OT:you didn't sound old over the phone

Fixxer:

I once got into a heated argument with Hamei about age discrimination when I said something like I would tend to not to hire anyone over 50, if I owned a shop. But ya know, I've changed my outlook somewhat over the years. Our fastest most productive manual machinist is 62, and we've got a CNC programmer/machinist that is 60, that is our most dedicated worker. He comes in almost an hour before everyone else and often stays a couple of hours after normal quitting time (normal day is

10 hours), plus he sometimes comes in on Saturdays and even occasionally Sundays. Hang in there, there's a shop somewhere just waiting for your skills.

============== Dye your hair and get a new birth certificate from some of the street vendors.

Unka George (George McDuffee)

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the "money touch," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Letter, 15 Nov. 1913.

BB,

Amazing how ones opinion about age changes with AGE.

LOL, Tom

Fixxer,

Are you sure it has to do with age and not more recent events?

Tom

cncfixxer wrote:

Tom:

Heh, yeah that's normally how human nature tends to work. But I don't believe that is/was the case here. I've spent a lot of time training younger employees only to have them quit to become firemen, got back to school, start their own business, or any number of other reasons. It's not as likely that older employees are going to make sudden career changes. And they can be more appreciative of the opportunity they are being given.

About 20 years ago I had business and it was nearly impossible to get help. We ran a newspaper ad for six weeks and got no response. Then this woman calls looking for a job for her husband. Ray comes in for an interview and the first thing he says is "I'm 59 years old and most companies won't even give me a chance to prove I can do the work" I said to him "Well' you met the first requirement for this job!" He asked what that was, and I told him "You showed up for the interview, no one else has." He was one of the best employees I ever hired. Not fast, just efficient. You gave him something to do and it got done 100% and then some. If he finished and had just a little time left he'd pull out his notebook of things we ought to make, fix or improve in the shop, and he'd do one. You could see the shop steadily improving as he put up hooks to hang things up, repaired things that were broken so we could use them etc. The reason his wife called us was he was forced to take early retirement and she was getting tired of him around the house!

We had a young guy working for us at the time. He commented one day about the old guy being slow. I told him "You do what Ray does and I'll double your salary" He was shocked and said he was much faster than Ray. I told him speed isn't everything. Ray moves slow, but he never crosses the shop with his hands empty. Everything he does is right, and completely done. We never redo anything done by Ray. All of Ray's spare moments go towards something useful, he organizes, sweeps up, and gives us a full 8 hours every day. What more can you ask for?

In my last business I didn't have the work to keep anyone full time. Instead I had two early retirees who came to work whenever I needed them about 20 hours a week. They were there because they WANTED to work and enjoyed it, especially because they worked only when they wanted. It was great, both of them were highly skilled and it would have cost me a fortune to get those skills in younger guys working full time. They always gave me an honest days work, and no babysitting. If I ever start another business I'd hire the same way again to start out.

Gary H. Lucas

Too bad you are too far away. I need another machine to keep up, but can't recruit an operator that shows up, and isn't f****ed up with meth. Pete

Where are you located ?

Bel Air ,Md. 21015

Just a guess ... My Son says if I am predesposed to it happening then it will happen.

The pollution thing on my last job took it 's toll I guess.

I was followed,stalked and spied on for 7 months. Had a stroke, and breakdown then fired after 3 bogus suspensions,

I feel like I'm still the same guy and have no plans of giving up. Cliff turned me to some free sources for meds and some other guys are sending projects that have my interest.

Who Knows maybe I can make lemonade out of this lemon.... I ain't a quitter, those SOB's at my last job thew everything they had at me and couldn't get me to quit. so I'll find something.

I have a patent that has lots of potential. and I'll give 49.9% of it away if someone can help me ...

One thing I do notice is a little back door many companies give themselves in hiring older people. One ad inparticular stays with me. It was with McCormick Spices....Highly skilled technician,electronics background, position controls,LVDT,..yada,yada,yada...then must be able to frequenly lift 85 lbs. I didn't get the job and saw the ad again from time to time. The job paid $24 an hour and when I asked why I did not get the job, I was told they wanted someone with less experience. I see this little phrase in many tech jobs about the 50 to 85 lb weight requirement. I have been a tech in CNC,Packaging and HVAC for many years and have from time to time carried or moved that kind of weight. to get at the equipment. I had a headhunter tell me companies put that in the ad to keep the old from applying because it is usually never a problem

What recent events?

CncFixer,

I'm about to be 45 years old soon, and I too have found it very hard to find software design work past the age of about 35, although I have been able to manage to squeak by in some of the worst of the small shops, and most recently (by luck) in one of the best.

I got laid off in September 06 when that most recent work place was taken over by new management. So, I did some major soul searching and figured that I had already done everything I wanted do with my career, but my wife still needed her chance to build one. So now I stay at home caring for my daughter, and I am having the time of my life watching her grow and doing a little R&D on the side.

I would suggest that you play off your main strengths: experience and patience.

At the same time, run, do not walk, to any or all of the nearby high schools, community colleges or prison training programs that are nearby, and offer to teach CNC milling. Use a hobby mill for demonstrating to students. Consolidate your teaching notes into a textbook with lab exercises. That should give you a lot to do.

Good luck,

The Eternal Squire

"A expert is always less expensive than an expert system"

cncfixxer wrote:

Hello, cncfixxer! You wrote on Sun, 18 Jun 2006 11:15:57 GMT:

c> The pollution thing on my last job took it 's toll I guess.

c> I was followed,stalked and spied on for 7 months. Had a stroke, and c> breakdown then fired after 3 bogus suspensions,

c> I feel like I'm still the same guy and have no plans of giving up. c> Cliff turned me to some free sources for meds and some other guys are c> sending projects that have my interest.

c> Who Knows maybe I can make lemonade out of this lemon.... c> I ain't a quitter, those SOB's at my last job thew everything they had c> at me and couldn't get me to quit. c> so I'll find something.

Dont wanna burst your bubble, but rather manufacture your product in the States at $20 and sell some, than farming it out to Chinese / other.

You'll find their knock-off of your product hitting the shelves in the States long before you receive your first batch of products at the bargain price of $10 with nowhere to sell it!

Been there, done that.

My 0.02c

With best regards, mweb. E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@home.com

Mitch,

Problems with his previous job

cncfixer wrote; snip

Tom

Mich wrote:

I am in software development (business applications) and I have seen the same thing. I recently gave up working for idiots to start my own small biz (internet based) and I am happy to be my own boss. The money is not as good, but I make my own hours.

Something to laught about: some months ago I had a terrible nightmare where I showed up for work late and got chewed out by the boss.

When I was in my low 30's, I was shop forman for a small shop. My best worker was pushing 60. I wouldn't trade him for any 2 young guys. If you were near KC, I'd hire you.