bjvircks Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Tomorrow was to be my first day on my local Iowa slope. Boards waxed... edges sharp... bindings set... almost as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve. Then our contract "Team Leader" (Boeing, Anaheim Ca) calls a manditory Saturday meeting for us in Iowa to participate in. crap crap crap crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 wait... you're saying it snows in Iowa? and there's even a hill? sounds like someone saw "office space". "Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. Ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too... " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr D Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 ISn't that where they board down into the hole in the ground and then take the chair back out????:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Glynn Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 Yo! I'm from Iowa originaly, the quad cities area, and use to go up to Sundown or across the river to Chestnut. I always had a blast. As a matter of fact I can't ever remember not having fun when I went skiing or riding. Hang in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor VonRippington Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 Tomorrow was to be my first day on my local Iowa slope. Boards waxed... edges sharp... bindings set... almost as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.Then our contract "Team Leader" (Boeing, Anaheim Ca) calls a manditory Saturday meeting for us in Iowa to participate in. crap crap crap crap. That train is sounding better and better... eh BJ? I could probably hook you up with a place to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjvircks Posted December 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 Last night (before close-of-business here) our friends out west sent a schedule of who/what would be covered when today. Our top guy here had our teams come in/out per the schedule so we did not have all 100 engineers sitting around all Saturday long. Sounds intelligent, right? OK... today we fire up the net-meeting and phone lines and our friends out west tell us "this AM we rearranged when we are covering various topics". We #### near blew a gasket. We said "Look, team X is here. Team Y is coming in at (whatever) and so on. You stick to your schedule or we may as well all go home right now" They muted their audio for quite a while. When they came back they agreed to stick to their own schedule. And then they proceeded to dicker internally back and forth about everything and nothing. In the X time slot we got almost nothing accomplished. Because of their mismanagment there was absolutely nothing for me to be present for. Life is just getting to short to continue to put up with this crap. My team time slot was to be 1 hr long. We stayed 2 hrs and got nothing done. Our lead guy finally said "Hardware Team... get out of here!" I wasted my "Season Opening" by sitting in a stuffy conference room listening to a bunch of idiots arguing amongst themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 what a bunch of farkin bastages! someone should get fired for gross incompetence. i used to work for a company where the president would walk around the place every friday at 4pm and ask people what time they will be in on saturday. he expected everyone to work overtime. so the question was when, not if they'll be in on saturday. oh the stories i could tell. the place was like prison. the lucky ones were the people who got fired. there was a chair they called "the ejector seat". it was rumored that anyone who sat in it was fired within a few weeks. seriously, they'd bring in these software engineers and they'd sit in the ejector seat and then they'd disappear. i sat in a bunch of times but it didn't work. there were people there who hadn't had a raise since '96. it was really strange. i kept thinking that they suffered from stockholm syndrome (where the hostages identified with their captors). if you did somehow get a raise, you were expected to work more hours. one guy refused to accept his raise so that he didn't have to come in. every payday he'd go into the president's office and pay him back in cash until they rescinded his pay raise. completely sick. it took me 11 months to get out of that hell-hole. ask me about the golden hoof award. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadx Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 gee, bobble, what's the golden hoof award? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEJ Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Wow! Makes me appreciate my job. Hopefully the other ten bucks have showed up by now so you can quit this horrible slavery and just RIDE! Corperate sucks, I'm lucky to be one step below it. (Flying under the radar.) SJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Well, ChadX, since you asked... The golden hoof award is euphemism. No one actually got one. The owner of the company is an Egyptian. The Hoof awards were some strange inside joke at the company. It was all about camels. If you performed well in the eyes of the owner, you gained his favor. You became the “golden boy”. He would be extremely gracious and would award you with new work and extra long hours. He micro managed things such that it was always one fire drill after another. It really sucked. Anyways, I somehow became the golden boy. I don’t know what I did but co-workers were saying I was the “pharaoh’s new golden boy”. One of the guys would go round the building saying to coworkers “Hey, did you hear? This year’s Golden Hoof Award goes to Bobble”. I guess I took it as a compliment as I had no idea what it meant. The owner was happy with my work. I was employed as a project engineer. I thought it was some sort of congratulations for making a scheduled deliverable. I found out a couple weeks later what it meant. I was told that when a camel urinates, it usually pisses on one hoof and they called that hoof the Golden Hoof. I should have gone for the Ivory Hoof award, the hoof that