furloughed

[TWRackers]

UPDATE -- see this post: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showpost.php?p=31743&postcount=16

The bad news is, I've been furloughed for up to 60 days from my job. Really sucks when my paycheck is 90% of our income and I have no real savings.

The good news is, my supervisor says I'm still free to come in to work on my L3 rocket during regular hours, since I've been doing the building and finishing after hours in our shop. Which is good because my club wants to include it in our display at the National Air & Space Museum this coming Saturday, if it's ready.

My daughter thinks it would be amusing to take the rocket (all 10 feet of it) in via the DC Metro.

"<ding> <ding> The doors are closing now."

<slide> <thunk> <slide>

"<ding> <ding> The doors are closing now."

<slide> <thunk> <slide>

"<ding> <ding> ... "

 

[skycopp]

Sorry about the job situation.

Wish I could see the Rocket on the Metro ride.

 

[ben_ullman]

Good luck on getting that L3 finished and getting back to work!!

Ben

 

[WillMarchant]

Sorry to hear about the furlough, Tom!

 

[Fred22]

Good luck with the job situation man

Fred

 

[Bazookadale]

The bad news is, I've been furloughed for up to 60 days from my job. Really sucks when my paycheck is 90% of our income and I have no real savings.

No fun Been through that 3 times in my life, dunno if I could take it again at my age. Good luck, hope it all works out for you.

Dale Greene

 

[Pippen]

Sorry to hear this news, TW. These are sure rough waters for many.

 

[Pem Tech]

Well crud....
Maybe you will be called back early.
At least you get ot continue work on your L3.

 

[Mikus]

Wish I could see the Rocket on the Metro ride.

A 10-ft rocket, on the Metro, in DC??? :y:

You probably can. I'm sure it will be all over Fox News that day. :w:

Good luck on the job hunt.

 

[JRThro]

The bad news is, I've been furloughed for up to 60 days from my job. Really sucks when my paycheck is 90% of our income and I have no real savings.

I'm sorry to hear that, Tom. Hopefully "up to 60 days" will turn out to be less than 60 days.

 

[TWRackers]

A 10-ft rocket, on the Metro, in DC??? :y:

You probably can. I'm sure it will be all over Fox News that day. :w:

Good luck on the job hunt.

As long as the reload's still stored in the magazine....

 

[Dr.Zooch]

Been through it 3 times... which is about average for a professional pilot. First time they told me that I could stay, but they were eliminating all of the routes until spring, five months away... of course that job paid by the flight hour. The next one furloughed me with severance pay... then called me back 3 years later when I was just about to go to captain's school at another airline (I didn't go back). The last one just said "we've reduced the fleet and we're not going to put you on next month's schedule." I had to ask "Am I furloughed, fired... or what?" They said "what do ya' wanna call it?" I said- "send me a letter sayin' I was furloughed without recall." They did. Airline furloughs suck- all furloughs suck... at least you have a countdown to return to work... of course it still sucks. Hold yer' head up dude.

 

[AKPilot]

Tom,

Am sorry to hear about being temp. laid off. It can't be a pleasant experience, but as others have mentioned at least you have a return date. Can you draw unemployment until then?

 

[TWRackers]

Tom,

Am sorry to hear about being temp. laid off. It can't be a pleasant experience, but as others have mentioned at least you have a return date. Can you draw unemployment until then?

Yes, so I've been told, I filled out the online paperwork (?) and am waiting to hear what I can get and for how long. :bangpan: _(okay, you can stop anytime now)

 

[TWRackers]

You know, I've been thinking (now that I have time to actually do so).

When I was finishing high school back in '71 (way back in the Second Millennium), I was planning to go into aero engineering. At the 4-year college I was going to attend, that meant majoring in physics for three years there, then going off to a state university (would've been University of Kentucky) for two years in aero engineering, and I would've ended up with a B.A. and a B.S. in five years. But the aero industry was tanking right about then (Apollo program winding down, Supersonic Transport projects being cancelled), and after my first year my physics profs said my mindset was too "analytical" to be happy as an engineer, so I just stuck with physics, and ended up going all the way through to getting a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. Got hired as a research scientist by the Navy after grad school, worked there for 22+ years. Doing what? Computer systems engineering work, software and hardware. No physics. No research.

