Vacation... I'm nearly halfway through the year and still haven't taken much in the way of vacation days...
Do European companies have convoluted "self performance" reviews? What used to be a yearly annoyance is now every 6 months... and filling out the web portal forms makes me either want to quit or put a bullet in my head... naturally, any mention of the latter results in a call from one of our incompetent and unqualified HR personnel...
Burnt out... yeah... that's me.
tester said:I have worked for a variety of companies over my years in engineering. My co-op job in college was with a large textile company here in the southeast. It was ok, but the writing was on the wall due to NAFTA. The place that I worked during my college rotation has been bulldozed for about 5 years now. While I was there about 20 years ago, they were pulling machines out of the floor and shipping them overseas while simultaneously putting a new roof on the building, new HVAC, and updating floor structures for new machines. They tried to make a go of it and save some jobs. The tide was against them.
I went to work for an large Asian company in a related industry. The HR team was a special piece of work. They hired a guy from out of town; then eliminated his position about 6 months later. Seriously, completely screwed the guy; talked him into buying a house, the whole nine yards. They were in a constant state of reorganization; it hid the attrition very well. While I was trying to figure out what direction to go; they presented me with an offer to be a ex patriot. Nay, they presented me with an ulcer inducing ultimatum to move. At that point, I left the company. I had already witnessed how they handled other folks that didn't work out after a move. I definitely did not want a dose of that in a foreign country. I was only there for about 2 years. It was a real E36 M3 hole.
Then I went to work for a small company partially for a change of scene, change culture, and partially as penance for things that I could not correct at my prior employer. I took a pay cut. I helped build out the place. I unlocked the door in the morning. I locked the door at night. Sometimes, I worked 7 days a week for a month or two at a time. I missed a major family vacation because a guy from our other office forgot to put my coverage on his calendar; even with multiple emails, months in advance. On the flip side, I could take an afternoon off whenever I wanted or a 3 hour lunch a couple of days a week. A weeks vacation, not a snow ball's chance. This little side track stalled my career. I wasted about 5 years in a dead-end situation. If there is only one guy between you and the owner, well there is only one position between you and the owner. If I ever work that hard again; my name has to be on the sign out front.
I should probably skip ahead to when I work for a European company. There were other jobs, offers, and other interviews in the intervening years, but that is really not that important to this discussion. Working for a European company has its positives and negatives. They are fairly good about vacations. I typically cannot take all of the time that I have available. They also tend to moderate the Type-A personalities a bit more than American companies. The flip side is their time to market and in-ability to make a decision or even stay the course on some decisions is quite maddening. Did I mention that they way-way-way over complicate the heck out of things? This is a real problem. Simplifying equipment in order to make it reliable is part of the frustration and part of my job. Their pay scale is also behind US employers for skilled technical labor by a widening margin. It is a mixed bag.
A good leader is worth their weight is gold; more so than where the company hails from or whether they are a mom an pop or a multi national giant. My worst boss who was very by-polar; happened to be at an American company. He would slap you on the back, smile and say, "tester you will be the last guy they walk out of here." You never knew if it was Jekyll or Hyde doing the talking. He made what had been a tough but rewarding job into a complete and utter torture. It was him not the company.
Most of my managers have been pretty good. I can count the bad ones on one hand. Mr. Bypolar (American-multinational) takes a slight lead over the upper management lying American SOB at the Asian company only because it seemed more personal with Mr. Bypolar. The micro manager who hasn't figured out that he has moved up a level (European and American) is always tough to deal with no matter how things are actually going. He always wants to keep his hand in even though he is no longer in the game. Finally, the indifferent boss who just doesn't care (at least one in every company) can get you killed both figuratively and literally.
Ok. I think that is probably enough for now.
Thanks, that brought back memories.
1988RedT2 said:I firmly believe that those who are infatuated with life in Europe should do themselves a favor and move to Europe.
If your friend or neighbor comes up with a better way to do something. Are you suggesting you keep doing it the bad or hard way just because you didn't think of it?
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:Vacation... I'm nearly halfway through the year and still haven't taken much in the way of vacation days...
Do European companies have convoluted "self performance" reviews? What used to be a yearly annoyance is now every 6 months... and filling out the web portal forms makes me either want to quit or put a bullet in my head... naturally, any mention of the latter results in a call from one of our incompetent and unqualified HR personnel...
