Something tells me

Alcohol was involved.

When I am in need of a good laugh like I am now, I can always find something on Dave Barry's blog that does the job. Like this:

North Dakota police arrest man in urinal shooting

You seriously have got to be kidding me. What the heck? I have been drunk before, but never so badly that I would feel threatened by a urinal. My guess is that this guy probably would have gone home alone anyway, although it is North Dakota.

Oh thank you Dave for making my day. Thank you so very much.

Prayers,

Pisio

P.S.: For those of you that care, I have a lead on a job back on Maui. Pray that something works out, otherwise I may have to get one of those annoying "Donate" buttons.

Unemployed

Well, after what looked like a promising job I went from an "atta boy" keep up the good work to a demotion to being unemployed. Colorado defines you as eligible for unemployment if you are unemployed through "no fault of your own". Just wondering if leaving a job because it has become so hostile to your existence so as to blame you for every problem the company has experienced in since its founding would qualify as "no fault of your own".

For example in an e-mail from the president of the company I am told that progress on the assembly of units had stopped for the last 3-4 weeks even though parts to complete the assembly of units did not show up until the last week. I can not do anything about the assembly of units if the person who orders parts (her son) does not get me the parts in a timely manner. Yet when I mention that little nugget of information I am told he is overwhelmed because of his school schedule and to not complain about his work.

I am told by the vice-president of the company that I am not to be anybody's friend, that I am a supervisor and management's eyes on the assembly team. When I correct an assemblers or engineer's work and am firm with them about it, I get told to stop complaining about other people's work. It is demoralizing the team and causing friction and temperatures to flair. I am told I need to start being nice to people.

OK fine what ever right? After the atta boy on Thursday, I get sent home early on Saturday and on Sunday receive a demotion from Supervisor to an experienced assembler. This is all well and good, except that in order to complete my tasks, I must be trained by an engineer to do so. In the same breath I am told this I am told I can not interact with the engineers, or anyone else for that matter.

Me thinks that I was offered the demotion so that they would not have to fire me and pay me unemployment. I know that they do not want to pay anyone unemployment. ARGH! this is maddening. I have two kids to feed, a mortgage to pay. I am so upset right now I could spit. I know I am not entitled to a job, but there was no warning given and no second chance. Just three days of hell and a kick in the ass.

Maybe, just maybe this will make me rethink my stance on labor unions... Ummm... no probably not upon further reflection.

Pray for me please. I have some nibbles already. I have a shit-ton of experience that someone is bound to need. The main problem is location. I am tied to a house here in Colorado. That probably means a hardship period away from my family as my best options are out of state.

Prayers,

Pisio

ARGH

I really started out loving a new job I took about 6 months ago. It was a small R&D shop that supported an important mission for the military. Things started out going well as I think all new jobs do. I made it through my 90 days of probation and was given a couple dollar an hour pay increase. Labor day weekend, they flew the company and the families down to Cocoa Beach Florida for a weekend. I felt like I had a new home.

Things were going well right up to Thursday night. That day I had been asked to put together a schedule for delivery of some units. The schedule was aggressive, but it was attainable provided everyone worked together as a team to get it done. This was generally not a problem. For whatever reason, I am blaming the full moon, this time it was. It seemed everyone was at each other's throats and nobody was doing anything correctly.

One of our units had a bad bottom seal, whoever had installed it cut it too short. I recommended to the engineer that I was working with that we take the 2 minutes required to reseal the unit correctly. The engineer grabbed the seal, stretched it out a bit and re-seated it in the channel. He then grabbed the bottom plate for our unit and sealed it up- This unit failed to enter burn in because the seal failed.

Another of the units had a bad/ intermittent front panel switch. I recommended to the engineer that we replace the switch with a new one. Since the computer was restarting itself intermittently I also recommended switching out the battery board and power protection components. This is an easy switch and takes all of 20 minutes. Again, I was overridden by the engineer.- This unit failed to operate and was brought back for repairs: a new switch, a new battery board and new power protection circuit.

A third of units also failed to enter its burn in period. The unit was showing some resonance on one of the channels. This unit had passed our operational check according to another engineer. It turns out that there were loose connections inside the unit causing the resonance.

In all three cases above, I handed off a system to an engineer and trusted their judgement. This has come back now to bite me in the butt. I have been asked not to come into work tomorrow so that the company can decide where I am best suited to be an employee. They say the failures of these units as my fault, and I believe they are looking for a scapegoat. My guess is that come Monday afternoon I will not have a job. If that is the case, so be it.

I ask for all of your prayers in this situation. I am lucky that I have a wife who has a stable job and who loves me. I worry for my kids, but somehow, somehow, God's hand is here. Please pray that I can see it.

Prayers,

Pisio