The dumb shits I work with

The semiconductor industry is on the turn down yet again

2014-05-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

If you work in the semiconductor industry or any industries that support it..........sorry but I have bad news. The market is now flat again. As most of us that have worked in the electronics industry, it has its ups and downs. The semiconductor portion of the industry has a 3 year cycle. That means it is up for 3 years, then it is down for 3 years. It looks like this is the end of the 3 year up cycle.

How do I know that? Simple, I know people who work in the industry and they are telling me that some of the major companies are now letting their temp workers go - all of them. The temp workers are the first to go in a down cycle. It is how the companies make themselves look good on paper to their stockholders. The dumb shit stockholders think that the company is doing good if there are no lay offs but they don't know that the majority of the company's production workforce are temps.

If you want to check out when those big companies lay off their regular workers just head on over to the unemployment website for the state of California and look at the listings for the WARN notices. Of course temp workers are not listed but you can be assured that they went long before the regular workers did.

Case in point, Lam Research just let all of their temp workers go in April 2014 so that means their customers are not placing that many orders with them. Applied Materials is letting go a few permanent employees in May 2014 so you know that the temps are gone already.

What the industry is waiting for is THE NEXT BIG THING. The PC market is shrinking, cell phones are now reaching the saturation point (everyone has one that wants one) and everyone is looking for the next invention to take hold. Problem is, there is nothing, yet.

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Companies that love to layoff people but are great to work for

2013-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

Have you ever started to work for a company and thought to yourself that this is the company that I will stay with until I retire? Your initial thoughts are great co-workers, the work is easy for me, no pressure and a wonderful boss. It was only after you had been working there for a few months did you realize that in the good years everyone was happy but when poor upper management decisions went south the first thing the company did was lay off people.

Well I have work for 3 of those companies.

The first one had a layoff about every 3 years. Each time roughly 20% of the workforce went. Then for the

next 3 years they would hire more, then layoff. I was with them for almost 15 years and managed to stay off of the layoff radar range. I often wondered why and finally asked one of the VP's. It was not due to the fact that I was invaluable or liked by upper management, no it was simpler than that. It was my bottom line, I was cheaper to keep than a co-worker who made more than me. Yep, get low pay and keep your job or get higher pay and get laid off. The company was sold in the end to another corporation who promptly shut that location down.

The next company was a smaller family owned operation with about 250 employees in 2 countries. The work was easy and the pay was decent, not high but enough to live on and I thought that I would be there for 20 years like some of the older employees. Little did I know that they either got in tight with the family of owners or had been laid off and come back multiple times. In just under a year there were 2 layoffs and yes you guessed it right, I went in the second round where I joined 50 of my co-workers at the unemployment office. In less than 6 months later they were hiring again and I applied but it seemed that only those who had been there for years and years got back in. Oh, did I mention that they hired them back at minimum wage? Yes it was their way of cutting wages.

I currently work for a nice company. It is not large but it has been growing for the past 2 years. They have money and lavish it on company parties, picnics and bonuses. Lately the work load has been slowing down so I did a bit of research. I talked to one of the production workers who was helping out in another department and asked why he was there. His reply was no work orders and added "I have seen this before." That led to a conversation where I found out that he has been working for the company for over 4 years and gone through 3 layoffs. He says he is use to it and it happens. All I can think is "damn, I thought I would be here until retire," here we go again............................

Men treat women as sub human in the work place

2013-09-06T23:35:00.001-07:00

I currently work in a largely male dominated work force. I have the skills and the experience to do my job in an efficient and timely manner. What I don't get is the respect of my male co-workers who tend to look at me as a dumb blonde (I am neither dumb nor blonde but they treat me as if I was one). Here are some examples of how I am treated differently from the men.

In my work I typically have to lift or carry objects up to 40 lbs. If the object weighs more I don't dare ask for help as "I should be able to do my job without any help lifting" even though they help each other out, but have made fun of me. I have asked for help from a supervisor who in turn delegated the lifting to one of his workers because "he was not about to do it, because he was a supervisor." By the way the objects are steel plates.

One of the managers was doing a presentation and looked right at me and said, "you do know what a failure curve looks like" - while pointing at a chart. My reply was, "yes, I even know what a bell jar graph looks like too." That was when the VP said, "she got you on that one."

Upper management seems to have caught on fast that I am not dumb but they are more educated than the group I work with. I work with the line operators that have had very little formal education and tend to be rednecks in their attitude and hobbies.

It sure is odd that most of the men are either single or have been married multiple times.

I know I should feel grateful that I have a full time job but it got to me this week when I got my yearly pay rate hike and got only 16 cents more an hour!!! Yep, 16 cents. This is where the men I work with are getting $24 to $35 an hour and I am just about 1/2 of that rate. Yep, under paid, under appreciated and a woman in a mans work world because I am qualified

It sure does suck working with a bunch of testosterone hyped up gorillas with tats that love to talk about guns, motorcycles and all the toys they have just bought, while my family struggles just to find money for the house insurance bill.

Why do employers think they can control you when you are away from work?

2013-02-28T21:43:00.001-08:00

It makes you wonder when companies require access to your Facebook account during the interview process, but how about this one that is now showing its ugly head in the internet age? The company you work for prohibits what websites you can visit in your "off" hours!!

That little gem showed up in an employee handbook that I know about. I can understand about not visiting Twitter and Facebook while at work but not allowing an employee not to use Linkedin in their off hours in something new to me. Also the fact that they cannot mention where they work or what kind of work the company does............people this is a service company that does not have government contracts nor do they make weapons for 007. The company is run by people who are absolutely paranoid about "reputation" on the internet............so far they are doing good........no one even knows who they are. Internet marketing is not one of their strong points.

So why do companies think they can get away with this rubbish? Because no one challenges them. It was only recently that several states have banned the practice of wanting Facebook passwords or that you have to friend your supervisor so they can keep tabs on you.

I say burn employee handbooks that violate your rights.

Workers that get a raise and get into more trouble

2012-09-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

I swear, some people are dumber than shit. I worked with a guy that started off as a tech at a very well known semi-conductor company. He worked his way up to being a manager. During that journey his pay went from $40k a year to well over $120K a year. His problem is that he didn't know how to manage money. He was great at handling people but money went through his fingers like water.

I had not seen him in over a year but we had talked on the phone. We no longer work together and he is still at the same place, I think for 20+ years now. He told me that he has to sell his house because he could no longer pay the $3K a month mortgage!! Wait, at $3K a month that is only $24K a year which is about 20% of his pay. There must be more to the story, and there was. He and his wife are up to their eyeballs in credit card debt. They also declared bankruptcy which I found odd since he earned so much money. The story sounded strange because if he declared bankruptcy then he could now afford to pay for the house.

To put the icing on his bitter cake, he also told me that he might quit his job and start over somewhere else!! The poor sap is going to walk away from a $120K a year job!!

Dumb shits and money - give them more money and they will always be dumb.

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How to quit your job, let me count the ways

2012-07-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

I just quit my good for a small paycheck, high stress job. The feeling is wonderful. I can't seem to get this darn smile off my face.

The last time I quit a job was back in 1989 when I literally walked out in the middle of the day, or was it morning...oh well, that does not matter, what mattered was the fact that I got fed up enough to walk. At the time it was due to an indifferent boss who would not acknowledge my supervisor role and pay me for it. It was only after denying me a promotion (discrimination was the cause, found out later) and demanding I do job duties that only managers did I walked. Of course I stewed for about a week before taking those final steps.

In those days it was common to give a 2 weeks notice of your intent to leave. They could hold that last paycheck for up to 2 weeks if they wanted to. In my case I got my check within 4 hours because I threatened to turn them in to OSHA for violations.

Nowadays employment can be "at will" meaning they can fire or lay you off without warning, so the same can apply to you. You can quit on the spot without cause or warning. Most well respected companies are not "at will" employers but small shady operations are and I have worked for some of them.

While I did not walk out this time on my employer, I called in to quit. The manager was sorry to see me go but understood my reasons. I was the one chosen to send home when there was a lack of work, one time for 3 months!! That was last year and this year it was turning out to be the same way. This time I found a higher paying job with more stability. The manager was also thinking about leaving and almost walked out on several occasions.

