| General > General Technical Chat |
| Seeking advice in switching job? |
| (1/4) > >> |
| dzseki:
Long post alert, with some rant! Not sure if this is the right section to post, but since this post is not about actual job openings nor I am seeking for opportunities. Most people hang out here anyway, I give it a try... I am curious about your opinion. The professional part: I work for medium-large company with ~1000 employees, we produce industrial measuring equipments for a specific sector. I work here for more than 8 years, started as a service engineer, but I am a Product Manager now. While true that I am responsible for a certain product family, but -despite the size of the company- I am my own Product Engineer, even further I am also the chief development engineer of this tool right now. The reason for this is that I worked my entire career working around this particular instrument, and the tool and metrology is rather complex, the main unit consist of about 3500 electronic components, and the other development engineers within the company always try to keep a distance of this product due to its complexity, while the only more experienced engineer than me retired a few years ago. Among all I am most proud of my senior development engineer title (even though this is the lowest rank of my other titles), this is the part of my job which I love the most. But since I have other responsibilities I only develop PCBs those require some specific knowledge on its target application. Of course I work within a larger group which is responsible for more product lines, and if there is some "hard to do" or "critical" new development requests usually I am the guy who gets it done right. All in all I only make 3-4 new PCBs a year, which is not much to be honest, compared to full profile development engineers, what I do are mission critical analog circuits mostly, with some simple microcontrollers, generally everything between low-noise, high stability to 500 MHz. I am very familiar with both Altium and Mentor PADS. I do circuit simulation both in MicroCap and TINA. The personal part: I also have a wife and thee sons (2-4-7 yo.), and while my main hobby interest is also electronics, still raising the kids and "keeping the family running" is by far the highest priority. I am not living for work, but work for a living. As the school starts for our biggest son this autumn we face some some change in our life in terms of managing the logistics of the kids. At work we have to work for 8:30 (lunch included), but there is some flexibility in workhours on monthly basis, with daily core time-frame, also I have a possibility for 4 days of Home Office per month. The Problem: I asked whether it is possible to change my work time schedule for 7:30 in-office and + 1 hour home office per day, fixed. Because with my wife we found out this would greatly ease our logistics problems with the kids. Needless to say this was declined by the HR, stating if they make any exception with me, then every other employees would want a "custom" work schedule, instead they adviced a so-they-say constructive idea to simply shift 1-1 hours for three days, then work off at the rest 2 days, which is simply ridiculous... This talk happened yesterday, today I was not even in work (wedding annyversary), yet I am still very pissed off about this, especially by their counter offer. What to do? I think my request was not very extraordinary, and I am pretty sure I can find a new job easily where they would be happy to fulfill this request. In fact I am still so pissed off that I strongly consider to change job, just because of this, even though I am rather satisfied with the other aspects of my current job. If I would resign, for sure they would have a very hard time get a substitute for all my experience (BTW my notice period is 3 months... :/) I also have a vague feeling that by only mentioning to them that it is perhaps time for me to look for a new job, either by bluffing or with a real offer in my hand, could make miracles with my request. What I fear with playing this card out is that I don't want to abuse our mutual loyality with my direct boss, who is a super nice guy... ??? |
| Benta:
First, this was yesterday. Cool down, take a deep breath and relax during the weekend. Second, taking this to HR in the first place was the wrong move. They don't give sh*t about you, they've other things to do and you're just noise. Discuss it with your immediate boss instead. He's the one who can allocate your working time and appreciate your value. If HR balks, he can take it one step further up. And so on. That's how it works. Remember: you're in the productive part of the company where value is created. HR is a service department that costs money. Nothing else. |
| T3sl4co1l:
About that last part -- what is loyalty? If just your immediate boss is a nice guy, but they don't have any sway -- if they don't have the power to get you better hours or a raise -- they aren't the company being loyal to you, that's some guy being a generally okay human being and having no further powers than that. So be careful not to confuse personal interaction with corporate intent. It's one of the primary tools they use -- to convince workers to put in much more work than they are being paid for, to guilt them into longer hours, etc. (Not saying such level of manipulation is going on here, just that it could, and to beware of it -- and that it really does happen elsewhere.) Indeed it might be an intentional choice by upper management to keep a nice person like that in a more middle-manager position -- specifically to manage the expectations of those below them (you), to insulate them from having to deal with requests directly. FYI, going to HR doesn't mean anything -- at least, I can't speak for what passes for Hungarian HR I guess, but if it's the usual model -- they can't, and won't, do anything that isn't specifically allowed by extant policy, law (sometimes!*), or manager approval (again, per company policy, it has to be signed by whoever has the authority to do so). If your immediate manager-friend can't do anything, or their manager, or so on and so forth, then that's what you're stuck with. *You do occasionally have the case where corporate is corrupt and HR is being intimidated, and HR gives company "policy" priority over the law. Such companies are ripe for legal action (report to labor department, say). You may want to check local (or EU) law on paternity leave. If they're not going to be reasonable and offer reduced, flexible or remote hours, then stick them with what the law says they have to do. It may also be a good time to take all your vacation -- not all at once, but as a reminder: any you've left unused, that doesn't accumulate, is money out of your pocket. This sounds like a great year to make use of it -- 4 weeks is enough to take off every other Friday, give or take, for example. Or 6 hr x 5 days + 1 vacation, since they seem to be receptive to shifting hours within a week. Also take note of any time you're on call out of hours. If they're calling you out of the office, and you're not scheduled remote, and on-call isn't in your contract -- consider letting it go to voicemail. Good luck, and congratulations on the family! Tim |
| thermistor-guy:
--- Quote from: dzseki on August 24, 2023, 10:01:17 pm ---... The Problem: I asked whether it is possible to change my work time schedule for 7:30 in-office and + 1 hour home office per day, fixed. Because with my wife we found out this would greatly ease our logistics problems with the kids. Needless to say this was declined by the HR, stating if they make any exception with me, then every other employees would want a "custom" work schedule ... --- End quote --- This is a bogus reason from HR. You have a lot of leverage, here. HR is playing on your "nice-guy" mindset to stop you from using it, by making you feel guilty. Remember, HR doesn't own or run the company. It takes orders from the people who do. you raise a valid question though - how to use your leverage without damaging the working relationships you value. I suggest talking to your boss: lay it out for him that this schedule change is important to you and will benefit the company as well. Ask him what he can do. You will find out if you're truly valued or not. And once you know, you can decide on further action. There is another option, and I used it once: resign right now, and offer to keep working as a contractor, where you set your own hours. |
| nctnico:
I second the suggestion to talk to your direct manager. IMHO it shouldn't be a problem to work during hours the building is open. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |