Hello, Kim

Dang, top post or bottom post, but who cares?

Reality is that they changed the rules and it cut my pension by around $300
per month! I was lucky, however. A few folks were just shy off 55 (one guy
was 2 weeks short of 55) and they get no health coverage nor life insurance.

They pulled the plug a bit late on me. Although not big, I'm looking at
over $300 per week after taxes. After working a contract job at $13.00 per
hour (what a whack in pay!) and we all were let go after 3 months, I've
decided to heck with it. I can live on the $300 to $350 per week. I've
only a few years before Social Insecurity and I have health insurance. I
have to make adjustments, but I can pay my taxes.

I'm certain that changes will occur when enough folks get hurt. I'm just
tired of banging my head into a brick wall. I read the same old tired
threads and the claims that the left-wing groups lied when they reported
stories. Certainly mistakes have been made, but I cannot help but note that
as time goes by and more stories leak out, it would appear that some folks
will just not let go of the official stance. Whether amateur radio or the
current administration.

I did have a laugh. Years ago, I wrote a program which generated ladder
code for a programmable ladder controller. I could do the work of 8 hours
of tool engineering time in 15 minutes. A lot of credit was given to other
folks. Amazingly, the program "disappeared".

I had left and then went back to that company some 7 years later. When our
department was getting ready to close, I spoke with one supervisor about the
fact that the programming in the controllers was terrible and I could
increase production about 20% (I proved a 50% increase back in 1982). When
he suggested we approach the manager I told him the truth. It wouldn't save
his job nor mine. I let it go. I honestly don't care and after the
requisite two years I will e-mail the code to a competitor. A foreign
competitor. I generally avoid confrontation and tend to not be nasty, but
in this case .... )

Make my day.

I have generally found that the well educated are either labeled as "geeks"
or "left-wing radicals". The self-righteous folks haven't seen real flack.
It is about time that they did.

I've seen good old "Dave" talking about "old timers". He's off by a mile,
but anyone with a ticket should be welcomed and accepted with none of the
B.S. concerning license classes. There are codeless techs that can run
rings around me, and I can run rings around most of the extras. I'm not
talking Morse, but I could there too.

I can assure you, anyone with a "holier than thou" attitude on one group I
co-own will be gone in a heartbeat. We all have enough troubles without
some idiot adding to the garbage.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA




"Kim" wrote in message
...
No offense to those who live in other countries, those who are from other
countries living here, etc. BUT, John S., when the job loss is in your
household, the frustration will be quite evident in you, as well, I am
sure.
I can logically figure out that it is not the "other peoples'" fault.
However, the emotion of losing a job, and sometimes just shy of
retirement,
many times after long, long years at a company, is quite overwhelming and
leaves one short of "feeling friendly."

Kim W5TIT

"John S." wrote in message
oups.com...
I agree. My experience with american call centers has been about as
good as those that appear to be located overseas. The quality of the
response is directly related to the skills and knowlege of the
individual - their location has little to do with it. Tucson, Arizona
has numerous call centers operating there, and I would guess many of
the operators have a non-U.S. accent as well. When calling a call
center my purpose is to get information. I've found that by staying
cordial and sometimes repeating a question that I get the results I'm
looking for. Some on this forum(not you) seem to be more focused on
insulting the operators and generally causing problems. They must have
a lot of free time.