I may have decided my fate

[Snattlerake]

My experience is that corporations cannot get out of their own way sometimes.

Case in point, We had a two man team in Wichita, me and Jim. We were both trained and I was the newest tech, he was my supervisor.

Corporate decides to annihilate the OKC and Tulsa offices. Bothe were a mirror image of each other. They had a general manager, a salesman, a secretary, two fire alarm technicians, four burg, CCTV, access, nurse call, etc technicians. They cut all positions but two alarm techs and they quit.

Long story short, after drowning in service calls, I was asked to help out OKC and Tulsa and still be on call for Kansas. OKC and Tulsa was not just OKC and Tulsa. It was the whole state from Keyes to MacAllister and Altus AFB to Siloam Springs chicken pluckers.

After a year of me putting in 80 hours every week, and crying for help, corporate offered me money to move. A lot of money with the promise of hiring help but after that sweeping of the offices, no one wanted to work for us. I ran the whole state for ten years doing sales, installation and service.

Corporate finally came around again and hired a GM and some more techs and merged the building automation group in with me. Or rather I was merged with them into a new office that wasn't a storage unit. Right after they did this, they instituted SAP programming which was an accountant's wet dream but a logistician's nightmare. After seeing customers leave because SAP operations above me weren't done, I couldn't do my job, so I quit.

Corporate will do what corporate accountants tell them to do. It isn't about loyalty.

Dad told me once, "Son, did you ever stick your hand in a bucket of water? See what the water did? It surrounded you and caressed you. What happened to the water when you pulled your hand out? The water went right back into its original state as if you weren't even there."

 

[Panayoti2]

People are our most valuable resource until they start costing us $$.

 

[turkeyrun]

IF your company EVER puts a bean counter in top management, CEO, run, cash out, sell stock, before SHTF.

MOST, but definitely not all, buyout results in management let go. Slightly fewer producers let go. Normally, cut to bare minimums, slash salary costs, raid pension funds and slowly dismantle the company.

The buyers only care about , people are a liability, expendables. Sux, but truth.

 

[HMCS(FMF)Ret.]

The military is always hiring. I’m not even sure they care how old or broken people are anymore. Just need a working trigger finger. I’m retired, so they could just pay me in ice cold cokes and chocolate bars and I’d be happy.

 

[clintbailey]

I jumped ship on a 12 year job nine months after a buyout, the new company was getting way too dumb with 5x redundant paperwork, hypocrisy out the wazoo, etc.

Made a couple short job hops til I landed where I am now, been here just over a year and it reminds me of the old days at the 12 year gig, pretty laid back. And of course, being a small company, we constantly worry about being gobbled up. The biggest change for me is I'm way better NOW at not worrying about it. Figure I'll stick around until they run me off or offer a package.

 

[Shadowrider]

Wife's company got bought out a couple years before she wanted to retire. It went south for her as she was a bean counter without a college education. It was the first and only job she ever had with 40+ years of developing her skills. Schlumberger brought in college kid after college kid to replace her that left after a few months because they couldn't handle the work load, so they finally gave up and kept her on.
She decided to retire, but nope.
When they decided to move the most productive plant in the company's history to Houston, she was offered two years salary to stay on 10 months during the move to handle the financials of that move. Money that big can't be ignored so she stayed on.
When they finalized the move to Houston, the company never finished a single three cone rock bit in two years of trying to get back into the market. Smith Tool drilling bits were toast.
350 employees in Ponca lost their job. 80% of the workforce had over 20 years on the job.

I went through something similar at Baker Hughes. They bought our company and renamed it to Baker Hughes Inteq. Shortly thereafter they decided to move the whole plant in OKC to Houston. They offered three relocation packages of which I was in the top tier, which included buying my house and assisting me buying one down there, paying for moving, etc. and a decent raise once there. We took an all expenses paid weekend tour in Houston. They put us up in the Double Tree. Toured the facilities for the different divisions, saw the bunker where they store all the radioactive stuff, got to watch a perforation gun demo, etc. Went to a rodeo out of town and had great Texas BBQ. We had a blast that weekend, wine, beer and drinks as far as the eye could see! But after seeing Houston traffic and congestion there was no way I was moving. A few did though and they only had to sign a 1 year agreement. At the end of that year, I only know of one guy that stayed on and he didn't stay all that much longer.

It was a complete boondoggle. We had a beautiful 12.5 acre facility that had three different shops on it here in OKC. A rotor lining shop, a district shop that assembled and ran our directional tools on the rigs to customer order, and our machine shop where we built ALL the parts and did some remachining of parts that were still serviceable after being used. Drill bits were in Salt Lake City, but right before the move they had us machine a prototype diamond bit. In 7 years we had never touched a drill bit until then.

But the brainiacs in Houston wanted it all down there. It was the nicest facility I've worked in with painted floors you could almost eat off of, plumbed pre-mixed coolant to every machine, great equipment that was actually maintained and a killer break room, training room and engineering rooms. When we went up front we had to take our boots off or there was hell to pay. We had a great crew that knew what they were doing and most everyone got along great. We didn't have a lot of turnover.