doesn’t get pee’d on. I shared an office with this guy that looks a lot like Carlos Mencia (like Comedy Central’s Mind of Mencia). He bet someone that I wouldn’t make it a month at that place. It took a long time for him to get him to like me. I knew I was on his good side when he showed me a letter and a sketch he received from his friend who is on death row. How many companies you ever worked at were ever investigated by the FBI? The place was so bizarre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartron Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 OK... today we fire up the net-meeting and phone lines and our friends out west tell us "this AM we rearranged when we are covering various topics". We #### near blew a gasket. We said "Look, team X is here. Team Y is coming in at (whatever) and so on. You stick to your schedule or we may as well all go home right now" They muted their audio for quite a while. When they came back they agreed to stick to their own schedule. And then they proceeded to dicker internally back and forth about everything and nothing. In the X time slot we got almost nothing accomplished. Because of their mismanagment there was absolutely nothing for me to be present for. Life is just getting to short to continue to put up with this crap. My team time slot was to be 1 hr long. We stayed 2 hrs and got nothing done. Our lead guy finally said "Hardware Team... get out of here!" I wasted my "Season Opening" by sitting in a stuffy conference room listening to a bunch of idiots arguing amongst themselves. Been there, and completely understand your frustration. It sounds just like the place I just quit. At one point I got fed up and told my boss: In order for a meeting to be useful to me, either I have to have info the other attendees want/need or they have to have info that I want/need. Your weekly meetings provide none of that. She agreed and I stopped going to those "social events" as I called them. At this point, your only option is to forget about it and look to the future. There will be other riding days, some, possibly many, of which will be better than that day. Sorry for the extra cheese, but that's the best advice I can think of right now. 'later... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartron Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 oh the stories i could tell. the place was like prison. the lucky ones were the people who got fired. there was a chair they called "the ejector seat". it was rumored that anyone who sat in it was fired within a few weeks. seriously, they'd bring in these software engineers and they'd sit in the ejector seat and then they'd disappear. i sat in a bunch of times but it didn't work.there were people there who hadn't had a raise since '96. it was really strange. i kept thinking that they suffered from stockholm syndrome (where the hostages identified with their captors). if you did somehow get a raise, you were expected to work more hours. one guy refused to accept his raise so that he didn't have to come in. every payday he'd go into the president's office and pay him back in cash until they rescinded his pay raise. completely sick. :lol: :lol: :lol: That is by far, the funniest work stories I've heard so far. Definitely a keeper. At my 2nd last job, we were expecting layoffs. I was hoping that if get laidoff, they would lay me off at the end of November so I could spend the entire winter riding while collecting UI. I ended up getting laidoff at the end of July and didn't go riding that much during the season. 'later... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartron Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 How many companies you ever worked at were ever investigated by the FBI? None, which is surprising given how much of a fraud capital this town is. But I did work for one that should have been investigated. 'later.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjvircks Posted December 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 someone should get fired for gross incompetence Nope, that's not the way it works out there in SoCal I guess. The more you inconvenience increasingly larger groups the more quickly you get PROMOTED! Hey, Bobble... want a TPS report cover sheet stapled to your forehead? I've got my red stapler handy. I got out to Sundown (aka Rundown) on Sunday. I logged 11,250 vert at my 475' deep ditch. At the end of the day I look around as I start the chair-ride to the top. The day is over, my legs are shot. then... Holy Crap!!! Out of the corner of my eye I spot some guy laying down great euro-carves on an alpine board. Who the $^@( is that, where the heck did he come from and why did he show so late?? I wait at the top meet him a few minutes later. He's set up with good stuff and knows how to use it. Turns out he knows Fin! Small World, guys! He is a machinist, used to live in Colorado, and spent some time at Bomber looking over Fin's operation. Looks like I'm not so alone out here with the hog lots and corn fields. edit... Not that there's anything wrong with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 I got out to Sundown (aka Rundown) on Sunday. wow. and I complain about the Big Bear areas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shred Gruumer Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 YOU must be on the dreamliner program... So how late is your product? hmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.E Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 hahahahahaha- you guys have jobs that suck. I get to play with kids all day, on the snow, and get paid for it. Now, when I say "paid" it's probably just enough to get some of you thinking about waking up in the morning, but my mortgage is getting whittled down. All I have to say is THANK YOU to all of you guys willing to put up with sh!t I never would so that I can enjoy a fairly care free life OUTSIDE of an office and not stuck in a cubicle. You guys rock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjvircks Posted December 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 Sorry Shreddy G... not even