Burnt out... yeah... that's me.
I despise self-performance reviews. And now they've added getting peer reviews from others in your area. And since I'm the defacto lead writer for my area, I have now have three other employees I have to write reviews for along with myself.
Getting called out of a meeting last week to be told I was getting a raise was nice, now just need to know I'll get another chunk of RSU's to go along with the salary bump as well.
In reply to z31maniac :
Ouch. My condolences, although congrats on the raise/promotion(?).
I hope our HR dept doesn't hear about peer reviews as well... although I'm sure they've thought about it... but given how much griping the regular process gets, my hunch is the managers pushed back.
My problem is I fail to see any benefits from the process. Especially for someone at the tail end of their career. I have absolutely zero ambition to "advance" my career. I just want to get my job done with the least amount of aggravation until I can hopefully retire in a decade or less.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
I don't get it either. Just have the bossman give me a review and let's get on with our lives.
Hah, I filled out my mid year self performance review yesterday. While I don't care for the process, it's just part of playing the game at this point in time.
1988RedT2 said in 2019:pres589 (djronnebaum) said:I firmly believe that people that want things to stay bad should do us a favor and get out of the way.
You certainly have my sympathy if you personally are having a rough go of it, but where may I ask is it "bad?" The news is abuzz with reports of economic prosperity in this country, with low (and trending lower) unemployment and rising wage growth.
Currently unemployment is below 6% nationally and trending downward, wages are increasing because it is a seller's market: businesses are struggling to replace the workers they'd laid off who have found new, better jobs. The guy who made $5 an hour plus tips at a restaurant isn't going to go back to that from the much better paying job he got.
In 2021, this is seen as bad because it means inflation?
I had to fill out three "objectives". As I'm sitting here waiting for a model to open at 7PM, I am in a particularly DGAF mood...
#1 - Not sure what the point of all this is...
#2 - Still not sure...
#3 - Nope, not feeling it.
Yeah, if you guys could come in on Saturday and fill out those TPS reports that'd be great....
Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:Hah, I filled out my mid year self performance review yesterday. While I don't care for the process, it's just part of playing the game at this point in time.
I guess that is my point. I'm done with "the game" now. I'm not looking to advance in the company. I don't want to "improve" myself. I just want to do my berking job, make money for the company and count the days until I can GTFO.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:1988RedT2 said in 2019:pres589 (djronnebaum) said:I firmly believe that people that want things to stay bad should do us a favor and get out of the way.
You certainly have my sympathy if you personally are having a rough go of it, but where may I ask is it "bad?" The news is abuzz with reports of economic prosperity in this country, with low (and trending lower) unemployment and rising wage growth.
Currently unemployment is below 6% nationally and trending downward, wages are increasing because it is a seller's market: businesses are struggling to replace the workers they'd laid off who have found new, better jobs. The guy who made $5 an hour plus tips at a restaurant isn't going to go back to that from the much better paying job he got.
In 2021, this is seen as bad because it means inflation?
We are getting inflation because of the trillions dumped into the economy the last ~15 months.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to z31maniac :
Ouch. My condolences, although congrats on the raise/promotion(?).
I hope our HR dept doesn't hear about peer reviews as well... although I'm sure they've thought about it... but given how much griping the regular process gets, my hunch is the managers pushed back.
My problem is I fail to see any benefits from the process. Especially for someone at the tail end of their career. I have absolutely zero ambition to "advance" my career. I just want to get my job done with the least amount of aggravation until I can hopefully retire in a decade or less.
Not a promotion, but I've been writing for this area the longest besides the senior manager, who has so many reports and such, he doesn't really weird anymore.
So I'm the guy people come to with questions. I mentored an existing writer into taking on of my sections last year, and mentiorijfna brand new writer this year, along with occasionally helping another with questions.
Add in meetings, I asked my boss when they were going to make me a manager.
Going from European to American-level vacation times could be a dealbreaker for staying at the job I'm working now in the long term if not for the fact that it's fully remote work which lets me stretch vacation stays by working from wherever I'm vacationing. I'll have to let it slip to management that I'd prefer more than the legally required amount of vacation time over a raise. You can't buy time with money.
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