And yet, they threw it all away and moved it. I can't even imagine what moving our equipment cost but it took over a year. Most of the machines were German. We had 4 slant bed CNC lathes and two deep hole boring machines that had drive motors over 100hp. And a good 6 really large oil country engine lathes. with 12 inch holes through the spindles. The CNCs had 300mm through hole spindles. I used a 1" square insert and took 5/8" cuts on AISI 4145 heat treated steel and those machines loved it. Multiple 4 ton gantry cranes covered the entire plant floor.

Then they tried to sell the facility. Didn't quite work out, They ended up having to keep it and eventually leased it, but I'm sure they took a bath on it sitting empty, even though it was paid for. It would have brought serious money and I know they planned on using it to partially finance the move. That never happened.

Had they not moved it to Houston, I'd probably still be there. I loved that job and lost a bunch of good friends when they moved. I'm still pissed!

 

[Snattlerake]

The military is always hiring. I’m not even sure they care how old or broken people are anymore. Just need a working trigger finger. I’m retired, so they could just pay me in ice cold cokes and chocolate bars and I’d be happy.

https://lawenforcementtoday.com/us-army-prepared-to-implement-army-retiree-recall-program-but-why

US Army prepared to implement 'Army Retiree Recall' Program...but why?​

The outlet reported that on March 20, the US Army Publishing Directorate issued ALARACT 017/2024. That form’s title identifies it as “Utilization of the Army Retiree Recall Program" and cites an executive order by then-President George W. Bush on September 14, 2001. EO 13223 is titled “Ordering the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty and Delegating Certain Authorities to the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Transportation.

Contained within the 18-page .pdf for the ALARACT (All Army Activities) is a slide titled “Directorate of Military Personnel Management. That slide states:

What is a Retiree Recall?:

A recalled retiree is a retired Soldier who is ordered to active duty from the Retired Reserve or the retired list under 10 USC 688/688a, 12301(a), or 12301(d) and serves in his or her retired status. Retiree Recall is not an extension of your MRD.

It continues:

Who can approve a Retiree Recall?- The Assistant Secretary of the Army (ASA) of Manpower and Reserve Affairs (M&RA) is the authorized approver to recall retired Soldiers.”

The ALARACT references “peacetime operations.”

I.E. (U) AR-601-10, Management and Recall to Active Duty of Retired Soldiers of the Armin In SUpport of Mobilization and Peacetime Operations.

The last retiree recall was instituted in May 2020, when the federal government sought the assistance of 800,000 Ready Reserve and retired soldiers to help with the COVID-19 pandemic response. In addition to that recall, retiree recalls were also conducted during Operation Desert Storm on September 11, 2001, and during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In July of last year, Gateway Pundit reported that Joe Biden authorized a Presidential Action to activate 3,000 Reservists and 450 soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserves to serve, if necessary, in Operation Atlantic Resolve, military activities in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Retired soldiers subject to the Army Retiree Recall Program typically remain on active duty for one to two years. Retired aviation officers generally are recalled for at least two years up to a maximum of three years.

Many people predict the Biden administration is preparing to increase US military operations in Ukraine, or perhaps there is an “election year variant” of COVID or another bio-weapon planned. Either way, it appears something is in the wind.

 

[saddlebum]

Three and a half years, SS kicks in.

a tiny fraction of what he makes now

 

[swampratt]

Since I was 17 I thought I will not rely on the Gov giving me any money in the form of social security or retirement.
I need to make my own money and make my own way of monthly income.
I did not trust the Gov. then and do not trust them now.

Kudos for those that have it work out for them.

 

[StLPro2A]

My company was bought out three months ago. Every email that has been sent out, from the company that bought us out, has only mentioned the management that has been crucial to the business growth. Nothing about the people that are on the ground making the money for the newly purchased company. If it weren't for the on the ground techs, none of this would be viable. What am I missing out on here?

The new guys may be envisioning a new direction. You may fall off....be wiped off..... despite how tight you hang on. We all are CEOs of YOURSELF, Inc. Manage yourself like the company you are. Even the best of customer/supplier relationships run out....for good reason or for no reason. Perform your input offerings to your customer/employer as the best resource they have.....you should always strive to be obviously a high contributor, critical to their mission.. Attitude, aka fit, always trumps aptitude. Friction makes one easy to jettison. If you haven't differentiated yourself from the masses, you are merely one of the masses, dime a dozen resource. Putting all one's eggs in one basket maximizes that risk. Most do that and when the risk becomes real, they crash, blame the employer instead of them self for mis-managing your own business entity. Most all do not manage themselves, put all eggs in one basket, contribute to your own business like the common low performing employee, are asleep at the helm of themselves. This could be the best thing that ever happens to you. IF you manage your own business. Whether you are an individual contributor or a leader/manager, write a business plan, evaluate your goods/services offerings, constantly work a plan to continually improve those offerings against your competitor's offerings, know your customer base needs/wants, "advertise" yourself by developing contact strategies (it's as much who you know as what you know...small talk makes big business...one great reason why successful business owners play golf......), perform the financials as a CPA, do risk analysis scenarios, plot your course, and steer a steady ship. Too often we dig and stay in our life rut , afraid or too complacent/lazy to climb out, until someone fills in the ends making it a grave. YOU ARE YOUR OWN CEO. GET IN THE GAME, PLAY LIKE IT.