close. While our Commercial Avionics division is very heavily represented on Boeing aircraft I'm on the military side of the business. Besides, the Boeing passenger aircraft are headquartered in Washington, not SoCal. OK D-Sub... you found my hill! Here is a good laugh... in the brouchure they brag up the "Colorado-like setting" I swear the vert is measured from the top of the neighboring farm's silo to the bottom of the well at the base. Bite me, Mr.E Well OK... you are right about the jobs. But to do the things I like I'm willing to make some sacrifices. I'm really looking forward to retirement (5 to 7 yrs away) when I can chart my own course. At my age... pension and health benefits in retirement are the huge carrot that keeps many old horses pulling the wagons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.E Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 to do the things I like I'm willing to make some sacrifices. I can totally relate to that. I just choose to retire while I'm younger and work when I'm older. My plan certainly has its drawbacks, but it has its advantages, too. No, I mean it, thanks to all the folks willing to work in corporate hell. Even hippies like me can't deny living the good life, in part, because I have the option on hoping a plane half way round the world for a fairly reasonable rate (somethig i couldn't do if everyone was on the hill). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin A. Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 I went through a similar thing earlier this year, albeit in college, not in a career field. I was getting the royal runaround from the chief flight instructor at DWC, and I ended up getting scheduled for an 0700 flight block with the biggest bitch in the world. I was commuting, so I would have to be there at 7am, right? Wrong. Unlike all the other instructors with 7am blocks (nevermind the commuter factor) who would see 7:30-7:45 as an acceptable wheels up time, my bitch needed to be off the ground at 7. Any later, and I would incur a $100 failed lesson charge. So I was getting up at about 4:30 so that I could get over there and do all of the various things that needed to be done, and she would still treat me like **** and show up late herself and whatnot. When the school sent me an EXTRA $9K bill, I told them where they could put it and informed them that they had succeeded in making me realize that I didn't want to fly airplanes for a living anymore, expecially if they would be charging me at least $50,000 a year for a career that pays $19K at entry level. I've discovered a much less stressful life in culinary arts, and one that overall is much more satisfying. Maybe you need an extra outlet for your stress? Maybe....golf. Golf is a remarkably good stress reliever so long as you don't take yourself too seriously while you're out there. Or you could try writing a program to take the extra money that gets rounded off on the accounting reports. P.S. You're going to have to get me those TPS reports pronto, that would be greaaat. P.P.S. Are those black squares on that trail map :lol: ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywhit Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 McFly ! Pilots get more chicks than chefs. Here's an early christmas gift for ya http://www.oramagazine.com/freeSubscription.asp maybe trick out the Rubicon and you'll get more chicks. Golf is for geezers. I'm kidding, cracking a bucket of balls at the driving range takes the stress away...for awhile. Food business is far from low stress, my wife manages 5 restaurants. She gets pretty stressed. http://www.devilducky.com/media/42515/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin A. Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 It's a hell of a lot lower stress than flying was...And pilots may get more chicks, but they're never around so they cant keep them . I already have a good one anyway , so I'm not exactly in the market. There's too much ego in the aviation industry anyway, it just wasn't a good place to be. Anyone who has ever attempted or has pursued a career as a Professional pilot will know that. Chefing, not so much, but it's still there. It's nice not have to defend and prove yourself all the time, IMO. I still say that Baloo from Tailspin had the life . 5 Restaurants? That's nuts. I only want one...1/5 the stress? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywhit Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 JA, back from Cannon already ? how was it ? any drizzle ? Maybe see ya friday at Addsometrash. I still say that Brad Randolph( David Carradine ) from Cloud Dancer had the life. The plot's a little thin in this film. It deals with competition aerobatics and the main character's unwillingness to be in a long term relationship for fear of passing on a defective gene to future children. The side plot is teaching a rising aerobatic pilot the tricks of aerobatics while teaching him to live by clean living and giving up trafficking in drugs. back in 1980, "extreme" wasn't a sports term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Pushee Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 This string seems to be migrating. I might as well help it along. I learned Monday that I won't be needed in the office any more after 1/15. This is not a bad thing. I'll have plenty of time to snowboard (midweek) all winter now. I've been in this company for over 25 years and they'll pay me for another year I'm old enough and was in the company long enough that I can get health insurance at employee rates. Kids are out of college, house is all mine. Now I don't have to work as hard at convincing the wife that I think we can afford for me to retire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywhit Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 Then our contract "Team Leader" (Boeing, Anaheim Ca)...... I thought we were still "on topic" with the airplane (Boeing) references. Pilots are just glorified "bus" drivers.Really BIG bus drivers sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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