Due to new technology there are now several ways to quit your job:

don't call in for a few days and let the company assume you have quit
call in and just quit - like I just did
send an email to your boss. Be polite but official, giving the date of your last day, instructions on what to do with your last paycheck (send it, wait for you to pick it up, etc) and lastly how to handle any personal stuff left at work.
send a text message to your boss, keep it short and simple and follow up with an email

Follow my suggestions of quitting without seeing your boss in person and you will be less stressed.

I have no intention of going back to that place and hope it goes under due to the way it treats and uses up its faithful employees.

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Being physically sick of the place you work at

2012-07-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

I think most of us have had headaches develop during the day at a work place we just couldn't stand to be at anymore. But how many of you have ulcers, high blood pressure and other ailments due to work place stress?

The place I work at right now use to be a low stress work place, I said "use to be." As of the last few months the stress level has gone through the roof. Let me just highlight the several causes of that:

hired new production boss who has no previous experience of being a manager or knows anything about production. He was hired because he is a friend of the owner.
production boss fires lead production person and promotes a dip shit from off of the assembly line to run things. Dip shit has no leadership qualities and has no idea how to run a production line.
Vice-president does not like new production boss, mainly because she did not hire him
Vice-president tries to run production as well - driving all of us bonkers
Queen Bee as we call her is in charge of QA and enjoys stirring the pot of emotions on the production floor. She is tight with the VP so she can get people fired, in trouble or what ever she sees fit for herself.
time studies are being done all the time. As production workers we are timed for every little part of a unit down to how long did it take to tighten a screw - to the second. This has been going on for almost 2 years now but the last few months it has gotten worse.

After reading what I just wrote, I now realize I should be grateful that I have not suffered a stroke or heart attack from working there. It is one of the worst places I have ever worked at. There is so much backstabbing and political rivalry going on that I almost want to up chuck it all.

After the production lead got fired I saw many people change who they hung out with during breaks. One guy who wanted to be the lead (but did not get the job) is now hanging out with Queen Bee. He probably thinks he can get her to help him get the production lead job. I don't have the heart to tell him that Queen Bee has always disliked him because he makes too many mistakes.

Yes the soap opera goes on, but unlike a soap opera this one will end.

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Unfair overtime laws

2012-06-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

Don't you just hate it when a company takes full advantage of that states' overtime laws and uses them to short change their employees? Case in point - Last weekend was the Memorial Day weekend. The four days following that weekend was MANDATORY 10 hour days. Normally we the workers would be paid overtime for the 2 hours over the 8 hours each day but not this time since the state only requires that employers pay 1.5 times the pay for anything over 40 WORKED hours. Just PAID hours does not count. All worked hours in those 4 days were all paid as straight time. In California the state law is overtime is paid after 8 hours each day. They tried the over 40 hour rule for about a year and then the law got changed back to the over 8 hour rule. I miss living in CA.

So of course this coming week there is no overtime scheduled. The company had that planned ahead of time. Damned cheapskate company..............I have got to find another job but the economy has not improved enough to create more jobs yet - so I wait............and wait..............and look..............and wait some more.

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When does having a lower paid job make sense?

2012-05-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

There are times when having a lower paid job than you have now will make sense. For example I am currently paying about $80 a week just in gasoline to get to and from work. I could take a job that pays $80 a week less than I am paid now, be closer to home and break almost even on income.

Another very good example is to get away from a high stress job due to the people you work with. I find that most of the work place stress is not from the actual job but the people who are in charge of you. Recently I was assigned a complicated job that lacked proper documentation, was a prototype, and I had no experience with the type of product. Added on top of that the fact that the dumb ass sales person promised a 24 hour turn around for the customer, just to get the job..............WTF!!!!! So I had less than 5 hours to put 6 of these things together which some of it involved soldering under a microscope. I was interrupted at least 5 times by various supervisors, managers and that dumb ass sales person to ask me when it would be done.

Did the job get done? Yes it did but not without a whole lot of stress put on me for no good reason at all.

I can't wait to find another job.

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The high gas prices promote rumors of job quiting

2012-03-24T10:34:00.001-07:00

The local price of gasoline is just at the $4 mark. It now costs me close to $75 a week to get to and from work. The co-workers I have spoken to are paying about the same or more for their commute. Several have mentioned that they have started to look for a job closer to home even if it pays less than what they are now earning because they would save money in the long run on the cost of the commute.

As it is now, I have to work about 1.5 hours a day to pay for gasoline and the taxes they take out of my paycheck. So out of an 8 hour day I get to keep only 6.5 hours of pay. I only get $11 an hour so working for $71+ a day (after gas and taxes) is about a poverty level wage. Lets do the math - at $71 X 5 = 355 a week X 52 weeks = $18460 a year. That is about the same wage as a fast food clerk working full time. I am a highly skilled electronics tech who has taken on a low paying electronics assembly job at a job shop because all the electronics jobs have been out sourced to China. New technology has been very slow to develop otherwise I would have moved easily into those career fields.

Have I gone back to college? You bet I did - but the college courses were not geared towards todays job markets. I took several computer classes to get certified as an IT specialist but I knew more than the teachers and the material was outdated. I even tried a career change and found out that everyone else tired that same career change and the market was saturated with job seekers like me.

I am getting nowhere fast and just holding on until the economy improves and I can find a job with decent pay that I can actually live on rather than just barely surviving on - knocking on wood that nothing breaks or needs to be repaired or I don't get sick.

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Dumb ass boss on the internet all day

2012-03-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing ticks me off more than having a boss that plays on the internet all f#@#ing day then has the gull to ask you how fast can you make something or put together a unit. Damn overpaid nut job is what that man is.

I had to say that. My work bench is facing his back and I get a full view of his computer screen all day long. I wish I had time to burn like that. NOOOOOO, I have to work as fast as I can to keep the production line going at damn near poverty level wages. He even showed off his iPhone and how he could download todays basketball game live. I can't afford that and neither can any of my co-workers.

Go get f***ed boss man. I hope to hell that upper management cans your ass soon, real soon.

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The unprepared dumb shit I worked with

2012-02-25T19:21:00.000-08:00

Most of us plan ahead for crisis situations in our lives, most of us that is except for the dumb shits I work with.

I use to work in a state where the state paid you if you became temporarily disabled due to pregnancy, non-work related injury or if you had to go into the hospital for surgery. It is called state disability. Not all states have it. The state I work in now does not have that coverage. If you become disabled and cannot work, you cannot collect unemployment because you have to be able to work to get it.

Now that you have a bit of background on the subject here is what one idiot I work with did.

I worked with Mr. K for about 2 years and during that time he ballooned to a hefty 350+ lbs. He became diabetic and developed other health problems. When his doctor had to run some tests he was not concerned about it as he should have. The tests showed he needed major surgery on his heart valves. Instead of him finding out how long he would need to recuperate (he thought he would be only out for 2 weeks) he just went with the flow of what the doctors said. Then it came time for his major surgery.

He was in the hospital for a week, yep major, major surgery. He was under restrictions after he got home. He was not to drive a car for 4 weeks and go on a liquid diet for a week. He lived alone and had no other income coming in. It then sunk in, he was told by the doctor that he could not return to work for 3 months.

Now panic stricken he was now selling his personal items to his Facebook "friends."

He survived his crisis but those 3 months were stress filled and his credit rating went down the tubes as well as almost losing his apartment. He did not do his homework before his operation to find out the actual length of time he would be out. The odd thing was that most of us at work had someone in their family or knew someone that had undergone the same procedure that he did. We all tried to tell him that he would be out for at least 2 months. He ignored us and thought he would be back in a few weeks at the most.

Be prepared and don't be a dumb shit.

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Upper management in a failing company

2012-02-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

I will never understand the mentality of upper management or ownership in a small and shrinking company.

Take for example one of the places I worked at. They lost 3 contracts one year due to mistakes on PCBs or so they told us all in a meeting that amounted to the 3rd degree. They (upper management) never got into how many boards or what the mistakes were. They just didn't want to lose more customers so they came down hard on production. They wanted us not to talk or be distracted in anyway and if we made mistakes we were to be written up and if that happened 3 times, we were to be shown the door. I know of no one that has not made mistakes, They wanted robots and they were not going to get any. Over the next few months the better production members found better jobs.

