Other Anyone else considering changing jobs in this current economic climate?

[Jpass]

wise move. I'm sure later on you'll be asking yourself what took you so long to make your decision in the first place. Good luck at your new job.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Let's just say "I'm a trooper".

I have never been one to back down from a challenge so balancing everything has always just been another challenge to overcome. It worked for awhile but finally just came to a head.

My old supervisor and I had an arrangement and he understood it. I worked my ass off during the day and went home at a decent time, I did my job and he was happy. He quit just before christmas so I picked up a good share of his job. Then they fired my useless coworker a month ago and I inherited all of his workload as well. Since I was already doing the work of 2 people, I am now doing the work of 4 and they add more daily.

The plant manager had a discussion with our management team about better balancing workload between other resources and the only thing that changed was that they now all start conversations with "I know your really busy," before they ask me to do something. :biggrin:

 

[Vumad]

Lol, I've been working on this deal for over two months now. At first I was scared to get it, Then I was scared if I didn't.

It's a $28k/year paycut before overtime so it's not an easy decision but if I put in the hours I currently work, minus the driving, i can make the same money. You just can't bank on overtime.

I got pretty spoiled on salary. It sucks that you can work a ton of hours and not see a penny more but at the same time, you will never make less either.

You just said you spent $22k in fuel in 4.5 years. Sounds more like a $23K/yr pay cut. Don't you also own a small business selling jet ski parts? Think of the opportunity costs of travel time instead of an extra 3hr/day into your business that you love. Family and ride time... Take that 3 hours a day you are blowing on your commute, and invest it in taking care of responsibilities at home. If you continue to work those 3 hours every day, but at home, you will find yourself with a very large amount of free time on the weekends to spend with family.

Edit: probably wouldn't be worried about the money needed to replace your car if you hadn't been putting 50k/yr on it to get to work. Money saved is money earned.

 

[Vumad]

Your situation doesn't seem too economic based. More so about the commutes.

However, on the topic of the economy, it worries me some. I'm a firefighter. The poor decisions being made in government make me nervous. Look at Greece. Everything there is managed by the government. Healthcare may seem like the place to be, but certainly not in Greece right now.

I haven't considered a new job, I very much like my job, I have however been focusing on diversifying.

I have a Associates in Arts, Associates in Science in EMS, and Firefighter and Paramedic certs. Those open me up to a few different opportunities but mostly w/in the same field. I'm starting my BS in Public Safety, which would allow me to move into Administration or into agencies such as FEMA if I were to get injured. At 4class/yr, It'll take approx 3 years to finish my BS-PSA, although this is still very parallel to my current field.

So, I'm also taking classes towards engineering. I need a lot for this, and at 2 classes/yr, it's going to take about 10-12 years, but I'm in no rush, if something happens, I'll take more classes, but for now, it's manageable for my schedule.

Also, when I finish my BS-PSA, I plan to start a Bachelors in Education.

All 3 of these I like and I am good at. Having education in these areas opens up a vast number of potential job opportunities I am currently not "qualified" for.

And, if you're wondering about the strange school schedule, it's because of how my school is paid for. I am part of the college program where I teach students on the job and earn college credits for doing so. The schedule I have maximizes the use of those credits. By the time I finish my BS-PSA, I'll have finished my engineering pre-reqs and be at a different college. I would still be accumulating credits at SPC, so I figure I'll use them on some BS-Education courses.

 

[OCD Solutions]

I don't sweat money much. Everything is paid for and has been for many years now. If I can't pay cash, I don't need it. I have saved money and invested well and live well within my means.

I have been an electrician/instrumentation tech for over 21 years now. I specialized in PLC and HMI automation about 15 yrs ago. I started out wiring houses and then got into the industrial side of things. I spent 5 years at a gold/copper mine and then the balance of my career in the wood industry with a small detour into oil and gas. Wood experience include; Finger joint stud mill, numerous dimension sawmills, a plywood plant and then OSB for the last 12 yrs. With the exception of the gold/copper mine, all my experience has been with Allen Bradley PLC's.

This new opportunity will expose me to the Siemens Step 7 environment with a much different type of automation that I am used to. The great news is, these guys are leading edge in robotic manufacturing and this will be a great foot in the door to an entirely new network for me that I never would have imagined possible. I have a grade 12 education and two apprenticeships under my belt and the rest is self taught on the job.

 

[MCrider]

What the is a fax?

i sent my first one last week and i was embarrassed when i said can someone help me....i'v never done this before haha.

 

[gc4]

I don't sweat money much. Everything is paid for and has been for many years now. If I can't pay cash, I don't need it. I have saved money and invested well and live well within my means.

I have been an electrician/instrumentation tech for over 21 years now. I specialized in PLC and HMI automation about 15 yrs ago. I started out wiring houses and then got into the industrial side of things. I spent 5 years at a gold/copper mine and then the balance of my career in the wood industry with a small detour into oil and gas. Wood experience include; Finger joint stud mill, numerous dimension sawmills, a plywood plant and then OSB for the last 12 yrs. With the exception of the gold/copper mine, all my experience has been with Allen Bradley PLC's.

