and I accepted. And then now what? I've got to write a resignation letter that I hoped I would never have to write.
Sheila talked me out of doing that right away. The plan was to resign this coming Friday. But then I got a phone call yesterday.
I was told that due to business conditions, they couldn't continue my furlough very much longer, and I was going to be laid off. Then I brought up that I had gotten an offer two weeks ago, and that I was going to have to resign anyway. What do we do now?
I learned that if I resigned, one of the owners would veto any attempt to return to them in the future. However if I accept the layoff, they pick up my medical/dental/vision for the month of May, and I'm eligible for rehire. I felt it was in my best interest to accept the layoff.
Whether or not I go back is unknown. I'm leaving a company that is really great to work for to join another company that is also great to work for. Yes, the commute to Sorry Vista is long enough to where I'm going to stay down there and live out of a motel room three nights a week. But the new employer is going to pay me more (they even exceeded my salary request) and I will be allowed to flex hours and go home early on Fridays or get every other Friday off.
Yes, they really wanted me. Part of it is that I know where some of the bodies are buried, and that I can start on day one and be up to speed one day before I report to work.
As for my now ex-employer: I hated to see it end, but the commercial aerospace industry is an in extreme state of dysfunction as I write this. It will be one year minimum before things change for my ex-employer. And the other issue is, is that even if their Phoenix customer restores funding for environmental testing of that new unit and creates a job opening for me............how do I trust them?
About half as far as I can throw my house.
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