What they failed to do was practice what they put on their website and have processes in place to prevent mistakes and to have teams and use teamwork to proactively improve the process. The customers thought that what they read on the website was how things were done but in reality it was nothing more than a sweat shop that gave
you parts, brief instructions on how to make it and then told you to make it as fast as you can. That was so they could under cut the competition on the price. Almost like being made in China or India but here in the USA.

I am sure that not all small companies are run this way, it just happens that I end up working for them. They just don't seem to understand that the majority of workers have pride in their work and when they are told they are trash...................well, they find better jobs. The ones who stay are not loyal workers they just haven't found anything better yet.

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There should be an IQ test

2012-01-15T16:01:00.000-08:00

When you apply for a job you have to submit (at least most of the time) to certain tests. Almost all companies require a drug test but that is only after a position has been offered. Other tests might include typing speed, reading schematics, soldering, or a multitude of skill related tests, but they never ask for an intelligence test....and maybe they should.

I have worked with people that I swear never competed high school or even got past 4th grade for that matter. I was having a conversation with a co-worker about the massive floods in Australia last year and another person near us asked, "what part of Europe is that?" I guess I could be thankful that they knew about Europe.

The last dumb announcement was just a few months ago when another co-worker mentioned he saw the moon this morning after sunrise. He asked almost everyone was there going to be a major calamity take place because the moon was visible during the day time. Someone finally had to explain the orbit of the moon and the meaning of waxing and waning. Apparently the dumb cluck never looked up during daylight hours to see the moon. For those readers out there who are totally dumbfounded the moon is visible during daylight hours at least once a month.

Intelligence tests maybe not what would be required as much as a common sense test. How many of you know or work with an engineer or scientist that lack common sense? I have and even though they could design a computer they could not find their car in the parking lot if they parked it in a different place due to parking lot maintenance (yep, seen that first hand and I couldn't stop laughing).

Then again if a common sense test was required to get a job then think about all those dangerous jobs like miners and oil riggers that would go unfilled. I am not saying those workers are dumb, but who in their right mind would put their life in danger for a paycheck?

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Don't you just hate people who judge others by the way they look?

2012-01-06T19:12:00.000-08:00

I am not going to get into a blog post about race or obesity no this post is something more subtle than that. I am talking about someone judging another because of the look on their face.

I worked at a company for about 8 years and then walked out. I always wondered why I was treated like shit there, until I found out one day. My brother in law also worked there in the test department. About a year after I quit he was over for a birthday party and we started to talk about the company. It was during the conversation that he confessed that everyone (meaning the people he worked with) thought I was always
grumpy because of the look on my face. He felt bad because he knew that it was not my attitude but looking like I had an attitude that got people not to talk to me or even want anything to do with me. He found out after I quit that my "looks" were due to DNA and not "being grumpy."

Of course I had to admit that after they treated me like shit for 8 years I did develop an attitude and it had nothing to do with being grumpy.

Since then I have worked at other companies where someone else was the brunt of co-workers quick judgmental views. One was directed at a lovely lady who had a Scottish accent. I thought it was beautiful but some could not understand the thicker words and thus made fun of it. Yes she did quit. If she only knew that they had the hardest time replacing her since they could not find anyone else that was as qualified as she was.

I wish people would quit acting like high schoolers when they go to work. Maybe they would not learn not to judge others by the way they look, dress or act.

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What some companies will do for money

2011-12-21T13:54:00.000-08:00

It was in the late 1980's when I got a job working for a temp agency. I had a lot of electronic technical skills and I was in high demand. At the time I had gone on several interviews for regular full time jobs but the weeding process was long in those days (gee, not much has changed) and I needed a temp job while waiting for a "real" job to come along.

I was sent out by the temp agency to a business in the industrial area, close to where I lived. The building was not marked in any way to let you know what the name of the business was. I had a very brief orientation and was shown what they did. I saw desk top computers being assembled but not from the component level but from the board level on up. I never saw keyboards or monitors.

