Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rd_gear_Ted
Right then you became an "84 day wonder".
Translation; Wonder if he'll make it to 8 weeks to become a perm?  |
That was kind of the cycle in those days, worse for mechanics than for engineers.
I remember in the mid '80's Boeing had lured a significant number of engineers from MD. Laid them off in less than a year, after they had moved up from California. A group of them filed a class action suit and actually won. Not sure what the settlement was, but it sure sent some reverberations through the industry.
The late '90's and early '00's were rather tumultuous in the industry, to say the least. Boeing went to the same well and laid off a bunch of people, this time a good number of engineers. I remember guys I worked with being gone for a couple of years. Boeing eventually hired them back but, in an amazing feat of corporate ineptitude, laid most of them off again in about nine months. Un-freaking-believable. I think that incident alone served to knock a lot of the sheen off of working for Boeing for a lot of young engineers.
I signed some form of "intellectual property" agreement on my way out on retirement. They apparently make even the engineers whom they lay off sign these kinds of agreements. There have been lawsuits won there as well. The argument went something like my value in the job market is based purely upon my knowledge and expertise. You just told me that it is no longer of any value to you. As long as I'm not walking out with computer discs, or written materials, whatever I've retained in my little head is mine.
Way back when, when there were still separate Aerospace companies, it was a common practice to "do the aerospace tour". It was almost inevitable that when one was laying off, others were hiring. I knew a lot of guys who did that, running down to California to land jobs at MD and others. It not only served to soften the blow, it also afforded those guys the opportunity to gain some valuable experience. The big industry consolidation we see today dramatically lessened anyone's ability to do that.
Coupled with the big giants' reluctance to take risks on new programs, I have to think that makes it harder to attract young engineers. My son never even considered Boeing. The fact that I told him I would beat him about the head and shoulders if he did might have had something to do with it...