Got a break when a fellow here named "wwattles" (is he still around?) mentioned he knew a recruiter who was trying to fill a position in the rocketry field. So I contacted him, was put in touch with the recruiter, who eventually found me an opening for which I interviewed and was hired, just over two years ago. Actually, the interview was three days after I got my Level 2 at the Florida WinterNationals. I'm still doing computer engineering, but at least now my title is accurate (senior software engineer). Doing what? Embedded and simulation software for unmanned aerial vehicles. So I've been doing more or less what I had originally wanted to do, working with aircraft.

Something tells me though that my fairly wide experience base gives me a bit of an advantage over some of the younger guys who have ONLY done engineering.

And then there are the ones who apparently didn't have much of a life when they were in school. There's one fellow I've been working with who apparently just didn't watch the right television shows or movies. One time when something went right on our project, I said, to no one in particular, "Good monkey, you can go touch the monolith now."

It went completely over his head.

Oh well, so little to do and so much time....

 

[TWRackers]

Update.

First off, I suspect it was smart not to try and ride out the 60-day furlough (not that I had much choice). I doubt anyone is going to be brought back and it will become permanent for all. :bangpan:--( that's gonna leave a mark... )

For me it became permanent on the last Friday of May when I stopped in to turn in my badge and officially resign. The following Monday (this week) I started at my new software engineering position at this small company over in Beltsville MD. They do some interesting work, like making solid rocket boosters for Space Shuttles and Ares I, and satellite systems too.

The 2½ hour commute each way makes for a very long day :caffeine:--( java java java java... ) , but that's only until we can find an apartment much closer and move to the other side of the Potomac. It's a good thing I like trains (VRE, MARC, DC Metro), but I could do without the 20 minute bus ride at the far end. (Especially when it was raining all day yesterday and the 08:13 bus failed to show up at all.)

So my career progression has been: (1) 22+ years on underwater vehicles and systems, (2) 2 years on unmanned aerial vehicles, and now (3) space systems.

Guess I'll have to start attending MDRA meetings now, which apparently are held only a few miles from my new job.

 

[WillMarchant]

Congrats on the new job, Tom, sounds like fun! Condolences on the commute...

 

[powderburner]

and there are a lot of folks out there right now that wish they had one.

Besides, it sounds like you get to do lots of cool stuff (and you get paid for it!)

Congrats on the new position!

 

[AKPilot]

This is good news Tom! Especially considering the current state of employment.

Sorry about the 2.5 hr commute, but it'll all be worth it as soon as you find a place closer.

Congrats!

 

[Pem Tech]

:w:

Wow, sounds like to stumbled into a good one.

What was your duty with the submersibles?

 

[chanstevens]

Glad you found something, even though its nasty commute. Hopefully you'll either move or land something closer, but be thankful you've got something. I'm down to my last 2 weeks before our plant shuts down, and all my nibbles are drying up. Had 2 different recruiters chomping at the bit to get me into clients recently, each saying I was a great fit. In each case, they couldn't even get the clients to return their calls (and they hadn't seen my info at this point). Weird. One week they have a signed contract to hire for a position, the next they can't even get a call-back while the client backpeddles...:confused2:

 

[TWRackers]

:w:

Wow, sounds like to stumbled into a good one.

What was your duty with the submersibles?

Variety of projects, some autonomous vehicles and some towed. Development of GNC or data acquisition/analysis software, mostly in real-time. Which is kinda odd if you look at my resume, all my degrees are in Physics.

 

[TWRackers]

This afternoon the wife and I checked out a couple of apartment complexes in Columbia, MD, about 20 minutes from Beltsville, which is not too bad considering NONE of the drive includes the Beltway around DC. Looks like a nice area, and rents aren't too ridiculous. :y: May check out a couple more tomorrow.