My job was to match the orders being made to the packing slips going out the door. Simple right? Yes it was until I found out what they were doing. They were breaking the law!!

At the time computers were not generally imported from outside the USA, those that were, were generally junk and people expected to pay rock bottom prices for them. What this company was doing was importing computers from Asia (the company owner owned the manufacturing plant), taking them apart and putting them together again (with no changes), removing all stickers from them, placing an "assembled in the USA" label on them, repacking them and sending them on to stores like Circuit City, CompUSA and other big box computer stores. I strongly suspected those computers to be counterfeits but was never allowed to examine them that closely.

There were 4 assemblers, none of which spoke English, all of the were from Mexico. The one tech was a girl fresh out of college and only got her job because she spoke Chinese. We talked and she said she would be moving on as fast as she could to get another job because she knew that the place would be shut down if anyone ever found out what was going on.

I was there a whole 2 weeks when one of the companies that I interviewed with came forward with a nice job offer. Yes I left that place in a hurry. It was a few years before I saw that the building was empty. I wonder if they ever did get caught at what they were doing or just pocketed the money and moved on.

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Workers that live in the past and can't let go

2011-12-15T22:33:00.000-08:00

I have been laid off from a number of places during the past 10 years. Most of them were pretty cut and dry - you were laid off, period. Except for one company that laid off 6 people and told all of them that when the work picked up they would be called back. The company strung them along for
5 months. Kept telling them that maybe next month things would get better. What they didn't know is what was going on in the work place.

The company was making major equipment acquirements. They bought a SMT machine to the tune of $600K, they hired a new department manager. The rest of the work crew had steady work. What had happened was the company did a bit of pruning of the work force but didn't know how to tell the employees that they let go that it was really final. Of the 6 people let go, one found another job after 3 months, one started their own business, one retired, and 3 people were hoping they would be going back.

Of the three, one of them was so hopeful of going back that he even mentioned that he would be sad not to see those that would not be coming back because they found other work. He never got the clue that the company didn't want him anymore. I think the major reason he was gone was because he earned too much.

It makes me wonder why companies do that to people. Do they really think that a worker will collect and tiny unemployment check and patiently wait for them to get called back to work? It might work if it was just a few weeks..............but this is months!

To those people who are getting strung along by a company that claims to want you back in the future - MOVE ON. That company never did care about you. They only care about their bottom line and you were not part of it.
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Making money while waiting for a job interview to come along

2011-11-18T14:31:00.000-08:00

The internet is so full of scams for us unemployed people, there outta be a law......

I have personally tried paid surveys (about $5 a month if lucky), blogging (this blog, just pennies so far) online sales (selling on ecrater.com and got about $25 a week) and eBay........let me tell you about eBay.

First up, you can make a great living selling stuff on eBay but it is not for the faint of heart. As a seller you will get people who have buyers remorse and want to keep what you sold them and want a refund as well. I wish those rip off buyers would quit trying
to rip off small at home sellers and go to Walmart and try their tricks. They will see that it doesn't work. Then you get those buyers who want to pay by personal check even though you don't take personal checks and eBay doesn't like that either. You cancel the sale to be nice (so the buyer does not get an unpaid mark against them) and then they turn around and give you negative feedback.

You should not sweat the feedback junk since you only have to call eBay and they remove the negatives if you have proof of a wacky buyer via the emails they sent you. Most people who buy and sell on eBay are a nice bunch but you do get those wacky, dishonest ones that will try and rip off buyers and sellers a like.

Another way to make money online is to beg. I haven't stooped that low but a former fellow employee did. He was laid off the same time as me. While I got busy selling stuff on eBay, he went to football games courtesy of friends on Facebook. He has over 700 friends on Facebook and when money got really tight he begged for money for his medicine and got it. He got over $90 in under 20 minutes. I watched my Facebook feed line and saw it all. Then he sold homemade food to his friends. I don't see how that would work because he is a lousy cook. Considering that he again got money for it while I actually worked at putting stuff on eBay and packing and shipping .......... it got me thinking that life is definitely not fair. How can some people get money simply by asking for it and others, like me, will not ask, but will work for income and yet not get ahead in life.

