January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:11 am 
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Location: North Carolina
I am sorry to say that I have not been on the forums for the last 6 months or so and I will not be on for several more months. This is a rough time in our lives (no cancer thank god its not that bad). I have not done much faceting at all this year, started 2 stones but have not finished.

I have everything packed away and we are moving all our stuff into a storage unit until who knows when. I lost my job almost 2 months ago due to politics and whatever and I had seen it coming since I received a bad performance review in March.

For four months I have tried to find a new job but nothing solid yet. We are moving out of our apartment to find something less expensive (a relative maybe ~shudder~).

So we are moving somewhere in a couple of weeks, just don't know where. I do have 4 prospective opportunities but things move so slowly I cant wait for it (our apartment has already been reserved for someone else).

I want to thank everyone on this forum who has helped me start me in faceting I will miss you and with luck I will be on again next year.

With the deepest appreciation,

David "Facetnator" Harris


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:54 am 
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Hi David.
Things fall into place. I'm sure they will for you.
Keep us posted.


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:33 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
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Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
I have been laid off 3 times. Each time I ended up with a better job that took my career in a different direction. Each time I ended up better off. It was hard to see that when we had to move in with my mom the first time, with 2 kids. But at least there was family there to support me when I needed it.

My prayers are with you. Please get back in tough when you can.


Last edited by wilsonintexas on Thu Oct 01, 2015 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:50 pm 
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Facetnator wrote:
I lost my job almost 2 months ago due to politics and whatever and I had seen it coming since I received a bad performance review in March.


I feel for you David. I got the boot 6 months ago and had no warning whatsoever. Just walked in one morning, got a bunch of complaints from the guy I was working for with the final comment being, "you've just got to go". O.K., well he wasn't much fun anyway.

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For four months I have tried to find a new job but nothing solid yet.


I've been at it for six months and have had numerous interviews. Generally in every interview some subtle little comments pop up such as in the last one where the business owner said, "Well we aren't getting any younger are we?" wink, wink. I'm 61, not using a walker yet, nor do I blurt out stuff at inappropriate times, so why even comment on the age deal? You're not in the over 50 crowd are you? I'll let you know if selling ones body on the street works and you can follow suit if it pays enough, (I'm planning on a "by the pound" pricing strategy). Best of luck in the job search David!

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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 8:47 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:42 pm
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Location: North Carolina
I have entered the 5th decade. I am 51 now and if I do a 'by the pound' strategy I should get rich quick :wink:


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:35 am 
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As a government contractor, I was often laid off after elections. The year that ONLY Massachusetts voted for McGovern was memorable.
When I had finally reached Golden Goose status, it got better, but that was quite late in the career. I recall a young engineer, who had just bought his first house and had a new first baby, folding up when he got it.
I told him:
The first time you are laid off, it's a trauma. The second time, it's awful. The third time, it's "Not this sh1t again." The fourth time it's "They are laying off. I hope mine is in June!"
< sarcasm >They would not discriminate by age, of course, because that's against the Law.< / sarcasm >
But if you are 50+, expect "more excuses than a pregnant nun". It takes longer, but finally it sinks into their little heads that these vacancies exist mostly because they hired cheap people with no experience, and maybe this time they might try someone who might have done and learned something.

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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:37 am 
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Gearloose wrote:
As a government contractor, I was often laid off after elections. The year that ONLY Massachusetts voted for McGovern was memorable.
When I had finally reached Golden Goose status, it got better, but that was quite late in the career. I recall a young engineer, who had just bought his first house and had a new first baby, folding up when he got it.
I told him:
The first time you are laid off, it's a trauma. The second time, it's awful. The third time, it's "Not this sh1t again." The fourth time it's "They are laying off. I hope mine is in June!"
< sarcasm >They would not discriminate by age, of course, because that's against the Law.< / sarcasm >
But if you are 50+, expect "more excuses than a pregnant nun". It takes longer, but finally it sinks into their little heads that these vacancies exist mostly because they hired cheap people with no experience, and maybe this time they might try someone who might have done and learned something.