 

[Bravo52]

DC commute is a love-hate thing........ I live up by Skycopp in Gaithersburg and am glad there is the Metro......except when smelly people are riding. The only saving grace is that no one talks at 0445 in the morning. No problem with finding a seat either.

It takes 1 hour to go door to desk on the ride. If I drove, I could get to the office in about 40 min in the morning, but it takes 2+ hours to get home with the traffic......

So where are you going to put your L3 rocket in the new apartment?

 

[TWRackers]

DC commute is a love-hate thing........ I live up by Skycopp in Gaithersburg and am glad there is the Metro......except when smelly people are riding. The only saving grace is that no one talks at 0445 in the morning. No problem with finding a seat either.

It takes 1 hour to go door to desk on the ride. If I drove, I could get to the office in about 40 min in the morning, but it takes 2+ hours to get home with the traffic......

So where are you going to put your L3 rocket in the new apartment?

Same place it is in the current apartment, in three sections in the corner of the second bedroom. The longest section is under 5 feet long when broken down like that. Besides, that's where the computer is and I still have to do some diagnostics on the flight computer, one of the four strobes isn't working. Probably a broken wire somewhere.

So what's Gaithersburg like? That's another town we were considering, but I didn't know anyone who lives there, until now.

 

[talkin Monkey]

Uber Mondo Congrats!

It's nice to hear some good news.

 

[JRThro]

The following Monday (this week) I started at my new software engineering position at this small company over in Beltsville MD. They do some interesting work, like making solid rocket boosters for Space Shuttles and Ares I, and satellite systems too.

The 2½ hour commute each way makes for a very long day :caffeine:--( java java java java... ) , but that's only until we can find an apartment much closer and move to the other side of the Potomac. It's a good thing I like trains (VRE, MARC, DC Metro), but I could do without the 20 minute bus ride at the far end. (Especially when it was raining all day yesterday and the 08:13 bus failed to show up at all.)

Congratulations on the new job, Tom! Sounds like fun... except for the commute. I hope you find an apartment in an area you like.

A Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics sounds pretty darned cool, but I'll readily admit that I'm not *that* hard a worker, so I had to make do with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering. Which I've never used, at least not the nuclear part. I have been an engineer most of my adult life, though.

 

[Zeus-cat]

Congrats on the new job sir,

I'm an electrical engineer, but have never really done true engineering work. My current job is to process warranty claims for an aerospace company. The job is far more complicated and interesting than it sounds. It also pays a lot more than you would think for something that sounds like it is a clerical job. We are always upgrading systems, intefacing with customers, reviewing contracts, reviewing proposals, working with the the repair group or Design Engineers to diagnose field failures, etc.

Sometimes it can be quite enjoyable too; in a perverse way. I just denied over $20K on a $35K claim from an airline. All the claims were valid, but they sat on some of them for over 2 and 3 years and the warranty period expired. Oh well...

I think an Engineering degree of any kind is a great degree to have. If you speak and write well on top of that you can go far with it.

I always wonder what percentage of engineers actually do engineering work?

 

[Bravo52]

So what's Gaithersburg like? That's another town we were considering, but I didn't know anyone who lives there, until now.

Truly an international community......... It's ok. I think the prices here are too high for the area. There doesn't seem to be a middle-class and the gas is 5-6 cents higher than anywhere else around. I'd rather live in Fredrick but then again, you'd add another 30 min to the commute.

 

[Fishhead]

Congratulations on the new job, Tom! Sounds like fun... except for the commute. I hope you find an apartment in an area you like.

A Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics sounds pretty darned cool, but I'll readily admit that I'm not *that* hard a worker, so I had to make do with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering. Which I've never used, at least not the nuclear part. I have been an engineer most of my adult life, though.

I'm quite the B.S.'er in History, although my actual degree is a B.A.