Job searching...

Well this weekend I finally decided that it was time to start looking for new work around where I live instead of driving for 45 minutes one way every single day. This has been going on for more or less 4 years now, and I'm really done with. Luckily, I have a decent resume, and have a good chance at getting a job at The Park, and of course when say The Park, that means the Research Triangle Park which is like only 10-15 minutes from where I live. This is much better than the current drive that I have, so much better, but thus far, recruiting folks don't s seem to know what you mean when you say you want to work around the Triangle location of NC. So far I've had offers of interviews from Colorado (which wouldn't be bad really), Minnesota, Wisconsin, and a few other locations nowhere near North Carolina. So what's the deal with these people? Do they have reading skills or something like that? Or can they read at all? I don't know for sure. This is what happens every single time that I try to use recruiters to find a new job, and it never seems to sink into their skulls that when you say NC, you mean NC, and nothing else. And then these guys get pissed at you for not wanting to take the money that they're offering you to work in some strange and exotic locale like Missouri. They just don't get it. I guess, the upside to that, is that there are other jobs out there should I want to move somewhere or sometime in the near future, or far future, but really, right now, I don't want to move. I like it here in Chapel Hill, NC, and in NC in general of course. It's a great place to be living. But the recruiters, they don't so much care about what you want, they're more in it for what money they can get out of placing you somewhere. And by placing you, I mean, they will bend over backwards to get as much money for you as possible, because they'll get a cut of whatever it is someone signs you for. This is the one good thing about recruiters, is that they will try to get you as much moolah as possible. But if it's not in the place I want to be? What's the good of making a ton of money? It's no good at all. We'll see what shakes loose of course. I have sent out a few resumes thus far, haven't really heard back from the ones that I have sent out, but I can keep hacking away at it.

Work has been too stressful lately. Too much to do, and not enough people to do it. Which sucks. The whole quality department is pretty much overworked, and taxed out to the maximum ends of insanity, so I might not be the only one looking to jump ship, although, I would be the first one in awhile to bail out if I can find something new and interesting. There was an aerospace quality engineering position that I put in for, but chances are good that the position I sent a resume in for has already been filled since it has been open for awhile now. I haven't heard anything back from them yet. But then again, it's only been a day or so since I sent in a resume to those guys. Aerospace would be sweet indeed. Working with planes and stuff like that. Hells yeah. Something I've been geeked out about for a long time, airplanes, then I could work with them, it would indeed be very sweet. I hope that those guys call back, but I'm not holding the proverbial breath on that front.

I've got 10 years in automotive quality, and it's starting to burn me out I think. Quality is kind of a rough business for the most part. Because for the most part, anytime someone is calling you, they're calling you to yell at you, because you, or your company did something wrong, very wrong. Sometimes parts break, and sometimes things are just a little bad, but for the most part when something goes awry, the customer wants blood. And since most of the guys I deal with at the customer end of things are old fuddy duddy's that work the incoming quality sector at most Big 3 automakers that I deal with, these guys have been there for a long ass time. And when these guys have been there for a long ass time, they get bitter, and then they get mad, and then you give them a little bit of power, and or influence, and next thing you know you've got a guy who knows nothing about your parts telling you how wrong they are, and how you're going to be paying out the nose through it. Sure, this doesn't happen all of the time, but a lot of times, it does. Interestingly enough, these things don't happen with Japanese manufacturers, no sir. This only seems to happen with American automakers. Why? Like I said, they don't really care about the quality of the parts, they just want to seem bigger than someone else and want to show you how much power that they have. I've hung up on guys before, because they've been so irate, and so rude with me. I mean really, there's no need to be dropping f-bombs to your supplier, no matter how bad they might have screwed up, and well, it really gets nothing accomplished, because people don't respond very well to that I think. At least I don't. I've got the back from my plant manager about things like that though. He has told me that when someone does start acting like that, to forward them onto him, and he would take care of it. So far, I've only had to do that once with this one guy who wouldn't let me talk at all, but instead, decided on screaming a string of expletives at me that would make a sailor blush. So I had to pass that asshole off. Then, my plant manager hung up on him. The dude called back, started yelling again, and my plant manager hung up again. So this calling and hanging up went on for about 45 minutes until the guy at the far end decided that indeed, maybe he was wrong on this one, and apologized, and then we started getting something done. As far as my plant manager goes, this is about all he's good for. The management at my business is horrible. I mean, some of the worst that I've ever seen, but I digress, they're good people, but they'll run this company into the ground at some point in time.

I mean, for instance, I've got a boss that takes 1.5 hour lunches, just about every single day. She'll also take, on principle, days off to take her kids to the zoo, take her kids on field trips, take days off for the first day of school, the last day of school, and so on and so forth. This woman has had so many days off this year, my vacation days in comparison, pale as compared to how many days she's taken off for just "kid" reasons. Hey, I don't have an issue with her being there for her kids and all, but damn woman, come to work once in awhile as well why don't you. This theme continues throughout the company. There are people in the office who take a lot of time off to deal with their kids and all. I mean, my parents had 5 kids as well, but I don't remember them ever taking time off like that and getting away with it. But then again, there is the difference between people who are on salary, and people who work hourly. And let me tell you, the folks out on the floor see this, and they are pissed about it, and they should be. For instance. Snow days. Kids are out of school, people in the office will bring their kids to work with them (this pisses me off spectacularly), and people on the floor either have to spend money to have someone babysit their kids, or they stay home with them. They can't bring their kids into work with them like the people in the office can and do. That shit has got to stop. I have said things about it before to aforementioned plant manager, but nothing gets done about it. I try to speak for the folks on the floor, because they don't dare to say anything for fear of losing their job. It's messed up really, really messed.

See what I mean about how the company is whacked?

Now, ask just about anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you that I'm a fairly quiet guy. I like to do my work, stay quiet, stay focused, and get things done. The guy who sits to the left of me though. Damn, that guy is a talker. He'll freakin' talk about anything at all. Shit like, "How you doing today (which doesn't sound bad, but after the 14th time during the day it gets wearing)? Don't make me open up a can of whoop ass... What's going on?" And just on and on and on and on and on, it drives me crazy I'm afraid. CRAZY!!! There are days when I want to strangle that mother fucker. Seriously. Then he does this other very annoying thing, which is he'll print out these outrageously long files on our crappy printer, that doesn't work too well anyway, and he'll jam it up, and then ignore it like he never printed anything out. This will happen 2 or 3 times per day for the most part. Then he'll run the paper out of the printer, not replace it, so it's sitting there blinking for hours or so saying, "PC LOAD LETTER" and either I have to do it, or Larry does. And the shit that he prints out, well, 9 times out of 10, whatever it is he's printing out, doesn't need to be printed out. Wasteful, and annoying. The perfect combination. He'll also say stupid shit like, "I don't mean to be mean or anything, but..." Or, "No offense, but..." I believe if you're starting a conversation with either of those 2 sentences, you're going to end up pissing someone off for certain. He just pushes it, and pushes it, until we have to actually yell at him to shut the hell up, or we're going to start throwing things.

Yeah, that's what it's like at work for me almost every single day. No wonder I take "sick" days every once in awhile. I don't feel bad about it either. Not one bit. OK, sometimes I do, but lots of times, no way in Hell, especially since my boss takes so many undocumented vacation days of her own. Just a few weeks ago, she mentioned that the vacation time she took back in August was the first vacation time that she had taken all year. Um, yeah, right... Sure, whatever you say. Completely insane she is, completely.

I've complained enough for one night. Almost time to hit the rack, and sing the "Bed" song. If you're lucky, someday, you might hear it, but I doubt it.