Four...you should have had a constrution career...four is a good five year span


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 6:44 am 
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Quote:
Four...you should have had a construction career...four is a good five year span


I kind of did. Every time I was laid off in my field so were thousands of others.
Once I worked with concrete forms. In another I worked in a machine shop. In another I went back to what I did part time as a student, and ran a printing press.
I took whatever was out there.
But as Wilson says, every time I went back to my career it was to a better situation.
Employers who would count a year off doing something else as being a bad thing, who were stupid enough to think a person who worked was worse than a person who did not, were not worth working for, as I cheerfully pointed out to them at the close of the brief interview. Most employers in the field were very aware of the mass layoff situation, and most were actually part of it when the contracts went away.
But younger relatives have told me times have changed. Your resume is read by algorithms now. Salaries are bigger in STEM but hours worked are bigger still. Some of these relatives are basically "on call" 24/7. Work/Life balance is terrible. For some of them, a layoff would be merciful.
In some of the recent layoffs I did survive, the terrified would put on a big show of coming in early and leaving late. It did not good at all. It just increased management's contempt for them.

At one layoff, people were offered retention bonuses if they agreed to stay around and train their cheaper replacements- In short, digging their graves before their execution. This left me with such a hatred for the word "management" that it was one factor in my escaping my career altogether, becoming unable to continue to cheerfully work for people I considered vermin.

The Dilbert comic is reality.

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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 7:33 pm 
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I was in the IT industry, and there were layoff virtually every year from 1993 to 2009 when I finally succumbed (having grown too close to retirement, I believe). But my next job was MUCH better than my previous one. I went to a conference after getting the new job and had quite a few people come up to me and ask why I was so happy!


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:35 am 
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I suspect that very often the next jobs are much better because we often have misplaced loyalty. The Place has been good to us, but we fail to see that over time, our treatment has slowly declined, like the proverbial frog in a slowly-warming pot.
Were we realistic, we would have recognized that salaries crept up in the marketplace, and that new hires were rewarded for walking in the door. We however, started cheap, and the small annual raises never kept up with inflation, while our experience and knowledge of the job made us more valuable. IOW, we were too comfortable to accept that we were being devalued.
"Why pay him? He'll never leave."

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 Post subject: Update
PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 6:08 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:42 pm
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Location: North Carolina
Hello all

Trying to recover, it is slow. I did find a job 2 months ago so that is good. My wife and kids are still living with relatives in El Paso Tx and I am in Greenville NC. The situation has not allowed us to all come to NC yet, maybe in December. Everything is still in storage, cant do any faceting yet. I am going to try and get to the Winston-Salem gem show this weekend tho.


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 10:33 pm 
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Hey, great hearing from you!
Good news.
Things will get better.
Keep us posted!


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 4:33 am 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
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Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
I missed the update. I hope you can get back with your family soon. I know how hard that can be. for my job I had to take several assignments with the family meeting up with me later. it was always stressful on everyone.

I have been up caring for my daughter for almost a year. It looks like I may be getting back to Dallas by the end of the year, but a lot has to fall in place before that can happen.


I think it will take a year to get to know my wife again. Not sure what is more stress, the time apart, or making the adjustments to being back together. When we have been apart for that long (and it has happened to us several times with my work) you both get use to not taking the other person into consideration when you make decisions. I always found it very stressful when we got back together.

But now I sound bleak....... I intended for this to be more up beat.

I truly hope that you can be with your family soon and can spend Christmas together.

I also hope that you can get your facet machine out soon. I miss seeing your stones.


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:44 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:42 pm
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I wish I could do some faceting or something but all my equipment is in the back of a storage shed. I wont be able to get to it for at least 10 more months. I don't plan on staying in this apartment (its not all that great) and its not worth moving everything just to move it again soon.

I did go to the gem show and got a nice big geode and some amethyst clusters for the family. I mailed the amethyst to my family in El Paso. They wont be able to come to North Carolina in December :smt089 :smt089


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 Post subject: Re: Good bye for now
PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 10:52 pm 
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If you are in Greenville next August, you will have to come to the Spruce Pine show. I consider it is the closest thing to Tucson on the East coast, and not too far from you - just 5 hours or so.


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