[sdiy] SW OT: Electronics workplace advice

[Rob]

> Are you negative due to your experiences? Or are the USA so very much
> rotten? I can't believe.
>
> m.c.

The negatives are due to experience. This particular corporation is full of
older folk looking to sign their names to various "new" (mostly "reckless")
ideas before they retire so they can make their mark, collect their bonus
and promotion, and bail out. Meanwhile, profits are down a record amount.
Should not have happened in a boom economy, but we have tried to outsource
too much from too many mainland-chinese based govt owned and controlled
businesses, who do nothing but use our expertise in design to make a product
for us, which they promptly, against all the contracts, sell to a higher
bidder. They then have delayed our project now because they need to keep up
the volume quotas up for their new buyer!!! Mind you, we had an exclusivity
agreement, which says they cannot sell this item to anyone else. Period.
Try taking them to court.. They are owned by the Chinese Govt!!  .. BTW, I
am one of the ppl caught right in the middle of it all, so I bear a LOT of
the attacks personally and my soul is wieghed down quite a bit knowing we
are doing something that, personally, is already completely unethical, and
now we are getting screwed for it..

The person who invoked the debacle I am involved with just retired, btw. Of
course, he prlly knew "nothing" about asian culture or doing business in
china. OTOH, asian culture, negotiation, interrogation, and languages were
my specialty in the military.. Do you think they even ASKED me after I let
it be known that my boss and I knew something about doing business there and
what they needed to look out for? Nope.

As for the 15 yr old girls thing: our ethics only says that we must obey the
labor laws of the country in which our facility operates. In plain english,
it says "no child labor".. Well, a 12 or 13 year old in many countries is
considered an adult. Legal? Yes.. Ethical? Prlly not.

Anyway, I am taking off of work today to go look for another job. The more I
talk about it the more stupid I realize this all is..

Ah well, Ill be lucky to make half what I make now even with all my
qualifications.. At least I won't have ethical issues and I won't be a
mean-spirited bastard from holding it all in for so long and saying "yes
sir/no sir" when I should be saying "hell no! are you crazy!". I have become
impossible to deal with according to many ppl.. I would like to be my old
self again.

Rob