This new opportunity will expose me to the Siemens Step 7 environment with a much different type of automation that I am used to. The great news is, these guys are leading edge in robotic manufacturing and this will be a great foot in the door to an entirely new network for me that I never would have imagined possible. I have a grade 12 education and two apprenticeships under my belt and the rest is self taught on the job.

I truly respect how you run your life.

 

[Matt_E]

Let's just say "I'm a trooper".

I have never been one to back down from a challenge so balancing everything has always just been another challenge to overcome. It worked for awhile but finally just came to a head.

My old supervisor and I had an arrangement and he understood it. I worked my ass off during the day and went home at a decent time, I did my job and he was happy. He quit just before christmas so I picked up a good share of his job. Then they fired my useless coworker a month ago and I inherited all of his workload as well. Since I was already doing the work of 2 people, I am now doing the work of 4 and they add more daily.

The plant manager had a discussion with our management team about better balancing workload between other resources and the only thing that changed was that they now all start conversations with "I know your really busy," before they ask me to do something. :biggrin:

I'm glad you're letting management know that piling stuff on and on is not ok.

 

[OCD Solutions]

I am done trying to tell management anything. I am resigning with the single reason that I simply cannot continue my daily commute. All the while putting a fresh coat of paint on the bridge I am about to walk over. :biggrin:

 

[Matt_E]

I'm sure they know what's up, even if it's not explicitly stated. I did something similar when I left my Bechtel job. My immediate supervisor tried very hard to make me stay. I told him that I needed more challenging work in my field.
He said he'd try for more money for me. I told him that wasn't necessary as I was taking a pay cut with the switch. At that point he realized I was gone.

 

[SuperJETT]

I don't sweat money much. Everything is paid for and has been for many years now. If I can't pay cash, I don't need it. I have saved money and invested well and live well within my means.

I have been an electrician/instrumentation tech for over 21 years now. I specialized in PLC and HMI automation about 15 yrs ago. I started out wiring houses and then got into the industrial side of things. I spent 5 years at a gold/copper mine and then the balance of my career in the wood industry with a small detour into oil and gas. Wood experience include; Finger joint stud mill, numerous dimension sawmills, a plywood plant and then OSB for the last 12 yrs. With the exception of the gold/copper mine, all my experience has been with Allen Bradley PLC's.

This new opportunity will expose me to the Siemens Step 7 environment with a much different type of automation that I am used to. The great news is, these guys are leading edge in robotic manufacturing and this will be a great foot in the door to an entirely new network for me that I never would have imagined possible. I have a grade 12 education and two apprenticeships under my belt and the rest is self taught on the job.

Nice. SLC500's? We are starting to transition off the 5/05 to Compactlogix since AB is starting to sunset the SLC line by pricing it up. A 5/05 processor is $3800 now, just crazy. I moved from automation to IT/data collection but still get to do some programming occasionally.

 

[neller0414]

Nice move. I went from commuting 120mi/day for a while then got a sweet deal from another company but was commuting 150mi/day (luckily I had company paid cars at both, and actually the second one was paid gas too). It wasn't worth the increase in time, because it was a worse route and that 30mi extra per day was about an hour extra in time, and on Fridays about 2 hours extra.

Ironically, I waited it out for a year and the previous company gave me an even sweeter deal to come back, and then I moved my family 20mi from work. But it was almost 3 years of commuting that took time away from my two small kids...now that I'm so much closer, I realize the value in it. I meet up with my wife and kids relatively often during lunch now even (my wife is often in my work area shopping or what not), which was impossible before.

 

[OCD Solutions]

No slc's but we do run a couple compactlogix's on dedicated equipment. Everything else is Contrologix L32's, L60's and even now a couple of the newest L70's. we have 27 processors on site total. I have been busy all week flashing them from rev15 to rev19. The L7's are something like $24K each and apparently are not all that common yet.

 

[OCD Solutions]

This short video was filmed at my current facilty.

http://youtu.be/GBBFmZNOimM

 

[Lumpy]

Whys everything have to be made of sawdust and glue nowadays?

 

[Vumad]

Whys everything have to be made of sawdust and glue nowadays?

Because we sold out quality for price, before we even started outsourcing. Now our materials and our labor sucks.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Why the hate on innovation?

 

[Vumad]

Why the hate on innovation?

Not trying to derail the thread. Making use of the scraps is a good thing.

 

[SXIPro]

Good luck on your new job. With your work ethic you will be fine. 17 years ago I changed jobs so my commute would be cut so I could see my two kids in the morning before work, at lunch time, and get home at a reasonable hour so we could have dinner together and I could read them stories and tuck them in. It was a 15% cut in pay and the job position they started me in totally sucked since it was basically the lowest rung on the ladder. But, starting at the bottom, I worked in every position here and know the business inside and out and now I pretty much run the place and my salary has more than quadrupled. But more important than the $$ was the extra time I got to spend with my children. You get out what you put in, both at work and at home.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Apparently the last hurtle is going to prove the most difficult. I need to take a drug test and we are right in the middle of our annual plant outage. Today was day 12 of a 21 day stretch of work, (providing we actually start back up on schedule). I am working 6am to 6pm each day so I leave home at 4:30am and don't return until a little before 8pm. Since the drug lab is 65 miles away, I won't be able to get the test done for another week unless I can find a closer lab. :Banghead:

Nothing worse than seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and then having the brakes thrown on the train.