Employment

My place of employment, for another couple of weeks, will no longer exist when Jan 1 rolls around. We're a small company of 38 employees that has a total of 5 engineers. I'm the only ME and I'm the supervisor of 3 EEs and one programmer. I came here after 16 years at another place, only to be canned without cause. I started as the only mechanical design engineer and after 1 year was offered the supervisor position. Until then we didn't have an engineering department. We all reported to different managers.

We've been one of 20+ companies owned by a large European based organization. In 2008 we were the only one that made a profit, and as of the latest managers meeting we're the only one headed toward a profit this year. As a reward for our good work this operation is being shut down and merged into a larger company out of state. After almost 3 years I can honestly say that I'm going to miss these people. We're a good team. All 38 of us.

When Jan rolls around, and with time to spare, I'll be doing some volunteer building maintenance where the Boss goes to church. There's some plumbing issues to fix and shelves to build in the storage area. I'll also be doing more shooting with the oldest son and taking a class to be certified to teach basic pistol. We also plan to go to Florida in Feb to visit my sister. I think the last time a saw her was almost 2 years ago when my mother passed.

(It's been a bit depressed at the house the past couple of days. Yesterday marked 3 years since the Boss's mother passed.)

Two months ago I had a job interview that looked promissing, but fell through when the company decided not to fill 2 engineering positions. Don't believe the politicians, this isn't over yet. This morning I got a call from a head hunter about a contract (temporary) ME position. Two hours later an interview was set up for this coming Friday.

I can live for a year or two without a paying job, but if offered I'll take the contract job. In a way that'll be a shame because I was looking forward to a couple of months out of the rat race.