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Stay away from Facebook if you don't want the world to know about your workplace

2011-11-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Since I am now laid off, I have plenty of time to spend on the internet looking for work and networking with people. Of course there are plenty of dumb shits that are networking the WRONG way. Facebook has got to be the last place you want to be if you are a gossip nut. I thought that rumors traveled fast at work, but no............Facebook is faster.

You would not believe what people put on their "wall" at Facebook. Most people are pretty smart and don't put
those photos of themselves when they weighed 400 pounds or the night they got drunk and did something that their friends took pictures of. Then you get the dumb shits who post stuff on other people's walls that is either not nice or sound like they were drunk when they did it. I am sure that most employers now Google their potential employees names and see if they are on Facebook.

So if you are on Facebook and can't find work remove those unflattering photos, the incoherent drivel you call a post and lock out everyone except friends. Don't let your friends "share" your photos or posts, once you do that they are out in the public realm.

While you are reading this and are thinking that you are ok since you are still employed you had better think again. Your employer could still snoop around you on the internet. You can never tell when they will need to clear house and need more than just work performance to use to filter out those they want gone.

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I hate job interviews

2011-10-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

The main reason I hate looking for a job is not the applying or even the looking through pages, listings and websites just to find a job, nope, it is the interview. It is the time when you get to met the dumb shit you will be working for and believe me there are some really dumb shits who are interviewing.

I had an interview the other day with a man at a new technology company. I asked him what he does at the company, his answer was "I'm a research scientist." So now I wonder why he is doing the interview for an admin job. Since the admin job was not working for him. Odd, very odd. But that does even come close to the bizarre job interviews I have had.

One interviewer had a list of questions that they had to ask so
I could be evaluated by an outside company. She apologized before the questions were asked because they were really strange. I remember that the first question was, "If I was an animal, which one I would choose and why." The next few were if I went to a party with a co-worker and the co-worker was using illegal drugs that night would I report it to my employer." Another one was "How would I react if I saw a memo I should not have seen but involved a questionable act or possible unlawful act on the part of the company." I ask you - how the f*** are you suppose to answer those? No I did not get the job and after an interview like that I don't think I would want to work there.

I did have an interview that left me really puzzled a few days after the interview. I had to meet with a panel of interviewers who would ask me questions. I was told before the interview that I was one of 3 or 4 that were the most qualified for the position. I had the interview, they thanked me and I left. A few days later I got an email that said, "Thank you for interviewing with us. We have decided to choose another candidate for the position. You will not hear from us again, please do not contact us." That last sentence made me wonder what happened but I have since found out that some people do call and bug the interviewer to tell them what they did wrong during the interview and quite frankly they don't want to hear from them again.

Damn, I hate interviews.

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Why can't I have that perfect job

2011-10-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

You hear it on the news at least once a week........a person really loves their job and likes the pay too. They wouldn't even think about working somewhere else. Why can't I find a job like that?

I know what you are thinking, they probably have a college degree and worked hard to get where they are. In some cases you are probably right but the ones I see have no upper level education.

When I was in high school I did so well that I had a teacher who was willing to help me get a scholarship to a Junior college. All I needed was my parents OK and backing but they would not
help me in the least. College to them was a waste of time and THEIR precious money. Of course it didn't help my cause when I told them that I wanted to be a forest ranger. A girl wanting to be a forest ranger was a new concept to them 30 years ago. Yes I wanted a job working outside and away.......far away, from the city as I could get. I found out that my parents were not ready to let go of the apron strings and convinced me to stay with them for years after I graduated from high school.............until I freed myself from their controlling lifestyle and moved on with my life.

Years later I found myself at a junior college with lots of opportunities around me. There were at least 5 short term certificate programs that only took 6 to 18 months to complete and the jobs paid well. The only problem with that is that everyone else was also trying to get into those same programs. The high unemployment rate was forcing everyone into that local college. I was there for almost 18 months and never managed to get into any of those programs. I was either on a waiting list or had to complete just one more prerequisite to get in. Of course the prerequisite courses also had waiting lists. I could not win for losing. I am also getting older and starting a new career at the bottom of the ladder is more than I am mentally equipped for.

