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The dad started as a draftsman apprentice at the phone company when he was 19. He retired at 52 as the Director of Engineering for Illinois at the same phone c
by dugmartin 4y ago
The dad started as a draftsman apprentice at the phone company when he was 19. He retired at 52 as the Director of Engineering for Illinois at the same phone company (after turning down more promotion offers in this mid 40s as he didn't want to move again). He never went to college.
He loved his job until the early 1980s when, as he said, "the MBAs took over". The company took care of its employees before that, promoting from within and thinking long term. One of his final "fights with the MBAs" was their idea to replace the company apprentice linemen program with contractors as it would move costs around and look better on the balance sheet. He told me he stood up in a high level meeting and asked something like "do you think you could get contractors to come out in the middle of the night in a storm and climb on a pole to help restore service? What about 20 years from now, who is going to teach the apprentices then?".
He was a "company man" and I think he was both happy and sad to retire after nearly 35 years of service when those same MBAs offered a buyout for executives like him.
- dugmartin 4y agoPost frozen edit correction: I just realized I started this with "The dad" instead of "My dad". I originally had a couple of sentences starting with "The article ...". I guess I shouldn't post so early in the morning.
- yaseer 4y agoFunnily enough, my own dad had a quirky idiolect where he referred to every family member with 'the' definite article: 'The wife', 'The son', 'The daughter' etc. Your mistyping sent me down memory lane!
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoI believe you mean the memory lane?
- anonu 4y agoWe're in the "gig economy" now. Company men still exist, but they are rare.
- oblio 4y ago> The dad started as a draftsman apprentice at the phone company when he was 19. He retired at 52 as the Director of Engineering for Illinois at the same phone company (after turning down more promotion offers in this mid 40s as he didn't want to move again). He never went to college. Almost everything in this story is impossible to reproduce today (we can definitely reproduce just the "don't go to college part").
- Pasorrijer 4y agoI disagree that it's impossible... Airlines comes to mind as an example where you can start shucking bags, and if you're a go getter probably end up getting an operations job pulling six figures. That being said, I agree that many corporate mindsets make it seem like this is impossible. A lot of us here at HN are likely going to end up in leadership positions, so a thought for everyone is, if you don't like the idea of "the MBA's" outsourcing everything, or contracting, push back against it. Even small things like pushing to train someone on your team instead of hiring externally can start to snowball when everyone does it, and you've got more power than you realize to change your company culture.
- oblio 4y agoA lot of low level jobs are starting to require BAs, though. And the number of super low level jobs like cleaning that don't is at best constant or maybe even shrinking due to automation.
- mlindner 4y agoThey're always "BA or equivalent experience" in any job posting I've ever seen.
- ghaff 4y agoJobs like the proverbial mailroom don't exist or exist to nearly the same degree any longer. A lot less physical filing and moving paper around at most companies. And the super low-level jobs are mostly all outsourced to, e.g. janitorial services companies.
- yokoprime 4y agoRetired at 52?! Wow, I'll be lucky to retire by 67
- varispeed 4y agoWorking as a contractor wasn't bad - you had full control over your tools, training, ways of working and so on. Unfortunately agencies that source workers thought this is a threat to their business model so they lobbied governments around the world to end any benefits of working as a contractors - e.g. not being able to deduct legitimate business costs from the tax. So the contracting will be dead in the near future. Your only choice will be working for a big consultancy or directly with the company (if you are lucky). It's a shame, because this is a road to serfdom.
- digisign 4y agoCould you expand what you mean by this? Able to deduct quite a few things in the US?
- varispeed 4y agoHere in the UK there is something called IR35 that has recently been changed so that if you run a business your client actually can decide whether you are a business or the so called disguised employee. If they decide the latter, all the money they pay your company, you have to draw as a salary through an intermediary (fee payer) and it means your company gets no profit (so there is no way to deduct any costs). The catch is that if your client don't declare you as a disguised employee, they risk being investigated by HMRC (equivalent of IRS) and getting fined. This has created a chilling effect and basically it's very difficult to find a client that is willing to take the risk. Basically for all intents and purposes you become an employee, but you get no employment benefits and you still have to pay for your own tools etc, but it comes from your salary not from the business. It's like a company required their workers to buy all their equipment from their salary. Madness. edit: So some people try to compensate this by increasing rates and that means their rates become on par with what big consultancies ask. So some bigger clients see this as no longer worth bothering with and they simply get managed teams from big firms rather than taking independents. The guy who pushed these changes in the UK has a wife that owns substantial shares is Infosys ;-) also the biggest consultancies were involved in crafting the legislation...
- 4y ago
- tomc1985 4y agoMBAs ruin everything change_my_mind.jpg