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#1 Jan 31 2012 at 9:43 AM Rating: Excellent
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I changed jobs last October. Someone I used to work with saw an opening coming in his company and invited me to work with him. It's a longer commute but it pays considerably more and is less stress. It was a difficult choice and Flea and I talked a bit about it since I was giving up 14 years at my old job and you never know how a change is going to work out but we decided to go for it.

My old workplace has essentially gone bankrupt in the last month or two. When I left, I had no idea that this was going to happen. Beyond the poor economy for a construction-related industry, the president was (so I heard) embezzling money to pay for gambling debts and cooking the books. He was found out when the owner went to the bank to finance a new home off the company's assets and the bank laughed at him. On December 16th, they let everyone in the residential, design-build and commercial divisions go. I heard last week the owner sold off the maintenance division to a competitor. They weren't interested in the land, building or employees, just the contracts.

I mentioned the estimator here that I replaced before. The 50+ year old woman who talked like Ned Flanders and played strange 80's pop tune electronic dance remixes all day. She decided to get out of the industry all together and was cagey about what she planned to do afterward. I figured it was none of my business and didn't press it but even people she'd worked with here for 9 years didn't know. The other day, I was collecting stuff off the fax and someone sent a release form for her drug/alcohol test results for a bus company. As in school buses. Whether it was her intent to drive school buses or something fell through and she wound up applying to drive school buses, I have no idea. But she's doing that and I'm here and my old company has disintegrated.

Life's a strange thing sometimes.
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Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#2 Jan 31 2012 at 10:13 AM Rating: Excellent
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Driving school busses would be a pretty awesome job. Just think of the peace and tranquillity.
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#3 Jan 31 2012 at 10:14 AM Rating: Excellent
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Did it ever occur to you to convince yourself, and others, that your old company went under because you left?

My job has become hellish. We got this new administration when we got a new gov last year. Originally the guy that had been appointed to head our agency resigned after only a month as his former/current self was a land-developer. He was dismissed as there was a conflict of interest (my agency permits his projects). In the month he was here however, he gave an upper management position to a young woman who's family lived next door to him. She was a wedding photographer before taking on the job of Director of Communications here at my dept.

The newest commissioner (only a former oil industry lobbyist) is reorganizing and now my little policy unit resides in the Office of Communications. The wedding photographer is my boss (my daughter got a total kick out of this). She's already written me up once for insubordination. I dont' think I insubordinated but refuting the claim could be seen as combative which is what I was accused of.

Good times.......
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#4 Jan 31 2012 at 10:15 AM Rating: Excellent
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Yeah, how convenient that you just so happened to jump ship as it was going down and ruined a 50+ year old woman's life. Pull the other one, saboteur.
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#5 Jan 31 2012 at 10:16 AM Rating: Excellent
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I've no reason to think her life was ruined. From my impression of her, driving school buses might be her bag.

Sorry to hear that, Elinda. Sounds like it sucks. Everyone knows government jobs are supposed to be a parasitic cakewalk.

Edited, Jan 31st 2012 10:17am by Jophiel
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#6 Jan 31 2012 at 10:31 AM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:


Sorry to hear that, Elinda. Sounds like it sucks. Everyone knows government jobs are supposed to be a parasitic cakewalk.

It's left me putting a great deal of thought into what else I may be able to do to earn a living.

If I ever want to do anything else with my life career-wise, now is the time. Of course we just refinanced our house, upping our monthly payments in exchange for a shorter mortgage. So, financially the timing sucks, still I'm really itchy to be doing something else.

I've got a couple of good prospects here for other positions in my agency that will get me back into field work and science and environmentalism etc. That's probably what I'll end up with, and that will be ok and it won't upset the cash flow too much.

I'd really like to have my own business though. I just haven't figured out what I'm good at...hah. Smiley: clown


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#7 Jan 31 2012 at 10:34 AM Rating: Excellent
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Jophiel wrote:
Everyone knows government jobs are supposed to be a parasitic cakewalk.
That's been my experience so far.
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#8 Jan 31 2012 at 11:06 AM Rating: Excellent
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lolgaxe wrote:
Jophiel wrote:
Everyone knows government jobs are supposed to be a parasitic cakewalk.
That's been my experience so far.

Why do you hate our military? Smiley: frown
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Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#9 Jan 31 2012 at 11:14 AM Rating: Excellent
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Sir Xsarus wrote:
Driving school busses would be a pretty awesome job. Just think of the peace and tranquillity.


