Response from thread starter to ajack1:
Precisely why I get paid $18 per hour:
The medical condition that stopped my DOD career mandates part-time hours, and knowingly slims the pickins'. Once I got my A.S. in CAD to go with my B.S., a my friendly former colleague subcontracted me at $30/hour. The VP and program manager who hired me on only cared about my performance; but the P who wouldn't trust them saw me as a potential liability, even though I went from SolidWorks to Inventor in under a week and handed him my completed work on the way out his door (done twice because his people kept "jerking me around" in his words). State Rehab then advised me to take whatever to get a foot back in the door and wait a year before looking for a raise. So, with that great confidence bust, I settled on the next offer, especially on seeing the differences in interpreting prints from the fifties on microfiche that are barely readable.
And having quickly got comfy with it - a few mistakes or not - I've been kicking myself ever since, especially since what I did for the last dork was far easier. The first thing my current boss told me on the phone BEFORE ever seeing me or my quals was, "You are out of your league," some stuff about how his own failed entrepreneurship, and some garbage about forming a second shift. That marked him as an arrogant, butt-kissing liar; but so was/is Donald Trump. So with all the red flags, I bit the bullet and swallowed, especially since temp agencies were offering me $2 less.
Your argument about my worth to this fellow is actually correct. I can take a few machinist's insults; but it's quite another thing when a boss who admits to knowing nothing about your job knows nothing about your capabilities either, like he never really read your resume. As this bozo took pleasure in "e-du-cat-ing" me on helping his wife order sheet stock, he told me if I didn't get it down, I'd NEVER have an engineering job, "not to scare you, but with me or anyone else!" I've refrained more than once from telling him about multi-million-dollar project I ordered parts for, helped design, and managed with DOD 'til this body had had enough.
His other engineers are actually techs, but they've been around: one worked on the SR-71, and another actually graduated airframe/powerplant school with the boss. Still, they take similar crap, save for the MasterCAM guru, probably because my boss thinks CNC is "easier" for him to relate to. Never mind that he never misses a chance to say he's just an old-fashioned guy who hates e-mail for all kinds of reasons. Computers, save for his vacation pictures, are a necessary evil (his son who runs the shop floor doesn't even own one); thus, so are the engineers who use them. We model something, he changes the plan and deviates from print a week or two later, and we change the models to redo the drawings. The schedule slides, so he tells us he's going to hire another guy just to do pencil sketches. ("I'll get you a pencil with an eraser on it!") Someone tell me how to export a pencil sketch as a DXF for laser cutting.
Where I disagree with you, ajack1, is in giving him the benefit of the doubt for the decisions he has to make, though I'd rather agree. Interestingly, after this bully with a history of manhandling and outbursts - including giving me a good whack once - tried make me his $18/hour project manager, I had a nice sit-down in his office. Two words still ring in my ears from all his offensive self-defense: "BULL----" and "BALLS." The latter as in, "You're given A,B,D,E, but no C - what do you do? [cheshire grin] Do you have the BALLS to make these kinds of decisions?" And I told him that for much of my government time I indeed had "the BALLS" under similarly difficult circumstances; he has never bothered to ask doing what. (I did get an apology for hitting me; and even that was said in the most demeaning way.)
And BTW, regarding those mismarked parts, I discussed it with QC in person, and copied the boss an e-mail for QC and the customer, only because he wouldn't be in the next day for me to discuss my mistake to his face. I work to keep him from getting blindsided from someone else, and he complains no one "signed" the printout, though no other engineer there has my initials. No BALLS - whatever.
He may have well put in his OT as a foreman before joining and taking over this company with his BALLS and saving it from bankruptcy; supposedly, he hadn't vacationed for a year while his crane project fell a year behind and the company moved. Well heck, I obviously should have taken more vacation from Uncle Sam, but my heart's not bleeding for him. Yes, he puts in a solid 40 hours from 5 to 3 with short Fridays; then he with $80K/year and his wife with whatever are gonzo. No, it's not a lot for running a company of 50-odd people; which probably says a couple of things.
Anyway, since his son doesn't work Mondays, the shop is headless one day a week; on Fridays, no one answers the phone after 10, as his daughter instructed me. There effectively is no one above, nor below him to help run the show. (The new assistant, like the pencil-CAD guy, my own phone, and my own key to the building has yet to show up.) I've never heard of this with someone who runs his "own" business, let alone his "own" government project, who's not of retirement age with his butt on the line. If your ship is headed the wrong way, you normally either have to change course, or borrow/hire the resources to help you do so.
I think I've said about enough for tonight.