Yes I would love one of those dream jobs but in my case it is just a dream now. I am to the point of just wanting to find a job that I could at least stay at for 5 or 10 years without getting laid off.

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The layoffs continue

2011-09-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

I just got word that 5 more people have been let go from where I use to work. Three of their (the company) major customers have either been put on credit hold due to non payment of their orders or are not placing orders at all. One of those companies is shutting down for good and laying off 240 people.

Another company in the town where I live is shutting down operations and
laying off the last of their employees (35). They make utility trailers for small companies and people who want to haul their toys. It looks like most people can't afford toys anymore.

I did hear some disturbing news on TV. It seems that many companies are not hiring the long term unemployed. They are hiring people who have jobs already. So WTF!! is that all about? Are they F%$#ing NUTS? So if you are unemployed you will end up permanently unemployed? I can't wait to hear how those politicians plan on handling that one.

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Get a degree and get a better job - what a load of crap

2011-09-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

Yes I have a college degree but that does not open doors for you when you need to get a job.

Since I have some time off now I started a Facebook account and hooked up with some former co-workers. Some have gone on to other jobs, some retired, and some went back to school. I was chatting online with a few of them and saw that they had their college graduation photos on Facebook. I asked them if they were working and most of them said no. One even remarked that she could not
even get an interview!

I personally think that the local governments and colleges are the ones pushing for people to go back to school. After all they are the ones that would profit from it in the form of tuition fees. The local community college near me offers no practical courses to make you more employable in this area. They only offer basic math, reading and writing courses so you can get into the university. They also offer all those "fluff" courses about yoga and finger weaving. That's great for retired people who need to get out of the house but us people who need a better income and had better kiss a higher education good-bye. The tuition is also $84 a credit (in some states even higher) so a 3 credit class would cost $252 plus books and registration fees. That would put it in the ball park of close to $400 for one class. I don't know about you but just one class would not make a person more employable.

What it boils down to, to get a job you need to know someone to get you in. I am hearing more and more that most jobs are not even advertised. The companies only advertise when they can't find someone by networking first. So if you can't find a job, don't blame it on the economy but the fact that you don't know anyone.

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I will not kiss ass to keep a job

2011-09-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

I have been looked over or ignored for promotions due to the fact I will not, I repeat, will NOT kiss ass.

What bugs the heck out of me is the fact that others do it and get ahead, not on their ability to work and work well but that they can kiss up to a boss and the boss loves it. It makes me sick.............

I have never been part of a layoff that was done just to "clear house" but this layoff has all the markings
of one. I found out through friends that still work there that hardly anyone else got a layoff notice. What really gets to me is the fact that I NEVER missed any days off at all. I was always on time and never abused phone privileges like several of the other workers did.

Was it that I was a woman? Was I not good looking enough? Was I not the right age? Or was it because I would not kiss ass. If you are a boss, you will not get that from me. I have a high standard of work ethics and kissing ass is not one of them.

I know I could do the work and I was often complemented on how fast and accurate I was. So what gives? Why was I picked to go first? I do know that they are having problems with getting work so maybe I can be thankful that I was out the door before the others. I will just have to wait and see. Until then I am thinking about my next career move.

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Well, it finally happened - laid off again

2011-09-15T16:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, I saw the writing on the wall this time. The leads were too busy cleaning and machine maintenance was becoming an all day occupation of some of the workers. The 2 biggest customers were not accepting shipments and the products were in boxes ready for shipping. The total work orders on the books for October 2011 were only 3 as of mid September - not a good sign when that is the number of work orders shipped in a day.

I can't say that I did not see this coming. That is what I get when the company I ~~work~~......worked for catered to obscure industries or ones that were failing. Their sales staff are
pursuing the wrong industries for what we do. Oh, well..............now on to job hunting, yet again.

At least it now gives me more time to write about the dumb shits I have worked with in the past. Heck I miss that place already since it gave me so much fodder for this blog. The manager did say that if sales picked up I would be called back..........but I won't hold my breath on that one.

Oh yea, this was the paycheck that everyone was suppose to get a raise!! And yet another news flash, they are still pursuing a new production manager. Well, good luck with that one.

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