Plus, you can drink on the job. That's kinda cool.
#10 Jan 31 2012 at 11:25 AM Rating: Excellent
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Jophiel wrote:
Why do you hate our military? Smiley: frown
Just because I dislike 90% of the people and 110% of the policies doesn't mean I hate the military. Smiley: motz
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#11 Jan 31 2012 at 11:47 AM Rating: Excellent
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Eske Esquire wrote:
Sir Xsarus wrote:
Driving school busses would be a pretty awesome job. Just think of the peace and tranquillity.


Plus, you can drink on the job. That's kinda cool.


Plus the radiation might mutate you into something cool. Smiley: nod

(I'm not the only one who used a geiger counter near a school bus in high-school chemistry class am I?)


Edited, Jan 31st 2012 9:54am by someproteinguy
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#12 Jan 31 2012 at 12:19 PM Rating: Good
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Quote:
(I'm not the only one who used a geiger counter near a school bus in high-school chemistry class am I?)


I think you might be.

My teacher just made explosions in plastic water jugs. And loved making different colored fires from various elements. He was a little psycho. But chemistry's the perfect subject for that. :P

[EDIT]

Oh yeah, he also once wanted to show us what tossing a chunk of lithium into a vat of water would do. Smiley: lolSmiley: lolSmiley: lol

Edited, Jan 31st 2012 1:20pm by idiggory
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#13 Jan 31 2012 at 12:57 PM Rating: Excellent
Wow, looks like you got out just in time. It is funny how life works sometimes.

As you know, I am currently in a job where I am paid to file other people's taxes. I have learned more than I ever cared to know about taxes. I am currently underemployed in a big way. I left my old job making... well, making a lot more money. I am now working part time, in a seasonal job, making $8 an hour. It was very humbling to pick up my first paycheck for under $200. I wept.

However, my husband's new job is making a lot more, so we're not in any danger of starving to death. In a few months, we might be in danger of losing the house we still have in Tennessee that no one seems to want to purchase, but that might be changing, as well. Yesterday I received an email from our realtor that someone may be interested in doing a "lease-purchase" of our house. Basically, we'd agree on a price that they would pay for the house, then they give us a non-refundable deposit and they rent from us for six months. None of the rent payments are applied towards the purchase price, and they have the option to move forward with a purchase at the end of six months, or try to renew a lease with us. If they decide not to purchase, we keep the deposit, and can either allow them to continue living there for six more months or we kick their sorry asses out and continue trying to sell the place. We hope to know their decision today on what they want to do.

In the mean time, I am desperately emailng/mailing/faxing my resume to every job I can possibly find, with no one calling me back. It's quite depressing, actually.
#14 Jan 31 2012 at 1:33 PM Rating: Good
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I might have a preliminary interview with Teach for America on Monday. On the one hand, it would a 30-50k job for two years. On the other hand, I'd probably have to move to a part of the country I otherwise have no interest living in.

It is an issue I care about (though I don't think teaching is really my calling). So we'll see.

[EDIT]

And it's a prestigious organization, so "preliminary interview" is really just that.

Edited, Jan 31st 2012 2:40pm by idiggory
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#15 Jan 31 2012 at 1:40 PM Rating: Excellent
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Do it for AMERICA!
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#16 Jan 31 2012 at 2:27 PM Rating: Excellent
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Belkira wrote:
I am desperately emailng/mailing/faxing my resume to every job I can possibly find, with no one calling me back. It's quite depressing, actually.

I've been doing that for months now. Yeah, depressing.

Hope your house dealie works out!
#17 Jan 31 2012 at 2:27 PM Rating: Good
My office has had to hire two new bodies to replace students who could not longer work during the day due to scheduling issues. The newbies seem to fit in with us fairly well, so that's good.

We're also crossing our fingers that we might land a contract with another big clinic in town, in which case we'd have to hire another three people. We discovered that their previous IT company had sneaky blocked our email domain at the firewall level so they never got our business proposal last week. We tattled on them and cited it as yet another reason they need to drop those lazy bums like a hot potato. Their network is a mess and we estimate it'll take us six months to get them cleaned up. Smiley: dubious

Edited, Jan 31st 2012 3:28pm by catwho
#18 Jan 31 2012 at 4:43 PM Rating: Good
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Wow, Joph, nice timing. Say, I'm going to Vegas next month, any tips?

Elinda, try to treat your new boss as if she belonged there. Sure, she doesn't, but it won't benefit you in any way to fight with her, or to hold that grudge between you as it will affect how you interact. Of course, maybe it's too late.

I, too, have considered starting a business. But sadly most of my ideas are either frowned upon, illegal, or too much work.

I'm still working in the same place I've been for 8 years. It's changed ownership 3 times, the most recent time was last year. Our big company was bought out by an even bigger holding company. During the integration, they laid off 25% of the IT force including my boss. The new boss I was assigned to in March got re-assigned in September, so I got a new new boss. This guy is not as good as the previous 2, but I guess it could be worse.

I've been wanting to leave for 2 years, but I can't argue the steady paycheck. I applied to a couple "dream" jobs, but didn't even get called for an interview. Now I'm trying to finish my bachelor's to make me more marketable. At the same time I've considered a complete career change, but I really don't know what else would interest me that's real and also practical. You know, suntain-lotion boy for the SI swimsuit team probably ain't gonna happen.

I can't complain too much though, I've seen a lot of people get laid off and have to deal with various degrees of success in getting new jobs, so my situation could be worse. Still, if anyone has an "in" for that suntain-lotion job, let me know.
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#19 Jan 31 2012 at 6:38 PM Rating: Good
Elinda wrote:
Did it ever occur to you to convince yourself, and others, that your old company went under because you left?

My job has become hellish. We got this new administration when we got a new gov last year. Originally the guy that had been appointed to head our agency resigned after only a month as his former/current self was a land-developer. He was dismissed as there was a conflict of interest (my agency permits his projects). In the month he was here however, he gave an upper management position to a young woman who's family lived next door to him. She was a wedding photographer before taking on the job of Director of Communications here at my dept.

The newest commissioner (only a former oil industry lobbyist) is reorganizing and now my little policy unit resides in the Office of Communications. The wedding photographer is my boss (my daughter got a total kick out of this). She's already written me up once for insubordination. I dont' think I insubordinated but refuting the claim could be seen as combative which is what I was accused of.

Good times.......


Whose.

This is why you'll never make it [in] the department of communications.

Edited, Feb 1st 2012 2:40am by Kavekk
#20 Jan 31 2012 at 7:06 PM Rating: Excellent
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We went through a similar regime change here at my government job, things were brutal for a while, but they are getting better. Finding hardware money to upgrade anything has been problematic, and I personally am a year behind on a still pending grade promotion and 3 years on Cost of Living Adjustments, but we're hanging in here.

Its funny to see how career paths diverge and where the aftermath leaves us. I used to work for a civilian side air security firm as an Intelligence Analyst. When I got there, the particular company had no programs, databases or other aids in producing or coalating reports and intel. So, drawing on my programming hobbies, I put some things together for me. pretty soon the other analysts started using them, and basically overnight quadroupled their output, since so much of the job before that was just repetitive formatting crap (Our IT company was a bad joke). I never really got more than a brief "thank you, this is great" from the company execs, even though they apperently got major bonuses for "dramatically increasing productivity and profitability of the company", which kind of irked me. That and requests for backup solutions and server licensing and whatnot to build better, redundant solutions that weren't essentially lorified workstation grade toys were all denied due to cost. So eventually, I decided houston sucked, and I moved away. As it turns out. about 5 months after I left, they managed to catestrophically break the primary application of mine that they were now relying on. Without backups of anything, or anyone even close to qualified to fix it. They actually tracked me down and got ahold of me and were going to fly me back down to fix it at consultant rates, when they abruptly went bankrupt. I was later told by another former co worker there that they lost a huge client because they had been trying to go back to manual production and still keep up the same level of coordination and output because the application actually failed a month prior to when they called me, but they wouldn't put any money towards fixing it until it was too late.

I always kind of felt bad about that one, but at the same time I'm really glad I got out when I did. Moral of the story, pay your tech savvy people what they are worth!

Edited, Jan 31st 2012 5:07pm by Kaolian
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#21 Jan 31 2012 at 8:15 PM Rating: Excellent
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Kavekk wrote:


Whose.

This is why you'll never make it [in] the department of communications.



Tsk.

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#22 Jan 31 2012 at 8:48 PM Rating: Good
I know I shouldn't arbitrarily enclose things in [brackets], but I just can't [help myself].
#23 Jan 31 2012 at 9:05 PM Rating: Excellent
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What brackets? Help myself how?

Gah, I hate these quest givers.

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#24 Jan 31 2012 at 9:29 PM Rating: Good
?
#25 Jan 31 2012 at 10:28 PM Rating: Excellent
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I guess Kavekk has never played Everquest. And had the thrill of forgetting to type the H in Hail.
#26 Feb 01 2012 at 2:52 PM Rating: Good
True, I assumed it was a WoW reference. The silver question mark denotes a quest has been taken but that the requirements are not yet met.

Luckily it turned out to be a good response anyway.
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